Learning, Adulting, and the Combination of the Two

What is andragogy, and how might the approach help in teaching FYC?

Andragogy, in its simplest terms, is the teaching of adult learners. It is a subset of pedagogy, which we can consider to be teaching in general. As such, andragogy deserves a somewhat different approach than what might be appropriate to teaching children.

In the first year composition program, we are faced with students who are, legally, adults.
However, for many of our students, they have only been eighteen years of age for several months. For freshmen in their first semester of college, they are very much in a phase of transition between childhood and adulthood, not only in their personal lives but in the academic careers as well.
However, as instructors it is our place to challenge our students to progress in education, and so while I believe that it is right for us to consider their backgrounds and possible limitations they may have coming out of high school I do not think that we ought to oversimplify our curriculum or reduce workload simply to pander to what we perceive to be their limitations. In my own experience I know that I learned most both in high school and college when I could sense that my teacher or professor believed in me and my ability to learn and took pains to really challenge our class, to stretch our limits and see what we could achieve.

With this in mind, I am drawn to reflect on our discussion this week on contact zones. I agree that it is good and effective to make the content relative to our students. If we are able to bring in debates and issues that are part of their lives and that they are passionate about, then we should do so. However, here I think it’s important that we walk the line between coming up with interesting and relevant content for our classes and simply pandering to students that we perceive as uninterested. At the end of the day there is certain content that simply has to be covered. However, I think that when it is possible to bring relevant content into the classroom, it should be done. Especially as we seek to teach the art of rhetoric, addressing arguments and controversial issues that affect the students can help to spark their interest and foster class discussion.

I think that at this level it is possible to focus more on concepts and ideas as opposed to the more bare bones of grammar and mechanics which may have dominated our students’ earlier English education. Although all students are forced to take first year composition, and therefore the level of self-motivation varies widely, it is still right to expect a greater initiative on the part of our students as adult learners as opposed to students in high school. There comes a time when one must take responsibility for one’s own education. As teachers of adult learners, I see it as our responsibility to guide and inspire, but not to hover and certainly not to babysit. To do so would be an insult to the students.

The Good Man Speaking Well: My Teaching Philosophy

With Quintilian, I believe in “the good man speaking well”. I believe in instilling students with the confidence to express their opinions and question the world around them. And I believe in providing them with the ability to do so effectively.

At the core of my teaching philosophy lies the belief that each student is worthy of being an effective communicator. For some, their first year composition course may be the only writing class they ever take at a college level. Others, however, may go on to major in writing-heavy subjects such as journalism or even English itself. And in between these two extremes are the majority of students, who will navigate courses with varying levels of writing intensiveness before being shot out in the working world, where they will be forced to rely upon clear communication in order to be effective at their respective jobs. I believe that each student, regardless of natural talent, deserves a chance to learn strategies of argument and of crafting the written word. My goal is to help students become people who are able to convey their ideas onto the page, confident in the knowledge that their message will get across as they wish it.

I believe in students who know how to think for themselves. I think that the composition classroom is a place for exploring arguments, and for breaking down the idea that just because a work is considered to be great, or because it was written by someone in authority, it must therefore be flawless. I want to provide students with the tools to analyze, to make an honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses, and so be able to form an educated opinion of their own.

I believe in producing empathetic students. The educated person ought to be able to see things from the perspective of others. For rhetoric to be effective, it must start from some sort of common ground. I believe in teaching students to look beyond themselves in order to be able to entertain the ideas of others and, when necessary, to hold their own against them. I believe that in order for effective discourse to take place we must be willing to listen to the views of others without necessarily changing our own.

I believe in a flexible curriculum that can be changed to fit the need of the students. There is more than one way to communicate a specific point, and I believe in listening to student feedback in order to find the best way for any specific group of students to learn.

I want to help students to view writing, not merely as a tool or as a means to an end, but as an opportunity. I want to help them to understand that the more technical aspects of writing are necessary so that meaning can shine forth unimpeded by obscurity or confusion. I want to help them to love writing, and to see its importance for everyday life and for civilization itself.

Essays, Essays, Essays

 Based on your teaching philosophy (which may change over time), what are types of assignments which you would include in a FYC syllabus?

