Entry #9: On Composition Research

I found it difficulty connecting a singular theme to these three distinct readings, but after looking back at the syllabus, referring to the readings as "composition research" makes more sense. These three readings bring up unique approaches to composition, which is something I have appreciated more week after week. Prior to the class, I really only saw composition as writing content and curriculum, but there are so many viewpoints and "lenses" to approach composition, similar to literary criticism and theory and the way scholars approach a text.

Together, these readings invite me to reconsider somethings that I otherwise did not consider about composition. the Lancaster reading that studied sentence frames and templates from They Say, I Say was very insightful for someone like me who provides frames on a daily basis. Teaching 9th grade English to a virtual room of 13-15 year old students requires spontaneous motivation. I try to maintain them engaged by providing them with as many tools and resources as possible, include sentence stems. I am, therefore, astounded at the research that Lancaster presents, down to every nuanced stem and its underlying implication between the interpersonal and the not-too-aggressive or personal address of the audience at hand. English teachers are never explicitly told what to give their students beyond what is provided in the district curriculum, at least in my experience; sentence frames are often at the discretion of the teacher who wants to provide equity for English language learners and SPED students, but as Lancaster points out, some stems hinder or weaken the writing even if the intention was to do good. While Lancaster explores the ways teachers can "set up" a successful academic discourse that aligns more closely to what is expected in higher education, Bastian argues for a "funky" reimagining of composition, advocating for multimodal exploration. Part of me feels it is too much to demand that we English teachers ought to have a strong sense of all forms of multimedia. Of course I believe that there is power in a video essay over a traditional essay, but if I assign a video essay, I also have to be fluent in the language of the technology as well, which includes knowing how to edit a video. I know more forms of multimodal presentations exists, but I am weary of all that gets placed on the English teacher's plate. Nevertheless, the research in all of the articles indicates that there is a lot to be said and done to refine a strong English curriculum for an ever-growing 21st century audience.