Planning for Winter Term: A Study in Procrastination

Currently Reading: The Nether World by George Gissing

I received confirmation of my classes for next term. I’ll be teaching advanced reading, writing and a vocabulary elective. These are exactly the classes I wanted, and I have more than a month to organize materials, review new resources, create lesson plans, and take care of some administrative details. So, this morning I began as follows: get darling daughter off to school, return home, make tea, start up Mac, clean stove top, read Facebook updates, look for advanced reading binder (unsuccessful), try on new pants – fit!, eat rye toast with peanut butter, put pajama pants back on, read email (check links to MTF Price Matters Flyer, Banana Republic, and Coudal Partners), tidy up stuffed animals, take photo of self with Mac Photo Booth, edit blemishes from photo,  email photo to friend for feedback, wait for feedback, post photo on Match.com, rearrange mantle décor, shower, tweeze, put nice pants back on while watching Restaurant Impossible, google ‘Kermit origins’ and read Wikipedia entry, fetch mail, read Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue, and pick up my daughter from school.

Time wasted: Approximately 5 hours

Work Accomplished: None

Plan of Action for Tomorrow: Proceed directly to university office and locate advanced reading binder, and try to do it without being distracted by pants, grease, or knick knacks. 

Books about Books

 Currently Reading: Cullum by E. Arnot Robertson

Nathaniel Philbrick’s  (http://nathanielphilbrick.com/) new book, Why Read Moby Dick? provides excellent reasons to read, not just Ahab’s tale, but any great fiction, from any era. He praises the story that is much itself and also another: “The book is so encyclopedic and detailed that space aliens could use it to re-create the whale fishery as it once existed on the planet Earth in the middle of the nineteenth century.”  And yet, the book is also about “America racing hell-bent toward the Civil War...”. 

This duality is exemplified by Nicholas Nickleby, “…when he thought how regularly things went on from day to day in the same unvarying round – how youth and beauty died, and ugly griping age lived tottering on – how crafty avarice, and mainly honest hearts were poor and sad – how few they were who tenanted the stately houses, and how many those who lay in noisome pens, or rose each day and laid them down at night, and lived and died, father and son, mother and child, race upon race, , and generation upon generation, without a home to shelter them or the energies of one single man directed to their aid – how in seeking, not a luxurious and splendid life, but the bare means of a most wretched and inadequate subsistence, there were women and children in that one town, divided into classes, numbered and estimated as regularly as the noble families and folks of great degree, and reared from infancy to drive most criminal and dreadful trades – how ignorance was punished and never taught – how jail door gaped and gallows loomed for thousands urged toward them by circumstances curtaining their very cradles’ heads, and but for which they might have earned their honest bread and lived in peace – how many died in soul and had no chance of life – how many who could scarcely go astray, be they vicious as they would, turned haughtily from the  crushed and stricken wretch who could scare do otherwise, and who would have been a greater wonder had he or she done well, than even they – had they done ill – how much injustice, and misery, and wrong there was, and yet how the world rolled on from year to year, alike careless and indifferent, and no man seeking to remedy or redress it – when he thought of all this, and selected from the mass the one slight case on which his thought were bent, he felt indeed that there was little ground for hope, and little cause or reason why it should not form an atom in the huge aggregate of distress and sorrow, and add one small and unimportant unit to swell the great amount.“, and yet sometimes, one must be thorough and proceed.    

Are you with me still? 

For contemporary students, hauled at pen-point from their app-encrusted sedation devices, the work of reading such a passage must seem ludicrous. “Whatever for?” they might say, or more likely not say but simply indicate with evermore upward lifting brows.  What will I tell them? To begin, that the story is about tenacity and triumph, and that they will be inspired by young Nicholas and his struggles (or Ahab and his). Oh yes, and that next week there will be a quiz.  Sigh.

Usefulness and Desirability: Is Reading and Writing Well a Waste of Time?

