there’s nothing basic about basic writing€¦ · there’s nothing basic about basic writing!...
TRANSCRIPT
There’s Nothing Basic About Basic Writing!
Debra Berry, College of Southern Nevada J. Elizabeth Clark, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY
Elaine Jolayemi, Ivy Tech Leigh Jonaitis, Bergen Community College
Marisa Klages, LaGuardia Community College--CUNY Carla Maroudas, Mt. San Jacinto Community College
Amy Edwards Patterson, Moraine Park Technical College Ilene Rubenstein, College of the Desert
CCCC 2013 Las Vegas, Nevada
Connecting Virtually! Facebook CBW Group
Twitter hashtags: #a17 #cbw #4C13 Adobe Connect for those conferencing in
Folks Conferencing in via Adobe: Please MUTE your microphone
Please use chat function for questions
Who Are Basic Writers?
Facilitators: Elaine Jolayemi, Ivy Tech
Leigh Jonaitis, Bergen Community College
As a diverse group of students, Basic Writers defy simple classification.
How do you get to know your students through
the semester?
How do they get to know each other?
What kinds of activities or assignments do you use to help students engage their lived experience
with classroom curriculum?
“…I guess what I'm suggesting is one of the markers
of a more ‘advanced’ writer is the ability to more easily navigate a new rhetorical situation. Therefore, a Basic Writer is someone who needs help internalizing questions, prompts, and strategies for negotiating a
new rhetorical situation.”
-Rochelle Rodrigo
Sample Activities Discussed on FB: Students setting policies (like attendance) in the first
week of class
Students are openly engaged in what it means to be placed in a basic writing course
Meta-cognition: “Why would I ask you to engage in
this activity?”
Describe your institution’s composition course offerings. How does your institution evaluate writing and place
students into writing courses? Is this evaluation process efficient, accurate, or effective? Does it place students in the courses that best meet their
writing strengths and challenges? Do you do any further diagnostics to assess student writing
at the beginning of a semester?
How does your institution establish
who is a basic writer?
Tracks for ELL and non-ELL Reading and writing: separate vs. integrated
Placement Issues Various levels of placement
Local instruments Compass
“Any time you take a standardized instrument and relate their arbitrary scale to your specific curriculum, you open up many opportunities for—well, just ickiness.”
-Debra Berry
What is the purpose of a basic writing course?
Does it serve as gateway/service/training course to the rest of the academy?
How can basic writing courses help students form
lasting skills that transfer to other courses, but also matter to students’ lives beyond the
classroom?
“We are currently piloting an ALP type basic writing course. . . based on what I call
‘responsive teaching’--responding directly to students' questions, confusion, requests for additional help; and including extra practice, writing group feedback, and other support.”
-Karen Uehling
What is the purpose of a basic
writing course?
“As we discuss purpose, I want to ask two follow-up questions. Whose (students', teachers',
administrators', textbook publishers', legislators', etc.) ‘purpose’ is most central to our sustainability
as a field? And what happens when these purposes come into conflict with each other?”
-Susan Naomi Bernstein
Academic Skills/Writing Centers
Facilitator: Ilene Rubenstein, College of the Desert
Teaching With Technology
Facilitator: J. Elizabeth Clark, LaGuardia Community College,
CUNY
If Web 2.0 is changing us…
How has your work environment changed?
How can we use new technologies
to engage students in writing?
Writing to Learn Activities Staged Writing Active Learning
Collaborative Learning Creative Activities
Generative Activities Visibility
Building Digital Literacy
Kathleen Yancey’s Writing in the 21st Century
• Articulate the new models of composing developing right in front of our eyes.
• Design a new model of a writing curriculum K-graduate school.
• Create new models for teaching. • These are challenges we currently face: • developing new models of composing, • designing a new curriculum supporting those
models, and • creating new pedagogies enacting that curriculum
The Digital Imperative
We must help students to negotiate the powerful world of digital media. Writing has become a
digital activity.
So What’s The Place of Technology in the BW
Classroom?
What Are We Using?
ePortfolios Blogs (Wordpress, Tumblr,
Blogger) Smart Boards Comic Master Xtranormal
Prezi You-tube
Ted Videos VoiceThread
Inspiration Document Cameras
Cell phones as dictionaries Twitter
Inklewriter Animoto iMovie
Facebook Dropbox
How Are We Using It?
Collaborative Writing Collaborative Grading
Visual Presentations of Writing Grading
Staged Writing Low Stakes and High Stakes Writing
Generative Writing Multimodal Composition
Is Technology Part of the Curriculum?
Outliers & Innovators Minimal Support on Campus Not Part of the Curriculum
Yet… are we putting students at risk by NOT including
technology as part of the curriculum?
