CCE

Challenging assumptions

If you haven't seen it, check out Alex Reid's post Learning to Write (on Digital Digs). He raises provocative questions about to what degree one's own writing practices do (or should) influence how one teaches writing. In particular, is the writing-to-discover model that we humanists so often favor not a useful model for FYC? My first instinct is to jump to defend WTD, but then I step back to (re)consider...

And from Malcolm Gladwell's introduction to his new book What the Dog Saw: "Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. Not the kind you'll find in this book, anyway. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think." Is that a heretical position in the FYC world? Should it be? Why is it so appealing to me?

Getting students (and me!) writing

It's not that I haven't been writing; it's that I've been writing about my life rather than my teaching. But it's long-past time now to jump-start this blog...so here goes...

I've fallen into the habit of talking too much in class, I've decided, so that even I am bored with the sound of my own voice, so here's the plan for tomorrow. After the usual proofreading pep-talk last week (which amounts, at this point in the semester to homonym and sentence boundary errors), I thought we'd look at a few samples from Six Sentences and write some of our own. I figure it will accomplish a few things: some low-stakes, keep-those-muscles-warm writing; continuing opportunity to answer those questions about just what is a sentence; and, most importantly, a chance to collect up a lot of writing samples fast that we can use in trying to set some criteria for "good writing."

Questions:

• Do you have students do such in-class, low-stakes writing that does not necessarily connect to any other assignment, and if so how often?
• Do you keep it going throughout the semester?
• Any suggestions for sites like Six Sentences as student inspiration? (40 X 365 is another one I've found. Barbara Ganley gives students a word of the day and asks for 100 words; I've tried 100 words inspired by a photo from a Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo. Other options???)