WEBVTT 00:00:10.570 --> 00:00:14.990 What would happen if instead of composing predetermined 00:00:14.990 --> 00:00:18.170 assignments, college composition students could 00:00:18.170 --> 00:00:21.690 compose whatever they want to compose? What would 00:00:21.690 --> 00:00:24.670 happen if students could set their own deadlines 00:00:24.670 --> 00:00:29.570 and grade their own work? Find out as assistant 00:00:29.570 --> 00:00:33.229 professor Mason Joyner and I explore these questions 00:00:33.229 --> 00:00:36.210 with a few of our fellow English department colleagues. 00:00:40.509 --> 00:01:06.549 is the English 101 experiment. Alright, I guess, 00:01:06.569 --> 00:01:09.469 are we calling this the, uh... English 101 Experiment? 00:01:10.010 --> 00:01:12.450 Yeah, let's do it. The English 101 Experiment. 00:01:12.510 --> 00:01:16.310 All right, so welcome to the English 101 Experiment 00:01:16.310 --> 00:01:23.750 podcast. Edition. Episode one. Oops. That was 00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:28.569 my lunch reminder to eat. All right, so I guess 00:01:28.569 --> 00:01:30.689 we should probably introduce ourselves in case 00:01:30.689 --> 00:01:32.849 we ever have any listeners who don't work at 00:01:32.849 --> 00:01:36.590 Delgado Community College. Yep. So, Corey, why 00:01:36.590 --> 00:01:40.049 don't you... Get us started. Sure. My name is 00:01:40.049 --> 00:01:42.510 Corey Pellerin, and I'm an English instructor 00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:47.189 at Delgado. My name is Mason Joiner. I am also 00:01:47.189 --> 00:01:49.590 an English instructor at Delgado Community College 00:01:49.590 --> 00:01:52.890 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Okay, and I'm Monica 00:01:52.890 --> 00:01:55.849 Mankin, and I'm an associate professor of English. 00:01:57.209 --> 00:01:59.890 No, I mean, you all have ranks. You just didn't 00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:05.030 say them. Yes, yes. Yes, so also at Delgado Community 00:02:05.030 --> 00:02:07.719 College. I don't know. How long have you been 00:02:07.719 --> 00:02:11.199 working here? I've been here since 2011. Well, 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:15.240 I started adjuncting in 2016 and then was hired 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.360 full -time in 2018. Okay. Yeah, and I've been 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:22.439 here since January 2020. Okay. And then you were 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:24.939 teaching somewhere else before that, right? Yeah, 00:02:24.939 --> 00:02:27.680 I was at South Louisiana Community College in 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:31.139 Lafayette. Cool. All right, cool. Closer to home? 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:35.280 Closer to home, yeah. Okay. All right, so we've 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:38.139 been colleagues for a while now, a little while 00:02:38.139 --> 00:02:42.479 now. So I guess if we can get started with just 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:46.360 kind of what is this experiment? Why are we calling 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:50.539 it an English 101 experiment? I guess Mason, 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:53.719 do you want to jump on that one? Sure. Well, 00:02:53.939 --> 00:02:59.860 so Monica and I last semester really started 00:02:59.860 --> 00:03:03.139 talking more about being tired of what we were 00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:06.139 doing in English 101 and not feeling successful 00:03:06.139 --> 00:03:13.000 or worthwhile to the students. We, I think for 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:14.840 me and I think for Monica as well, wanted to 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:19.030 sort of... tap into that feeling that we had 00:03:19.030 --> 00:03:21.409 in school, like falling in love with writing, 00:03:21.509 --> 00:03:24.629 falling in love with language. For me, that was 00:03:24.629 --> 00:03:28.490 like the summer I was going into eighth grade, 00:03:28.650 --> 00:03:32.050 I think. I took a creative writing course at 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:34.409 the Advanced Program for Young Scholars in Natchitoches, 00:03:34.509 --> 00:03:39.270 Louisiana. The instructor of that course, Ralph 00:03:39.270 --> 00:03:42.669 Adamo, is currently a professor at Xavier University 00:03:42.669 --> 00:03:46.449 and a friend of mine now, I'm lucky to say. But 00:03:46.449 --> 00:03:51.030 at that time, my mind was blown at how fun and 00:03:51.030 --> 00:03:54.949 cool just experimental writing was. And I want 00:03:54.949 --> 00:03:58.389 to make my English 101 class more like that and 00:03:58.389 --> 00:04:02.909 less of explaining instructions for a particular 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:06.870 assignment. At the end of the semester, have 00:04:06.870 --> 00:04:08.490 I taught them how to write or have I taught them 00:04:08.490 --> 00:04:11.849 how to write this assignment? And I guess I didn't 00:04:11.849 --> 00:04:13.960 like that feeling. Well, they know how to write 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:15.780 the one thing I asked them to write. I mean, 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:17.680 more than one thing, but they know how to write 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:20.459 those four things I asked them to write. But 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:23.699 do they really know? Yeah. But do they know how 00:04:23.699 --> 00:04:25.639 to write it? Because then they go to the next 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:28.459 level and it's like, they go to English 102 and 00:04:28.459 --> 00:04:30.279 you're like, I just had you last semester and 00:04:30.279 --> 00:04:34.680 you don't remember anything that we did. Yeah. 00:04:34.740 --> 00:04:37.699 So I guess in the way of like, what is the experiment? 