Revising the Writing Conference

Revising the Writing ConferenceAuthor(s): Peter M. SchiffSource: College Composition and Communication, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Oct., 1978), pp. 294-296Published by: National Council of Teachers of EnglishStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/356951 .

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COLLEGE COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION COLLEGE COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION

as ugly as death rattles. Stressing grace and appropriateness, I ask that they conceive of their conclusions as neat bows with which to tie up and deliver their package of ideas. Yes, I say, they may repeat key concepts, but with subtle variation, as in a Mozart concerto (or a good progressive-rock piece). Yes, they may be clever or even tartly hu- morous if that tone is in keeping with what has gone before. No, they may not cop out with a one-sentence In conclusion conclusion. And please watch that grammar right down to the last period.

"Keep your eyes on the blackboard, and you will see exactly how it is done, this busi- ness of concluding a 300-word essay." If I am in good form-and by this time I usually am-it turns out quite well. I tear off a neat four-sentence paragraph that does indeed tie a bow on my ideas, as they (I pray) can plainly see. My final sentence might read like this: "For the serious run- ner, then, long distances are the shortest route to a healthy life." Imitating my meth- od-sentence type, idea orientation-they take just a few minutes to put together conclusions of their own. Sampling them, I am usually content.

Finally, they go back and add a title. Mine is something on the order of "A Sport for Life." I expect applause but rarely get any.

The blackboard essay may have taken three or four class periods to complete, but if the janitors have heeded the instructor's admonition not to erase it, in front of the class will be an entire in-class essay of, presumably, A quality. The instructor may even have the class grade its own essays, rewritten or not, using the essay on the board as the standard. The most significant point of this exercise is that the class has actually worked along with the teacher, step by step. For the next essay, the class will then have that very detailed learning experience to call upon.

RICHARD B. LARSEN Pembroke State University Pembroke, NC

as ugly as death rattles. Stressing grace and appropriateness, I ask that they conceive of their conclusions as neat bows with which to tie up and deliver their package of ideas. Yes, I say, they may repeat key concepts, but with subtle variation, as in a Mozart concerto (or a good progressive-rock piece). Yes, they may be clever or even tartly hu- morous if that tone is in keeping with what has gone before. No, they may not cop out with a one-sentence In conclusion conclusion. And please watch that grammar right down to the last period.

"Keep your eyes on the blackboard, and you will see exactly how it is done, this busi- ness of concluding a 300-word essay." If I am in good form-and by this time I usually am-it turns out quite well. I tear off a neat four-sentence paragraph that does indeed tie a bow on my ideas, as they (I pray) can plainly see. My final sentence might read like this: "For the serious run- ner, then, long distances are the shortest route to a healthy life." Imitating my meth- od-sentence type, idea orientation-they take just a few minutes to put together conclusions of their own. Sampling them, I am usually content.

Finally, they go back and add a title. Mine is something on the order of "A Sport for Life." I expect applause but rarely get any.

The blackboard essay may have taken three or four class periods to complete, but if the janitors have heeded the instructor's admonition not to erase it, in front of the class will be an entire in-class essay of, presumably, A quality. The instructor may even have the class grade its own essays, rewritten or not, using the essay on the board as the standard. The most significant point of this exercise is that the class has actually worked along with the teacher, step by step. For the next essay, the class will then have that very detailed learning experience to call upon.

RICHARD B. LARSEN Pembroke State University Pembroke, NC

REVISING THE WRITING CONFERENCE

Before sentence-combining, before peer- evaluation, before talk-write, there was the writing conference. Every twenty minutes,

REVISING THE WRITING CONFERENCE

Before sentence-combining, before peer- evaluation, before talk-write, there was the writing conference. Every twenty minutes,

a student would arrive at my office door, and I would probe his or her understanding of concepts taught in class ("Would you call your sentence arrangement coordinat- ing, subordinating, or superordinating?"). Or I would assure myself that my students knew why I'd red-inked them ("Do you see why there is a 'p' after your introduc- tory adverbial clause?").

Alas, I was perpetuating what Mary Hiatt calls "the myth of the conference."l I thought personal attention and physical closeness would somehow clarify composing strategies and conventions that had proven confusing in the whole-class setting. What I did not realize was that my critical, in- escapable conference presence served main- ly to widen the gap between my students and myself, a gap that had begun to form as soon as I mentioned "topic sentence" on the first day of the term.

