Contextualized Writing for First Year Composition

How do we get students to see writing contextualized in their world as a literate activity? We first need to help students see themselves as capable writers. Students must practice using multiple methods of researching and thinking about literate activity in general and writing in particular.

One way some colleges approach this issue is by using modified writing-about-writing curriculum. Teachers can use knowledge domains as ways to explore how and why language matters. For example, students can evaluate Strava comments, Pinterest quotes, Facebook posts, etc. They can then ask themselves, "How do these literacies matter and affect the student's life?"

Another idea for helping students value and interact with writing is to have them create an auto-ethnographic report on themselves and analyze their daily written activities for two weeks. Students can then post their findings into a blog, which adds a visual aspect to the text. Some examples of research methods are as follows:

• Culture grams: to visualize social selves, literate activities, audiences, and texts
• Self-observation: to examine textual artifacts and their contextual influences
• Audience interviews: to gain new insights about textual practices and participation in literate activities through multiple perspectives (interview Pinterest audience member and a member of another social media source or sources.)
  

Students can ask themselves if the statement "I am what I post" is true. Is what I post upon next influenced by how many comments I received from a previous post? Are we constantly shaping who we are by the feedback we receive? Or are we more driven by internal or other external motivators?

Students can answer questions such as, "What is my purpose for sharing my healthy cooking recipes online? What messages am I trying to convey when sharing Facebook posts involving corruption in the food industry? Why do I share pictures and videos of my family on vacation? What political posts will I share?

I hope you can see how using the world of social media can indeed help students to grapple with written literacies and how these shape their sense of self and the world around them. Next, we can drive them into modes of research by taking the familiar and pressing that knowledge base into the more formalized college system of making meaning with documentation, scholarly articles and literature, and train them to indeed value the world of written academia. And if you have any doubts or wonder how we can make meaning with Math, check out Dataclysm by Christian Rudder. I just heard about this book and hope to read it soon.

Think Outside the Canvas for Students Sake

What inherent effects do online classes make to the sense of self and empowerment for the average college student? Feminist theorists claim that when we place a course into the online environment, there are consequences. Learning Management Systems such as Canvas tend to heighten instructor presence and flatten student presence. Most online courses primarily function with the student reading what he/she is to do and then turning assignments in for grading. Much less interaction typically takes place between students in the online setting.

In addition, social scientists Fyvbjerg, Landman, and Schram claim it is more difficult to send "ethics of care" or caring messages to students. This situation is labeled phronesis--the kind of knowledge that grows out of intimate familiarity with practice in contextualized settings. You can read more about their research in their book, Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis, Cambridge University Press, New York. 2012.

Because of this research, we need to rethink our current practices in the online environment. It is important to remember that those taking our classes are students, not customers. We need to keep academics at the top of our priority list and not "customer satisfaction." Just this week I had an online FYE103 student tell me that my class had given them the most homework of any online class this semester. I scratched my head, asked my face-to-face class students what they thought, and they similarly scratched their heads. Our teaching practices need to continue striving toward student excellence.

On the other hand, we can embrace phronetic online spaces for teaching. Students can be given spaces to posture individuality and sharing of the self. Blogs, Wikis, Facebook, YouTube, and many other online spaces are available for us to allow creativity. We should work against getting students stuck in the Canvas-only environment when creating assignments.

For example, a few years ago I created space in Ning for students to post their picture, write responses to critical thinking questions, and use multi-media tools to enhance understanding of concepts taught in the course. The students' space was still available semester after semester, and students had access to return and visit with new students along the way. The experience was rich and meaningful. Using external tools does increase grading time to check an outside location, but the rewards were worth it. Ultimately Ning began charging money. Otherwise, I would still have this site up and running.

While exploring likely external tools to build student efficacy, remember that K-12 schools do not have digital literacy outcomes. College students did not have standards for these in the past, so some will know random areas of digital skill based on personal interest and digital access. For this reason, don't introduce new tools without making tutorials available, but be brave and think outside the Canvas.

Minding the Gap

College is a transitional space for incoming freshmen. Instructors who recognize this gap will do well to create space for students to transition in a safe and comfortable environment. We need to remember that these incoming students do not have the same cultural, economic, academic, or social situation that we maintain. Some are coming with little English-speaking ability. Others come with a lack of familial background in the college environment. These first-generational college students are especially vulnerable to anxiety in the new environment.

I am not sure about your experience, but in these past years I find my classroom shifting from a multi-age population to one that is averaging students of about 19 years of age. We can take advantage of this change and ask students to explore articles relevant to their generation. One English instructor suggested an assignment where students read articles that are negative about millennials and then asking the students to write rebuttals. 

And I know you have heard this before, but it is so important to repeat that these digital natives, although many have strong multi-tasking skills and strong Twitter, Facebook, and texting skills, they may not really know how to use many other tools we would expect. Some struggle with simply asking them to write a paper in Word. Others don't know how to attach a file in email, and be sure to remind them to check their YC email daily!

With the switch to Canvas this fall, we have also made a better choice for students. They are finding the simplicity of this new Learning Management System (LMS) to enhance their ability to download and do the homework we assign on their smartphones, but again, remember that not all students have smartphones. And it is not fair to assume that they do or that they should spend their hard-earned money to buy these, so please take care when creating assignments that you don't expect them to whip out their phone and do your instant survey. Enough said.

Getting back to Canvas, let us be more willing to use the tools inside the LMS once we get comfortable with it. We can embed lots of cool tools to enhance student learning experiences with no cost. We can also encourage students to create blogs like this one outside Canvas. When students do so, they create a space that is permanent, one where they can return and read, share and explore long after the class is over.

And lastly, please encourage any students in your classes who struggle with the new college landscape to take the FYE103 class next semester. This class focuses on helping students navigate the college system, develop study skills, and build self-responsibility, motivation, and self-management skills up front. It is never too late. Please also support the new students with mentoring them whether you officially signed up to be a mentor or not. All of our students, whether first-generation or not, can use a good friend in the faculty or staff of Yavapai College. Blessings as we reach out to help them and build a positive learning environment.