I designed this research project in
my College Composition course after studying multiple theories of the best way
to teach writing at an introductory collegiate level. Before the course, I had
not considered that there may be academic research into the most effective techniques
for the teaching of writing. Through the course, I learned that a myriad of
theories exist, many of which contradict one another in their rationale, but
most of which stress the importance of metacognitive reflection of one’s
writing process.
In “Researched Writing,” Rebecca
Moore Howard and Sandra Jamieson argue that the traditional research paper may
not be sustainable for modern first-year composition courses (Tate 231). They discuss a new cultural tendency to believe
that research writing is a “meaningless” activity and offer alternatives to the
traditional research paper in an effort to enhance engagement in the research
process among first year college students. They claim that many writing
instructors fail to explain the why of their assignments, which made me think
more deeply about my own rationale for assignment creation.
I created the unit after considering
Moore Howard and Jamieson’s evaluation of the problem with research writing and
their explanation of best practices in teaching student research. It was
originally intended to be used for a freshman composition course, but I realized
I was facing the same hurdles in teaching researched writing in my high school
courses as I was reading about in the literature about college writing.
The
canned curriculum that our school district purchased only two years ago had worked
well during distance learning, when all assignments needed to be posted online
and all content needed to be intellectually accessible for students who were
learning from home. When we all came back together in person though, I realized
that the curriculum was cold. It only offered short excerpts from obscure
literature, with which students found difficult to engage. Though the canned
writing assignments covered all the necessary standards, they were dry, and
students found them to be incredibly boring. Disengagement in the content I was
putting in front of my kids was at an all-time high at the end of first
semester during the 2021-2022 school year. My honors students were more
grades-focused than learning-focused. I even had a student admit that sometimes
he “forgot that school was supposed to be about learning,” which spoke volumes.
I knew that what students craved was a more meaningful learning experience, but
with 36 students in a typical class, I felt very limited in what I could do.
I
also felt limited by the district’s requirement I collaborate with colleagues who
taught the same courses as I to create “common assessments,” meaning all assessments
for a particular class had to be the same, regardless of who taught it. I hated
this requirement. Individual teachers have unique strengths, and requiring they
teach the exact same content and deliver identical assessments does not make
much sense to me. It stymies creativity and feels professionally patronizing. Kathleen
Blake Yancey agrees in her chapter titled “Attempting the Impossible: Designing
a First-Year Composition Course” when she states, “There’s a theory that each
discipline has its own signature pedagogy. My theory is that each instructor
has his or her own signature pedagogy, too—a way of teaching that distinguishes
their instruction” (Coxwell-Teague 330). Having the freedom to be creative in
the way I do my job has always been one of my favorite parts about teaching,
but I felt that had been taken away by my district, leaving me with job that
anyone with access to our curriculum software could do regardless of their
education level and/or experience. I was not feeling respected for my expertise.
Kids wondered why they had to do certain assignments, and sometimes I did not
have a good answer for them. That bothered me deeply.
Over
Christmas break, I had an epiphany: why not use the syllabus I had created for a
hypothetical college course for my honors sophomore class? Many of them would
be moving up to college-level classes through the PSEO program the following year
and would need some solid practice with college-level writing and MLA
formatting to prepare them for the higher-level coursework. Teaching the class
like a college course would also prepare them for the less-structured environment
they would undoubtedly experience there. Plus, I had already done the work of
creating a syllabus of which I was proud.
I
modeled my syllabus for State University of Buffalo’s ENG 101: Writing I course
designed by its director of its composition program, Alexander Reid. His course
contains four major writing assignments that introduce students to non-“paper” sources
and compositions. It also includes space for informal writing and communication
among students through a reflective blog and interactive discussion posts
(Coxwell-Teague 203-210). My unit contained five main writing assignments in
the preparation phase of research: one project proposal and four reviews which
focused on finding four different kinds of sources (documentary, podcast,
interview, and book) and reviewing them in short, MLA-formatted papers. I also
required weekly reflections that were designed to be more informal and allow students
to write about their own writing.
For
the final project, I graded four components: the project itself, the
presentation of said project, an MLA-formatted works cited page, and a final
reflection. Because students were allowed to present their research in whatever
mode they wanted (I had also been inspired by Jody Shipka’s “Beyond Text and
Talk: A Multimodal Approach to First-Year Composition”), I needed a way to
grade all project components that was fair to everyone and gave credit where
credit was due. This is why I chose to compose my rubrics with Asao B Inoue’s
labor-based grading practices in mind. In “A Grade-Less Writing Course That Focuses
on Labor and Assessing,” Inoue argues that students should be given credit for
the labor or work they put into creating a final result, which will look
different for each individual (Coxwell-Teague 73). This idea fit perfectly with
my personal philosophy that most writing rubrics were critical in nature and
focused more on what a student did incorrectly than highlighting what they did
well. Because I wanted students to learn how to use MLA formatting appropriately,
most of the rubrics contained a section that assessed students’ implementation
of it, but the majority of their grade focused on whether or not they had put
in the work to research their topic thoroughly. I wanted to assess their
learning rather than critique the form of their final writing.
It
was a hit. When students felt like the pressure to be perfect in their writing
had been removed, they ran with the project and did delve deeply into topics
they found interesting. The results of their research were incredible. Students
spent more time and put in more effort to learn about something they loved
and/or wanted to know more about than they ever would have done for a topic I
had given them. Many of the smaller components of the preparation phase were
turned in late, but the project was also meant to teach students about time
management in an unstructured environment, and many students commented on what
they learned about themselves in that regard in their final reflection.
I
have been overwhelmingly happy with the results of the project. Students
achieved the objectives that I had set forth for them at the beginning of the
project:
· Write documents in Modern Language Association (MLA)
formatting
· Compose a Works Cited page in MLA formatting
· Be able to evaluate sources for research
· Have a broader understanding of how to find information on
a selected topic
· Explore a topic of their choosing that they maybe have not
had the opportunity to in the past
· Create a project that demonstrates the cumulation of the knowledge
gained through their research
· Learn to grapple with what to do when there is not
necessarily a “right” answer
· Manage unstructured work time in order to complete tasks by
given deadlines
· Be more prepared for college-level research writing
· Have a meaningful learning experience
In their final
reflections, every single student recommended I utilize the unit in future
classes. Many of them stated that it was the best assignment they had had in
high school and noted how they will take what they have learned and apply it to
future coursework. I am proud of my creation and proud of my students. I could
not be happier with how it all turned out.
Works Cited
Coxwell-Teague, Deborah, and Ronald F. Lunsford, editors. First-Year Composition: From
Theory to Practice. Anderson, SC, Parlor Press LLC, 2014.
Tate, Gary, et al., editors. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. 2nd ed., Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 2014.
