I was pre-school teacher for about two years, I eventually
figured out some of the better ways to teach children. Young children are most engaged when they are
learning through tangible materials: play-dough, scissors, glue, rocks, sticks,
etc. Their learning is grounded in the
things that are around them; they experience learning for the outside in. After years of the world making impressions on
them, students begin to see how they affect the world. They see that choices have consequences, and
actions have reactions. Later they begin
to think about why these consequences and reactions exist and how they function—rebellious
teenagers. Most of the students we will encounter as
freshmen composition instructors are coming down off of their teenage angst and
moving thinking in more worldly terms: why is composition (or any subject
really) important and how does it affect them and those around them?
Teaching adults is very specialized. They can no longer be held captive by glitter
or bubbles (some favorites in my old classroom). Students are no longer satisfied with aimlessly
wondering the halls of their high school fulfilling arbitrary requirements. They
are adults, with a need to make a better life through education. They are in college because they have chosen
to be, and they have high expectations for us. They are counting on us to be a
cog in their path to a successful life—a pretty daunting task. I know that when I was in college, my biggest
complaint for classes I did not like was I felt like I was wasting my
time. When I found myself thinking that
the class content could be covered in an email, or the professor habitually ranted
off topic, I got angry (very much in contrast to high school when I was
thrilled the class was easy or the teacher wasted time talking about
nothing). All students need to feel
respected; adult learners need to feel that their time is of value, that what
they are doing in that moment matters or will matter eventually.
Now that students are thinking about the bigger questions,
they need to know that what they are learning will help them answer those questions. Although they know (for the most part) where
they will be for the next several years, they are actively think about the next
step: how to get there, what do they need, etc. They are working towards
finding their place in the world, and there is not a moment to waste. It is clear that being able to properly
compose a text will help them achieve that every illusive and foggy success; more
than that, it will help them articulate both the questions and answers they
will encounter along the way.
Jill, I like that you bring forward that adult learners are going to be "counting on us to be a cog in their path to a successful life." It is incredibly daunting, I agree, to put ourselves in front of a classroom of students that requires us to prove to them daily why what we are teaching is important. My biggest complaint in undergrad was the exact same thing; I hated when I was required to take a course (and to PAY to take a course) that wasted my time and had almost no effect on my future.
ReplyDeleteI think that maybe one of the best things we can do in composition is not necessarily to ensure that every little thing is tailored by relevance to the students, but rather that professors always, always ensure that the dialogue of the class is resulting in or moving toward passionate and enlightening discourse among the students. The classes that stuck with me most from undergrad are those which gave me new and uncomfortable thoughts to toy with, while giving my fellow students and I a platform on which to discuss how we felt about those new ideas. These interactions would later drive my writings for the class. Through these methods, we became aware of how our interpretations of literature and writings about them came to affect us and those around us.
I agree with Emma on the importance of not just being "tailoring" (I love that term) the course to its relevance in their lives and that we should be motivating ecstatic and passionate conversation and dialogue. As discussed last week in the readings and in class, this dialogue can be expanded and provoked with the use of contact zones and by finding subjects that are very prevalent to the lives of the students. Jill, great post and great ideas, I especially agree with the view that we should enter the composition classroom viewing our students as adults. I think your past experience is a terrific fit for the college classroom (and you may even be surprised how captivating glitter and bubbles are to a group of college freshmen; very recently my girlfriend and I, as grad students, discovered how awesome of a science experiment it is to blow bubbles in a thunder storm). I also agree with the idea of valuing a student's time and as an undergrad, I remembered being disgruntled when a professor would rant extremely off topic or when the class content was being read directly from a power point that could have been in my inbox. Great read this week, Jill!
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ReplyDeleteMaybe my students aren't captivated by glitter or bubbles, but I still am. :) Great post! Especially because I have so little classroom time, it's extremely important everything we do in class to be relevant and helpful outside of class. There is also the the problem that I understand why my students need writing, but some of them are convinced that they don't need it. I am still working on how to show students that they will need writing. I don't blame them for not buying in. I was annoyed that I had to learn statistics as a college freshmen, but I'm not annoyed now because I have actually used that knowledge.
ReplyDeleteGood thinking here, Jill.
ReplyDeletePre-school and kindergarten teachers really have to know their craft well. There are so many "tricks of the trade" that goes into meeting learners' needs well. I think learning is ground in things around adults, but those things may be problems in their lives, responsibilities they have, etc. rather than just objects.
You have a solid understanding of strategies to teach adult learners. I'm convinced that a lot of what we do in composition instruction is rooted in motivation theory. The challenge, as you imply, is that many of our students are in betweeners, becoming adults, and some will know how to see and apply the relavance of our lessons to their lives and to solving problems, generally, and some will not. Knowing how to address the needs of different types of learners is important. When you find yourself teaching to uninterested faces, see what you can do to draw their attention to how what you're teaching can help them solve a problem that they're working on outside of class. My guess is if you can make that happen their time on task or attention on task will be much greater, and it stands to reason then that they'll get the concept and remember it when they need it.