tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post9127798605741567240..comments2023-06-11T02:19:27.429-07:00Comments on Academic Cog: In Which I Grumble About Comp AnthologiesSisyphushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-78812456530801723402010-08-22T07:12:24.531-07:002010-08-22T07:12:24.531-07:00Dr. S, you will, I'm sure, do what you think i...Dr. S, you will, I'm sure, do what you think is best and best suits your strengths as a teacher. I can't help but respond to Dr. Koshary's reading of my comment. To understand where students are at any given moment in their lives is different than refusing to challenge them intellectually. At our best, I think we can do both at the same time, in whatever ways serve the needs of our students. Good pedagogy can lead students to develop incredibly complex readings of the most simple sources, and likewise, students can achieve incredibly shallow readings of the most complex primary sources. Undoubtedly, it's important to introduce students to readings that we deem "college level," and it's a useful experience to have to work your ass off to understand something. But it's not the sole measure of critical thinking or challenge that you set up for your students in class.kfluffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09067013188119828400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-70225065394113739372010-08-22T07:08:26.193-07:002010-08-22T07:08:26.193-07:00Grumpiness is one way I process change, especially...<i>Grumpiness is one way I process change, especially change I'm ambivalent about; fuck off with that "power of positive thinking" horseshit.</i><br /><br />This may be the best sentence ever; no wonder you are a fan of House. (speaking of, I'm watching yet another House marathon and may have a post about why this is the new incarnation of the X Files.)<br /><br />The rest of you-all's comments will get a whole post in response as I have much more I can say about this. Or complain about this, let's be honest.Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-86960905264025547732010-08-22T06:24:34.505-07:002010-08-22T06:24:34.505-07:00I doubt there's a single department that teach...I doubt there's a single department that teaches comp that doesn't have conflicts over what and how to teach.<br /><br />Mine, too. I was able to never adopt an anthology, but just pick up some readings that apply. But I have used a comp text (until I got pissed off at the other comp people for wanting to change it every three years because they are BORED, so I stopped...)<br /><br />Fight the good fight, Sisyphus!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-376932478250953302010-08-21T18:28:18.006-07:002010-08-21T18:28:18.006-07:00Hm, I'm somewhat limited in the advice I can g...Hm, I'm somewhat limited in the advice I can give, since I don't teach literature. However, as kfluff noted, anthologies generally suck ass. So far, I have avoided using publisher-generated anthologies in my own classes, but only because I spent a lot of time selecting primary-source readings for virtually every topic. No doubt this will be less troublesome once my intro prep is a done deal, and I can just call it up at will, but during the time that I'm still experimenting with readings, it's a pain in the ass.<br /><br />I tend to take the opposite approach to kfluff's, although the whole "be kind to every living thing in class" mantra makes more sense to me now than it did before I taught. Maybe I just need to get over my desire to thresh the studenty wheat from the slackerly chaff, but I tend to build syllabi that fling my students full-bore into primary-source readings, some of which are fun and easy, and some of which are brutally hard for frosh. They will learn various lessons from each kind of reading.<br /><br />My difference of opinion with kfluff is not so much not wanting to be kind -- for heaven's sake, I'm the final word on all grades, so I'm not about to assign lengthy essay papers! -- but in the understanding of first-year students as disoriented and adrift on a sea of life changes. They can get over that shit. I was a dumbass college frosh once, too, and no professor ever patted me on the head and let me get away with shallow reading or thinking on the principle that I was eating crappy dining hall food and dealing with my filthy, pot-addled roommate with the personal space/property issues while I got unexpectedly shitfaced at dorm parties. That is college. So many universities seem to have accepted the idea that incoming frosh are actually not ready for 'real' college, and accordingly give them softball remedial courses dressed up as intros. I consider this a criminal disservice to the students, whether they're academic high achievers or not, and I cannot bring myself to do anything that smacks to me of watering down coursework as compensation for collegiate emotional turmoil.<br /><br />Point being: I still prefer to hit them with lots of primary sources, albeit in bite-sized doses. Four lousy pages of Marx is not going to destroy anyone's psyche.Dr. Kosharyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07777054788430587906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-49771646466956070942010-08-21T12:05:34.919-07:002010-08-21T12:05:34.919-07:00I'll see your hatred of comp anthologies, and ...I'll see your hatred of comp anthologies, and raise you a hatred of all anthologies in general (with a exception for one or two excellent theory collections). They never have everything you want, they always have a bunch of crap you don't want, and they're expensive as hell. <br /><br />I am with Anniem, however, on the kinds of essays I like them to use for their researched essays. Academic articles are so alien to incoming students that I think it confuses matters. If my students could get through the intro to Convergence Culture and understand the audience---yahtzee! <br /><br />Perhaps it's just the body of students that Askesis has, but my continued comp pedagogical mantra was: "be kind to them, be kind to yourself." They're dealing with being away from home for the first time, an unknown roommate, new food, new friends, new everything, and on top of it all, a totally new way of thinking, reading and writing. I assume that I'm 49th on their own personal Maslow's hierarchy. If you set them up with a workable process for generating, organizing, and revising an essay, by the end of the semester, you've succeeded.kfluffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09067013188119828400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-3787199857571897822010-08-21T05:03:33.258-07:002010-08-21T05:03:33.258-07:00Heu, I'm