00:04:37.819 --> 00:04:41.990 We decided to... not give our students any assignments 00:04:41.990 --> 00:04:47.930 which sounds crazy so our students are actually 00:04:47.930 --> 00:04:53.449 designing their own composition projects so we 00:04:53.449 --> 00:04:56.870 are here to talk about that and Corey we invited 00:04:56.870 --> 00:04:59.129 you to join us for this first discussion because 00:04:59.129 --> 00:05:03.050 we heard in the hallway that you are also experimenting 00:05:03.050 --> 00:05:06.569 so you want to share with us a little bit about 00:05:07.339 --> 00:05:09.660 what your experiment is and what prompted you 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:13.680 to try something new this semester. Yeah, sure. 00:05:14.259 --> 00:05:19.420 So I realized that my students, very similar 00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:23.300 to you guys, that if we were discussing a particular 00:05:23.300 --> 00:05:26.579 type of writing, they could understand that for 00:05:26.579 --> 00:05:28.959 the most part. They needed to check off a certain 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.480 amount of things in order to get... the grade 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:33.360 that they wanted, but there really wasn't much 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:35.959 of them internalizing what they were actually 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:40.740 saying. I didn't feel like they were really owning 00:05:40.740 --> 00:05:47.300 their education as much as I would ideally hope 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:50.779 that they would. And I think that comes with 00:05:50.779 --> 00:05:53.620 a considerable amount of buy -in, and I think 00:05:53.620 --> 00:05:58.620 there just might be this kind of... The language 00:05:58.620 --> 00:06:01.100 that we're using or the types of assessment that 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:05.339 we were using doesn't really gel, for lack of 00:06:05.339 --> 00:06:10.819 a better word, with the workforce or really just 00:06:10.819 --> 00:06:15.019 with the knowledge that they already have. And 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:16.839 I really wanted to come up with something that 00:06:16.839 --> 00:06:18.620 they could build on that to where they would 00:06:18.620 --> 00:06:21.939 feel the buy -in, they would feel proud of what 00:06:21.939 --> 00:06:28.199 they were producing. What I came up with is instead 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:31.620 of having them write essays, they were participating 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.300 in a bunch of smaller writing assignments, but 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:38.540 a lot of collaborative writing assignments. And 00:06:38.540 --> 00:06:43.060 it culminates in these different projects. And 00:06:43.060 --> 00:06:46.819 the projects are going to be, or are, you know, 00:06:46.819 --> 00:06:49.120 to throw out the word multimodal, where students 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:52.160 are producing presentations where they have visual 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:59.100 text. and also um and also sound to where they 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:02.600 can create something that i think closer mimics 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:05.439 what they interact with day by day to where if 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:07.939 they can do that then they can understand okay 00:07:07.939 --> 00:07:11.639 so what are the choices of the author here who 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:14.939 are they trying to reach and how can i be most 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:19.120 impactful and uh so yeah so we settled on those 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:22.639 kinds of projects and um Yeah, they've been going 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.060 pretty well so far. Great. That's great. Yeah, 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:26.879 I think one of the things that you're speaking 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:29.019 to is also something that Mason and I talked 00:07:29.019 --> 00:07:32.399 a lot about, which is encouraging student agency 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:38.100 and creating more authentic situations for writing, 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:41.139 like actually helping them to develop that critical 00:07:41.139 --> 00:07:44.139 mind that a writer has about purpose and audience. 