[Teaching_Composition] RE: Critical Pedagogy and Politics ... and Empowerment

[Kathy Fitch]

Laura,

Many years ago, I read an essay in TETYC that really influenced me, and that
I know you would find very interesting, given your reading and research on
power and choice.  Now's the part where you'll hate me--I can't for the life
of me recall the title or author, and haven't located what I'm after in
CompPile.  However, I can give an overview.  It was actually a brief
article, a "practice focused" type of deal.  The author outlined an approach
to teaching researched writing that had her students (I'm pretty sure I do
recall the author was a her!) selecting legal or ethical issues to write
about.  The issue was up to them.  She used a kind of guided
outline/brainstorming apparatus to help students narrow and focus their
topics, and asked them, along the way, to do some original research
(interviews, observations, surveys, etc.), and some creative projects
centered on the topic (poetry, painting, literature or film tie ins, short
story writing).  Her process also included other things, like class
presentations, and even inclusion of some graphic devices in the final
essay.  It was, I recall, fairly comprehensive. I adopted and adapted the
model so many times that I'm not exactly sure where the original article
leaves off and my spins on it take over, but, in various guises, it's been a
successful approach to the researched essay over the years for many
students.  At the time I kind of glommed onto this thing, many of my
colleagues were using novels in our research writing course, so part of the
appeal here for me was the emphasis on both choice (student defines the
topic, with--insert power here--teacher guidance) and language as a way to
explore, shape, and express our evolving views.  Great breadth of topics
students generated, too--I never felt as though I were reading the same
thing again and again--plus, I usually wrote one, too, so I could model one
person's approach toward picking a topic, digging into it, and shaping a
response.

Totally agree with you about the unavoidable handful of non-negotiables:  no
plagiarizing, no cheating, etc.  (And not only these iron-clad rules, but
also the interesting and complicated discussion that swirl around them,
variously bending and quenching the iron:  intentions, exceptions, cultural
differences, etc.) The cool thing is that when students are writing about
things they really have an interest in, these issues hit much closer to
home.  Once a person feels some ownership of his or her writing (*my* hard
won essay that I feel some--who knew?--real affection for) the idea that
others want their writing and their original ideas treated respectfully
begins to make a whole lot more sense.  

So . . .maybe the title will come to me in a dream.  Meanwhile, I'll search
my shelves to see if I've saved that.

Kathy