A weakness I anticipate having as an instructor is coming up with writing assignments that are creative, entertaining, and will facilitate the most effective writing from my students. While I understand what we've talked about in class and what Lindemann says about ineffective prompts, I still don't feel comfortable with being able to create effective ones. With that in mind, I have to laugh a little thinking about some of the [awful] assignments I've received in the past, and helped other students get through.
One of the things Lindemann says about giving students options is that it "avoids obligating students to take a position that they may not in fact support" (218). This is a sentiment that I have heard elsewhere, but I think it neglects a part of the whole story. There have been plenty of situations where I have chosen to write from a position I did not agree with. At times the position you don't agree with is easier to write on. In some ways this isn't overly important, but I think it would be a good idea to let students know that if they're having difficulties writing about their personal position, at times it is easier to write on that opposite side. Food for thought.
I do like the Heuristic Lindemann gives at the end of chapter 13 to try and help create writing assignments. Again, it seems more effective for deciding if the writing assignment is a poor one, but I think it is still useful. At the very least, it provides a framework for putting assignments together.
For me, literacy, at least in part, involves gaining the confidence to b.s., to bend - not break! - the branch of Truth (if there is One), to fictionalize fact via the process of "in-voicing."
ReplyDeleteIn doing so I'm learning that I don't always have to write from a "personal position." I don't have to compose in the same voice. Realizing this is helping me gradually discover my own. And in discovering my own voice, I'm able to help others discover theirs.
Often when working one-on-one with students (as they generate vocab sentences, for example), I watch as they convey what can only be described as that deer-in-the-headlights kinda writer's block where, if they're not frozen with fear, their void (at least seemingly so) of any and all imagination.
That's when I sometimes suggest they just make something up! Some students are amazed at this discovery. That they can speak about themselves and their experiences in anyway they want. Wow. That it's their story to write even if it's only a sentence.
This discovery often frees them up, allowing the invention process to commence.