Respect the Process.

Disclaimer: I’ve been trying to write this post since I returned from Spring Green a little more than two weeks ago, but, for some reason, it has been incredibly difficult for me to put my thoughts into words. I learned so much during this retreat, but a lot of it feels specific to just me, so I apologize if some of this doesn’t seem important or doesn’t make sense.

On July 19, I drove from Kenosha to Spring Green, Wisconsin for a faculty writing conference and retreat held by Coe for the benefit of its professors (any professor may attend the retreat, but it’s not required). The retreat and conference are held every few years to examine and discuss writing prompts. Right away it was obvious that professors have much the same attitude toward writing assignments that we students do — they don’t usually want to write the prompt and we often don’t want to write the paper they’ve assigned. This year they wanted a few students to join them so that they could get real student feedback before handing out new or revised assignments. We were there, in a sense, to troubleshoot.

It was a small group — only seven professors and two students (including myself) — but we all got along really well and were able to talk easily. I enjoyed meeting professors that I normally wouldn’t have (I have no reason to take any nursing or upper level education classes) and learning from them in a non-classroom setting. We had been in email contact for a few weeks, discussing the details of our trip, but I had never met the majority of the faculty members who had signed up to come along. I was actually kind of glad that I didn’t know most of the professors; this way, I could come in without the bias that I think a lot of students have: that their professors are not quite human — they exist only in the classroom and their sole purpose in life is to push too hard and demand the unrealistic.

Once we got to Spring Green and were settled in our respective rooms at the B&B, we all introduced ourselves with the usual “name, hometown, and discipline” and then sat down to lunch. After lunch we talked about our favorite and least favorite writing assignments and made an interesting discovery: the assignments themselves do not seem to affect us as strongly as the context surrounding the assignments. The reason we remembered certain assignments was because of our attitude toward them, how we felt about them. It wasn’t that a writing assignment was inherently good and bad, it was how we felt about the circumstances surrounding them. For instance, both my favorite and least favorite assignments were ones that had frustrated me, though I was able to learn a valuable lesson from my “favorite” assignment. I learned from my “least favorite” assignment too, except I was also frustrated by the lesson.

After that we really got down to business. We split into two groups (which happened to be guys and gals) and went to opposite ends of the B&B to talk about writing. Our first task was to talk about what could go into a rubric designed for faculty members meant to help them in crafting writing assignments. It took us a while to make our list (mostly because every time we came up with another item we would discuss it at length), but eventually we had a number of bullet points, listed below.

- Use both a prompt (to get students thinking) and directions (which deal with the mechanics of the assignment).

- Consider the audience; give the students a little help in determining the audience for a paper (educated and informed or unfamiliar?).

- Include citation information in your directions, including if you actually want citations, which citation style you would like, and which sources students are allowed to cite (can they cite from lecture? Do you only want to see print sources?).

- Suggest students come to the Writing Center and remind them to bring the assignment guide with them! (Many times, I find students don’t totally understand the assignment but forget to bring the assignment guide. This means that Writing Center consultants can’t help! It’s beyond critical that students bring the assignment guide with them to a conference.)

Eventually we were privy to the list the guys came up with:

- Be aware of the audience.

- Know and share the purpose of the assignment.

- Use written instructions (no spoken directions!).

- Have a feedback system ready to go.

- Make sure that everyone is learning from the assignment.

- Give a clear starting point for students to use as a springboard (in the words of Dr. Bob, “struggle in doing, but not in beginning”).

- Challenge students to always be thinking “so what?”

- Be aware of the process of writing.

- Have a method of reflection available to students, so that they might be both participants and spectators.

- Know the limitations of the assignment. No assignment can do it all.

Anyway, after an afternoon of deep discussion, we drove out to the American Players Theater for a picnic dinner followed by 6^th row seats to Richard III. What a great show. Being a Shakespeare buff myself, I appreciated the allusions to Henry VI (the history play which precedes Richard III chronologically). I also loved that they used ex-queen Margaret to her full potential… a lot of productions treat Margaret as a footnote or leave her out entirely; I feel that without Margaret and her prophecies, the play loses some of its karmic, wheel of fortune effect. I thought APT’s Margaret and Hastings were particularly well done. What a powerful play and how fun to share it with a few people who had never seen or read it before. (Also there may or may not have been some wine-drinking and late night conversations that happened when we got back from Richard III….)

The next day, we spent some time finalizing our sample rubric on creating writing assignments. Once that was done, the professors were given time to work specifically on writing assignments that they would be using in real classes this coming year. (Sorry, fellow students, I didn’t get many details, so you’ll get no heads up from me.) My role at this point was to sit there, quietly reading my book or writing my own notes, until a professor needed a hand. I ended up talking with one of the rhetoric professors for a while about the amount of work you can give a class before its just too much to take. Some of my fellow Kohawks may not like hearing this too much, but after hearing the anticipated workload for this class, I immediately told the professor that it was by far one of the easiest college workloads I’d ever heard of. Think of this: one easy chapter of reading per class, plus a one-page response post per class, plus one other short weekly assignment. I wish.

After lunch, the whole group gathered again to discuss the rubrics we had developed separately. After sharing our lists (which I included above), we also talked about what we had learned or what had made us think — really, just what would be sticking with us for a while. Things like “give professors a reason to read by having a personal epiphany,” “no one’s thinking ‘wrongly’ but there is potential for different interpretations of assignments,” “don’t stress, just be organic and accept the process,” “activate the kinesthetic,” and “don’t pretend to not want something from students when you do — own it!” I had trouble picking what would stick with me the most, so I’ve written down all the things that have been tumbling around in my head (they’re listed below).

Things I Learned:

- Write to explore. Writing assignments should be treated as an opportunity to explore a subject, not as a required show of knowledge.

- Don’t think of a word limit as a certain length to be met; rather think of it as a challenge. Instead of having to make it to 400 words, see just how much persuasive discussion you can fit into 400 words. Jam-pack those 400 words with important material.

- Writing isn’t always a test to make sure that you’re actually learning. Sometimes an assignment’s purpose is to help you make connections, privately, in what you have already learned.

- Just as our professors need to remind themselves that no writing assignment can do it all, we students must remind ourselves that no paper can do it all. You can’t talk about everything. Sometimes you need to cut some information because it’s not relevant enough or because it distracts from your argument.

- The writing process is just as important (if not more so) than the written product. The goal should not be simply to churn out a paper, but to learn something while you’re writing it.

Now that I’ve been thinking about it for a while, I am of the opinion that outside of going to class and learning in that setting, going to this conference was the best thing I have ever done for myself as a student. I learned an unbelievable amount that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to fully describe, though I’ve tried here. This conference came at a great time for me; any sooner in my academic career and I don’t think I would’ve been able to fully appreciate it; any later, and I wouldn’t have been able to go, due to having graduated.

Most importantly, I was reminded why I chose Coe in the first place. We really are incredibly lucky to have the professors that we do. We are blest with some truly inspiring faculty members who I now count as role models. They genuinely love what they do; they care about us as students and are ready and willing to push those of us students who are invested in our education. They want us to succeed. And, guess what? They’re human too.