Group items tagged

This article deals with creating writing opportunities for ESL/EFL students so that they can feel confident in their writing abilities. The author talks about developing meaningful writing task. Writing about cultural,social and emotional experiences are critical on building confidence in the students writing. When ESL students see that their life is related to meaningful issues of the world that can be portrayed in writing, they become more engaged;Their confidence in writing begins to build.

This website deals with the idea of conferring with students. The author states that individual conversations with students are important on accessing the students and determining what they need at the time to improve their writing. The author shares a wonderful video that demonstrates how one on one mentoring and conferring can truly build the confidence of a student. The author states that it is critical to support students without taking over their ideas specially if the the student is struggling. I truly enjoyed the video as it truly illustrated the authors suggestions. I found this website interesting because sometimes we must show someone how to be a writer before criticizing their papers and assuming that they are bad writers.

This is from the library's scholarly database, you will need to login to view it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article examines the reasons university students have anxiety over writing and/or confidence in their writing. I was especially interested because of the focus on genders. The authors hypothesize that female students are more likely to experience anxiety in their writing because of a difficulty in navigating the power structures that are academic discourse, and that male students are more confident in their writing than females even when there is no difference in ability. The article conducts a study of 127 college students at a public university near the Texas-Mexico border.

This is an article by Frank Mcguire on (obviously) different strategies that are supposed to empower students and build confidence in their writing. The article starts out with the quote that we have all heard before, "It's so hard to put my thoughts on paper." The strategies listed include how to effectively implement a writing journal, the structure of assignments, discussions, positive feedback, peer tutoring, etc. The author goes through specific ways to make each of the strategies work, in order to create an effective and fun classroom environment.

This article by Caleb Corkery analyzes the use of literacy narratives as a technique to help transition students who aren't from our culture. Corkery argues, and I agree, that storytelling gives students a chance to change their identities. He cites an example given by Betsy Rymes, "Rymes claims that former high school dropouts can re-script themselves through narratives that eliminate their past identities" (51.) Also through literacy narratives, students can gain insight into their own cultural identities and through this awareness understand how one is "culturally scripted" or how their culture affects how they see writing and the writing community which they are attempting to join. One of the hindrances that Corkery mentions in his article is the difficult transition for writers who come from an oral tradition. A different consciousness accompanies oral thought. Citing two researchers who study the Athabaskan culture in Alaska, Corkery writes, "Because learning to read and write in the essayist manner is in fact learning new patterns of discourse, literacy for an Athabaskan is experienced as a change in ethnicity as well as a change in reality set" (61). While we might not have the opportunity to teach writing to an Athabaskan, we do have students that come from a oral culture. The African American community has a very deep oral tradition. While it may not be as extensive as the native tribe in Alaska, it still deals with a certain amount of ethnicity change.

In this article, L. Brent Igo researches the differences of both the competence and the beliefs views (two views which constitute self-efficacy) across three educational levels (high school juniors, college freshmen, and college juniors). He explores the idea of motivation for students to adequately learn. "Students who are confident in their ability to be successful on a specific task are likely to be motivated to engage in the task." Students are less likely to be engaged and interested in fulfilling an assignment when they lack confidence in that what they know is actually useful to completing such a given task. The nature of the task as well as an individual's prior experiences can determine one's self-efficacy within the classroom. --- this could be because of past experiences within previous classrooms and/or the lack of proper teaching/feedback from previous teachers. A teachers' feedback could also affect a student's perceived competence - the way in which the feedback is structured or what it focuses on could explain why students don't pick up on certain areas of composition as much as others.

This article is about how students have low-confidence in their writing abilities and how that greatly hinders their ability to get through a paper. The author, Christy Martinez, explains how the students haven't been taught or prepared to write well or they don't believe they can write well and so don't try hard because the students don't see the point. Martinez argues that "through mentoring and tutoring, teachers can help students become more confident, engaged writers." The article talks about where writing anxiety comes from and notes a variety of the different types of anxiety that students experience. Martinez claims that high expectations on writing is one of the major sources of anxiety. She also talks about students' self-efficacy and how that plays a major role in their writing ability. Some students believe that they can not write and that they don't write well so they don't even try to turn in a good paper. Martinez then shows the results of a study that focused on predictors of writing anxiety and self-efficacy and attempted to find the relationship. The study took gender, GPAs, and actual interest in writing as a recreational activity into account. The article read more like a self-help column towards the end. The methods Martinez list for combating writing anxiety include "breathing exercises, meditation, and guided imagery." She then goes on to note ways teachers can help students to be less anxious about their writing and to encourage them to try harder.

