To me, it seems like one of the biggest problems students are facing is a lack of confidence. Many students feel that they are under prepared for college and writing in college. They are terrified of writing so they often just write what they think and submit it. For many, the idea of editing simply does not exist. Their high schools do not often make them go back and look at their work. Many have said that the classes just have them submit the paper and then they are told their grades. They get away with writing it once, get a good grade and then move on to the next assignment. There is never any reworking of their assignments and that makes their work more inferior. this lack of practice also leads to a lack in confidence, especially when they begin to see their grades in English 1301 and other papers from other classes. There are a number of students who have already tentatively expressed less confidence in their writing despite having written over a dozen papers in high school. Maybe its fear or maybe its humility, either way, I think this lack of confidence is something we should work on.
In a way, I'm not sure there is necessarily a way to combat this other than teaching and practice. Confidence is a mental state so there most likely is not one singular lesson plans that can in fact teach confidence. Practice is the only thing that really comes to mind that would be able to help. The more they work on their papers and assignments throughout college the easier they will become and the more likely they will be to enjoy what they are doing. The easier and the more they enjoy their assignments, the more confidence they will have in their writing. Hopefully, this will come with the work they do in our 1301 classes. We, as graders and teachers of the classes, attempt to work with the students to build that confidence through our comments. I think the problem we run in to is that without having them look back over this work throughout the semester, most of their issues and insecurities will not be addressed on their own time. Few students that are not English majors will be willing to put in the effort to actually learn how to solve their writing problems in this class.
That being said, I also believe that we should be able to successfully instill that confidence into students. If we can do this with our students they will learn how to be more successful and believe in themselves. I think once they work hard on that one assignment and get the grade they want, they will begin to have the confidence to work harder. Our comments while grading and teaching students should be continuously supportive and rewarding and not degrading or mocking. Many of the mistakes these students are making have never been fixed before so they have no idea they are making the mistakes if we are not there to help them along. We are a shepherd of good grammar and they are our flock, we must lead them to the Promised Land. Onward ho, good scholars!
Good point about the role of confidence in the writing process--I always think that self-confidence (and stress!) is a subject that can be super applicable when we look at common pitfalls in student work (mainly procrastination). I like the connections you made to confidence and drafting too--sometimes I wonder if students are more hesitant to draft because they don't want to look at their work again--not because of apathy or laziness, but because of being uncomfortable with their product. A good perspective to keep in mind, for sure.
ReplyDeleteI like your philosophy at the end, I agree that it's important to offer positive feedback and to be more understanding with mechanical errors when we're teaching or grading. Def #TeamShepherd
Yeah, writing well does need to have confidence in check at all times, even the smallest bit of confidence. I understand from personal experience how stressed a student can get over writing even a 400-600 word essay, so a good writing teacher does need to encourage students to keep trying at writing compositions. No matter how down on themselves the students get, a teacher's ideal job is to at least get those students back on their feet. That's what separates the effective teachers from the poor or apathetic ones: empathy and support towards overworked students while still setting them straight in regard to their mistakes made during writing.
ReplyDeleteOh, and that closing remark about the shepherd of good faith sold the whole blog post. It was that funny and true.
Great point on the role of confidence in the writing process. I think is an issue that will continue to evolve as long as real constructive criticism is not occurring in the High School English classrooms. I am curious, I noticed Kevin commented about his understanding of the student, have you, Conner, ever felt self conscious about your writing? For me personally, the first paper of every semester is a moment of dread and the constantly lingering fear of failure. I also believe that confidence is hard to teach and believe that the more constructive criticism that students receive, where they realize that they are doing some things right, rather than the assumption of red ink only possesses a negative connotation. The student has to fee like they are making progress, and understand that that responsibility is largely their own. Question: how do we get students to read our commentary?
ReplyDeleteConnor, I agree with so much of what you've written here. Confidence is absolutely necessary and it's hard to teach. Practice and editing both play a role in increasing that confidence, and editing seems to me to be especially helpful, because a writer who feels confident that he or she can go back and edit will also often feel confident enough to turn off the inner critic as he or she composes a first draft. Above, Clint asks if others still suffer this lack of confidence, and I can answer that I absolutely do. But his point about how the student must feel as if her or she is making progress seems to be key. What good is practice without this progress? And how useful is this progress if it is imperceptible to the student? This seems to be an important consideration in grading and assessment (but we may not be able to perceive progress in an anonymous grading situation).
ReplyDeleteI know that when I was first starting out in college writing, I hated to go back and look and my papers. To some extent I still don't like to edit. Like many of our students, I lacked confidence in what I had written, and so I think that part of me was afraid go back and see the damage, as it were. I agree that, as confidence is a mental state, there is only so much we can do. However, as Nancy has said, I do think that their awareness of progress is key. If they feel they have the capacity to improve, then editing becomes less daunting because they know they will be able to do some good, rather than simply wasting their time looking back at an essay they weren't happy with in the first place.
ReplyDeleteConnor--A lot of good feedback in your comments. Please interact with your peers in your blog. Many people write about confidence building in writing as instrumental to teaching composition. You might look up "voice," for instance. I like to talk about writing with conviction, which is different than confidence but similar; that is, writing what you believe, which requires research and confidence, knowledge regarding audience so that you can write well stylistically, etc. Could your ideas about confidence make their way into a teaching philosophy statement?
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