00:07:46.089 --> 00:07:48.290 Like the language of assignments and assessment 00:07:48.290 --> 00:07:52.170 really narrows that down and makes it very boring 00:07:52.170 --> 00:07:55.069 and I think hard for students to grasp. I know 00:07:55.069 --> 00:07:57.310 that's one of the things we were burnt out with. 00:07:57.550 --> 00:08:00.550 We know we have these learning outcomes and we 00:08:00.550 --> 00:08:03.329 know we have to kind of check these boxes for 00:08:03.329 --> 00:08:08.810 the bureaucratic side of school. But is that 00:08:08.810 --> 00:08:11.269 working to help students actually leave these 00:08:11.269 --> 00:08:15.120 classes? with real knowledge that they will apply 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:20.860 later. And even if not all of them proceed to 00:08:20.860 --> 00:08:23.019 the next level having written something that 00:08:23.019 --> 00:08:26.079 we would call necessarily academic, what we have 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:28.139 done is given them the opportunity to write something 00:08:28.139 --> 00:08:31.920 that they cared about, which I would say an ordinary 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:36.159 English 101 class is far less likely to do. And 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.000 if they've written something that they really 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.190 care about, academic or not, That, to me, seems 00:08:41.190 --> 00:08:44.210 far more valuable than having learned how to 00:08:44.210 --> 00:08:47.690 put together an academic essay. Absolutely, yeah. 00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:53.629 Yeah. I don't know if we want to get into the 00:08:53.629 --> 00:08:56.610 academic essay today. Well, just a teaser. Well, 00:08:56.610 --> 00:08:59.129 no, but I guess I'm asking, do we want to talk 00:08:59.129 --> 00:09:03.909 a little bit about it? Because I know we're sort 00:09:03.909 --> 00:09:05.529 of aware, like you were just talking about the 00:09:05.529 --> 00:09:08.529 workforce and kind of the changing face of like... 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:14.179 real world knowledge. And I don't know that the 00:09:14.179 --> 00:09:17.080 rest of academia is paying any attention to that, 00:09:17.179 --> 00:09:20.340 but we do seem to put a lot of emphasis on these 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:23.899 academic skills when most of our students are 00:09:23.899 --> 00:09:26.460 not going to go to graduate school. They're not 00:09:26.460 --> 00:09:31.690 going to, you know, spend a lot of time. writing 00:09:31.690 --> 00:09:34.950 academic papers or reading academic sources. 00:09:35.350 --> 00:09:37.129 I mean, yes, they need to be able to navigate 00:09:37.129 --> 00:09:40.789 that as a student, but are we placing too much 00:09:40.789 --> 00:09:42.409 emphasis on that? I feel like that's something 00:09:42.409 --> 00:09:46.490 that we might be reacting to in this experiment. 00:09:46.730 --> 00:09:52.269 Our frustration with that, that we're not serving 00:09:52.269 --> 00:09:55.309 them in the way that I feel like we need to serve 00:09:55.309 --> 00:09:57.009 them. And then, of course, there will be voices 00:09:57.009 --> 00:09:59.330 saying that we in this experiment are not serving 00:09:59.330 --> 00:10:01.350 them the way they need to be served. I guess 00:10:01.350 --> 00:10:04.149 there's a difference in philosophy sort of at 00:10:04.149 --> 00:10:08.210 the core of that. Yeah, I mean, well, it just 00:10:08.210 --> 00:10:10.129 depends on what the student's goal is. I mean, 00:10:10.129 --> 00:10:11.950 like you're saying, most of the students aren't 00:10:11.950 --> 00:10:14.450 probably going to be going to graduate school 00:10:14.450 --> 00:10:19.570 or having degrees in academia. So what does it 00:10:19.570 --> 00:10:21.350 help if we're just trying to hammer in these 00:10:21.350 --> 00:10:26.990 ideas that we experienced and loved but aren't 00:10:26.990 --> 00:10:29.529 necessarily applicable to the world that we live 00:10:29.529 --> 00:10:35.980 in? I think one of the things that's been interesting 00:10:35.980 --> 00:10:39.120 to me is how many of my students, without me 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:43.279 assigning them academic essays, are actually 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:47.059 creating academic texts. Because they are passionate 00:10:47.059 --> 00:10:50.980 about a topic, because they are excited to be 00:10:50.980 --> 00:10:54.679 able to turn their composition into a podcast 00:10:54.679 --> 00:10:58.490 or a video or a presentation and not... necessarily 00:10:58.490 --> 00:11:02.129 be bound to a traditional academic essay. And 00:11:02.129 --> 00:11:03.610 then some of them are just going to write an 00:11:03.610 --> 00:11:05.389 academic essay because they find all of this 00:11:05.389 --> 00:11:07.429 technology and stuff overwhelming. It's like 00:11:07.429 --> 00:11:09.710 they're able to play to their strengths and they're 00:11:09.710 --> 00:11:12.570 still choosing that, but it's their choice. It's 00:11:12.570 --> 00:11:17.029 not... And then I haven't had to explain the 00:11:17.029 --> 00:11:20.090 assignment over and over. They sort of seem to 00:11:20.090 --> 00:11:24.230 intuit what needs to be done, which is kind of 00:11:24.230 --> 00:11:30.700 amazing to see. as one of the results of the 00:11:30.700 --> 00:11:34.200 experiment so far. It's, I think, ordinarily 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:37.460 not really, even in a traditional English 101 00:11:37.460 --> 00:11:41.039 at Delgado, it's not terribly common that a student 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:43.440 would be writing a research paper. But I think 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:46.620 Monica and I both found students wanting to research, 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:50.259 and whether it's a paper or an article or something 00:11:50.259 --> 00:11:52.559 else, they want to research and compile research 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:56.100 into a writing of their own. which is something 00:11:56.100 --> 00:11:58.600 that even beyond what we would have ordinarily 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:02.419 asked. Well, yeah, and it puts us in the position 00:12:02.419 --> 00:12:04.659 to where we can be those facilitators, right? 