During the past two years, I have attempted to make the conference an opportunity for students to share with me a vari- ety of composing experiences. To this end, many of the techniques which have proven both enjoyable and productive in whole- class instruction have offered further re- wards when modified for the writing conference. In particular, the following seven approaches have yielded richer composing experiences as well as improved written products.

1. Sharing Journal Entries. The privacy of the conference makes it ideal for writing, sharing, and discussing journal entries. My students and I have often used this device for communicating our perceptions of a recent class. One representative student entry began, "Old P.S. couldn't get it together today. He was dropping chalk, banging into desks, knocking over books. It must have been one of those famous faculty parties." My corresponding entry started, "101 finally got moving today. For once, I felt in control of the situation as we moved smoothly." From our exchanges, we learned how our points of view differed. One fre- quent outcome of the journal-sharing activity was an insightful paper in which the student pretended to be his instructor preparing for and teaching an English class.

a student would arrive at my office door, and I would probe his or her understanding of concepts taught in class ("Would you call your sentence arrangement coordinat- ing, subordinating, or superordinating?"). Or I would assure myself that my students knew why I'd red-inked them ("Do you see why there is a 'p' after your introduc- tory adverbial clause?").

Alas, I was perpetuating what Mary Hiatt calls "the myth of the conference."l I thought personal attention and physical closeness would somehow clarify composing strategies and conventions that had proven confusing in the whole-class setting. What I did not realize was that my critical, in- escapable conference presence served main- ly to widen the gap between my students and myself, a gap that had begun to form as soon as I mentioned "topic sentence" on the first day of the term.

During the past two years, I have attempted to make the conference an opportunity for students to share with me a vari- ety of composing experiences. To this end, many of the techniques which have proven both enjoyable and productive in whole- class instruction have offered further re- wards when modified for the writing conference. In particular, the following seven approaches have yielded richer composing experiences as well as improved written products.

1. Sharing Journal Entries. The privacy of the conference makes it ideal for writing, sharing, and discussing journal entries. My students and I have often used this device for communicating our perceptions of a recent class. One representative student entry began, "Old P.S. couldn't get it together today. He was dropping chalk, banging into desks, knocking over books. It must have been one of those famous faculty parties." My corresponding entry started, "101 finally got moving today. For once, I felt in control of the situation as we moved smoothly." From our exchanges, we learned how our points of view differed. One fre- quent outcome of the journal-sharing activity was an insightful paper in which the student pretended to be his instructor preparing for and teaching an English class.

1Mary Hiatt, "Students at Bay: The Myth of the Conference," CCC, 26 (Feb. 1975), 38.

1Mary Hiatt, "Students at Bay: The Myth of the Conference," CCC, 26 (Feb. 1975), 38.

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STAFFROOM INTERCHANGE

2. Mutual Revision. Another activity involved mutual revision. We would spend five minutes free-writing about ourselves, pen to paper without stopping. Then we ex- changed drafts and tried to shape one another's ideas into coherent discourse. Stu- dents often expressed surprise that I would downplay their recent money-making, hot- rodding, and romancing exploits in favor of earlier sports triumphs. When I revealed my unrealized (and unrealizable) ambition of becoming a professional ice-hockey play- er, I think they understood my revisions. And by reworking my five-minute free- writes, students had the chance to practice sharpening ideas, increasing fluency, and correcting mechanical errors on first-draft prose. Their results of these mutual-revision conferences were twofold: more careful attention to improving composition drafts and increased ability to focus on key de- tails in descriptive essays.

3. Watching the Teacher Compose. Al- though results were immeasurable by any composition-rating scale, twenty minutes spent watching their teacher go through the process of composing at close range almost always elicited excited response from the students. I only engaged in this conference activity when I had something real to write. Thus, students observed me in vari- ous phases of preparing, writing, and revising a letter to a textbook publisher, a model paragraph for class discussion, a letter to the editor. They watched me furrow my brows, pace, cross out, jot down out- lines, run to the dictionary, crumple paper, and occasionally even curse. When they left, my student-observers invariably said that they had always thought that their English teachers just sat down and produced one-draft, perfect prose. Now they saw that I looked just like them trying to write the social science paper due next Wednesday.

This observation served to build student confidence in their own composing abilities. They realized that it was the process they had witnessed-the live-writing model going through the not-so-discreet steps to move idea to paper-that produced the finished written model appearing on class dittos and in commercial texts. And they could now say to themselves, "I, too, can compose!"

