Since my students have been working in writing workshops the last couple of weeks I thought I'd share some how I do it.
The first four weeks of the semester my composition classes spend a lot of time reading and responding the things, through their own annotation, our class discussions, and informal writing assignments. They write thesis statements that include the title, author, genre, and say something about a piece. They summarize a single source and learn to cite it. They synthesize two or more sources and learn to cite those, interacting with the sources. We talk about the outline/format for body paragraphs, all using and revisiting the same writings.
This semester I themed my ENGL 102 class around the purpose of education. So the first week they read Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “The Purpose of Education” and watched Henry Giroux: What is education for? Then they read James Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” and Clint Smith’s “James Baldwin’s Lesson for Teachers in A Time of Turmoil.” In week two they read Tuskegee University and the importance of HBCUs and The Debate Between W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. These were the pieces we used to write summaries and work on body paragraphs. The following week we read Inside the Rosenwald Schools and talked about how multimedia can be used as a source, part of the requirements for their first assignment. That same week we read Schools for freed peoples, School Desegregation, and The Troubled History of American Education after the Brown Decision and they wrote their synthesis paragraphs. I've moved to these shorter assignments they turn in just for feedback because it teaches the lesson they can then apply and preps them for their larger paper.
The next week, week four, they email me what they want to write their first assignment on. It's a research report, has to generally be connected to/answer "what is the purpose of education?" and has minimal sources- a news article, a webpage, an expert source, a piece of multimedia. I respond to all their emails with feedback, generally about narrowing a topic or asking for clarification. Because we've spent the first three weeks reading and talking about topics that connect to this assignment, many choose topics like desegregation, inequity in the classroom, or specific topics like Booker T. Washington or HBCUs. But others choose to research homework, why we have GE classes, how segregation still occurs, or the issues with online learning. They pick their own topics and I encourage them to pick something they're interested in. The readings help provide support if they have a hard time picking topics, or I talk through with them ideas.
This is also the week they watch Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (2017) (1:25) as a way of exposing them to documentaries as a source. At the end of that week they start researching their topic. I have them create a Google Doc called "notes" and teach them to hyperlink their sources and take notes under it, this way they have what they need later for citation. When we did the summarize and synthesis paragraphs I taught them how to cite and why each field cites differently, what they value, and what citations tell us. We also talked about choosing best source not first source, and how to think about who they're citing. They get the day in class to research, just time to work in class, ask questions as they need it. This time to work in class is at the heart of how I designed my writing workshops.
Week five we spend time in class first organizing research by topic, not source, so I have them make a copy of their hyperlinked notes in Google Docs, teach them how to use Google Docs' tools ---> citations, to input all the information, so they can cite as they move/organize their information from source to topic. Then we go over how to write body paragraphs, that I like their topic sentences to be specific, tell me what the paragraph is about, then layer quotes, paraphrases, their research. We talk about concluding sentences leading to the next paragraph and how there should be a logic to what topics come in what order. I tell them that I prefer to move from the general to the specific.
This is usually the first place students struggle because they've all chosen their own topics, so there is no list to give them of subtopics to cover, no answer. They have to figure out based on their research what the best answer is. They have to decide what order makes sense. Again, they're doing this work in class, so they bring laptops up to me, roll their chairs over to ask questions, and this is when the workshop model also starts to pay off.
I used to teach the "order" of writing differently. Now I have them do these body paragraphs first. The following day we work on their introductions and conclusions. I teach them to write introductions that act as road maps to their papers, so only possible to write AFTER they've written the body. Since their research reports are all on the purpose of education and their next assignment is to create a presentation that argues for a change in their education topic, I give them only broad suggestions for their conclusions. I tell them they can tell their reader why this matters, what the impact is. That they can start to pivot to what their argument will be, what changes need to be made.
At the end of this week they send me the drafts of their papers with a reflection email. I ask them to answer specific prompts AND then provide a checklist of assignments guidelines and formatting and citations to double check before submitting. This is teh rare weekend day I will log into my work email. Normally I do not check it if I'm not at work during office hours, or these workshop days, I log into the classroom computer so I can answer questions, read drafts, etc. as they come in.
The syllabus also says this and I go over this in class. I feel it's important to tell them WHY I am asking them to do things in such a specific way:
Please follow these directions precisely. All 5 of my classes have drafts due, and if I have to send emails about not having editing access, or the reflection not included, or the link not in the email, that is a lot of extra work.
Draft reflection email
Go over document for assignment #1 and check formatting, citations
Check work against general writing guidelines
Make sure your Google Doc is set to “anyone with the link can edit”
Please do not individually share your document with me (I’ll get 100 emails)
Please submit only Google Docs for the draft
If you wrote in Word, just upload it to Google Docs
Copy and paste the link at the end of your reflection email and hit enter so it hyperlinks
I am reading these to provide feedback Sunday morning so that you have them to revise next week. I rather you take the extra time to have a good, complete draft than rush. However, please be aware that if it comes in after Sunday, it might not have as quick a turn around for feedback.