“This thing that I made would be useful.” The Knife Maker

I began my day by watching this short film about knives made by hand (via Coudal Partners): http://thisismadebyhand.com/film/the_knife_maker

For me, a significant challenge I face as a teacher is convincing my skeptical students the usefulness of reading and writing well.  I sometimes lean to the practical – impressing upon them the importance of written communication skills and the ability to interpret and distill ideas in the digital age.  I’ve also rested my philosophy upon more personal considerations: that honing these skills will make one more interesting to peers, even popular, and as a last resort – that chicks dig it. The effects of my gambits, as much as they are measurable, are usually negligible.  (In any case, I am not sure that the popularity notion isn’t a bit of an untruth).

Is it useful and desirable to read and write well? Consider W. Somerset Maugham on reading:

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”

He ought to know. According to one biographer, Somerset Maugham was orphaned at the age of 10, stammered and was cruelly taunted by classmates, practiced medicine, a career he despised, in London’s slums, contracted TB, fled the Nazi’s in a coal barge, was unhappily married, and so on. During his lifetime he produced twenty or more novels, in addition to short stories, plays, and essays. His most famous novels; The Razor’s Edge (1944), and Of Human Bondage (1915), explore transcendent themes such as spiritual awakening, and the value of happiness. 

Should we read him now? Should my students spend time considering the plight of a club-footed protagonist, or the intimidating visage of a maharishi? OF COURSE THEY SHOULD! How to convince them? That is the question.

I have tried allowing them to select their own readings, and will save that debacle for another day. For now, I beg you dear readers to submit your suggestions.

 Happy Monday (note to self: buy handmade knife)

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" - Alice to Cheshire Cat

My Dear, if few, readers,

As you know, I've had significant change in my life recently. My husband, the unfairly clever (see his fanpage on Facebook: Smartest Man in the Universe) Robbie Charles Fry, passed away from cancer on August 31st of this year. He didn't believe in an afterlife, but my daughter and I like to imagine him in a world with unlimited access to chalk, Springer-Verlag publications, and 24hr free pizza delivery. We miss him terribly; no one can replace him, and yet we must keep living, and even writing.

To that end...

Today is the beginning of Eid Al Fitr - and a fasting day for Muslims. Tomorrow, many of my students will celebrate their New Year, and the end of Ramadan.  I am not Muslim, nor fasting, but I feel a sense of solidarity with the Muslim world on this day. My own culture (Canadian) and religious tradition (Christian - in my case, agnostic, but still like to think about Baby Jesus at Christmastime) - would benefit from a little more emphasis on austerity - at least a day or two when we rest from acquisition and display. That word, austerity, is much in the news these days. 'Austerity measures', enforced by governments to try to rescue faltering economies, seem to be de rigueur. But what would it mean to actually live more simply and less adorned? What would it mean to give something up - even for a day?

We 'celebrated' Halloween last week. Candy, costumes, and on my street, houses (including mine) covered in all the trappings Wal-Mart can provide: battery operated spiders, sparkling inflatable pumpkins, day-of-the-dead style purple skulls, etc. And soon, well actually yesterday, the race to Christmasize (my new word) the city, my neighbourhood, will begin. There is no day of self-sacrifice, nor one moment of 'austerity' prescribed by my 'culture'. Someone had a go at a 'buy-nothing' day - good try, but a bit limp.

So, here is the thing. I suddenly find myself somewhat free of financial worries. I can buy more stuff. I can pay to have someone hang the Christmas lights, and someone else to microderabrase (also mine) my sagging skin. Yet, there has not been a day of fasting, if you will, to make the promise of abundance taste sweet.  Instead of decorating the house, or myself, this November, I will endeavour to do the opposite - subtract from the cache in order to share, simplify the routines in order to have more time for real productivity, and real connections. Maybe there will even be time to write!

Just remembered, I'm taking a holiday to West Edmonton Mall later this month. Dang it.

Happy Eid everyone. It's good to be back.

PF

Unfunny Search Tools

I typed 'short fiction' into the university library search tool. I had selected 'key words', and was hoping to be directed to anthologies (guess I shoulda typed THAT) or single author collections. Instead, I was presented with one item - a biography - titled The Story of a Midget. Even if I was kidding, it wouldn't be funny.

