I think it is exciting that there is less of a need for memorization in schools. This opens up the time for critical thinking skills. The students are dealing with an endless network of information, and part of composition needs to become teaching them how to deal with all that information. Good readers are good writers, so, as writing teachers, we need to help our students improve their skills as readers. Part of composition is going to shift to become more like research methods: how to recognize credible sources and how to identify weak sources. We already focus on rhetorical choices, now those choices are going to be broadened to include the variety of ways we communicate and the variety of ways students will receive information. I think this explosion of technology is really fascinating and presents the potential to have a well informed general public, but it is up to teachers to help students sift through all that is available to them, and to think critically about it.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Reflection Over Class Discussion
I was really struck by a number of things we talked about in class last Friday, particularly Yancey’s article “Made Not Only in Words: Composition in a New Key.” Although I could clearly see the shift from physical to digital reading material, the notion that it is equivalent to the invention of the printing press was astounding to me. When people gained access to books written in their own language, the entire world changed. Now we are in the midst of a similar change, but, given out understanding of history, we could be prepared for effects and take advantage of this opportunity. I was really fantasied by the need for teacher to use what is natural to the students. This, I think, is one of the most important ideas in education. Teachers are often so wedded to the things they learned, and they way they were taught that they have a hard time adapting. It’s almost like hazing: every year the insanity escalates because the previous generation recalls all the nonsense they had to do deal with, and they will not let the new generation off easy. I know that many people are aghast that spelling tests are multiple choice, but I think that is a reasonable adjustment with the times. Spelling is an important skill, and if students cannot spell simple words without help, then they will struggle, but they will almost never be in a position to handwrite important documents that require complete precision. And if they do, they can look up how to spell a word. Traditional spelling tests are just one example of clinging to outdated learning tools that waste time. Teachers, like any other profession, need to work with the most effective tools at their disposal. If learners are changing, so must the teachers.
I think it is exciting that there is less of a need for memorization in schools. This opens up the time for critical thinking skills. The students are dealing with an endless network of information, and part of composition needs to become teaching them how to deal with all that information. Good readers are good writers, so, as writing teachers, we need to help our students improve their skills as readers. Part of composition is going to shift to become more like research methods: how to recognize credible sources and how to identify weak sources. We already focus on rhetorical choices, now those choices are going to be broadened to include the variety of ways we communicate and the variety of ways students will receive information. I think this explosion of technology is really fascinating and presents the potential to have a well informed general public, but it is up to teachers to help students sift through all that is available to them, and to think critically about it.
I think it is exciting that there is less of a need for memorization in schools. This opens up the time for critical thinking skills. The students are dealing with an endless network of information, and part of composition needs to become teaching them how to deal with all that information. Good readers are good writers, so, as writing teachers, we need to help our students improve their skills as readers. Part of composition is going to shift to become more like research methods: how to recognize credible sources and how to identify weak sources. We already focus on rhetorical choices, now those choices are going to be broadened to include the variety of ways we communicate and the variety of ways students will receive information. I think this explosion of technology is really fascinating and presents the potential to have a well informed general public, but it is up to teachers to help students sift through all that is available to them, and to think critically about it.
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Jill, I think you make many fascinating points here. In class on Friday, I found myself strongly considering what "natural" even means anymore for students. In a sense, all learning starts out being unnatural and then becomes natural over time. It is fascinating that, perhaps what we consider "natural" in collegiate learning is just several once-unnatural behaviors that became natural over time, built on top of each other. In this way, what comes "naturally" to today's students has to do with the ways they learned information when they were young. Because of this, I am not sure what to make of the spelling test changes and whatnot that happen these days. I agree, students these days will always have the internet to look up words they are unsure of; however, I think that I get concerned because we have no idea of the potential consequences that could come from people not being able to spell without help. Sometimes, I think that we have no way of even conceiving the massive changes that the internet has brought on the human race, and we won't know the full extent until irreversible changes have already been made. (Not that the internet is bad--I just have moments where I am in awe of the ways that the world has changed and will continue to change since its dawn).
ReplyDeleteJill, I too found the conversation on mother tongues to be very interesting as well. While the idea of a "lingua franca" of standard English is interesting and maybe ideal in terms of ease to grade (if everyone spoke and wrote it properly), I like the idea of getting students to embrace their "mother tongues." I find it fascinating how the digital world of communication is beginning (in a way) to break down the standard English we in academia are so accustomed to. To me, it's very similar to the change that happened to the language following the Norman Conquest and the change between Old English (which had a standard of sorts) to Middle English (which was a vernacular language of transition and thus required no standard). I find the intersect between these two worlds fascinating.
ReplyDeletecheck out David Crystal's "Great Deb8"