In order to answer this question, I think we must first consider what we want the point of first year writing to be. Since all students are required to take first year writing, it is impossible to tailor the course to fit the needs of a specific major or group of majors. Therefore we must consider the question—what writing skills do all college students need?

At the risk of stating the obvious, they need the skills to succeed in their college courses. As the first year writing program is designed to be taken as a freshman, many of our students will go on to write many more college papers beyond what we assign them. So they need to be able to successfully write an essay.

In my time as an undergraduate, I found that a five page essay was pretty standard for most of my courses, with the exception of some research papers in more advanced classes. As the quality of high schools from which our students come vary, it is doubtful that many of them have a solid understanding of how to go about writing such a paper. For this reason, I believe that it is valuable in a first year course to go through the steps of writing an essay, ideally breaking it up into smaller and more manageable assignments.

From my own past experience I know that it is easier to tackle a longer project when it is broken up into smaller parts. For example, one lesson might focus on having the students write a workable thesis. The next might focus on having them write an outline. I think this would be especially valuable, as I noticed in my grading of BA 1 that a fair number of students said that one of their weaknesses was an inability to be organized in their writing. They seemed to think that they had plenty of ideas, but were simply unable to communicate them in a way that made sense to others. Once the students had a working outline, they could turn their attention to building up a complete essay by the end of the course.

That is not to say, however, that I think our current emphasis on rhetorical analysis is not valuable. On the contrary, I think that rhetorical analysis can be valuable not only for our students’ remaining college courses, but for any reading or writing they do in their lives. Rhetorical analysis, when done well, allows students to become more aware of the choices that are made in a piece of writing. When they learn to look at writing objectively, they learn to better evaluate others’ arguments. At the same time, they learn how to better argue their own points. Regardless of the career they mean to pursue, the ability to communicate one’s points articulately is invaluable. For this reason, rhetorical analysis also fits with the goal of the course to prepare students from all majors for success in college, as well as in future life.

To Teach a Writer

What is the most difficult thing to teach in the teaching of writing, and how do you go about teaching that?

Earnest Hemingway once said to an aspiring writer "You shouldn't write if you can't write." Good advice, but not particularly helpful to those of us who are in the business of teaching writing. Of course, this raises the question: what exactly does it mean to be able to write?

The idea is ephemeral enough in itself. Surely anyone who is able to put words on the page (or on the screen, as the case may be) is able to write. And yet one will find many, including some of our students, who will shrug their shoulders and admit "I can't write." What they really mean is that they can't write well.

When one imagines the idea of a writer, they may picture a moody fellow in a darkened room, drinking coffee or perhaps something stronger, typing lines of tortured verse or stories that cut to the quick of what it is to be human. And certainly, this fellow is a kind of writer. One may also picture those who are recognized to be great writers. They may think of Shakespeare or Milton, of Austen or Twain. And just are certainly, these people were writers. Yet even the greatest teacher in the world, though they labored long and though the students worked diligently, could not produce a roomful of Shakespeares, or even of J.K. Rowlings. Writing is something that must come from the individual, and so each writer must be different. So too, it must admitted that talent plays some part.

However, we are not here only to teach those who have within them the potential to become the next Great American Novelists. Some people do not like to write. It does not come naturally to them, and as much as this grieves me I am very similar in math. I do not like it, and it does not come naturally to me. I am not the next Einstein or Newton. Yet for all that, I was taught to do math at some level. I can multiply and divide and even work equations upon occasion. For each math class I took, I was a better mathematician by the end of it. Just so, our students are capable of improving their writing, regardless of whether or not it comes naturally to them.

Perhaps the most difficult thing about teaching writing is that it is so difficult to define what good writing is. We may say Hemingway was a good writer, and read and analyze his book in the hopes of discovering his secret. But we may also say that Hawthorne was a good writer, though his style was vastly different. We must teach what good writing is in much the same way that a parent teaches a child the concept of beauty. What is beauty? It may be difficult to arrive at an exact definition, yet we know it when we see it. That sunset is beautiful. That woman is beautiful. That song is beautiful. In the same way, we learn from seeing multiple examples what constitutes good writing.

This is why I believe that one of the most crucial aspects of teaching writing lies in encouraging our students to read. In reading they can experience for themselves what good writing is, and so learn, to varying degrees, to imitate it. Good reading begets good writing.