Blog 9: My Experience in Pollett's English 2010

When I enrolled here at Weber State, My ACT score was high enough that I did not have to take English 1010, and although I had taken an AP English Literature class during my senior year of high school, apparently that counted as credit toward ENGL2200 ‘Intro to Literature’, but did not count for ENGL2010. Overall, I had a very good experience in my English 2010 class. I remember the first day of class, all of us were sitting there waiting for the professor to show up. We were getting fidgety and wondering if he was coming at all, when one of the “students” sitting in the back row jumped out of his seat with a loud whoop, walked to the front of the class and introduced himself as Professor Pollett. He always made the class interesting, so I really enjoyed it. It was not a hard class for me. I was (and still am) a complete bookworm. Having been such an avid reader as a kid, writing just seemed to come naturally to me, maybe because I had picked up patterns of different writing styles during my literary adventures. Pollett had us do a few essays every week, in addition to two large research papers during the semester. I have always had an intense fear of public speaking, so you could say I was less than pleased when Professor Pollett told us we would each be doing two fifteen minute presentations based on our research papers. I think the fear led me to prepare more than I had for past presentations. I kept practicing breath control, watching my vocal speed, and rehearsing the presentation a couple of times in front of an imaginary audience. My first research presentation was on the architecture of Gothic cathedrals, and I was surprised at how well it was received by the other students in class. They  expressed that they never knew so much went into building a cathedral and that I didn’t seem nervous at all. Thinking back, to my own ears I remember sounding almost like an architecture professor. I was pretty proud of myself for somehow acting so calm even with my heart hammering in my chest all the while. It was probably during this class when I finally mastered MLA research citations, but in general, I would not say that the class helped me become that much better of a writer. But more importantly, it vastly helped me to increase my confidence as a speaker.

Blog 8: Grammar Superstitions

The only grammar superstition I remember learning was the one where the writer is supposed to put a comma anywhere there is a natural pause. I remember very little of my actual grammar education, which may be due to the fact that I was still in elementary school. I remember a couple of the cute Schoolhouse Rock videos on grammar, like “Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function” and “A Noun is a Person, Place, or Thing”, but that is about it. In Junior High and High School, it seemed like we never went over grammar formally. The teachers threw out tips and advice now and then, but I can’t recall I time when there was a grammar-only section in their curriculum.  More than anything else, in high school you were basically expected to know how to write well already. I was always pretty good at writing and I always received excellent grades in my English classes, so learning the nitty-gritty technical grammar rules was never a huge priority for me. I’m glad that I’m learning more of the specifics now because it makes me feel more secure as a writer and especially as a tutor.

Skipping ahead.

My Junior year in high school I took AP English which fulfilled my English 1010 credit. My freshman year of college I jumped right into English 2010, thinking that I would be in over my head. Fortunately, I had a really great teacher, Jefferey Butler, who worked with each student individually. The class only had about 15 students, which created a really welcoming environment. For whatever reason, I do not remember much about this class, aside from reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I remember being inspired by this book, and I did well on all assignments regarding it. Perhaps I do not remember anything else from the course, because I was doing well, and knew that I would continue to do well, that I did not pay attention to the concepts. It could also be due to the fact that I had not taken a developmental course, and the 2010 course expounded upon the principles introduced in English 1010.

Either way, I did not learn any finite and defined grammar rules. Presumably, I should have learned about grammar in my AP English class, but perhaps I faced the same conundrum; that my teacher assumed we were upper-division students and should know the rules already. Again, in this class we also focused heavily on literature and responding to it. Until I received a job as a writing tutor, I was blissfully unaware of my lack of grammar knowledge. I used to be able to read something and recognize an error, and have had difficulties explaining to my tutees why something is wrong. I am glad that I received this job, because it is making me critically think about all aspects of language, which will help me in my future career as an English teacher.

Blog 8: On Becoming My Own Grammar Police
Shelley Williams

I had cursory knowledge of diagramming sentences, and for someone that is a visual learner, this tool should have been useful for learning and understanding grammar, but it was only partially useful, and I'm not sure why so, but I suspect I'll have a theory before I end this blog. Even taking a grammar course in college did not land me high marks because, for me, learning to identify something visually that includes both the words and a different visual composition of them than how I am used to seeing them, meant ultimately learning a new kind of language, not being given the right tool for me to better understand the language that was already before me.

