Hello!
I look forward to the inaugural Transitioning to College Writing Symposium next Friday and Saturday on the beautiful Ole Miss campus in Oxford. I appreciate all the hard work the CWR and the University has put into providing this event.

I have been teaching writing for three decades, beginning as a graduate teaching assistant at two universities and teaching for 19 years at the community college where I still work today. I almost shudder when I recall my early days in the classroom when I was a little too confident that what I was doing was easy and that I was completely prepared to do it. The humbling began rather quickly, however, and I soon developed a healthy respect for the complexity of the writing teacher’s task and a gratitude for the company of teachers willing to share and encourage. Today, I still seize any chance to interact with others in the profession, in hopes of learning my craft a little better.

This symposium promises to be one of those opportunities. I am most impressed with its simple and sensible focus: the movement of the student writer’s learning process from secondary to post-secondary levels. I see this event as an invitation to explore my part in this dynamic process of mentoring and ushering the young into their adult lives, helping them to discover and develop their precious minds through writing. Working with others engaged in the same efforts should help make the current flow a bit more smoothly for our students. I agree with Karen: many people stand to benefit from this symposium. Many hearty thanks to Alice and company (the one in Somerville Hall, not the one on University Avenue) for making it happen.
Deborah Kehoe

Teaching writing may not ever seem like “light work,” but this symposium’s goal is help make the transition to college writing a bit lighter. Teachers at high schools, community colleges, and universities will come together to discuss current types of writing instruction and to encourage each other in the complex process of writing instruction.

When I was rookie teacher, I felt all alone. It seemed as if I was given a text and was told, “Go and teach.” The responsibility for creating writing assignments and for writing instruction weighed very heavily on my shoulders. The work was very hard and heavy because my hands were the only hands involved in the process. I needed “many hands,” but I was too timid or self-conscious to ask a more experienced teacher for advice or help.

As I have matured as a teacher, I have realized that good instructional methods and good assignments aren’t to be hoarded or guarded from others but are to be shared. If teachers can share resources, more and more students will get to experience good writing instruction, and more and more students will have the potential to become good writers. Teachers can make their own work lighter by sharing, and in turn they can make the student’s work lighter. Students will benefit from instruction that has been compiled from different writing authorities, and that specialized instruction will make a writing assignment seem less challenging.

I am thankful that an assignment swap will be part of this symposium. Each teacher has the opportunity to share a favorite writing assignment (or two) and has the added bonus of taking home many new and different writing assignments. Whether someone may be looking for an assignment on a specific subject or topic or whether someone simply wants some new assignments to liven up his or her course, a plethora of assignment possibilities will be available. Remember, “Many hands make light work!” You don’t want to miss this opportunity to pitch in with other teachers and to help make writing instruction a lighter load to carry!

See you in October,

Lynndy Hurdle

Hello Writing Teachers!

Early in my career, I taught in a poor, rural school district. Middle school and high school students were housed in one building. Because the area had so few resources, that school building was the community’s heart. Students ate breakfast and lunch at the school every weekday, even in the summers. Every student showed up at the school for every sports event, every club meeting, every carnival, and every dance. There was nothing else to do. Political meetings, religious services, civic functions, and support groups convened at the school. There was nowhere else to meet. A palpable sense of community pervaded that school and all the people who were lucky enough to work there. I’ve been chasing that sense of community in my career ever since.

During my tenure at various high schools, community colleges, and universities, my students and I have worked on service learning assignments to build a sense of community with each other and with our towns. Fellow writing teachers and I have written articles and made presentations together to build a sense of community within our departments. I’ve joined with teachers from other disciplines to examine how to empower local communities through students’ work and to build a sense of community across our campuses. All of that community building has enriched my teaching and my life.

That’s why I’m looking forward to this year’s Transitioning Symposium. An empowering sense of community promises to pervade everything we do at Transitioning. Dickie Selfe’s presentation will help us understand the role of technology in building community. Lil Brannon’s mapping of student writing will show us the kinds of communities our students engage with on a daily basis. Most importantly, discussions among Mississippi teachers like you and like me will build community among writing teachers throughout the state. Our students and our state will be the beneficiaries, and I can’t wait to get started.

Looking forward to meeting you in October,
Karen Forgette

Hello Everyone!

I want to echo Bob’s welcome to the Transitioning Symposium. We have been talking about this conference for such a long time, and it is so exciting to see it all come together.

For me, as an educator, the hardest part about teaching is trying to find time to have conversations with other teachers. My focus is on my classroom, on trying to find a better way to reach that student who is having trouble with a text. Yet conversations are so important to a teacher’s development that we cannot forget to share ideas, to find out what strategies were taught in the earlier grades, and to build toward those expectations for the assignments in future classes.

This Symposium is about making connections and having conversations. It’s about exploring our own classrooms as well as asking questions across the secondary, community college, and university levels. This discussion is even more important with the incoming Common Core Standards as we explore their application to the secondary classroom and subsequent impact on the post-secondary writing classroom.

Actually, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the Common Core Standards for a while, probably since the early drafts that were lacking a substantive writing discussion. The final draft, fortunately, looks very different from the earlier drafts. As a writing teacher, I appreciate those educators who made comments during the revision process and fought for more focus on the teaching of writing.

Now that the CCS is here, I am wondering how classrooms are changing. What are you doing to implement the Common Core into your practice? How will the CCS shift how you teach writing in your classroom? How much attention is your district putting on the CCS?

If you are a post-secondary writing instructor, how do you think your teaching will shift once the CCS-prepped students enter your classroom?

In essence, I’m curious to find out where we all are in this discussion. I invite you to enter into this conversation, and I look forward to seeing you on October 7th and 8th!

Sincerely,

Ellen Shelton

Hi Everyone!

Let me first welcome you to the Transitions site. We are so glad you have stopped by. As most everyone visiting the site knows, the purpose of this conference — and this electronic space — is to create a place for conversations and investigations of the literacy education of our students, especially as they transition from high school to college/community college in Mississippi. At times we feel as if are all working in isolation on the same challenge. Our purpose is to host and encourage important conversations of our common goals so that our students get the best teaching and learning experience we can offer.

We are truly looking forward to seeing you in Oxford in October. Or, if you cannot travel this time, to hearing from you on our site.

I had one question to perhaps provoke a strand: In our current models of writing assessment, both high school and postsecondary, do we measure achievement, or learning?Is there a way to measure both? I recently attended a meeting of Cohort VI of the Inter/National Coalition of ePortfolio Research where this question came up and was discussed at some length. I happen to be a fan of ePortfolios for assessment and reflection.

One of the reasons I am interested in ePortfolios for assessment is that they can highlight the difference between learning and achievement. Learning often doesn’t happen within neat and controlled borders, i.e., semesters, but often unevenly and beyond the context of one class — the space in between the classes. ePortfolios often provide a space for students to make important connections between coursework through reflection. The values of reflection in ePortfolios have also helped us to create more independent and self-directed learners and enabled them to transfer learning beyond the classroom.

However, I acknowledge the need for comparative measures in education, and ePortfolios often resist comparing one student’s gains to another’s. Plus, I think we have an obligation to tell people what they will learn in a class, and then measure whether or not they gained these skills and awarenesses. Some of the potential shortcomings of ePortfolios in filling the role of traditional evaluations have been highlighted here, http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/16/shavelson , though I do not agree with the authors’ conclusions.

Thus, as we get started in working together, to build our community, I thought I would ask this question: Do you feel as if we measure achievement rather than learning? Do you see this as a conflict? And if so, what would be an improvement?

And again, welcome. I am excited to begin this journey with you!

Yours.
Bob Cummings