A few weeks back, I had the great idea to blog about how unmotivated I was to plan for my classes. I figured that most people could relate to the dynamic tension of mild anxiety in knowing something big is coming up and the complete lack of desire to fix the problem. Unfortunately, I procrastinated too long and now the semester has begun. C'est la vie.
So, yesterday I taught my first class of Spring 2010. I did actually force myself to plan and, as I was reviewing the Course Outline (the state mandated requirements for what teachers must do in a particular class and what their students must be able to do before passing) I was a little surprised at how rudimentary the exiting skill requirements are. Now, I have taught very similar classes and I do know that some people really do struggle with writing. I get that and I am more than happy to help my students wherever they are in their writing process. But what concerns me are the low expectations placed upon some of these "lower level" students. We ask students to jump through academic hoops simply because of poor test scores and then require the bare minimum from them because we think it's what they can handle. Yesterday, I sat with 34 of those "low level" students. I looked out into the sea of students before me and asked them what they assumed their role would be in my class. Amongst the answers of "come prepared," "listen," and "write a lot" there were little snippets of insecurity. One student even said he assumed that I would have trouble reading his papers.
So what does it say to that student, who is already insecure of his writing and aware of his weaknesses (although probably completely unaware of his strengths) that he is only expected to know the basics of a paragraph upon exiting my class? Some might say that it's freeing - he doesn't have to become overwhelmed by high stakes and pressures. But I say that it speaks far more loudly about what we assume he cannot do and, God forbid, what he might be able to learn in the 17 weeks he's in my class. I have worked with students all the way up into critical thinking classes who can't put together a solid academic paragraph, but we're going to tell these basic writing students that is their primary goal? It's a place to start, but what about what they'll actually learn? What about their ability to come up with original ideas and have the confidence to get them down onto paper, even if it's not the most eloquent things you've ever read? What about the student who has never turned on a computer, but who now sits in my computer lab and will have completed an entire semester of blogging by the middle of May 2010? That student will have written (no... typed!) around 4,000 words in her blog alone! That doesn't include homework assignments or any formal essays and drafts. That's an accomplishment and all we want to say is that she'll learn the basics of writing. It sounds like an understatement to me.
I am not, by any means, saying that most teachers intentionally think less of their students than they deserve, but I have heard this mentality surface amongst my colleagues on several different campuses and even in various conferences. I think it needs to change. Often times, the composition teacher is the advocate for the downtrodden. We take a subject that most people detest, not because it is horrible, but because students are incredibly insecure about their ability to do it successfully, and try to make it interesting. If we continue to think that English (insert any class number) students can only do X, we are setting our students up to think that is all they can do. That does not mean that I'm going to walk into my basic writing class tomorrow and ask for an 8-10 page paper, but it does mean that I'm going to walk in assuming that, in a few more English classes, they will be able to write that paper. We must teach the foundational elements before we expect masterful academic writing, but that doesn't mean that we can't expect greatness from each student in every class. Expect it, let the students know that you believe they can produce it, and expect to be surprised.
Sheri, you're right on track! I can't tell you how many depressing departmental meetings I've been to where people make comments like "I don't have time to deal with ALL the problems they [students] have in their writing" or "They can't even write a basic 5 paragraph essay"--and I'm always like, are you kidding me? I don't want them to write a 5 paragraph essay and, please, they are doing more sophisticated work than that but you just can't recognize it! To me, it's the institutions--our students feel bad because we set low expectations and then constantly send them the messages that they aren't accomplishing what they need to! You're so right on, mama!
ReplyDelete