So, ultimately, I learned all the rules of grammar that students don't get in public schools or at least only marginally so if at all. However, while I am grateful for that, understanding why I was using them or what grammar and punctuation did for me was more meaningful to me, and I was never directly nor indirectly taught that. It was just something I had to pick up on my own--i.e., that in order for me to digest new material or a new way of looking at old material, the new material had to have intrinsic value of itself or add to my current understanding of old or already-gained material. I already had an intuitive sense of grammar, something I think most writing tutors share. But to explain it to others or oneself even, aye, there's the rub.

These days, I approach grammar as a tool and tell students that, especially when introducing new punctuation to express the voice or tone they may have already achieved. I find it works well because it reinforces the fact that I think (and believe) that new writers have something to say and want them simply to understand how they can express themselves for best effect. I do this by telling them what the punctuation marks do and how some are interchangeable and the nuances attached to their fine-tuning choices. I portray grammar as their tool to use as they see fit, to best help the reader understand what is really on their writer minds. I may be more seasoned as a writer and experientially, but inevitably, I learn from the students, including and especially, by pleasant surprise, how to make punctuation meaningful because as it offers writers the capacity to be understood as they wish to be understood.

Blog 9: On the Cusp (Discuss a past 1010 or 2010 course)
Shelley Williams/Engl 3840

Though I liked to write and did pretty well in high school on papers that I had to produce, but I was not good at writing under pressure or planning out what to say and so I did not pass the AP tests and ended up taking both 2010 and before that, what was I suppose the equivalent of 1010. It was actually a series I took in the summer at Weber State and it was then called English 101, 102, and 103.  Though I cannot remember far back enough as to how or why that series of courses were segregated in terms of developing skills, what I do remember is that the topics I was asked to write about were actually quite abstract and sophisticated for introductory English courses.  The topics I remember were writing on love, and other emotions. I suppose the idea behind this was not having to incorporate outside sources but just to speak from my own experience/opinion/feelings, which, frankly, is a lot to trust to a freshman.  But in personal narratives that became popular soon after, the idea is to bridge from the known and give students the feeling they have some valuable experience and something to say, even if they are young writers.

 I also took 2010 or the equivalent, which was considered business/technical writing, or maybe that was the alternative to the usual 2010. All I remember is we had to write a couple main assignments, one of which was supposed to be generated from our actual major. That concept was a great one as it made my research very applied. That being said, neither the 1010 series nor the 2010 course felt like it was sufficient to prepare me for graduate school writing because I remember one of my first assignments in research writing garnered me a low “B,” and I was confused.  I spoke to the instructor and to sum up, I felt the kindly-delivered message was that I really wasn’t writing at graduate level.  I took the message to heart but also to task and worked to improve. 

Though this is not as detailed as I would have liked, I simply cannot remember that far back.  I could safely say, however, that my English experience was still very “old school” meaning that simple practice was supposed to make perfect, not burdened with bridging lack of grammar understanding nor complete with the understanding of rhetorical tools the way English 1010 often incorporates now. I didn’t learn any of those until I was required to teach them to students as a teaching assistant in grad school.  While I wish it had not taken me that long to accumulate such skills necessary to be truly conversant in needed composition skills and academic discourse, I cannot complain because my journey was my journey and made me appreciate finally having said tools in my arsenal--I may not have appreciated, understood, nor been able to explain them as I can today had I obtained them earlier versus the hard way.

Why I hate online classes: 1010 retrospective

                My 1010 and 2010 experiences were a bit difficult, as I took them online. I had left the University of Wyoming about five years prior and wanted to get back to finish. At the time I was working full-time and saving money in hopes of returning to UW and wanted to get a head start. I knew that my grades were so-so from the first time around, so I decided to take some online classes to get myself back into the scholastic habit and get some good grades for reapplication. Although I got As in both classes, the online lessons did not really help me in any way.

