It’s the holidays! During this season, every high school English teacher asks themselves, “How can I fit it all into my curriculum?” Being tasked with reading, writing, speaking, listening, among other skills, English teachers have 180 days to figure out how to best serve all their students. Now, we are halfway finished with the year! Between novel units, vocabulary sets, language lessons, ACT preparation, and research, secondary educators, at least in the small area where I am from, struggle with instilling a love of writing in their students. Why? It takes time; students don’t enjoy it. The ACT doesn’t require it. If teachers include one writing assignment per unit, they’re “golden!” I remember these challenges when I taught in the high school English classroom until one warm, spring afternoon everything changed!
I saw the bright rays of light, piercing through the white, slatted blinds of my classroom. I wondered, “How will these sunshine deprived students respond to an outdoor classroom today?” I announced that we would conduct our writing exercise outside where students could sit under a nearby shade tree or on the white concrete sidewalk. These normally passive learners grabbed their backpacks and swiftly made their way for the outdoors with a writing readiness they had not previously demonstrated. Remembering this day of teaching caused me to research place-based writing. I asked the following questions: What is the benefit of place-based writing? How will place-based writing affect student outcomes? Although there are many positive results, a few benefits of place-based writing include supporting student academic performance and boosting their social capital.
Now, as a university composition instructor, I see the consequences of students who did not write in high school or the ones who received disappointing feedback (at least in their minds). Now, at the beginning of each semester, I desire to boost my students’ writing confidence; therefore, I begin the semester with a place-based writing unit in my first-year composition course. This unit helps students to feel like creative and confidence writers and generates interest and motivations in composition. I ask students to write about topics familiar to them so that they can feel like experts in the classroom. Based on Owen’s (2001) course syllabus, I ask students to study a place that matters to them. Initially, I have students write a detailed description of their homes. If students struggle with their current living conditions, I allow them to write about a significant place from their pasts. I prompt them to describe this place with sensory imagery so that the reader can form an accurate picture of this place and its influence on the writer. The place can be one of like or dislike. Additionally, I have them draw a map of this space. This initial writing exercise should be about 2-3 pages in length. Students tend to love this unit, and they perform quite well as first-year compositionists.
Along with the detailed description of an importance place, I have students read excerpts from “Working Landscapes” and “Scary Places,” writing a response of agreement or disagreement (or both) with these authors. These authors highlight what they believe to be “good” places. At this point, I ask students to articulate the desirable or undesirable qualities associated with their chosen place. I also present them with questions that challenge them to critically analyze their “place” of choice. Taken from Owens’s (2001) syllabus, these questions include the following: Will they live here in the future? Why or why not? Would you like to live in a similar place? If you don’t want to move, what keeps you planted in this place? If students are able to bring pictures of their homes, I have them bring these artifacts to share with their writing group.
The next step in the unit allows students to take their project a step further into their communities, associating their ideas of a “good neighborhood” in contrast to what they believe a “bad neighborhood” to be. As students craft their neighborhood responses, I have them read “The Father of Parks, and Traffic” and “The City-Shaper.” Students will highlight the two authors’ influences on their neighborhoods/regions in which they lived, as well as answer more questions about a “good place,” such as “What must it have? What shouldn’t it have?” (Owens, 2001, p. 118).
My students have written about their communities and the memories tied to those special locations. I have topics like beautiful caverns, the Czech Festival in Prague, Oklahoma, the local swimming pools, haunted houses, football stadiums, vacations (with Piktochart), arcades, and home countries.
As students complete these projects, they open up to each other and create a safe learning environment. Students demonstrate a willingness to think, to write, and to learn about others, engaging in meaningful conversations about the work that they are proud to share. Not only do they become better writers, readers, thinkers, and collaborators, but also many of them share with me that they have never performed so well in an English class. Much like Owens (2001), I focus on “growth rather than performance” (p. 178). Although I take grades, I assess their work based on the content. Did they use descriptive language? Did they include their home language? Do they add characters (real people) who interact with them through dialogue? My students gain confidence, not only in their writing skills, but also in their place in academia.
Additionally, my students develop friendships with whom they study, they experience college life, and they create a community of learners, all of which encourage them to stay in school. Sobel (2005) explains that when individuals discuss topics “for the collective good of a community,” they are increasing their social capital. This happens every day in my college classroom.
References
Owens, D. (2001). Composition and sustainability: Teaching for a threatened generation.
National Council of Teachers of English.
Sobel, D. (2005). Place-based education: Connecting Classrooms & Communities (Ser. Nature
Literacy Series). Orion Society.
Author
Jolie Hicks is an instructor of English and the English Education Program Coordinator at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Oklahoma. She has the honor of teaching first-year writing courses and English Education courses. She also enjoys mentoring and supervising English Education pre-service teachers and teacher candidates. Prior to her university post, Mrs. Hicks taught high school English, grades 9-12, as well as Leadership, for six years at Weatherford High School. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and her Master of Education in Instructional Coaching from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Jolie Hicks is pursuing her Ph.D. in Education (Language, Literacy, and Culture) from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Her research interest includes culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive education in pre-service teacher curriculum.
Jolie, I love your article and the ideas you shared to create a community for college composition writers. I’ll be borrowing these techniques next semester! Thanks!
I believe you will enjoy this writing unit! Thank you so much for the feedback!