In their book, The Discovery of Competence: Teaching and Learning with Diverse Student Writing, Eleanor Kutz, Suzy Q. Groden, and Vivian Zamel begin their reworking of how we frame, define, and teach language with an anecdote. I was immediately drawn into the parallelism between Groden's story of the starlings and the students we teach. I agree with their working thesis that we must learn alongside our students, removing the barriers created by walls and simplistic writing, as to move towards the freedom of sky and the construction of meaning through learning and language: critiquing readings, conversing on important topics, and fostering forms of composition that increase students' academic buy-in.
Moreover, part of Kutz, Groden, and Zamel's writing and researching purpose is in the discussion of personal stories and narratives and how they are integral to our understanding of language by creating meaning in the context of personal communities and conversations. Similarly, I see the problem of assigning personal narratives. Kutz, Groden, and Zamel's analysis of Alison and Jean's narrative essays demonstrates that not all students will be able to connect the assignment to a deeper meaning and personal thought process behind their narration. Alison is somewhat conscious of her thinking in her essay, writes in a more conversational form, and is more successful in her composition course due to her budding cognition. On the other hand, Jean is used to a more formal type of writing, so that her conversation is geared solely towards her teacher as the sole audience. Here, we can see how Kutz, Groden, and Zamel came to the conclusion that learning relies on student construction of meaning within and outside the classroom.
That said, I would want to include personal narrative in my course. But, I would take Kutz, Groden, and Zamel's advice and specifically frame the assignment in an open ended fashion, hopefully fostering creativity and personal purpose. I agree with their idea that students need to bring their personal knowledge into the classroom, building bridges between their real world experiences and the academic research and writing they perform in school. Using narrative forms can function as a helpful, acculturating process for cognitive and composition constructions between diverse discourse communities.
Hi Jenny! (ie?) I am enjoying reading your posts, and I thought your post on blog commenting was spot-on too. I too would incorporate narrative into my course, and Kutz, Groden and Zamel's thoughts on narrative struck me as insightful. I especially liked that they see narrative as important not just as a diagnostic tool, but because it shows how a person "makes sense of the world." They picked apart the two students' narrative pieces, and hindsight is 20/20, so I'm not sure I'd read as much into it as they ultimately did. However, I do see it as a useful way to initiate dialogue and create an opportunity for meaningful writing with students while creating an academic community in the classroom that is both safe and engaging.
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