                The usual format was doing some reading then writing a short response. The comments I got back were pedestrian at best and did not really help me develop as a writer. There were some larger assignments, which fell into the typical categories of “Personal Narrative”, “Argumentative”, and “Comparative.” I think the only paper I actually had to put effort into was the final for 2010, which was on Hamlet. I wrote about the motives for Hamlet’s inaction, which compared to the summaries that most of the class wrote (we did online peer editing) went above what was asked for in the assignment. I received generic praise from the teacher, so I felt I was doing pretty darn well.

                Cut to the next fall.

                I was writing my first big paper for an English class after becoming a full-time student again, thinking I had all this essay writing stuff figured out. It was a close reading on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 87, and I felt pretty pleased about it. I was aghast at the C- it earned, and all of the red marks crushed my spirits. The professor allowed rewrites so I took the notes and revised based on the thoughtful corrections that had broken my heart. Her biggest point was that I had only done half of the work and needed to ask “why is this important?” to have a good paper. That was the first time I’d had it phrased to me in that way. I pulled it up to a B+, and learned more about myself as a writer in those five pages than I had in the two semesters of 1010 and 2010.

                So do I think my 1010 and 2010 classes were a waste of time? Absolutely. Do I think that the classes in general are a waste of time? Not at all. I know that, when handled appropriately, the lower level English classes have value in training writers in how to engage in academic discourse. When the only criteria for an A are a functional grasp of grammar and an ability to fill the page requirement, the impact of the class is nearly zero.

 As to why the class was taught that way, I figure it had to do with the online format. Without meetings, it was hard to really discuss anything openly. We did online messaging sessions, which didn’t help my writing in the slightest. The grades I got helped me get back into school, but other than that had little impact on me as a student. As a teacher, however, I learned a lot about what not to do in a class. 

Gary Lindeburg

 

What Would Enlgish 2010 Be Like?

I took AP English in High school, so I haven’t had to take a composition class. I imagine that it must be somewhat frustrating though, whether you’re an advanced student or not.  The errors that I see everyday are basically exactly the same: the thesis isn’t clear, your commas are wrong, this paragraph shouldn’t be in the paper. The principles that help students avoid these kinds of problems are hammered into their brains from middle school on (in most cases). It would be frustrating to get back multiple papers, go and see tutors, and have peer reviews and receive the same feedback you’ve received for years.

On the other hand, perhaps the students really aren’t grasping the concepts. Perhaps they feel as if they are learning something for the first time each and every time they review it. I think that’s where we come into play. Many students, for whatever reason, struggle with writing. Often times they know what they want to say, but it’s not as easy for them as it is for their peers. Is it possible that they are making the same mistakes over and over because their learning style is not matching up with the way the professor teaches?

In college, professors have large classes, and they try teach in a general way so that many people can understand. Every now and then, however, there is a student who just doesn’t get it. It’s not because they’re stupid or because the professor is a bad teacher though; it’s because the student has a different learning style, and the professor can’t tailor their teaching to each and every student’s individual needs.

But we can. As tutors, we are here to help students break away from the group and classroom setting and receive some one on one help with English. That is why it is so important that we know grammar, that we know how to teach, and that we know different learning styles.  We are the last chance some of these students may have to develop writing skills they can use for the rest of their time at the university, if not the rest of their lives. Some of these students have all but given up, and the writing center is the last thing standing between them and a minimum wage career. We can reach out to these students in a very personal way, and address concerns on a one on one basis.

Although I have never been in a 2010 composition class, I have been in classes that have frustrated me. I have been in classes where I just don’t understand the professor’s teaching style – classes where I needed a little extra help. Although I have never been in a 2010 composition class, I have felt the despair, the frustration, the desire to give up. Those are the feelings we are called to dispel. Those are the thoughts we can get rid of in the student’s minds by helping them understand something the classroom has not been able to teach them:  the joy of expressing themselves clearly through written language. 

- Sam Bartholomew

Composition Courses - Blog 9

When I took English 1010 and 2010, they were really great classes. The professors set up the course, so it would be mostly discussion as they introduced concepts to us gradually. We had a few essays to write in each class, and the assignments seemed to build off each other.

