Oscar R. : Teaching Writing Blog #1 02/05/2021


 Hello everyone and happy Friday!


    I am not quite sure if I am doing this right. 

    I'll start off by talking about the Literacy Autobiographies and the hand out "Diagnosing Problems". It was nice and interesting to be able to see various samples of different literacy autobiographies. We were given a wide range and they all differed from one another. Both in our break out rooms and on my own outside of class, I used the handout to help guide me through these samples. The handout was very useful as it posed several questions that allowed me to determine what these samples did good and what they needed more improvement on. I found this activity to be very beneficial because it allowed us to be able to see what we can and should do in our own literacy autobiographies for this class and also allowed me to put on my "teaching glasses" to see what I would be able to do and tell these students to help improve their paper. It opened my eyes and taught me things about both being a reader and writer. 

    A reading that I enjoyed from this week was Fan Shen's article "The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition". Shen's article offered a lot of insight and knowledge regarding teaching writing and the English composition. I felt like I was able to learn a lot from this article. The article focused on learning English Composition and it talked about the experience of a Chinese student whose second language is English. It details and focuses on the process and identification of developing a "English" writing voice. The article also noted and represented that not everything is the same or functions the same as English composition. Other languages have their own distinctions and differences. It showed the cultural differences that writing has. I found it very informative and interesting when they talked about the English writing identity, the Chinese identity, the ideological identities, and the logical identities. It showed how complex English composition is for those in which English is their second language. The complexity is what confused a lot of new learners of the language and is something that future and current educators need to note and understand. I was unaware of the difference between "we" and "I" in Chinese culture. I feel like this article is very important and resourceful because educators need to be educated on this. We are/will be dealing with a variety of different students from different backgrounds and need to be able to give them every resource and help we can possibly give. Educators need to realize that not everyone can grasp on the ideologies, learn, use, and practice them the same way as others. 

    We had tons of reading to do this week, but each were very resourceful and important. They provided me with information that is very beneficial to me as a future teacher. Being only twenty years old, I don't have much experience at teaching, educating, etc. These articles and readings really opened my eyes and informed on a lot of stuff. I have definitely learned important things through the readings this week that I will use and pick up on in the future. Despite it barely being the second week of classes, I feel like I have already learned a lot about how teach writing which is amazing! 



Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 5, 2021 at 4:41 PM

    The article by Nancy Mack synthesized, for me, ideas outlined in many of the articles we read this week. She talks about students from working-class homes whose values are not echoed by the middle-class values within the education system. They find themselves as “uncomfortable outsiders” (p.140) who must find their ways to academic success when they feel like they are imposters in doing so. What I liked about Mack’s essay is that it went beyond the concept and description of the outsider to offer concrete examples and suggestions of ways we, as teachers, can help and support our students to find their academic voices and gain agency in their academic careers. Shen also talks about this feeling of outsider comparing how his Chinese upbringing and ideology shaped his writing. He contrasts this with what is expected of his English writing underscoring the differences not only in language but in thought processes. American English is said to be direct, economical, inflated and action-oriented (Kovecses, p. 13). Shen’s Chinese-ness or outsider-ness is ingrained in the way he was taught to think and present his ideas. In order to be successful in English, Shen must create a new persona. Lopez also talks about finding herself torn between the bilingual girl who speaks perfect English in public to the young academic finding her voice as Latina, gay, woman. She wants to be relevant in her own academic life. An impactful professor helped her realize that code-switching was a value as she realizes her ability to “move in and out of different communities.” (p,151)
    Returning to Mack’s suggestions of ways to help our students find agency in their writing she suggests the idea of the Venn diagram as an invention activity. Suggesting ways to create writing assignments and activities which respect and make relevant “the life process of identity formation” (p.141) as well as showing us how to engage our students in “thought processes that produce knowledge from critical reflection” (p.144) is so impactful to me as a teacher.
    Standing in front of a classroom – either in person or on-line – we need to remember that the faces looking back at us are not a mirror of ourselves, but a view to worlds we may not understand or find familiarity in, but are important, have value and must be accepted. Kindness, openness and efforts in understanding and supporting our students go a long way to building communication between teacher and student as well as supporting the student’s own development of agency.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 5, 2021 at 4:42 PM

      That's me! I'm not sure why it says unknown, but it's Jeanne Nixt

      Delete

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