Applying Concept 3: "Writing Enacts & Creates Identities & Ideologies" To First Year Composition Classroom
My Past Experience With the Concepts:
I have always debated whether or not to allow students to talk about sensitive topics, like challenging the students thinking about the concept of identity, politics or different life matters. From my experience in Eng 605, the major two concepts that worked well for me to talk about sensitive topics in the classroom is Concept 1: writing as a rhetorical activity, and Concept 3: writing enacts and creates identities and ideologies.
In Eng 605, I applied this first threshold concept, which is writings as a social and rhetorical activity, to a lesson plan which I presented to my colleagues. I used the concept of the rhetorical situation and rhetorical triangle and planed to have the students apply it to two political speeches, one by Martin Luther King/ "I Have a Dream", and one by Malcom X's "The Ballot or the Bullet". As a starter for the activity, I looked at The major two components that this threshold concept emphasizes with regards to writing are that writers "are engaged in the work of making meaning for particular audiences and purposes, and writers are always connected to other people" (Roozen 18). In this threshold concept, writing as a social rhetorical activity is seen as troublesome because when one thinks of writing, they think that it is an activity that they do by themselves, alone with no one else sharing what they produce, however, writing can never be "anything but a social and rhetorical act, connecting us to other people across time and space in an attempt to respond adequately to the needs of an audience" (Roozen 19). I think the political speeches or even advertisements are good texts to use when it comes to talking about sensitive topics in the classroom.
One major article that affected the way I built my lesson plan and in class assignment about the rhetorical situation and rhetorical triangle is Rosa Eberly's article ""From Writers, Audiences, and Communities to Publics: Writing Classrooms as Protopublic Spaces." Considering writing as a rhetorical activity helps learners understand that there is a great need for an audience, helps the learner see what the audience knows or does not know, why some kinds of audience need specific information or not, and what the audience finds persuasive. Eberly reflects on a canonical rhetoric and composition essay by Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede, where they suggest that teachers tend to oversimplify the concept of audience. To remedy this oversimplification, Lunsford and Ede suggest that writing classrooms should be rhetorical spaces where teachers and students open up to the play and struggle of difference (Eberly 165). Teachers can only do that by participating in what Eberly calls "protopublic spaces" and not just communities in the classroom (166). Eberly suggests that teachers should move from the classroom at university as a space and consider the "different kinds of public realm in which our students and we read and write after we have left high school and college, after we have gone home for the evening or the morning--all the kind's of writing we might engage in for the duration of our lives" (165-66). When teachers make the classrooms as a protopublic space, they somehow "encourage students to see themselves as actors in different and overlapping publics" and it can also "help them realize the particular and situated nature of rhetoric and the need for effective writing to respond to particular needs of particular needs of particular publics at particular times" (Eberly 167). I think what Eberly is trying to emphasize is how real the classroom space should be, especially in relation to sensitive topics, because the classroom should be a mirror representation of reality on the outside, and teaching students to write about this reality is necessary if they want to be successful in life.
A Threshold Concept that I Am Interested in Applying in the Future:
I believe that all the threshold concepts are important for the first year composition classroom. However, one interesting concept that I would like to experiment with in the first year composition classroom is Concept 3: "Writing Enacts & Creates Identities & Ideologies." Tony Scott defines ideology as a "system of ideas and beliefs that together constitue a comprehensive world view" (48). Scott argues that writing is always ideological "because discourses and instances of language use do not exist independently from cultures and their ideologies" (48). I think the most important to sub concepts in the third concept is "Writing is Linked to Identity," and "Writing provides Representation of Ideologies and Identities". Writing here is seen as way to display ones identity and it is through writing that we "claim, challenge, perhaps even contest and resist, our alignment with the beliefs, interests, and values of the communities with which we engage" (51). Writing also entails using the many identities that we carry with us, whether it is to make a political stand or a conscious decision to chose an identity over the other, a term often referred to by Gyatri Spivak as "strategic essentialism," "a reduction of complex political and economic relations in order to present a political statement" (Villanueva 57). I like the idea that all writing is "inflected by power dynamics shaped by identities and ideologies" and that writers must be aware of "how those identities and ideologies are represented in their writing" (Villanueva 57).
