After reading the Donald M. Murry article, “Teaching Writing
as a Process Not a Product” I am left with many questions. Well, many questions about a specific scenario
I encountered several times last semester in English 99. Murray wants us to “shut up” as instructors and
truly listen to the student’s voice, and then respond. I had and English 99 student that was
struggling the entire semester. English is her third language and she came to
my office hours religiously. She needed
way more help than I could provide as an SI with 20 other students. From the first day to the last day of the semester
her writing skills nearly doubled, however, they were still below the
expectations of the university. This resulted
in her failing the class. My question to
this per the Murray reading is, how can we as instructors keep a student from
giving up when they are improving so much, but still fall below what is
expected for freshman composition? She improved so much, but it was still not enough
for the university standard, what should an instructor do in this situation as
far as keeping the student from giving up entirely? What are some techniques we
can use to show the student how much they have improved, and how much more they
still need to without making them feel like failures?
This is a tough one, and I have found myself in the same situation. Honestly, the best I could do was continuously encouraging my student to do her best and to take the class as an opportunity to learn. Even if she didn't pass, she would gain valuable experience that would definitely help her grow as a writer.
ReplyDeleteThis might be a little dated, but Carol Dweck's concept of mindsets comes to mind as well. She argues that we should encourage students to adopt a growth mindset which allows them to embrace challenges and look at failures as opportunities to learn (I apologize, this might be an overly simplistic version of what she writes). But really, constant encouragement to embrace the fact that there is always something to learn.