Reflective Commentary

In my basic writing course, there is a great deal of knowledge that I gained that is important to me.  One of things I realize is that basic writers are not limited only to basic writing or developmental writing courses.  In fact, I learned that we are all basic writers.  The awareness of this common thread should help me to empathize more with students who are placed into these courses because of their failure to perform well on a 90-minute high stakes test that keeps them out of mainstream college courses.  Prior to taking this course, it never occurred to me to question the fairness of CUNY’s Writing Assessment Test.  No matter how you look at it, the test is used to keep people out of the mainstream.

Above all else, I have learned that there is hope.  There are teacher-scholars and administrators who see our work with basic writing students as a call for social justice.  In fact, there are several examples of innovative pedagogical approaches to basic writing like the Accelerated Learning Program at The Community College of Baltimore County that are mainstreaming students so that they can have a chance at the American Dream.

Another thing that I have learned is that I do not have to correct every single error on a student’s paper.  I am grateful for the lesson on Higher Order Concerns and Lower Order Concerns.  I would feel guilty if I did not correct every common mistake that composition students make in their essays.

Sadly, I have learned how our society is not eager to give resources to students who are not college-ready even when it is not their fault.  Unfortunately, racism and classism still are big obstacles to overcome in order for some of our citizens to have access to a quality education.  I am clearer today about the politicization of basic writing and how access to higher education is becoming more of a privilege for the few rather than the many.   I did not realize that my work as a writing instructor is a form or resistance –that the teaching of writing and critical thinking is essential for the transformation of students’ lives and their communities.  Also, I did not realize that I chose to attend a college that has a tremendous legacy of women like Audrey Lorde, Mina Shaughnessy, and Adrienne Rich who were willing to fight the good fight in order that others might have a chance to be somebody in life.

Reflective Essay

James L. Dunn
ENGL B8104 2TU
Basic Writing Theory & Practice
December 16, 2014

Reflective Essay

Composition teachers tell students that writing is a process that involves invention, revision, proofreading and editing.  The hope is that our students will realize that writing takes time, patience and planning.  For the literacy narrative assignment, I chose to write an essay describing a key reading or writing experience with reflective commentary on the significance of this experience to me.  I approached the assignment in several ways.

First, I had to narrow my topic to a specific writing experience that was meaningful to me.  This first step in the process was a challenge to me, and I tried several different brainstorming strategies to focus my topic on one particular worthwhile event.  I like to free write so I began to write about different writing events that might make a compelling literacy narrative. 

Yet, as a middle aged man, I struggled with this assignment at first.  It took me several drafts before I got my bearings on the topic.  I attribute this difficulty to my inability to focus on one particular event.  I feel like there are a confluence of several events that have influenced my experience with reading and writing.  I came up with several ideas, and it seemed as if I did a complete inventory of every memorable experience that I had with reading and writing.  There was the idea about writing about the first time I received a byline for a feature article I had written in a national magazine.  There were several literacy events during my childhood that I had thought might make an interesting narrative.  In fact, I am not even sure if I have ever written a literacy narrative.  I am not even sure if I have ever written a literacy narrative. 

One thing for sure: I felt like a basic writer might feel when they are given an assignment, and they do not where to start and have no ideas about how to approach the assignment.  One of the things I discovered from this assignment is that everyone is a basic writer at some point in their life. 

However, over the years, I have been inspired by several of the literacy narratives that I have read or taught in my first-year composition courses.   There is little that I could ever write that could compare to the literacy narratives that writers such as Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, Alexie Sherman, and Sandra Cisneros have shared with their readers.  Each of their narratives, in their own way, makes some kind of emotional appeal (pathos).  Each author is willing to be vulnerable, in that they are willing to show that weak language and literacy skills give them less control of their world.  In my view, one of the best things about literacy narratives is its ability to share an individual’s unique and very personal relationship with language and literacy. 

For me, my experiences with literacy have been rather non-eventful when compared to these writers.  One of my favorite short stories is "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and me" by Sherman Alexie. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" explains Alexie's life as an Indian boy and how writing and reading shaped his life into what it is today. This short essay talks about how he first learned how to read, his intelligence as a young Indian boy, and Alexie as an adult teaching creative writing to Indian kids.  In fact, Alexie says about his relationship with literacy, “I was trying to save my life.”

After coming up with a specific topic, I was able to move to the next step in the writing process: composing.  I wrote three drafts for this assignment.   For my first draft, I participated in a peer review group exercise; I received feedback from three colleagues in my basic writing graduate course.  Their feedback was helpful and constructive, for it gave me an audience’s perspective on my narrative.  For example, in my first draft, I had mentioned several literacy events, but I did not explain how these events fit into the overall theme of my narrative.  For the other two drafts, Professor Gleason, gave me feedback. 

Once I got input on my drafts, I revised my literacy narrative to incorporate some of the changes that were suggested.  After I made the changes, I let the essay sit for a day and went back over it to see if I wanted to make any more changes to the final draft.  When I decided that I did not need to change anything, I proofread and edited the paper for spelling, usage and grammar, and proper MLA style formatting.

“Stretch at 10: A Progress Report on Arizona State University’s Stretch Program” by Gregory R. Glau

Like the Accelerated Learning Program at The Community College of Baltimore County, Arizona State University's Stretch Program is another innovative approach to basic writing pedagogy.  The Stretch Program "stretches" English 101 over two semesters.  The goal: to give more time to students who many not have a lot of experience at academic college-level writing.  This program sees basic writers as those capable of writing, full, complete, and thoughtful papers, but who also might need more time for revision, group peer review, and conferences with their instructors.  These students do the same readings and write the same papers as all English 101 students, but their class moves at a slower pace.

