The CWPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition guidelines put first year composition professor in quiet the predicament. As I was reading all of the learning outcomes I thought them all equally important; No outcome outweighed the other, and many of them related to some of the threshold concept we spoke about in Previous weeks. For example, in the processing section it mentions as goal that “By the end of first-year composition, students should, Develop a writing project through multiple drafts, Develop flexible strategies for reading, drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, rereading, and editing”. After reading Nancy Sommers article, revision strategies of student writers and experience adult writers last week Its clear how the outcome of poor and good revision is and how crucial it is for students to understand proper revision skills.
As I kept reading the learning outcomes, I kept thinking to myself how is a first year composition professor suppose to teach all of these values in a single course? In a single semester? I keep recalling taking ENG 1030 here at Kean University back in fall 2014 [9 years ago! That makes me feel old] and makes me appreciate what I was taught regardless of the depth we delved into. I did not think of the burden First year Composition professor had, to prepare student from all major to apply these concept. It’s not wonder why I did not break away from the old concept of genre, where would my composition professor fit that in her lesson? In between the rhetoric lesson? As a footnote? In between grading all the essays for her multiple composition classes?
In my opinion to create well rounded student writers, first year composition classes should be extended into other fields. Have departments create their own writing composition classes and apply these values to their fields.
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