4. Talking and Writing. Talk-write strate-

gies have flourished in the writing conference environment. The quiet of the office, the audience of one, the immediacy of feedback have all encouraged students to participate in activities stemming from Rob- ert Zoellner's exploration of the relation- ship between' writing and speaking.2 I have tried several approaches to talk-write in conference. Sometimes, I have encouraged my students to speak at length about a favorite place, person, or hobby, and then to jot down key ideas from which to write. Other times, I have asked students to speak into a tape-recorder and then playback, copy, and take home a transcript for revision. During still other sessions, each of us, student and teacher, has spoken extempo- raneously on topics of personal interest for two or three minutes, and then each of us has attempted to summarize in writing one another's "speech." Visible results of these talk-write activities have included increased use of specific detail and discovery of authentic writing "voice." Papers that once began, "Motorcycling is a fantastic sport that's fun for all," now started, "As soon as I make the left turn off U.S. 41, I re- discover the rush that is cycling, the lake wind urging me forward, the motor's vibra- tion buzzing in my hands, the feel of the road running all through my body." Detach- ment had become involvement; generality had become specificity.

5. Values Clarification. Another conference strategy for vivifying student writing involved adapting values-clarification activities to a one-to-one situation. Several of the techniques developed by Robert Hawley, Sidney Simon, and David Britton were used to structure student self-analysis. Rank or- derings helped students to see what they valued most in their relationships with oth- ers and what they valued least.3 Finishing "I learned .. ." statements leads students to verbalize what they gained from school, social, and other life experiences. Complet-

2Robert Zoellner, "Talk-Write: A Behavioral Pedagogy for Composition," College English, 30 (Jan. 1969), 267-320.

3Robert C. Hawley, Sidney B. Simon, and David D. Britton, Composition for Personal Growth: Values Clarification Through Writing (New York: Hart Publishing Co., Inc., 1973), pp. 114-15.

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COLLEGE COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION COLLEGE COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION

ing a values "shield," a coat of arms in which they illustrated significant life events, achievements, and aspirations, allowed students to identify and categorize items for use in autobiographical essays. By using these personal-values approaches, one con- feree was able to transcend the banal "I was born on April 3rd, 1959" autobiography and begin instead by focusing on the peo- ple, events, and activities that had shaped him: "I have discovered a spare-time hobby that I hope to make my full-time vocation. Working at WMTU, the student-operated radio station, has been the logical outcome of a lifelong interest in communications and electronics." Expanding upon these opening sentences, this radiophile developed an original, coherent autobiographical statement that he plans to include in a summer- job application for a position at his home- town radio station.

6. Model Analysis. My immediate presence as a resource person offered a particular opportunity for a problem-solving approach to model analysis. I gave a confer- ee five or six randomly-ordered strips of paper on each of which was one sentence from a model paragraph. I then posed the problem, asking the student to arrange the strips in the order he thought most logical. After he completed this "puzzle," I asked him to explain his arrangement of ideas. Finally, towards the end of the twenty minutes, I showed my student the model in its original order, and we concluded the conference by discussing the author's strategy for sentence arrangement. Such a hands-on activity has led to improved chronological, comparison/ contrast, classificatory, and climactic-data organization.

7. One-to-Two Conferencing. Recently, I have begun experimenting with giving pu- pils increased conference time (forty instead of twenty minutes) by working with two students at once. Thus far, I have tried only one approach, stimulating inter-student dialogue in order to foster persuasive essay development. To participate in this double conference, students pick a conferencing partner and schedule a forty-minute conference with me. At the start of the meet- ing, I suggest a topic of local controversy (commercial vs. recreational land use is a highly charged subject here on Michigan's Upper Peninsula), and we begin to con-

ing a values "shield," a coat of arms in which they illustrated significant life events, achievements, and aspirations, allowed students to identify and categorize items for use in autobiographical essays. By using these personal-values approaches, one con- feree was able to transcend the banal "I was born on April 3rd, 1959" autobiography and begin instead by focusing on the peo- ple, events, and activities that had shaped him: "I have discovered a spare-time hobby that I hope to make my full-time vocation. Working at WMTU, the student-operated radio station, has been the logical outcome of a lifelong interest in communications and electronics." Expanding upon these opening sentences, this radiophile developed an original, coherent autobiographical statement that he plans to include in a summer- job application for a position at his home- town radio station.

