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.