I explain that because there are so many students, any additional emails I have to send about "I don't have access" or "this is missing the reflection email" add to the work. I do sit down on Sunday, and because I have no lesson planning that week, I instead read every email, every reflection, every draft. I provide both specific and holistic feedback. Out of five classes of 20-25 students the submission rate is kind of all over the place, always is. Some classes almost everyone turns in their draft. Another class, no one does. This is fine, they are aware of the consequences of this.
The following week they read Donald Murray “Making Meaning Clear: The Logic of Revision” and they watch one of the Great British bake Off technical challenges and we talk about it as a way of talking about feedback, what they think of it, why it's useful, what the purpose is. Then they write me ANOTHER reflection email, this time about what they learned from the Murray, what they'll use from it, and a specific plan for them revising their own work based on the feedback they received. In these reflections they can ask any questions they had about the feedback, any clarifications. Then they have time in class to work on those revisions.
If they don't have their drafts done, they have this revision week to complete their draft. There is no judgement. They have class time set aside. They use it as they need. The last thing we do during workshops is I have them read different articles about grades, ungrading, issues with grades, and we talk about how grades work in my class. The following week we conference. When they're ready they come up with their paper and present it to me. I ask questions, give feedback, they write that down, then they write me a reflection email responding to feedback, reflecting on whole process and tell me what grade they think the work earns and why. Unless it's wildly off it's the grade I post for midterms. Midterm grades aren't posted until week 8 and conferences are week 7 so if they want to revise for a higher grade in that meantime they can.
Their second assignment is a presentation that argues for a change, based on their research. Their grades are not averaged, their final grade is their assignment #2 grade because I explain, they know more, do better at the end. I have one more assignment, a reflection that covers how they felt about the class and why but also gives them a chance to explain, if they want, any invisible work they did during the semester that should raise their grade from what it is. It will never lower their grade, it will only raise it.
When we talk about grades the conversation is up to them. Many talk about how little flexibility their other classes have. How I always prioritize them over work, which they never hear from anyone. How I tell them to rest, provide recommendations for organizing. They talk too about their stress and anxiety levels, professors who don't post grades weeks at a time. We talk too about feedback.
The best workshop days are when they all work, listening to music, watching Netflix on their phones while they work on their laptops. Students bring laptops up to ask questions about how to fix things, what I think. I do a lot of tech teaching here, show them how to use short cuts, tricks. These are my favorite days. But a lot of these 2-3 weeks is boring. I have nothing to do other than answer some questions. And yet, that is exactly what students say they like best about the class, the chance to do this, work, focus, ask questions. That I show them what I think is important.
I've been teaching twenty-two years, and it's still hard sometimes for me during these weeks. Because they are right before midterms it's normally when students first start to get sick, feel stressed, skip some classes to work on others. And it's hard not to take it personally. Why don't they want to come to MY class? I work so hard to make things interesting, why don't they appreciate ME? But that is all ego. It's got nothing to do with what is best for them, what helps them, it's about me acting like a child, taking things personally. Overall my students DO like my classes. They like the discussions. They like the readings. But in a system with no flexibility, no care, students have to make decisions the best they can. If no one seems to care about them and one person clearly does, then they KNOW that one will understand.
Others have written about how it is overwhelmingly women who carry this burden. Often non-tenured, precarious faculty. And none of that is fair. I will say that all this is actually less work than I used to do years ago. Students do better. The work balances that the students who first turn things in is fine, manageable, and then others trickle in. Some do no drafts, take the C and are done. And that's fine too. The system is broken. Beyond repair broken. So I disrupt it as much as I can. It helps my students. So I'll take the boredom. I'll prep for the next week's lessons. I'll sit and wait for their emails to hit my inbox.
I will say, that even in classes that I think are not going great, ones I feel like we've never clicked, the whole mood and atmosphere changes after these workshop weeks. Students SEE and HEAR what matters, that I mean what I say, that I care about their learning, and that means a shift happens. They know I don't take absences personally. That late work is not a personal failing. That I want them to learn and do their best but tell them too that sometimes you just do what you can, what you have to in order to get by.
We repeat the whole process at the end of class with the second assignment.
Even in my literature classes, I follow a similar formula. We might now spend as much time on the walking them through the basics of writing, but I always build in workshop days where they can work and ask questions as they need to. I always have them reflect. I always have them use Murray for revision. I always have them send me drafts and I always do grade conferences this way. All my students benefit from them, from the whole process.
In past years students have not always had laptops, some type on their phones, so I have an added things in my syllabus about how they can get laptops from admin and in our building there are a couple of computer labs I tell them they can go use. Because a lot of my lessons are on slides, on Google Docs, hyperlinked on the syllabus, they can access it wherever they are. Some choose to stay home, save the gas, and they work from home. The workshop is designed to do that too.
