WEEK 3: The Process

Tobin in "Process Pedagogy" offers his personal joy of teaching compostion when he quotes Murray, [teaching compostition] "is the process of discovery through language. It is the process of exploration..."(2). I believe he offers a way for writing to connect ourselves to our lives.

The teaching of composition becomes looking for the "nuance, possibilities, gaps, and potentials" in a student's writing that prevents the communication of the student's thoughts (6). If we accept the premise that students have different capabilities, needs, and situations, how do we become inclusive in our teaching of composition as a communication tool for the real world? With the differing learning styles and needs of average, gifted, challenged, blind, deaf, ESL, and challenged students in the classroom today, we have a responsibility to help students communicate in a way that will not limit or prevent their inclusion in their world. Progress,according to Tobin, has been made within the field attempting to address the fact that in pegagogy differences such as race, gender, and class do matter. Because in compositition, the writer, audience, and teacher all serve an equal roll in the writing of words, Perhaps the most important outcome of any pegagogy is the re-enforcement of the value of an individual's thoughts. A sense of pride and self-discovery may be a by-product of Composition. when the thoughts of the writer through mechanics, organization, etc. connect into a coherant written work.

One issue Tobin addressed saddened me. The issue of acceptance into the academic circle that sometimes deminishes the importance of "experimental, empiracl belief in the process but [with] no real scholarly basis" (8). In this age when the educators are encouraged to get a "scholarly footing" are we promoting the field and not the purpose?

I enjoyed Tobin's article for his personal methods of teaching. "In [his] current incarnation" (I love the fact his life as an educator is not static), he uses what works for him to promote a love of learning in his classrooms.

For those who might enjoy bell hooks, she has a videos through google videos where she discusses some of her theories

Flowers and Hayes article "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing" puts diagrams and charts to the teaching of writing as process. I have used the Prewriting, Writing, and Revision techniques when helping my children. These techniques offered a plan for taking thoughts in the students minds that might be communicated through speech and allow the concrete communication of the written word. Revising and clarification allow the written record of what the student attempts to compose to find direction through the help of the teacher.

The exploration of ideas through the interconnection of ideas and interests can grow with what a student knows either personally or through research. The Stage Models of Writing offer a simple method of connecting a students goal for writing. Using revised and clarified subgoals, all of which are written with supporting facts , help draw the audience into the written work. A knowledge of the mechanics of compostition helps provide a focus that connects the writer and the audience.

Writing becomes about choices. I particularly like their discussion on page 274 about how writing can change as knowledge of the act of writing increases. The choices a writer decides upon can only come with prewriting, writing, and revision and the over-lapping of the three.