In ENGL 1010, I had Mrs. E. She was absolutely amazing. It was the literally the first course I took when I enrolled in Weber. Because I took the course over the summer, and it was a three-hour class, she made the atmosphere very relaxed for us. She normally opened the class with an interesting story about her family, or she would let us share something fun about ourselves that happened. Then, we would have a discussion about whatever was on the syllabus for that day, how to better our grammar based on the papers we turned in, or any questions or concerns we had. After that, we wrote in our journal to answer questions based on what we just discussed, or we could chose to meditate on the discussion and write in it later. We wrote about five short papers (no more than five pages), if I remember correctly. They were probably comparison and contrast, persuasive, and analysis essays. I, of course, did my final paper on nutrition with an emphasis on pregnant women. This course was probably taught the way it was to prepare us for taking 2010.

Then, I had Professor S for ENGL 2010. I remember, at times, I wanted to drop his class because the first thing he told us was we only had to write a ten page midterm paper and a twenty page final paper for the course. I was absolutely mortified at first, but I am glad I stuck with it. We wrote a two to three page paper a week on the readings in our anthology. I think this was the only class that I actually did the readings and annotations for in my entire life because he had no problems calling us out and making us feel stupid when we could not answer his questions. Anyway, the papers we wrote were short commentary essays and two research papers. I did my research on the broader implications of tattoos and their relevancy today compared to before the twentieth and twenty-first century. Needless to say, any class after that one has been a breeze for me.

As a student and an educator, I appreciate the way these were taught. The courses seemed to build upon each other but not in an obvious way.  Having discussions about required readings and being exposed to different types of essays seemed to improve the way we learned as students in the class. It also taught me that I should discuss the books I read to my own students and expose them to different types of writing, so they can become versatile. These courses were taught this way to help us think more outside the box and to deter us from being lazy and unprepared for class.

Lazy Grammar (Blog 8)

What grammar rules were you taught?

            During primary and secondary school, I assume that I was taught a plethora of incorrect grammar rules, but I can’t seem to remember many of them. I believe that these grammar rules result from lazy teaching and learning attitudes. Two rules really pop out in my head; the rule that commas belong wherever a “natural pause” occurs and the rule that you should never change tense are both rules I was told on multiple occasions. The two rules both seem to result from a worry that students will either not use commas or change tense too often. I can understand the worry as I’ve seen the students who do not use commas and misplace commas as well as students who change tenses too often.

The rule that a comma should be placed wherever there is a “natural pause” seems to have some origin in the actual grammatical rules of introductory clauses and tag phrases. In both of these cases, there seems to be some natural pause before leading into the next respective clause or following into the tag phrase. However, as a general rule, it’s a horrible way to teach someone to use commas. And perhaps for a well-read and well-versed scholar, they do indeed pause at commas and in their writing place commas where they pause, but the reasoning for this is completely circular. It is important that students and educators alike learn and teach the proper grammar rules, if for no other reason than to simplify the problem to simplistic sets of rules and allow students to stop guessing and justifying an unreasonable method of writing.

I was also taught that it is never appropriate to switch tense in any form of writing. While this might be a well-intended rule set in order to prevent the constant changing of tense during a piece of writing, it disallows a certain stylistic freedom that is often necessary for a writer to keep their voice consistent and properly portray ideas. It would be better to teach the students why it is important to stay consistent and when it is appropriate to change tense and when it may be necessary. This gives the student the room to work with rather than chain them down to avoid error.

            However, I think the teaching of incorrect grammar rules, as some sort of behavior corrective, is the result of laziness. Either teachers do not care enough to properly research their own subject material, or the teachers were misinformed and are generally ignorant of the rules. However, this must result from laziness in the system of education. If a math teacher were to teach students the incorrect rules for quadratic equations, it would be utterly detrimental for the student’s later success. The partiality or incorrectness on the teacher’s part would be unacceptable. In the same way, English must be taught properly in order to clear up these misunderstandings. It is important for teachers to be corrected, for teachers to study their discipline with rigor and understand what they are teaching their children. These responsibilities fall upon the teacher and the administrators.