This article is written by Cheryl Hogue Smith, a professor of English at CSU Bakersfield, about teaching writing to students considered "basic writers." Smith discusses the difficulty of getting basic writing students who are "woefully underprepared for college-level reading and writing tasks" to learn to be better writers. The solution, she claims, is to teach writers to be critical thinkers and "less fearful performers of academic tasks." She talks about how students come to her class from all different backgrounds with all sorts of different perspectives and ideas. A lot of her students have no confidence to write in the college level and so have no interest in it as well. The article attempts to solve this problem. Smith's idea is to teach the students to better value their thinking so that they have more of an interest in their writing and eventually, more confidence.

In this article, the author interviews a several instructors and examines the different types of assessment based on the information from the instructors and students. The general purpose assessment can have many benefits such as improve students' self-confidence and expressive abilities, check the language style and composing process, and so on. The specific purpose assessment limits individual's development and pushes students focusing on the written text rather than exploring ideas from multiple media. Assessment is also very important for students and instructors because it is closely related to the grades students will get. If the assessment is not appropriate, writing practices and activities will not attract students' attention. Also, this article agrees that general purpose assessment can be more helpful for students; my question is that whether general purpose writing is helpful for students to improve writing.

The amount of different types of social networking existing in today's students' lives is gigantic, also fascinating for me. I find it important and interesting to think about many different aspects of social networking, its effects on our lives. I am also interested in looking at how people's writing can reflect their true identity at that particular point in their lives. So, this article, which is based on a research project, seemed relevant to me. Basically, it examines and discusses 5 things: a) what SL (Second Life) is; b) how SL fits the definition of a Web 2.0 technology; 3) how SL can be beneficial in composition classrooms; 4) brief review of the research methodology; and 5) how identity and otherness can be viewed in a virtual world and the writing that comes from that. The author says: "SL is a medium that challenges students and gives them experiences, and ultimately confidence, helping to make their writing more engaging to read and more enjoyable for them to write". As I was reading this article, it was interesting to look at SL as an example of liminal spaces for those who are newbies and feel as outsiders. Will they always feel and be viewed as "others"? Will this affect the writing they will do? To what degree is composition linked to literacy today? Can we predict its future and take measures accordingly?

This article by Laurie Grobman (also author of one of this week's article assignments from the course packet) describes the ways in which undergraduate participation in research and research publication contributes to increased authority and sense of authorship in undergraduate students. This authorship puts the students in discourse with their education and beyond, creating a purpose and identification with their course of study rather than making them passive receivers of it. This benefits their confidence and command of composition as well as putting them in the "driver seat", so to speak, of their participation in academia, and levels the playing field of student and "real" writing, erasing old and disadvantaging dichotomies.

This study addresses the levels of writing that are done in high school to prepare for college writing courses. This study assesses whether or not these activities of writing are adequate in prepping students for college. The questions asked are: What types of writing do high school teachers assign? Do high school teachers apply evidence-based writing practices? What adaptations do high school teachers make for struggling writers? What writing assessment practices do high school teachers apply? Are high school teachers prepared to teach writing? Do high school teachers believe that writing is important beyond high school? Do high school teachers believe students possess and will acquire needed writing skills?

This is an interesting review/exploration by Jill Parrot of Eastern Kentucky University of David Foster's book "Writing with Authority". Parrot explains that Foster's book compares and contrasts the German university writing systems with American ones to examine the effects of each on a college student's confidence and self-efficacy in writing. Foster's thesis begins, "Undergraduates should learn how to write as knowledge-makers, developing the capacities for self-direction, long-term goal setting, and cumulative, recursive task development and writing," thus setting up the focus of the study. He argues that while there are pros and cons to each country's academic practices, the German system's focus on gradual development and self-direction with frequent interaction and discussion in the early stages helps to create a more long-term oriented view of the writing process and to establish the students as authorities on a topic that they may spend a great deal of time with. Without having access to the book itself, this article serves as a very thorough analysis of the text and I found this to be very informative.