After years of limiting student writing assignments to traditional analytic prose, in spring 2021, I decided to broaden the scope of their activity. To do this I began working with Joan Fiset, a published writer, experienced teacher of writing and literature, and Bard associate, who assisted my 2021 instruction of the English 213-level W course, Modern and Postmodern Lit by introducing students, and myself, to right-brain writing strategies. This allowed me to explore, in teaching and learning, the roles that imagination, sensation, and emotion play in making meaning of literary texts. I found that right-brain writing exercises in this class considerably advanced students’ literary insight and also expanded their tools for self-understanding through expressive writing.
My approach to Reading Prose Fiction is to think through utilizing right-brain writing strategies in a meaningful way. I’ve revised the course description in the syllabus in a way that I hope makes clear to the students the reasons for this emphasis. I’ve discovered that right brain writing strategies engage students in meaningful emergent exploration that isn’t quantifiable. This approach leads to more considered thought and writing, that can be assessed, but the process is in the right-brain strategies that have led to this product. Both left and right brain strategies are introduced in peer review groups; this is a key place for the process to unfold. So too is meta-cognitive reflection; this is a thread throughout the course, from the outset. Student growth as readers, thinkers, and writers, rather than being measured using traditional means here, by the instructor, is in this class measured by what students say in their growth statements.
The class conceives of growth not only as an individual matter but as a collective one. The syllabus and pedagogical paradigm accordingly emphasizes cultivation of the class as a community of writers and thinkers (which includes me; I participate in the class by joining students when the class engages in writing prompts). The aim is to cultivate in students a sense of shared ownership, responsibility, and engagement in their own learning, This makes it possible for them to individually reflect on their own growth as writers and thinkers.
Because every class (in its student body composition, in the directions that discussion leads, etc) is different, I cannot offer an itemized schedule of how it will unfold. Because the right brain is exploratory and organic by nature, this writing and learning approach encourages the student’s ability to anticipate, work with, and write for, a variety of audiences. Because for most students this is a radical departure from what they know and have experienced, it’s essential to remain flexible in relation to the writing about the literary material covered.
The Writing Fellowship has allowed me to further deepen my understanding of ways to teach the 200-level general education W classes that are offered by the English department. Through the wide ranging readings selected by Megan and Rebecca, through collaborative annotations of those readings, feedback, guest speakers, discussing diverse pedagogical challenges and experiences with the other cohort members, I have been inspired, and emboldened. I’ve learned many new assignment and assessment options, and new ways to think about course design and rationale. I’ve also gained got a better grasp of the institutional definitions and functions of Writing classes at UW, and the ways in which they relate to Composition classes, general education and upper division instruction. Now that AI has entered the institutional arena, it seems to me more important than ever to reconsider the primacy of the traditional analytic essay. This Fellowship has helped strengthen my confidence in departing from that model in my Writing classes.
I welcome this opportunity to revise and refine my approach to teaching Writing classes, and more specifically to focus on improving my general education W classes, where I have students from STEM, business studies, political and social sciences, as well as many lower-division students who have yet to determine their majors. The majority of students who take my English 242 Reading Prose Fiction: Literature of Africa course are not English majors. Revising my syllabus has involved: removing the traditional analytic essay component; removing MLA formatting requirements; removing many of the word-count requirements for writing assignments; giving more time, and centrality, to peer reviewing and to revision work; expanding the type and number of right-brain writing activities; reformulating the final project which now consists of a portfolio of revised writing and a major growth statement. I have reduced the quantity of prescribed literary texts, in moving away from a content-driven approach to a paradigm that emphasises learning as a student-led process. I’ve discovered that the grading contract approach works well with the new paradigm and this is something that I will continue with, and modify.
