Response to Fulkerson, Hairston, and other thoughts too.

The readings this week seem to hark on most of what we’ve been discussing so far, in that the current model of teaching composition isn’t working, and hasn’t been working for some time. I have no complaints with both arguments, especially with Fulkerson’s main argument of teaching A,B,C and grading X,Y,Z is complete nonsense and shouldn’t be happening inside of the composition classroom. I completely agree with the notion that teachers should be reflective of their teaching so that they understand what they’re teaching and why. Also, Hairston’s article was very interesting in understanding the current composition paradigm is product focused and lacks focus on the process of writing. The exercise we did in class really made me reflect on my own writing process and how I come to achieve the end product. I hadn’t considered how I write in depth before class on Thursday and what I discovered was that most of my writing process focuses on the brainstorming part. I like to think a lot about what I write before I actually start writing, and even during the writing part I often stop and think about what I’ve written. I’m honestly glad we did the exercise in class, because not only does it reconfirm Hairston’s notion that teachers of writing should be people who write and are reflective of how they write, but also because it was helpful in reflecting on how I write as well.

It’s sad however, that we didn’t experience the paradigm shift that Hairston was calling for and was expecting to come, because I feel that it would’ve improved composition courses on a massive scale. I think a big problem that we need to overcome, and one of the problems Kemp mentioned, is that what is being discussed at the composition conferences and the theories that are being created are not trickling down into the classrooms since most of the composition teachers don’t read the research that is being produced. It’s understandable that they don’t read the research since they’re constantly weighed down with the amount of sections they’re teaching. On a whole, the composition course is riddled with problems and I’m glad we’re bringing those problems to light in class, but it also intimidates the hell out of me because I’m not sure I’ll be able to change or even fix any of those problems when I teach the course. I guess we’ll see when the time comes for that, but for now I’ll just relax and reflect on my own writing and grading because as they say, change comes one course at a time.