When I attended the Teaching Practices Colloquium last week, I knew what I was looking for - collegiality, inspiration, criticism, and direction. The keynote speaker, Dr. Frank Robinson (University of Alberta), provided enough inspiration to light a fire under the most dampened spirits among us. You can find out more about his inspiring approach to teaching here: Heifer In Your Tank - Origins and watch a cool video of a student project here: GnRH Says Go Gonad: The Musical . He was worth the price of the ticket.
I had no trouble finding collegiality either. From beginning to end, the atmosphere was polite, supportive, and encouraging. Criticism though, and direction were in short supply. Maybe the medium I chose to present my work was a problem. The conference posters, numbering less than 10, were relegated to a shabby classroom next to the shabby classroom/lunchroom. During the hour that I was asked to be 'with' my poster, 3 or 4 individuals stopped to look at my work, and to 'read' the poster (this is a curious process - they stand there, eating a sandwich, reading. I stand there, trying not to look uncomfortable or to interrupt them). I wondered if I had too much text on my poster, but looking around my work seemed both approachable and appropriate. However, few questions came my way, and the generous dish of free pencils next to the questions and comments book, placed invitingly on the table, remained full - the pages of the booklet empty (well not entirely, an obliging art historian, also a poster-monger, wrote a kind message, as did a psychologist, who must have come by while I was getting a sandwich of my own). Maybe I don't really understand the way an academic poster presentation is supposed to work. Or maybe, as someone close to me is fond of saying, my expectations were too high. In any case, next time I will talk instead. People were more interested in the fact that I had a blog (How did you set it up? Can you show me?) than in the topic of my research. Still, everyone liked the cartoon. ( Dan Piraro - with permission. ) Leave your questions and comments here - sorry, no free pencils.

"Would it be of any use now," thought Alice, "to speak to this mouse?"

Welcome any newcomers to this blog. To bring you up-to-date, I am preparing a poster presentation for the upcoming Teaching Practices Colloquium at Thompson Rivers University, Feb. 21st, 2011. My subject is the integration of faith and religious belief into academic writing. I am working with a local printer to try and produce a poster that is visually appealing, as well as informative - and feeling pretty good about my progress. I've had  excellent support and encouragement with this work, primarily as a result of 'blogging'. So, two new avenues of communication have opened for me. The last time I made a poster, it detailed the features of a Lionfish for my then six year old daughter. It involved glitter and crayons. She is standing beside me now... telling me something about baby monkeys and earwax... not joking. In any case, hopefully this poster will be as well received; the Lionfish was gold-star worthy. As for this blog, I plan to continue to use it to talk about teaching writing, and would like to open the subject matter up a bit - to include personal writing projects (poems, stories, articles, books). It has come to my attention that a number of my colleagues are writers, and that I know little about this aspect of their work. Let's share more. What are you writing? Why? How can we get our writing 'out there'? Look forward to your questions, comments, thoughts, etc. Happy Valentine's Day.

On a side note...

Check out this cool research tool: http://www.zotero.org/about/

Identity

"Who are you?" said the caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, "I - I hardly know, sir, just at present - at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
Alice's Adventure is Wonderland, Lewis Caroll

Just allow me, for a moment, to play devil's advocate. Ken Hyland, City University of Hong Kong, has demonstrated a couple of noteworthy points. First, contrary to the rigidity of the 'rules' of academic writing, many published articles (in peer reviewed journals) do include author pronouns. He acknowledges that there are a greater number of examples in the social sciences and humanities than in sciences and engineering - but that even in the latter disciplines there is a presence of author 'voice'. (Hyland, Options, 352)This seems to justify inclusion of identity at the student level. But Hyland doesn't want us to get too comfortable with the idea. He also notes that some students may resist revealing identity: "First person pronouns are a powerful way of projecting a strong writer identity, and this individualistic stance seems to clash with beliefs and practices that value more collectivist forms of self-representation." (Hyland, Authority and Invisibility, 354). And so we are left with the fact of enculturation that comes along with language learning: I want the students to have a voice - they themselves may not see the opportunity to insert themselves in their work as useful or desirable.The path forward - down the rabbit hole - must be through the students themselves. We have accepted the idea of grounded research, at least in principle, for years. That is, we accept that the most useful work comes out of projects where the 'subjects' are intimately involved in designing, performing, and analyzing the results. Now we need to begin to practice 'Grounded Teaching', and empower students to decide the most important questions for themselves.

