we better recognize....!

The fact that writing skills are not separate from math, etc. Reasoning skills, critical thinking, analysis, summary...these are applicable to writing, but also to any aspect of education. We need to stop teaching as if the world were partitioned into categorizable chunks. Contextualized learning!!

transitioning out of ESL writing classes

One thing I'd like to examine is how ESL classes seem to prioritize writing "grammatically," but not writing itself. The person I tutored on 4/22/09 at 5pm has an interesting list of conference reports. I'd like to examine her case, and perhaps some others, as it seems to present evidence of just how important it is to incorporate critical thinking and argumentation skills into every level of writing course, no matter how "rudimentary." It's true this girl is only now enrolled in WRT 101; she had ESL 193 last semester and apparently she passed. Which is SCARY. I tutored her yesterday on a paper for HIS 380, which requires a demanding 7-10 page full-on academic paper...and her paper read like a 2nd-grader's. She had NO CONCEPT of thesis and argumentation, and she didn't understand the assignment sheet even a little bit. And she didn't seem to care. She thought her rudimentary "understanding" of the assignment was good enough, which leads me to believe that in her previous writing experiences, "good enough" has been. From reading her older conference reports, she's NEVER been able to critically analyze texts or develop ideas in her writing. This is problematic.

"Entering the conversation..."

Blah, I've been putting off doing this stuff because it seems so many other things are more important right now...but I'm ignoring those things too, so I need to at least get a start on something.

I need to be reading conference proposals for WC and CCCC conferences, but I can't seem to find any. This is a major bummer, because this is exactly what my advisor instructed me to do. Of course, I believe that at the time, the CCCC "searchable program" was available on the website, but if it's still there, they're hiding it well. I also checked NEWCA's website, and other International Writing Centers Association groups' websites, but it seems EVERYONE's had their conferences for the year already, or they're not advertising their conference's program yet. The only good thing I've found is the Midwest Writing Center Association's 2009 conference website; it has links to model conference proposals. This seems useful.

Other than all this, I guess I'll be using the SB library resources to search through articles. Arg.

I wanted to write something related to the field of composition in general, but there's SO MUCH OUT THERE; I think I'll stick to WC topics, because I have more hands-on experience there, and it's a good stepping stone anyway, I think.