I like the examples of how some composition programs have and continue to develop new ways to examine and rework basic composition teaching.  The class extension, the scaffolding of assignments, and the student cohort are the means through which these basic writing students can take some control and responsibility for their own education.  Apparently, students who have participated in the Stretch program have higher pass rates for English 10 than students who took only one semester of the course.

"Community College Students Face a Very Long Road to Graduation" (New York Times)

This New York Times article really speaks to the struggles that many of my community college students face. It's tough. Many of them want to be successful in school, but they have many challenges: some of them work full-time jobs, some of them have children, some of them do not have any support from family or friends.  For many of my students, I am the only support they have.  Often times, I am a cheerleader and a coach. Working in a community college is truly God's work, for you are dealing with people and all of their vulnerabilities.  I find one of the biggest challenges is getting students to believe in themselves.  So many of them come to college having been beaten down by our educational system or even families.  Unfortunately, on some level, we continue beating them down with these assessment tests in community colleges. The fact that the majority of community college students have to take some form of a remedial course should be enough to increase the financial and pedagogical resources at these institutions.  Again, it is political.  How many of these students or the communities from in which they hail have any real political power?

I think that is what is so remarkable about Mina Shaughnessy and Adrienne Rich--their ability to see in students what they do not yet see in themselves.  I am not saying it is easy all the time. There are some days when I have to remind myself that there is a bigger purpose here than what I see in front me.

One thing I do admire about the young man, Vladimir de Jesus, featured in the article is his persistence. He still keeps coming back to school despite his setbacks. Students like this young man deserve our support for as long as it takes to fulfill his dream of going to Hunter College.

Remediation Phase-Out at CUNY: The “Equity versus Excellence” Controversy by Barbara Gleason

Barbara,

As we read essays about basic writing this semester, I really struggled with some of the issues around the "equity versus excellence" controversy.  I do not think that high stakes testing  (CUNY’s three Freshman Skills Assessment Tests) is productive as well. I have seen firsthand the effects of those placement tests on student morale, and I do not think that you can accurately measure a student's level of competence on a 90 minute exam where students are expected to revise, edit and proofread in a limited time period.

I had never thought about it, but in a way these tests are just another way to keep what society considers "undeserving" students out of educational and economic mainstream.  Certainly, the "equity versus excellence" argument is complicated.  Students in New York come from various backgrounds--many of them live in poverty and attend underperforming high schools.  Some of their parents are hardworking immigrants, and they do not speak or write English at home.

The ending of open admissions was a cop-out, and pushing more remedial education into the community colleges would be fine accept that many of them are underfunded and overcrowded. Again, this is another example of the political and ideological nature of this controversy.  Conventional wisdom has it that students--indeed all of us--should be able to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.  We want to believe that America is a merit-based society, but it is disingenuous for us to expect a kid who does not have enough to eat, who is kept up at night by gunshots, and who lives in a shelter to be in par with a middle class student who lives in Park Slope and whose parents are working  professionals.

"Remediation at a Crossroads" by Mike Rose

I really enjoy Mike Rose's books about adult learners and "second chance" opportunities for non-traditional students.  No one better than he, I think, gets to the crux of these issues. The one thing I realize from my language and literacy courses is that academic underpreparation is a complex issue-- that there are no easy answers.  This acknowledgement can be frustrating, but I also believe, that it gives us--as language and literacy students and future practitioners--the opportunity to develop creative solutions to these challenging problems.  Rose sees "...in basic skills instruction the rich possibility for developing literacy and numeracy and for realizing the promise of a second-chance society" (Berstein 30).  Basically, Rose is saying that he wants education to go beyond just acquiring fundamental skills so that students can develop "the broader habits of the mind" that will transform their lives and their communities.  I think Rose is on to something.  Too often, remedial education is about passing gateway tests that determine whether students can take college course for credit or if they will denied a pathway to higher education and the opportunity for economic and social success.

"Teaching Language in Open Admissions" by Adrienne Rich

Teaching Writing in Open Admissions

“Teaching Language in Open Admissions” by Adrienne Rich is one of my favorite essays that I have read this semester.  Her essay is even more relevant today because college administrators and politicians are coming up with ways to limit access to students who are underprepared for college.   As I read these essays, I ask myself:  Who is the next Mina Shaughnessy, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde?  Granted it is a different time, but a lot of what they fought for still needs a champion.  The more I read about them the more that I wish that I could have met them.  They all have certainly created a legacy for themselves, and I am so honored to be a student at The City College of New York where they fought for access for underprivileged students. 

Rich writes, “I think of myself as a teacher of language; that is, someone for whom language has implied freedom, who is trying to aid others to free themselves through the written word, and above all through learning to write it for themselves” (Bernstein 23).  In a time of increasing police brutality, income inequality and budget cuts, it is even more imperative that English language teachers aid others in freeing themselves through words. 

I am struck by how politically charged and racially tinged the reaction to open admissions was at The City College of New York.  Yet, even today, I can see how students who are underprepared for college through no fault of their own are often stigmatized and in some instances seen as lost cases.  One thing I know for sure is that the teaching of basic writing is as a form or resistance to those who would have some people in our society remain as part of a permanent underclass.  It is an uncomfortable conversation to have, but we as a society are going to have to decide if we are going to give people a hand-up (not a handout) so that they can make the most of their lives.  Our democracy depends on each of us having equality opportunity--even for those of us who start from behind.