Thank you Poppa, Janis and Dian for your continued interest and participation. Your meaningful contributions are sustenance.

Refs:

Hyland, Ken "Authority and invisibility: authorial identity in academic writing." Journal of Pragmatics 34 (2002) 1091-1112

"Options of Identity in academic writing." ELT Journal Volume 56/4, 2002 351-357.

In Through the Out Door

I have a new printer in my small apartment. The previously unwieldy pile of research that I have been shuffling around is growing and spreading across the floor. I have been feeling a vague unease about the direction of my research - something was not coming together. Today though, I came across the following from a 2010 conference abstract called Academic Writing and International Students: The Need for a Free Space by Enrica Piccardo and Choongil Yoon (bold text mine):
"While research has been proving the significance of writing as a fundamental skill to improve both L1 and L2  competence (Brookes & Grundy, 1991, Hyland, 2002, Cummin, 2006), because of its heuristic, reflective and scaffolding potential (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987, Greg & Steinberg, 1980, Graves, 1983), the lopsided emphasis on academic writing in tertiary education may cause a lack of space for students to effectively improve their writing skills by being allowed to express themselves, write creatively or for pleasure and therefore make it hard for them to fully exploit the potential of writing (Graves,1983, Allen, 2002, Piccardo, 2005).
This idea seems to resonate with my experiences. Few of the students I encounter will pursue academic writing in English beyond the end of their ESL programs. Still, most will have opportunities to communicate in written English - in their various career paths, as well as in their personal lives. Imagine if the writing style we taught, the style students practice in our classes, made it a possibility that they might "fully exploit the potential of writing"? I'm no longer convinced that rigorous adherence to academic rules is the most productive or life-enhancing approach to teaching writing.

So - do we need to permeate the borders between academic writing rules and self-expression? Or would we be better to offer an alternative writing course, for students who are interested in writing for non-academic purposes?

One final thought: I hope to find a means of conveying to students that their identities - straddling, hybrid, and in-transition, are a rich resource in the context of writing, not a problem that an outsider must 'solve'.

Gonna shove the papers aside and watch 'Hoarders' now.

Some Practical Suggestions

I conduct 'research' in a meandering, intuitive way. As a result, I often find myself traveling down unexpected pathways. Sill, I have specific goals for this project, and was lucky earlier this week to stumble upon research by Elizabeth Van Der Leigh and Lauren Fitzgerald (complete citation below). In an article directed at Writing Program Administrators, Van Der Leigh and Fitzgerald refer to Virginia Chapell's idea that one of the tasks of writing instruction could (or should) be to help students "articulate their commitments".  The authors concur and suggest that students require opportunities to apply their newly-aquired analytical skills to "the supposedly private aspects of their lives". In doing so they become engaged with, as opposed to estranged from, their past. Encouraging students to use their 'religious literacy', Chappell notes, can result in in a more "active citizenship". Van Der Leigh and Fitgerald suggest the following three guidelings for writing departments to follow (paraphrased):

1. Establish boundaries for the function of religious belief in writing programs that emphasize the academic purposes of doing so.
2. Students and instructors must agree to neither attempt to convert nor to denigrate religious belief.
3. Students and instructors must agree that remaining silent on religious matters is also acceptable.

These suggestions strike me as useful for the ESL classroom. Thoughts?

Chappell, Virginia. "Teaching - and Living - in the Meantime." The Academy and the Possibility of Belief: Essays on Intellectual and Spiritual Life. Eds. Mary Louise Buley- Meissner, Mary McCaslin Thompson, and Elizabeth Bachrach Tan. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000. 39-63

Van Der Leigh, Elizabeth and Lauren Fitgerald. "What in God's Name? Administering the Conflicts of Religious Beliefs in Writing Programs." WPA: Writing Program Administration. Vol. 31 Nos. 1-2. Fall/Winter 2007.

TEACHING!

