Chapter 3 - Composition Pedagogies

1. I am a L1 learner. I was taught with a process-oriented methodology. As a student in a advance placement classes (grades 7-11), I vividly remember peer editing and evaluating my own writing before final submission. Generally speaking, we had multiple drafts of the same writing assignment and had to follow very specific teacher generated writing guidelines. Looking back, my teachers were motivated by developing our writing skills on a deeper level each year. It took us an extremely long amount of time to finish one essay. For example, my tenth grade teacher would provide a lesson about a thesis statement, then challenged us to write our own, and finally evaluate another student's before we submitting it for grading.

2. L1 rhetoric and composition focuses on humanity and the writers' response to a specific aspect of the human experience. Strategies are taught and are traditional in nature because most freshman are required to take a course in either rhetoric or composition. Applied Linguistics is focused on subjective observations and improving student's overall writing. Instructors teach methods that encourage students to express their observations to a specific audience.

3. I would like more information on how to analyze my student's psychological state while writing. Previously, I only focused on their stress level while writing, but that did not focus on their linguistic background. Students have a wide range of emotionally responses to writing. Although I can identify these, I am unable to accurately fix most of them. Generally, I'll give students a "pep talk" about education and a need to improve for the future, but that only goes so far. One would think students would be excited about expressing their opinions, but they generally want to write how they want which generally omits traditional writing conventions.

4. Expressivist writing wants the writer to discover their personal voice. The instructor provides the prompt of the catalyst for writing, but use a non-directive teaching methodology. Cognitivism is similar to expressive, in that both have a structure, but this approach focuses on a more objective writing outcome. Students are required to plan, formulate a response, and revise. Social Constructive writing is developed after the writer is exposed to a variety of disciplines in and outside of the classroom. New Rhetoric is the arrangement of an argument to fit the needs of the audience. It is heavily informed or influenced by the L1 rhetoric and composition courses.

5. The biggest difference with these theories is the objectives for the writer and the analysis of the product. Theories that are more closely aligned with the rhetoric and composition of L1 learners, acknowledge the process, but the writer is focused on formulating a response to the human experience. Theories that are more closely related to Applied Linguistics focus on the overall writing experience with specified writing tasks accompanying lessons.

6. I want to be a teacher that focuses on the social constructive writing style. With the political climate domestic and aboard, my students have a plethora of questions that I cannot or will not answer. They are already exposed to many disciplines outside of the classroom and I would like to provide them with an opportunity to formulate their responses in an academic manner. Since I am a reading teacher, I tend to forgo the development of ideas without an anchor text. With the social constructive method, students could respond in a cognitivism manner with social issues in mind.