composition

The First Year Writing department at St. John's University, being part of the Institute for Writing Studies, mandates that every Composition instructor select three student portfolios at the end of the semester to review with the department. The point of this is to improve pedagogy by asking and writing about a series of research questions. As a group, we have one research question. As individuals, we also have subquestions that are unique to our coursework and interests. This year's group question is: What in students' writing shows their reactions to and relationship with the course materials presented to them? I have been struggling to define my own research questions, but these are the ones that I have been thinking about: What changes or improvements do students note in their own writing? Do these align with your objectives for them? How do students cross the threshold between classroom theory and real-world application? What do students feel is most important to learn...

Dear Ms. Black, It was just yesterday that your appointment as Chancellor of Schools was officially declared, and though I admit that I was not one of your supporters, I see no point in mudslinging or complaining. Now that you have been chosen, I only wish to make your term as fruitful as possible for students, teachers, and administrators of the NYC public school system.  The first question you're probably wonder is "who is this person" and "why does she feel qualified to address me"? My name is Nicole Papaioannou, and I am doctoral fellow at St. John's University, studying English. I take classes as a graduate student, while teaching a section of the school's core writing class, a class filled almost entirely with NYC-schooled students.  I feel that I am familiar with all of the positions in the education world, as I am student, a teacher, and a tutor.  While working towards a Masters degree, I also worked for a  Hearst  magazine staff writer, meaning ...

from celebrity-mania.com Tonight on Twitter, #beyoncegotdivorced was trending, referring to a split between power couple Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z. People were responding with a mixture of disbelief and cocky "I saw that coming" comments. Men were preparing their "A game" to impress the newly-single Sasha Fierce, and women were ready to snatch up Jay-Z. Funny thing is... the divorce never happened . The hashtag #beyoncegotdivorced was cooked up by a bunch of Justin Beiber fans (also known as "beliebers") as a Twitter prank. Now, while I think the spread of nasty rumors is not nice in any way, shape, or form, the fact that these kids could get together to make something "trend" worldwide is fairly impressive. It's also a great reminder of the power that children actually when they collaborate. While professionals struggle for publicity and pay the big bucks to promote their tweets, these kids got together and actually made something happen, an...

Dr. Dohra Ahmad (picture from St. John's University site) On November 23, Dr. Dohra Ahmad stopped by for a chat with Dr. Steve Mentz's  Introduction to the Profession  graduate class. Dr. Ahmad is the author of Landscapes of Hope and the editor of an anthology of vernacular literature-- the first of its kind-- called Rotten English , among other fantastic articles . Her work addresses the fine line between the individual histories of marginalized figures, the aesthetic nature of vernacular literature, and ethnographic interpretations as viewed by the mainstream, which often assume that the writing of an Othered person or the action of an Othered character stands for the experience of an entire group. She cautions against reading marginalized literature as "authentic" voices or representations of a native tongue or group sentiment. She also calls for the defamiliarization of the familiar as a powerful learning experience, especially notable in her article "Not B...

My favorite tv teacher of all time, Boy Meet's World's  Mr. Feeny. He was always interested in his students' futures and took pride in his teaching. According to my Twitter tweeps, today is the National Day of Blogging for Education Reform . Teachers across the nation are blogging about the improvements that can be made to change education for the better. Many are collaborating on Cooperative Catalyst , an education reform blog, to create an archive of changes we can implement to reform education. Though the majority of the blogging teachers teach K-12 and are much more experienced than I am, I thought it was my duty as someone on both sides of the line to chime in (I left high school behind only seven years ago, and I am still taking graduate courses, working towards a Doctor of Arts degree). Plus, as a college writing instructor and writing center tutor, I get the products of their efforts. I get to see the end result of public education. So, here are my top 5 suggestion...

Though this semester isn't quite over, the new semester is just around the corner. I've been dabbling in lots of digital writing venues and social networks trying to find out what works best, what's the most fun, what's going to inspire engagement, etc. in my college composition classroom. I've also been thinking about alternatives to boring old Blackboard, trying new types of digital writing (like scripting podcasts for iTunes or documentaries for YouTube), and addressing the digital humanities in my classroom. We use the discussion board, digital dropbox, and chat features on Blackboard, but those seem so basic when there are so many more creative options out there! Here is a list of some things I've been playing with: Social Networks 1. Grou.ps : This site lets you build your own social network, akin to Facebook. It has tools to add wikis, file sharing, video chat, and comments. You can also choose themes and run multiple networks. Very nifty! 2. GoogleWave :...

from www.cartoonstock.com For class this week, my students read Bonnie Morris's "When I Was a Teenage E.R.A. Activist." Morris's article talks about her experiences as an 18-year-old activist-intern, going door to door in a wealthy middle-class suburb in the South, campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment. The article is chock-full of thought-provoking narrative, including whether or not women's rights have been fully realized, how those campaigning adopted the very strategies of dominance they were rallying against, and how education seems to play little part in curing people of ignorance. The one question, however, that stirred up conversation in my classroom had little do with Feminism and much more to do with liminality. Despite Morris's overt Feminist critique, her definition of womanhood was the one thing that caused blatant disagreement among my students. Morris writes, "At eighteen years old, I was old enough to vote, have sex, and get married--...

The whole text, including illustrations, can be found here: http://smollin.com/michael/tmonstr/mon001.html ! When I was young, one of my very favorite books in the whole wide world was the Little Golden Book The Monster at the End of This Book , featuring the adorable Grover from Sesame Street. The book starts off with Grover freaking out because the cover says that there is a monster at the end of the book, and he is scared of monsters. He spends the next several pages trying to get the reader to stop turning the pages so that the end of the book is never reached. First, he simply begs. Then, he goes through more elaborate set ups like nailing the pages down and building brick walls. It is all very cute. When the reader arrives at the end of the book, Grover realizes that he is the monster at the end of the book, just "lovable, furry old Grover." There was nothing to be scared of all along. Like I stated in an earlier post about Fraggle Rock , I think there is much that we c...

ABC's What Would You Do? is really difficult to watch. For one, you want to jump into the television and do something. You sit there judging people, saying "How could they say that?" or "Why didn't they tell off the store employee for being a jerk?" or "How could they possibly buy their goods there?" You want to scream at the by-standers who do nothing. You are disgusted by bigots, or maybe freak yourself out a bit when you realize that their arguments are logical or even compelling. Once the actionless by-standers are interviewed, however, you are forced to see yourself, which is, perhaps, the most difficult thing about watching this show. Many of those who remain bystanders (though perhaps not in this clip) weren't sure it was their place to "get involved." While we all would like to believe that we would step in and do something in the face of social injustice, possible child abuse, fraud, etc., in reality, many of us would just su...

image from earlywomenmasters.net In conversations between those teaching writing, debates often ensue about whether there is a Standard English, Englishes, or simply English. In general, the coded nature of language is something Comp. people, writing instructors, writing center tutors, and students are both fascinated by and agonize over. Of course, I thought the idea of Standard English was a 21st century theory. It seems the very eloquent George Eliot, however, was laying out Composition Theory lessons way back in the 19th century.  In her lengthy novel Middlemarch , Eliot directly addresses language, language acquisition, and authorship.  For instance, in Chapter 11,  Rosamond, Fred, and Mrs. Vincy speak on the subject of slang. Eliot writes: ‘Are you beginning to dislike slang, then?’ said Rosamond, with mild gravity. ‘Only the wrong sort. All choice of words is slang. It marks a class.’ [said Fred] ‘There is correct English: that is not slang.’ ‘I beg your pardon: co...