Concerns
Digital Divide Mobile Technology vs. Other Technology Resources
Is technology a distraction from our other work? On-line research
Scaffolding in learning technology Access issues
Ryan Cordell, advice from ProfHacker in
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Keeping Up With Ed Tech Trends
Prof Hacker CNET
Mashable Digi-Hum Listserv
HASTAC
Food for Thought 50 Education Technology Tools Every Teacher Should Know About: http://edudemic.com/2012/08/50-education-technology-tools-every-
teacher-should-know-about/
Best Practices for Using Technology in the Classroom: http://www.cidde.pitt.edu/ta-handbook/teaching-technology-1
Top Tech Trends of 2012: The Flipped Classroom:
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/hack-higher-education/top-ed-tech-trends-2012-flipped-classroom
Professional Development and
Preparation Facilitators:
Debra Berry, College of Southern Nevada Marisa Klages, LaGuardia Community College--
CUNY
Our ���Facebook
Conversation
How Were We Prepared?
A single course (Comp Pedagogy, Teaching Comp in the 2-yr College)
Teaching Middle/High School/ Degrees in English Education
On-the Job Training Faculty Internship Program
What We Have Writing/Teaching Circles
Listservs Blogs
What Would Be Ideal Mentoring
More knowledge about students with different learning disabilities
Online forums for discussion
Graduate Work Grambling State University PhD in Dev. Ed.
Texas State University-San Marcos MA in Dev Ed. City College-CUNY, MA in Language and Literacy
But to what end? Good professional development needs to be more
than “just in time.” Sustainable, supported, value added
Best if it’s aligned with institutional goals, strategic plans (that’s your way in for funding)
Goal oriented Valued (for promotion and tenure, for rehiring of
contingent faculty)
A New Model?
A New Model: Classroom Notebook
• Autonomy and creativity • Peer-to-Peer • Faculty driven
1. FACULTY Culture
• Real-time class • Structured reflection • Formative Assessment
2. Embedded in PRACTICE
• Teacher qualities • Instructional values • Instructional approaches
3. Generates PATTERNS
• Shreds of Evidence (CATS) • Class retention • Passing course
4. Informed by EVIDENCE
• Online community • Content creation and curation • Analytics
5. Powered by “SOCIAL”
Themes: Used for Tagging
English Faculty
Final Fall 2012 Midterm Spring 2013
Reflecting on Patterns I see that my pattern is still heavily organization and instructional evaluation with
some amount of group activities, classroom climate, tailored instruction and challenge. I am glad it shows I am organized and that I am continually evaluating
what happens in my classroom but I really what to increase challenge in the classroom and group activity. ���
During the break I want to develop other lesson that challenge and I will look at what other math teachers have done using pathfinder to see if I can come up with something that challenges for every topic I teach. I will also strive to ask more
questions. ���The project has forced me to focus more on looking at what the students learned
through the cats and other short class assignments. ���
Contact? Contact:
Debra Berry College of Southern Nevada
Marisa A. Klages LaGuardia Community College
[email protected] 718-482-5677
Student Placement
Facilitator: Carla Maroudas, Mt. San Jacinto Community College
Day-to-Day Life in the Classroom
Facilitator: Amy Edwards Patterson, Moraine Park
Technical College
Starter Question Research shows that students who feel connected to
their instructor and classmates are more likely to persist (Tinto, 1993; Bailey & Alfonso, 2005). What
are some activities that you use to build community? What activities do you find helpful and enjoyable in
the writing classroom?
Responses Included:
• I always like to do an assignment on the affective rhetoric of place. This especially works with my non-traditional students who want to talk about nostalgia in relation to their hometowns. It works because
we get to engage and connect on a social level beyond just writing. We also get to trace some local histories, which I've learned really excites them. ~Geoffrey Clegg���
• When my students are engaged in writing or group work, I take pictures with my phone that I later send
to the class in an email or post to our closed blog site. I try to capture students when they are looking especially smart and hard-working. Students often tell me that they show the photos to their families as
"evidence" of their academic work. ~Lynn Reid���
• I put students in groups of 2 or 3 and send them off with a list of various questions/tasks such as "What room is the Writing Center located?" or "Find an employee who has been here for 2 or more years and ask them what is the best part of working at Malcolm X?" The purpose is to have them work together
efficiently and to also reinforce the importance of research and citing your source(s). Not only are students required to include their source, but they are also required to take pictures along the way. It
offers a break from the classroom and encourages camaraderie. ~Aletha Cole
Other topics: ���
“Getting to Know You” Activities���
Service Learning and Civic Engagement
