Wardle and Downs:
Within this article, Downs and Wardle highlight the misconceptions of writing, and to be honest, I never really thought of writing as “nonuniversal” for lack of a better term. They say that writing skills vary by context which now that I think about it I can see some different skills that you may see in a journal compared to a research article, but it opened my mind a little bit. These articles always make me think and then my brain bounces from thought to thought (which is a good thing). Anyway, I was so stuck on the idea that “writing skills” consisted of what makes a good composed writer (thinking back to my synthesis essay) and the skills that I need to create a synthesis paper are similar to writing skills that you would need to create a research paper. But, I think I am just looking at the writing process as a whole (revise, edit, etc) and not so much the writing skills themselves.
Thinking of this article and applying it to a teaching standpoint, the part that stuck out to me the most which I really agree with is modeling. It emphasizes modeling by introducing new writing conventions and working alongside the students before allowing them to do it on their own. This I fully support and this is something that I do in my classroom every day. Modeling is so important, especially in elementary classrooms. I can also see modeling (or what I think is modeling) in post-secondary education. Looking at writing classes specifically professors that provide examples/sample essays when giving a new assignment, I would take that as modeling because it gives you an idea of what to do in your own paper.
Wardle:
I really agreed with what Wardle was saying about the first-year composition classes at colleges/universities and how sometimes that information is not useful or not related to other writing courses. Like I mentioned in my previous blog, I barely remember taking that class my first year, so that just shows how it didn’t impact my college writing experience at all. I actually found this article to be really helpful too. I mean I know I am never teaching a first-year college comp class, but some ideas that were listed in the implementation part of it seem really helpful. Not only that, but it also made me think “Yeah I wish I knew more of that”. For example, reflecting on our writing and our writing process as a whole and trying new strategies to create newly developed essays. Another example includes discourses and genres. If I had learned about discourses and genres then I feel like I would not be as lost as I am in class when it comes to those. I know about them now thanks to Prof. Friend, but would I say I am confident in explaining things when it comes to these topics, not really.
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