The article “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning ‘First Year Composition’ as ‘Introduction to Writing Studies’” by Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle criticizes the traditional approach to teaching first year writing composition courses They stress that these courses need to be centered around teaching the writing studies as a discipline and not just teaching general writing skills. They suggest the approach, Writing about Writing, where students focus more on critical reflection of the writing process. This will improve the understanding of writing and also just increases the discipline in itself.
Wardle`s second piece, “Intractable Writing Programs Problem , Kairos and the Writing about Writing: A Profile of the University of Central Florida`s First -Year Composition Program” examines the challenges of first year college composition programs and more specifically, how Central Florida addressed these concerns. Wardles stresses the Writing about Writing approach. The issues with these courses are them being taught by underpaid, part-time instructors, there’s a lack of writing research and the lack of funding. UFC attempts to combat these problems by, again implementing the WAW curriculum, having more support for funding, hiring professors that are skilled in composition research and lastly, the idea of having portfolio assessments.
I appreciate how these pieces specify that this is for college students. Oftentimes I feel like we read and are introduced to concepts that are great, in my opinion, but might be a little over the head of the age group I teach just because they are so young and missing a lot of those fundamentals. For first year college students I see this as appropriate, but also a needed challenge for incoming students. They are going to be used to writing in a K-12 way and learning about writing in a disciplinary sense will probably be shocking. BUT being able to break that barrier and level of thinking earlier will only benefit the students as they move through their college careers. I also think that the suggestions Wardle has are effective, especially having portfolio styled assessment. I think of that as the best way to show student progress and development, which is really what learning is about.
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