How I Might Apply this Concept to the First Year Composition Classroom
I think this concept could be applied in a class that has a major theme concerned with identity and how to link the writers identity while doing research in the many disciplines. Other than that theme I think a teacher can use the theme of stereotypes and belonging as a major theme of the class, where the assignments will be tailored to allow the students to explore the different intersecting identities, and to become participants in the academic community. Fan Shen expresses offers her experience with the her "logical Chinese Identity," and "ideological identity" (459). Receiving advise from her composition teachers, Shen did not know how to "be herself," or to write straight forward topic sentence (463). In my opinion, composition teachers should be aware of all these different kinds of identities and not try to limit students writing to one identity, because the outcome will be an academic language which is alien to the student's true identity. An interesting in class activity to go with this concept is the identity chart, which I have witnessed one of my colleagues present in the ENG 605. I would like to borrow this activity for a first year composition classroom because it allows the students to see the different identities they straddle in the present time and in the past. Looking at these different identities will allow students to see they they do not just have one identity, and that they have many identities. Some other assignments that I can apply are personal reflections, letter to oneself and literacy narratives.
Once recent activity that I have been reading about is the "This I believe essay," where students can chose to write about what they think is important to them within a community. Another assignment that I might use is to allow students to read a text about personal and social values. Then I would ask student to write about something they think affects their life, which could be identity and how to deal with what others think of that belief. Of course prewriting activities are a must for any of these assignments. One last activity I would utilize is allowing student to chose form a media source (visual/physical/ or textual) that describe a part of their identity. Then assignment would mainly allow students to evoke personal, historical, and arbitrary connections with their identity.
Eberly, Rosa A. "From Writers, Audiences, and Communities to Publics: Writing Classrooms as Protopublic Spaces." Rhetoric Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 1999., pp. 165-178. doi:10.1080/07350199909359262.
I have always debated whether or not to allow students to talk about sensitive topics, like challenging the students thinking about the concept of identity, politics or different life matters. From my experience in Eng 605, the major two concepts that worked well for me to talk about sensitive topics in the classroom is Concept 1: writing as a rhetorical activity, and Concept 3: writing enacts and creates identities and ideologies.
In Eng 605, I applied this first threshold concept, which is writings as a social and rhetorical activity, to a lesson plan which I presented to my colleagues. I used the concept of the rhetorical situation and rhetorical triangle and planed to have the students apply it to two political speeches, one by Martin Luther King/ "I Have a Dream", and one by Malcom X's "The Ballot or the Bullet". As a starter for the activity, I looked at The major two components that this threshold concept emphasizes with regards to writing are that writers "are engaged in the work of making meaning for particular audiences and purposes, and writers are always connected to other people" (Roozen 18). In this threshold concept, writing as a social rhetorical activity is seen as troublesome because when one thinks of writing, they think that it is an activity that they do by themselves, alone with no one else sharing what they produce, however, writing can never be "anything but a social and rhetorical act, connecting us to other people across time and space in an attempt to respond adequately to the needs of an audience" (Roozen 19). I think the political speeches or even advertisements are good texts to use when it comes to talking about sensitive topics in the classroom.
One major article that affected the way I built my lesson plan and in class assignment about the rhetorical situation and rhetorical triangle is Rosa Eberly's article ""From Writers, Audiences, and Communities to Publics: Writing Classrooms as Protopublic Spaces." Considering writing as a rhetorical activity helps learners understand that there is a great need for an audience, helps the learner see what the audience knows or does not know, why some kinds of audience need specific information or not, and what the audience finds persuasive. Eberly reflects on a canonical rhetoric and composition essay by Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede, where they suggest that teachers tend to oversimplify the concept of audience. To remedy this oversimplification, Lunsford and Ede suggest that writing classrooms should be rhetorical spaces where teachers and students open up to the play and struggle of difference (Eberly 165). Teachers can only do that by participating in what Eberly calls "protopublic spaces" and not just communities in the classroom (166). Eberly suggests that teachers should move from the classroom at university as a space and consider the "different kinds of public realm in which our students and we read and write after we have left high school and college, after we have gone home for the evening or the morning--all the kind's of writing we might engage in for the duration of our lives" (165-66). When teachers make the classrooms as a protopublic space, they somehow "encourage students to see themselves as actors in different and overlapping publics" and it can also "help them realize the particular and situated nature of rhetoric and the need for effective writing to respond to particular needs of particular needs of particular publics at particular times" (Eberly 167). I think what Eberly is trying to emphasize is how real the classroom space should be, especially in relation to sensitive topics, because the classroom should be a mirror representation of reality on the outside, and teaching students to write about this reality is necessary if they want to be successful in life.
