It was truly a pleasure having Dr. Burns sit in on class this week and, if only for a brief moment, answer some of our blogging questions.
Another pleasure was hearing from other groups on their speech topics, and taking notes to further my own pedagogy statement. One element of the reticent writer section that I hadn't thought much about was the rules of cultures and abilities. Pierre Bourdieu makes the claim that there are certain rules and there have to be initiations to be able to speak certain ways. Is this the same for writing?
In reading the Blair article by Lois Agnew (I couldn't speak in class so I read while my students worked), Agnew makes the claim from Horner that "Written and oral skills were taught together throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in British Universities. 'instruction in one reinforcing instruction in the other" (28). We have strayed from this. Reticent writers, if I had to guess, are probably reticent speakers and readers. To fix this, educators will need to begin having students compose for oral presentation.
Something to think about in pedagogy: how often do we make students read aloud, or are we worried we will embarrass students? What is more important: teaching or building self esteem? I'm going with teaching, but I may be wrong.
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The Pierre Bourdieu reference also echoes an article by Patricia Bizzell (Cognition, Convention, and Certainty) which states that in order to teach students to write well, we must first teach them the rules and conventions that govern academic discourse. In other words, because many reticent writers are unfamiliar with how to write in a college setting we must teach them was is and is not appropriate. This can be used in both written and verbal communication. The downside is that we need to put students in situation that exposes what they do not know (rather than those that simply that improve their self-esteem) in order to know what to teach them.
ReplyDeleteOr, we can improve their skills without the embarassment. why debate an issue in class, after the students have written about it. Not only will they get their writing lesson in, but they will be able to read what they wrote if they feel comfortable, or just say what is on their mind. I find (through my years of being a student) that setting the class up as a court room with the teacher being the judge produces great conversation. Or, am I being ingorant of the students lack of desire to do anything?? I hope not!
ReplyDeleteGetting students to talk is always a challenge, as is writing. I found that interviewing one another got some students a little further or just interviewing me! Then one can build to other oral presentations, including debate, especially if done in very small groups. I agree that oral skills need to be taught in conjunction with those of written skills.
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