6. Model Analysis. My immediate presence as a resource person offered a particular opportunity for a problem-solving approach to model analysis. I gave a confer- ee five or six randomly-ordered strips of paper on each of which was one sentence from a model paragraph. I then posed the problem, asking the student to arrange the strips in the order he thought most logical. After he completed this "puzzle," I asked him to explain his arrangement of ideas. Finally, towards the end of the twenty minutes, I showed my student the model in its original order, and we concluded the conference by discussing the author's strategy for sentence arrangement. Such a hands-on activity has led to improved chronological, comparison/ contrast, classificatory, and climactic-data organization.

7. One-to-Two Conferencing. Recently, I have begun experimenting with giving pu- pils increased conference time (forty instead of twenty minutes) by working with two students at once. Thus far, I have tried only one approach, stimulating inter-student dialogue in order to foster persuasive essay development. To participate in this double conference, students pick a conferencing partner and schedule a forty-minute conference with me. At the start of the meet- ing, I suggest a topic of local controversy (commercial vs. recreational land use is a highly charged subject here on Michigan's Upper Peninsula), and we begin to con-

verse, all three of us. Gradually, I drop out of the discussion, leaving the students to develop a dialogue in which they either reinforce one another's positions or debate the topic. At a logical break in the conversa- tion, with at least fifteen minutes remaining in the conference, I ask each student to use the ideas broached in the dialogue to begin a paper that takes a stand on the discussed topic. The expected results, improved prop- ositional statement and development, have materialized. So too has an unexpected bonus-improved listening skills in the whole-class setting.

PETER M. SCHIFF

Michigan Technological University Houghton

verse, all three of us. Gradually, I drop out of the discussion, leaving the students to develop a dialogue in which they either reinforce one another's positions or debate the topic. At a logical break in the conversa- tion, with at least fifteen minutes remaining in the conference, I ask each student to use the ideas broached in the dialogue to begin a paper that takes a stand on the discussed topic. The expected results, improved prop- ositional statement and development, have materialized. So too has an unexpected bonus-improved listening skills in the whole-class setting.

PETER M. SCHIFF

Michigan Technological University Houghton

INTERVIEWING PROSPECTIVE COMPOSITION TEACHERS

Even in today's job market, with its sur- feit of candidates for teaching positions in English, finding really competent composition teachers can be difficult. The problem stems from the difficulty in getting very specific information about what candidates will do in their roles as teachers. Can they perceive and explain the qualities that make writing effective? Do they give undue attention to idiosyncratic enthusiasms and pet peeves? Do they bully students-or curry favor with them? Dossiers rarely answer these questions fully; some dossiers hardly address them at all; and follow up phone calls to writers of recommendations, which should help, often don't.

The appointments committee on our cam- pus has found it helpful under these cir- cumstances to ask prospective composition teachers to take time to read a sample student theme during their interviews, to point out its principal strengths and weaknesses, and to describe how they would respond to a student who had written such a theme. We use the same theme from interview to interview, so that we can compare the candidates' responses quite closely. Because our institution has many black students, we use a theme written by a black in a black dia- lect. This theme allows us to explore with the candidates not only their command of mechanics of English but also their philos- ophies with regard to the politics of dia- lects. The sample theme also exhibits a frag- mented organization. It does, however, have

INTERVIEWING PROSPECTIVE COMPOSITION TEACHERS

Even in today's job market, with its sur- feit of candidates for teaching positions in English, finding really competent composition teachers can be difficult. The problem stems from the difficulty in getting very specific information about what candidates will do in their roles as teachers. Can they perceive and explain the qualities that make writing effective? Do they give undue attention to idiosyncratic enthusiasms and pet peeves? Do they bully students-or curry favor with them? Dossiers rarely answer these questions fully; some dossiers hardly address them at all; and follow up phone calls to writers of recommendations, which should help, often don't.

The appointments committee on our cam- pus has found it helpful under these cir- cumstances to ask prospective composition teachers to take time to read a sample student theme during their interviews, to point out its principal strengths and weaknesses, and to describe how they would respond to a student who had written such a theme. We use the same theme from interview to interview, so that we can compare the candidates' responses quite closely. Because our institution has many black students, we use a theme written by a black in a black dia- lect. This theme allows us to explore with the candidates not only their command of mechanics of English but also their philos- ophies with regard to the politics of dia- lects. The sample theme also exhibits a frag- mented organization. It does, however, have

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Revising the Writing Conference