I should have put the word 'teaching' in the title of this blog. The point of my work is to figure out how I can use what my students already possess (knowledge, experience, and yes, faith) to improve and enhance their writing in English. Today I am 'back to class' at my university. I'll be teaching reading this semester - and with any luck the students will learn to LOVE reading as I do. Unlikely, I know... but a girl can dream. I asked the class today to raise their hands if they read for pleasure. Silence, puzzled expressions... and then a small, dislbelieveing question from the back "Do you mean in English?". I'd better get to work.

Useful Reading:

belief: readings on the reason for faith
selected and introduced by Francis S. Collins
Harper Collins. 2010
ISBN 978-0-06-178734-8

Eat me

As much as I like the idea that Alice's world could be perceived as tangible - perhaps it is inappropriate for me to suggest that this is an analogous to believeing in a creator, or a heaven or hell. In practicle terms - a 'Wonderland' is not a place inhabited by a community of believers. It is a place where the individual chooses outcomes, and where the physical matter is at the mercy of individual whim. Religious faith suggests the opposite: that human destiny is in the hands of an uber-engineer who leads us all into temptaion, or not, as he/she sees fit. If Muslim students are already negotiating the world in the belief that their will, and outcomes, are preordained, is it not unrealistic to ask them to consider ideas, particularly those that foreground individualism (democracy, progress, success?), apart from that belief?  Rather, we should find a way to bring the belief system (and system is an important word here because the way in belief is maintained is embedded in multiple practices) into the classroom - at least as a point of dicussion.

First Response!

Good Morning,
How exciting to see a comment posted to this blog! Thank you Janis, both for your time and your thoughts. I agree that a critical next step is to bandy these ideas about with the students. Their insights will provide the map to method.
This morning I came across the following description by Alberto Manguel in his "A Reader on Reading". In the passage he discusses his early experiences reading Alice in Wonderland : "When I was eight or nine, my disbelief was not so much suspended as yet unborn, and fiction felt at times more real than everyday fact. It was not that I thought that a place such as Wonderland actually existed, but that I knew it was made of the same stuff as my house and my street and the red bricks that were my school."
This level of 'knowing', this degree of conviction about a thing 'unproven', is what is so difficult for the non-believer to accept. In turn, it suggests to me that the believer has the right (?) to decide what constitutes knowledge (in the same way that a reader determines meaning). Perhaps another question (which I am clearly better at asking that answering) is whether the authority for determining truth currently resides in the correct place (the academy). How do we authentically reposition this authority? Grounded research? In doing so, what does the scholarly process relinquish?

More later, and thanks again Janis.

Location

One other point worth considering is whether the trend, whereby teachers reveal their own beliefs (social, political, religious, etc) and in doing so provide students with their 'location', suggests the same should be true for students. If teachers have a responsibility to situate themselves culturally, and assuming higher education is an exchange of sorts, do students have a responsibility to 'locate' themselves in the same way?

Is an academic paper a good opportunity for them to do so?

Still working on that reading list.

Posing the Question of Integrating Logic and Faith-based Argument

Hello,

It is fitting that the topic of my research is Logic and Faith. I submitted a research proposal to a teaching conference in November 2010 - purely based on half-considered concepts, wine-drenched discussions with unreasonably supportive friends, and the belief that I would have FREE TIME of the Christmas holiday to research my ideas. Ha. Well, here it is January 4, 2011. Logic tells me that I cannot possibly complete the poster presentation that I have committed to in time for the colloquium on Feb. 21st. Still, if my students have taught me anything it's that a surprising amount of learning can happen in a very short time if one is determined.  To that end...

I teach academic writing to adult ESL students, many of whom are practicing Muslims (in varying degrees). In my attempt to teach the skills of logical argument for the purpose of essay writing I often encounter students' reliance on faith-based reasoning (if such a term is acceptable) to argue their positions. In other words, my students will sometimes argue that a thing is good/bad, correct/incorrect, or advisable/inadvisable based on what it says in the Qu'ran.

My questions include the following:

1. Do models of academic writing exist that allow for faith-based knowledge as legitimate forms of asrgument?
2. Does rejection of the appeal to faith (considered a common fallacy in logical argument) constitute a degradation of an individual's culture?
3. Is it possible and or desirable to integrate faith and logic, as different but equally relevant styles of argument, for academic purposes?

I plan to post a list of reading material here in the near future, and I welcome and look forward to your comments and suggestions.