Teacher Reflections and Teaching Rationale
Students in my English 300 and ESL 47 classes read, watch, and listen to different kinds of texts--Ted Talks, informational texts, essays by writing instructors, who discuss writing (written by teacher-scholars) --they read autobiographical essays, ethnography by social anthropologists, sometimes poems, too, by creative writers, and they also read texts written by social critics, too. It just depends on what we're working on, and who my audience is (my students) sometimes will determine what I incorporate to ensure my students feel like I am representing their identity and lived experiences in my class to enrich our collective learning experiences. Sometimes, I will ask students to share a text, poem, or music lyrics, and will discuss elements of the text to start a conversation about what is this piece of writing doing, what compelled the author to create this piece? What is the overall message here?
However, prior to students writing reflections about the texts they read, I prompt students to do the following for every reading or listening task, and sometimes we share these responses in canvas discussion, and sometimes during our think, write, share free writes at the beginning of class to jump start the topic of discussion. The goal is to get students to be curious and critical about the texts they read and consume, before they read deeply (hopefully) for their written, more controlled paragraph responses. For instance, I will prompt students like this:
Please share 1 quote that stood out to you and develop 1 question about the text or video. Explain why you chose the quote and explain the thinking behind your question.
This is my attempt at tapping into students' curiosity about the text and topic, and to get students to read, critically and more importantly to ask critical questions. Maybe there are some folks out there who are curious about how I instruct students to compose summary, analysis, and synthesis writing in controlled paragraph form, to get students to exercise their writing practices with clarity, to clearly convey to students what it means to summarize, analyze and synthesize the texts they read and consume; but first, let's be real.
Chat GPT will easily summarize a text for students, us writing instructors know this. I tell students I am very aware of this, and while I am aware of this, still I persist to instruct students to introduce the author, to describe how the author introduces the topic, and to discuss the significance of the author's overall message while directing your reader to a quote (hence maybe the quote they shared during class) that the student thinks illustrates the author's overall message. In other words, I am interested in the student getting their readers and audience to discuss a part of the text that I or their classmates might have overlooked.
Then, I prompt students to unpack (analyze) that quote in their own words, and then synthesize (make new meanings) with that quote, that they believe is illustrating the writer's overall purpose. And to explain to me and their readers, how they can use that writer's message (significant meaning) in their personal life or in the real world. Right? What is the point of engaging with a text, if we cannot use the texts' information in the real world, and apply it to our own life?
What about Adhering to Form, While Bending the Rules of Academic Writing?
Below, you will see how I attempted to instruct students to maintain form, while encouraging them to break form, too. Like incorporate some code switching for their first essay, like Gloria Anzaldua or Jamila Lyscott or fuse their essay with some poetry--I'll be frank, many students are hesitant because the traditional English forms taught from high school, like never use "I" or that scary English teacher who emphasizes grammatical correctness-- -are entrenched in their ways of doing writing, regardless, I persist to encourage students to break form, to demonstrate critical thinking in writing, to be creative and dare them to write, to be interesting, to articulate IDEAS --complex, daring, IDEAS.
Disclaimer: I do not believe this is the only way to engage students in critical reading and writing, this is my way. I am sharing my way with the hopes it improves how we engage students in reading, and writing, and teaching and learning effectiveness (this may look different for you) depending on your teaching philosophy about learning and depending on your personal views of what it means to be a critical thinker and writer in this 21st Century.