My process is thusly: Pace. Stare out the window. Smoke cigarettes (not recommended). Drink lots of water (recommended, writing or not. It is hot here. One gallon per person per day). I also like unrelated reading materials around, perhaps a news site minimized in the browser. This is why the unrelated reading material: When a person looks at stars, the more she stares at a specific star, the dimmer it becomes. However, by shifting the gaze to the left or the right increases the apparent brightness of the target star. I don't know why this is so, but the same principle works for writing. If I get gummed up, I look to the left or right of the task at hand. Sometimes, by not thinking about a solution directly, a solution appears. Curious, Alice, curious.
Process for a comp course is very important, too, I think. But I also really like Donald Murray, so, you know...Naturally, there comes a time when we have to judge student writing, and we should not let a student's amount of effort in the process shade our evaluation. I have had to fail students who busted their butts in the process. And, while I praised their efforts, those efforts did not translate. So, in that way, I make it clear that process can only help with the product. It is the means to the end of producing strong writing. It is not the goal in itself. Though I do think that, regardless of grade, the experience is valuable. It should be at least.
Nonetheless, I couldn't help feel like a process approach was misleading. It's nice to coach and coach and teach and root for our students, but the fact remains that, sooner than later, we'll have to assess and judge, say yea or nay.
But to do otherwise is to reward effort alone. That's a dangerous road to travel. Without the discernment we have to exercise on student writing come evaluation time we are essentially a nanny service, and the benefits of process in writing devolve into busy work.
6 comments:
Ok, I realized how many misspellings I had in my first comment, and had to resubmit. And I am a DI?
I think your post coincides with our conversation on Tuesday. Sometimes, students fail. I think it is the responsibility of an attentive and passionate teacher to offer instruction on the process of writing. Teaching a process is daunting, but I think by offering examples and allowing the student to explore what works best for him/her may help to form a process unique to the student. You are right; the process doesn’t really matter. You and I grade the final product and care little or nothing about a process the student pursued.
It was great to visit with you yesterday. Perhaps we can solve the world’s problems at another time?
Indeed we have had this discussion in class about how much to weigh what amounts to effort when evaluating student writing. I don't know that we can give a lot of credit for effort alone, but effort along with improvement should earn some credit. Taking each student where he or she starts from and tracking growth as a writer is being aware not only of the process of writing, but of learning. Of course, if the final result is still not good we would be remiss to offer that student an A on a paper. A low B or high C might be appropriate, however.
The authors we have read and are reading this week (the second Elbow article on the future of assessment) convey to me the message that understanding writing process is not necessarily compatible with evaluation. All we can say from the writing-as-process argument is that writing does not spring whole cloth from one's head. It takes several stages of planning, writing, rewriting, and back again to finish the writing. Perhaps we need to evaluate each of those stages independently. But I would agree with Adam that in the end, those stages cannot stand in for a coherent final piece of writing.
I completely agree with your thoughts on teaching process. The experience of writing should be valued and effort should certainly be rewarded, but in the end, life will not reward effort. Life only rewards achievement. We have a responsibility to teach our students to achieve. And if they do not achieve then we have the responsibility to preserve the integrity of a higher education by denying credit to the underachieving student. Does that sound harsh? I suppose it might. But the truth is not always sweet.
If the composition classroom is a model of the real world, I concur that product should ultimately trump process. If we were to take interest in process to the extreme and grade solely on "improvement," I don't think that would be just to students who revised less because they wrote well the first time. I wonder, though, what happens if we only grade final drafts? Might that suggest to students that the revision process is unimportant? I like the approach of weighting final drafts heavier than first drafts—perhaps a 60-40 ratio.
Ah, blog comment catch up '08. It's so easy to get behind on this sort of thing. I agree with your position on providing some self distraction; I generally keep a muted television on while I write, and generally some form of internet chat (although there is the risk that such will undo the writing process entirely) to keep my isolated mind from eating itself. As far as teaching process goes...? Nah. Gotta find it for yourself.
Post a Comment