Third Response to “Facts…”

What I enjoyed about this book is that each instructor discusses their reasoning for the lessons and assignments they give. The lessons build upon each other so by the middle of the term students are writing larger bodies of work. The constant reviewing, revising, and re-writing causes the student to always re-think and re-see their previous work. Ideas discovered in this process work themselves into revised papers that show the depth of understanding they have gained. In addition, class discussions of the assigned book opens the classroom to different views and questions other classmates might bring. Having a basic writing class function has a seminar is like a book club. The seminar allows the student to interact with the book, talk about and disagree with the book, much like a book club may do. However the obvious difference in a seminar is that a paper is required. But this process of book discussion to gain better understanding is an excellent way to have students share ideas before they put them on paper. I see it as a class brainstorming session in a way. They are finding meaning by discovering it together. It takes the text out of their head and gives it a voice.
Recently after reading chapter 7 “Acts of Wonderment: Fixing Mistakes and Correcting Errors” an opportunity arose for me to apply one of the techniques for approaching errors with a student from the writing center. Glynda Hull talks about ruled governed editing as opposed to meaning-driven editing. When teachers see errors, there’s an automatic response that takes over and the tendency is to make the corrections. Hull argues that if we prompt the student to understand why they make the errors they do, students are better able to correct them. She offers a transcript on page 206 where a tutor is prompting a student to find the mistakes in his writing.
A student brought in a paper with professor comments about her punctuation. Her paper was riddled with commas she didn’t need and they were not placed where they needed to be. Instead of showing her the ways commas are used I asked her to explain to me how she use a comma. This conversation allowed me to understand her logic in how language works to her because she was an English Language Learner. Once I understood her point of view and with a little explanation she was able to see why she didn’t need commas while reading over the rest of her assignment. We did not get a chance to complete the entire paper but she left the session feeling good about what she discovered and she felt confident she could finish it herself. I wasn’t shocked that it worked like it described in the book but I was surprised at how easy the conversation flowed and how open my student was to the process. Sometimes students just want to get in and get out. I’m sure I will see her again.