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last.updated 9.13.09

Composition's History

Purpose

Composition studies' history is rich and complex. As with many fields of study, developing an understanding of where the field has been will help you to understand the practices that are currently advocated by the field and those that have fallen out of favor. The field's history helps to explain why certain practices were developed for teaching writing, why some of these eventually fell out of favor, and why some practices have staying power whether they are pedagogically sound or not. Understanding this history will help you to decide how you want to participate in the current conversation through the design of your classroom practices.

FreeWrite

Answer the following questions in "Week 3" thread of the Blackboard Discussion Board. You have the first ten minutes of class.

What does the noetic field of writing pedagogy entail according to Berlin? Use this understanding of noetic fields to begin to describe the noetic field that you will use to teach writing.

Activity I: Visualizing Noetic Fields

You will be divided into the six groups listed below. Each group will be responsible for developing a visual representation of the noetic field described by composition's rhetorical influence.

• classical rhetoric
• psychological-epistemological (Scottish Common Sense Realists)
• romantic rhetoric
• classical (a la Corbett & Halloran)
• expressivist
• new rhetoric

Start this process by discussing your understanding of noetic fields based upon your response to the freewrite. Then discuss the assigned rhetorical movement and develop a sense of what the reading selection is about. If you individually have any questions about the rhetorical movement, first pose them to your group; if the group cannot answer them, then write them down so the group can ask them when we reconvene as a class.

As a group think of a way to visually represent the noetic field as it is explained in Berlin. You may do this by hand (the instructor will provide paper and colored writing utensils) or electronically. In either case, the text you produce should be primarily visual with little text. Your goal is develop a visual that will help your peers to remember what they read.

At the end of the activity (~40 minutes), each group will give a five minute or less presentation that explains your visual and how it depicts the noetic field of your assigned rhetorical movements. You will also have the chance to ask questions about the readings.

We will work together to understand the assigned readings by addressing the following questions:

• What questions do you have about the assigned readings?
• The CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers is a document that provide a snapshot of the field at a particular time? Which noetic field does it seem to speak to the most? How might you apply it?
• How would you characterize Gilyard's narrative of African-Americans presence in composition studies? Matsuda's narrative about second language writers? In what ways are these narratives similar in what ways do they diverge?
• What arguments do the Lunfords make about the use grammar in student writing?