so interested to hear how this way of...Heu, I'm so interested to hear how this way of comp works! Since I'm "in charge" of the writing program now and all grievances about students' inabilities to write are going to be thrust my way, I'm very interested in this thing Field is doing. <br /><br />Sisyphus, Right on. You totally hit the nail on the head. Honestly, since I suck royally at teaching comp (which is why they have me running the writing program???), I never really thought long enough about what you articulate as being part of the problem. Sure, I know a lot of my suckitude has to do with my teaching, BUT, you totally hit the nail on the head with the things that frustrate me, thus adding to my problems in the classroom. I mean, I have lots of others things to work on, however, you totally hit a key component here. <br /><br />And while this suggestion will probably hit more along the decorating lines, you should edit your own anthology for comp. I'd adopt it for our program. :)Maudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11918488082176862598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-23159667206876129712010-08-20T19:06:59.813-07:002010-08-20T19:06:59.813-07:00Although I think that you and I have different pre...Although I think that you and I have different preferred approaches to teaching comp (we switched to a more skills-based method last year and I am SO much happier), I absolutely entirely agree with all of your complaints, above. You are Right, my dear.<br /><br />What I hope will help at Field is that we've switched from two semesters in the first year to Comp 1 in the first year and Comp 2 when they're juniors. Comp 1 is much more about the basics: reading comprehension, summarizing, citing, quoting, finding research, etc. etc. (and this year *I* am coming up with the options for their research papers. There will be NO papers about steroids! Not one!!). The junior-year course will ask them to write an advanced research paper in their disciplines, and will concentrate more on thesis, argument, etc. We cover the latter in 1, of course, but they really need those basic skills first, and it is our collective experience that freshmen don't seem to absorb the more advanced principles very well--and if they do, then most of them forget them by graduation because they don't need to write very much in their other courses. (Our new WAC program might help; we're hoping.) Anyway, what this means is that the fluffy articles from the reader (I use Graff) work all right, because the content is so secondary.<br /><br />But I get your irritations--they are ones that I have long shared (where "long" = "for the three years that I've had this job")!heu mihihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08529298049179816825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-81195404917562770882010-08-20T14:50:22.111-07:002010-08-20T14:50:22.111-07:00I had to go back and read the earlier posts to rem...I had to go back and read the earlier posts to remember what you were talking about, but yeah: being told I shouldn't be grumpy in your situation would piss me off, too. Grumpiness is one way I process change, especially change I'm ambivalent about; fuck off with that "power of positive thinking" horseshit.<br /><br />I have no real wisdom for you on the textbook front. I think the real root of the problem is that most composition textbook authors (most composition specialists?) have a very low estimation of what American college freshmen are capable of understanding and accomplishing. Whereas I've always found that if you set the bar high, most of the students will work hard to meet your expectations, and the ones that don't would have failed even if you had dumbed down the material for them to such an extent that everyone in the class was bored.Shane in SLChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09009969830290878311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-73759914447902148562010-08-20T14:47:52.775-07:002010-08-20T14:47:52.775-07:00From another perch, we're trying to figure out...From another perch, we're trying to figure out how to give our students in lower division classes key skills of reading and writing in history. The reality is that there are probably NO scholarly articles that I would assign to first year students. Even in upper division courses, there is so much argument that a scholarly essay takes for granted that it's really hard for students to locate it. There are short monographs that I use, though.<br /><br />And having chosen the reader that I thought was the best compromise, I'm still frustrated as all get out by it!Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716705206734059708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7366909960546184927.post-78631517437942809922010-08-20T12:24:27.681-07:002010-08-20T12:24:27.681-07:00I very much enjoyed "listening" to your ...I very much enjoyed "listening" to your thinking process here, perhaps because I have been singing this song for decades.<br /><br />Lucky for me we do not have a required composition anthology, so I get to pick my readings (using a textbook that provides typical writing instruction content, only). So I'm very sorry you are stuck with what sounds like the usual thematic mish mash that is the standard comp reader/anthology these days.<br /><br />I have also struggled with the whole "reading and writing in the disciplines" goal. Last year, I begged colleagues in various fields (anthro, psych, bio, chem, history) to send me 1-2 scholarly articles that they generally assign as reading for their intro courses. Some were fabulous,and I used them to introduce critical reading, summarizing, paraphrasing, using sources, etc. <br /> <br />However, most were horribly written, jargon-filled, convoluted overviews of a topic rather than a reasoned academic arguments, and thus not readily useful in terms of texts for writing assignments. Only useful as models of bad writing.<br /><br />So I'm back to using articles from The Atlantic, or from other high brow (and decidedly liberal) magazines as at least starting off points for students' own researched essays. And as you point out, these are still challenging to read for many students, but yes, they do not model academic research writing---for that, I use sample essays from previous students.<br /><br />Good luck this term, and I'd love to hear more of your thoughts!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com