While students possess an innate ability to think and use language, it is the responsibility of the teacher to develop the thinking and language skills so the student can in turn develop to their fullest potential. It is also the responsibility of the teacher to make the student feel not only that they matter, but they are qualified to participate in an academic community; the college composition classroom is exactly where students can learn about the concept of communities of practice as well as that they are already part of different communities based on their classes, their jobs, hobbies, and background. By explicitly explaining and teaching how thinking, language and behavior change according to each community or situation, students will be more open to learning how to recognize when their thought processes and language of the academic community.
Building up students as both writers and participants in the academic community is central to showing them what they write matters and their ideas are valid. The idea that the individual matters and that he/she has something of significance to say is something I strongly believe. One way I help validate student ideas is through freewriting and creating online discussion boards. I try to emphasize from the beginning of a course that I want to know what a student thinks. With freewriting, students are encouraged to explore their thoughts about a particular idea or theme. After completing a freewriting assignment, students then post their thoughts online and respond to each other’s postings. This allows students to have a conversation with each other about readings discussed in class. Furthermore, using specific feedback that is designed to encourage the person as a student and a writer is another way I show students that what they say matters. Giving students feedback about their thoughts on a topic which includes specific suggestions, questions designed to help them think about their writing, and positive feedback is much more productive to helping them become stronger writers than a generic “this is good” or negative feedback. The idea that I’m interested in their thoughts not the correctness of their writing seems to baffle some and relieve others.
Through the use of small group collaborations, modeling and providing specific feedback I teach not only how each part of the writing process works but also how it is connected from brainstorming and idea generation, organizing ideas, creating specific types of sentences, drafting, reviewing for content, and finally editing so students will learn that writing is a recursive process, and as Victor Villanova commented in his chapter “For the Love of Language,” “Writing is a means of discovery, means of learning, and means of communicating something to someone.” Regardless of the writing task, writing a note to a child’s teacher, posting on a social media page, or even texting, the author goes through some type of writing process before sending his/her message; at the very least, the author thinks about what wants to be said, how to say it, and makes sure the message is accurate before sending it to the reader. I want students to realize that they already use some form a writing process and then make that transfer from everyday writing to academic/professional composition.
I teach because I want to help individuals achieve their personal, educational, and professional goals; therefore, school is but a tool for preparing students to be successful in life. As the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger stated, “Non scholae sed vitae discimus – We learn not for school, but for life.”
