Response to Bartholomae’s “The Tidy House” and a story of basic writing.
When Bartholomae began his basic writing class with a Jean
Paul Sartre article and asked, “If existence precedes essence, what is man?”
(5), I thought the article was going to be more of a cautionary tale about what
not to do as an overambitious teacher, but thankfully it was so much more than
that.
He took us inside the mind of both teacher and student when
he described how the assignment made both parties feel as though they were
failing. The line “I lose again” from the student paper was a very powerful
moment that seemed to express defeat and irritation aimed at both the
assignment and the teacher. But despite this response, Bartholomae didn’t throw
out the Sartre article assignment. Instead, he kept using it with his “basic
writing students.” I thought this turn in the story was interesting because his
motivation to reimagine the assignment came from the belief that exposing students
who wouldn’t ordinarily have the opportunity to work with such challenging
material is valuable. He believed they could rise to the challenge if given the
chance and some guidance.
I think about how much easier it is to give feedback to
students who understand the assignment, because there are built in ways to
assess their ideas through the assignment requirements, but it is much more
difficult to respond to writing that misses the mark or doesn’t articulate the
ideas in a coherent way. However, as Bartholomae reminds us, these are the
papers that need the most feedback and support. So, it was a welcomed surprise when
Bartholomae made the choice to expect the same high standards from all students
with the idea that “difficulty is confronted and negotiated, not erased” (8).
The fact that Bartholomae believes that “we [cannot] ignore
the role of the introductory writing course in preparing students to negotiate
the full range of expectations in the university (as it reproduces the
expectations of the dominant culture)” helps remind me that what we do is
important in and out of the classroom and that we shouldn’t underestimate our
students.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI agree. I think there are often a lot of high standards in terms of where our students should be when they leave our classroom, and while it is important to have standards and goals for them, it is also important to recognize where they are coming from. Our students have had varied educational backgrounds, but they can succeed if they are treated in a way that says we believe in them.
Abbie
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you bringing up these topics. It’s extremely true that it’s far more difficult to give feedback to students who didn’t understand the main expectations of the assignment—and even harder when sometimes those are the students who won’t ask questions, perhaps from the fear that other students will judge them for not understanding what is easy to get for some of them. I think perhaps this could be a space for the role of individual conferences, as some of them who didn’t understand the assignment may have a hard time decoding their professor’s feedback as well. And it’s far easier to read if students understand something when you’re face to face (and even just knowing they actually read your feedback). And many of them are far more comfortable expressing their doubts when it's not in front of their peers. I’m considering some sort of individual meetings after their papers are graded, though I’m not sure if that’s feasible to do after every major assignment.
-Jessie
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI can easily relate your blog to my 103 students. My mentor used to suggest me to talk about the objectives and goals of assignments as often as I can in class. Moreover, I got the idea from her to dedicate one full class introducing an assignment (playing assignment scavenger hunt game, ha ha). She showed me how first-year students run out of motivation so soon and how they ignore things staying in class. Thus, I used to work as a remainder for them always. However after every and before every classes , I tried to make them familiarise about the smaller part of assignments and our resasons behind that particular class. I tried to inform them so often. So that, they can at least have some ideas. I know this is extra labour to work as a non-stop remainder. Even then I got some students came up with very unusual questions about the assignment just before the final submission of that project. Neverthless, I didn't lose hope and started reminding them more frequently than before. ha ha. Annoying teacher... I am.