            Furthermore, in high school settings, it shows laziness on the side of the students for not correcting a teacher’s. It is a case that illustrates the Freirean false dichotomies supposed by the Banking Concept of Education: the students know nothing and the teachers are infallible. It is important for the high school students, for people in general, to take hold of their own education and reject the authority of the teacher in place of a teacher-student/student-teacher shared role.

CLU's English 111 (Blog 9)

I did not attend Weber State for my undergrad but my institution, California Lutheran University, had an equivalent to 2010 known as English 111. Weber's 1010 was known as English 101. Based on the placement tests, most students were put into English 111 - only those who scored very poorly were allocated to 101.

The structure of English 111 class was consistent but the topics/books covered depended entirely on the professor you got. The course was a called "Critical Reading and Writing" and each class centered around texts of the professor's choosing. My professor had chosen the theme "The Hero's Journey" and we read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, and Black Boy by Richard Wright. Subsequently, we were given a series of prompts for each text and would write a literature paper based on the prompt of our choosing. Then, we wrote an in class final essay that incorporated all 4 books in some significant way. So, 5 essays total.

The day-to-day experience in the classroom was very predictable. My class started at 8am so many students showed up late and did not contribute to discussion. However, the class period was always the same. We should show up, the teacher would take role, we would discuss what happened in that day's assigned readings, and he would discuss with us the significance of events in the chapter(s) assigned. When we had an essay coming up, he would ask us what kinds of questions we had pertaining to essay structure. Occasionally, this would segue the day's discussion towards composition. I think the assumption was that students placed in English 111 grasped basic essay structure so little time was spent going over composition itself.

Personally, I found the course rewarding but I know several of my peers did not. I believe that the structure of English 111 is geared towards students who already have an affinity for writing. However, if a student still needs help in basic composition, they will lack the instruction necessary to do well in the upper division English course required for graduation.

I believe the course was taught this way to give students an introduction to what it means to write about novels at the college level. I overheard many students discussing how difficult they felt the course was and struggled with critical close readings of popular literature. While I recognize the flawed system of assuming students understand composition, I had a positive experience in the class and got to engage with literature that I likely would not have read on my own.

Joke Class

Hello Blog!

 

This week I get to talk about my English 2010 class. Thankfully, I got to skip over English 1010 because of my ACT score. My English 2010 class felt like a joke class most days. I made it to every class, but I really did not feel like I needed to be there most of the time. It was extremely easy and we only had to write about five papers for the entire semester.

 

I thought my English 2010 class was going to be a plethora of papers or at least a lot of busy work, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had few papers to write and the busy work was done in class. We had to write a one page journal entry every day based on a topic that the professor gave us. That was the busy work part. The other writing assignments we did were papers. A few of the papers we wrote were a one to two page “logos, ethos, and pathos” paper, a two to three page restaurant review, and a three to four page literary analysis. For our final, we had to write a ten page paper on a career that we were interested in going into along with an annotated bibliography. After our paper was written, we gave a presentation about our chosen career in class.

 

The day to day classroom experience was, like I mentioned earlier, a joke. Our class had a bunch of people that liked to goof off. Our professor made the class feel like we were back in Kindergarten. She was really young and the students in the class gave her a hard time. Sometimes class lessons were based on the “They Say, I Say, with Readings,” but sometimes class periods were based on looking at magazines or watching Youtube videos. It bothered me that much of the class used examples from pop culture. I think this was done to keep the students interested in English, but, in my opinion, the use of pop culture brought down the “academic feel” of the class.

 

I do not know the actual reason that the class was taught the way it was, but my guess is that the overall goal of the class was to get the students interested in English and see how it is used in the world today. Much of the class was to look at our major and introspect about how English might be important when we enter the world after college. Reading, writing, and speaking skills are necessary points to most, if not all, possible careers. Much of the class also gave examples of how English is used in pop culture, which I think was used to keep students coming to the class rather than skipping. If this was the intention, it worked very well. Students did not miss class very often.

 

My English 2010 class was easy and fun, but I do not think I got very much out of it. I do not think that the class made my English or writing any better. I do not remember much of the material, but what I do remember of it did not impress me. From what I understood, the intention of the class was to improve writing and help us see the relevance of writing in our careers. Some aspects of the class were helpful, but most of it felt like a waste of time.