A Threshold Concept that I Am Interested in Applying in the Future:
I believe that all the threshold concepts are important for the first year composition classroom. However, one interesting concept that I would like to experiment with in the first year composition classroom is Concept 3: "Writing Enacts & Creates Identities & Ideologies." Tony Scott defines ideology as a "system of ideas and beliefs that together constitue a comprehensive world view" (48). Scott argues that writing is always ideological "because discourses and instances of language use do not exist independently from cultures and their ideologies" (48). I think the most important to sub concepts in the third concept is "Writing is Linked to Identity," and "Writing provides Representation of Ideologies and Identities". Writing here is seen as way to display ones identity and it is through writing that we "claim, challenge, perhaps even contest and resist, our alignment with the beliefs, interests, and values of the communities with which we engage" (51). Writing also entails using the many identities that we carry with us, whether it is to make a political stand or a conscious decision to chose an identity over the other, a term often referred to by Gyatri Spivak as "strategic essentialism," "a reduction of complex political and economic relations in order to present a political statement" (Villanueva 57). I like the idea that all writing is "inflected by power dynamics shaped by identities and ideologies" and that writers must be aware of "how those identities and ideologies are represented in their writing" (Villanueva 57).
How I Might Apply this Concept to the First Year Composition Classroom
I think this concept could be applied in a class that has a major theme concerned with identity and how to link the writers identity while doing research in the many disciplines. Other than that theme I think a teacher can use the theme of stereotypes and belonging as a major theme of the class, where the assignments will be tailored to allow the students to explore the different intersecting identities, and to become participants in the academic community. Fan Shen expresses offers her experience with the her "logical Chinese Identity," and "ideological identity" (459). Receiving advise from her composition teachers, Shen did not know how to "be herself," or to write straight forward topic sentence (463). In my opinion, composition teachers should be aware of all these different kinds of identities and not try to limit students writing to one identity, because the outcome will be an academic language which is alien to the student's true identity. An interesting in class activity to go with this concept is the identity chart, which I have witnessed one of my colleagues present in the ENG 605. I would like to borrow this activity for a first year composition classroom because it allows the students to see the different identities they straddle in the present time and in the past. Looking at these different identities will allow students to see they they do not just have one identity, and that they have many identities. Some other assignments that I can apply are personal reflections, letter to oneself and literacy narratives.
Once recent activity that I have been reading about is the "This I believe essay," where students can chose to write about what they think is important to them within a community. Another assignment that I might use is to allow students to read a text about personal and social values. Then I would ask student to write about something they think affects their life, which could be identity and how to deal with what others think of that belief. Of course prewriting activities are a must for any of these assignments. One last activity I would utilize is allowing student to chose form a media source (visual/physical/ or textual) that describe a part of their identity. Then assignment would mainly allow students to evoke personal, historical, and arbitrary connections with their identity.
Works Cited
Eberly, Rosa A. "From Writers, Audiences, and Communities to Publics: Writing Classrooms as Protopublic Spaces." Rhetoric Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 1999., pp. 165-178. doi:10.1080/07350199909359262.
Roozen, Keven. "Concept 1: Writing is a SociaL & Rhetorical Activity". in Naming What We Know:
Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Ed. Adler-Kassner, Linda, and Elizabeth A. Wardle. : Utah State
University Press, 2015. 17-34.
--. "Concept 3: Writing is Linked to Identity". in Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Ed. Adler-Kassner, Linda, and Elizabeth A. Wardle. : Utah State University Press, 2015. 50-52.
Scott, Tony. "Concept 3: Writing Enacts and Creates Identities and Ideologies". in Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Ed. Adler-Kassner, Linda, and Elizabeth A. Wardle. : Utah State University Press, 2015. 48-50.
Shen, Fan. “The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 40, no. 4, 1989, pp. 459–466. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/358245.
Villanueva, Victor. "Concept 3: Writing Provides a Representation of Ideologies and Identities". in Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Ed. Adler-Kassner, Linda, and Elizabeth A. Wardle. : Utah State University Press, 2015. 57-58.
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Shen, Fan. “The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 40, no. 4, 1989, pp. 459–466. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/358245.
Villanueva, Victor. "Concept 3: Writing Provides a Representation of Ideologies and Identities". in Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Ed. Adler-Kassner, Linda, and Elizabeth A. Wardle. : Utah State University Press, 2015. 57-58.
Images:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/i.seelio.com/01/a9/01a9210f823bff0152102f79f05968344e4a.jpg
https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000072080952-11tj1i-t500x500.jpg