00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:07.320 Where we can say, hey, look, I can steer you 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:10.980 in the direction. This is what you would need 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:14.039 in order to be able to deeply research and understand 00:12:14.039 --> 00:12:17.500 your topic. And who doesn't want to do that, 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:21.139 right? I mean, I feel like it is more of a service 00:12:21.139 --> 00:12:24.480 if we are helping them do something that is meaningful. 00:12:25.339 --> 00:12:28.620 to where you have a better chance for it to stick, 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:31.120 and then perhaps they could apply it to whatever 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:33.559 other situation that they get in, right? Totally. 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:38.799 Yeah, I think that really is it. Monica and I 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:41.899 wanting to make our English 101 more meaningful 00:12:41.899 --> 00:12:45.720 for us and for the students. And I think, I mean, 00:12:45.740 --> 00:12:48.279 speaking for myself, this has been a really, 00:12:48.419 --> 00:12:51.519 this semester so far has been really full of 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:53.460 meaning for me. I've been journaling along with 00:12:53.460 --> 00:12:58.279 my students. which has helped me. I am, in addition 00:12:58.279 --> 00:13:00.139 to my students designing their own composition 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:02.600 projects, I also set my own composition goals. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:06.059 And so in the same way that our students are 00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:08.500 growing as writers, I have the opportunity to 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:10.679 grow as a writer along with them, which is really 00:13:10.679 --> 00:13:14.279 cool. Yeah, I like that a lot. The idea is that, 00:13:14.360 --> 00:13:17.940 you know, that kind of gets me curious. So whenever 00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:21.210 you told your students about this, were they 00:13:21.210 --> 00:13:23.990 all really open to it or were they just like, 00:13:24.009 --> 00:13:28.809 uh, what? That's a good question. I savored that 00:13:28.809 --> 00:13:34.250 moment going over my sort of customized syllabus, 00:13:34.590 --> 00:13:36.450 liquid syllabus, I guess is the term, and we 00:13:36.450 --> 00:13:40.909 all now have one of those. I let it sink in for 00:13:40.909 --> 00:13:42.690 a moment. I said, I'm not going to assign you 00:13:42.690 --> 00:13:45.710 any essays. And just sitting in that moment for 00:13:45.710 --> 00:13:47.909 a second was a lot of fun and seeing their faces. 00:13:48.700 --> 00:13:50.820 But to answer your question more directly, I 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:54.919 think they were very open to it. Yes. Yes, I 00:13:54.919 --> 00:13:56.980 had kind of a similar experience. I don't think 00:13:56.980 --> 00:14:00.860 it really sunk in the first day when I said this, 00:14:00.980 --> 00:14:04.139 but as we started to talk about what does this 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:06.220 look like and how are we going to navigate this 00:14:06.220 --> 00:14:10.879 together, they started to get very excited about 00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:15.769 it. Just seeing that, like, oh, you mean I can 00:14:15.769 --> 00:14:19.190 do this? I want to do this. You mean I can? And 00:14:19.190 --> 00:14:25.389 I'm like, yeah, go for it. And so, yeah, it wasn't 00:14:25.389 --> 00:14:28.210 really hard to get them to buy in. I was afraid 00:14:28.210 --> 00:14:30.429 of having students that are just like, just tell 00:14:30.429 --> 00:14:33.769 me what to do. But I haven't had that problem 00:14:33.769 --> 00:14:38.700 at all. Yeah, and I think their enthusiasm for 00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:41.860 the experiment extends even into when we started 00:14:41.860 --> 00:14:45.539 talking about what is a fair workload for students 00:14:45.539 --> 00:14:49.679 in an English 101 class, what other English 101 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:52.879 students are expected to compose quantitatively. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:57.159 And they were totally, I think, into that and 00:14:57.159 --> 00:14:59.320 setting their own goals that are commensurate 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:02.519 with the appropriate amount of work for an English 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:06.340 101 student. Yeah, I've been really impressed 00:15:06.340 --> 00:15:10.620 with the students' buy -in. And I think creating 00:15:10.620 --> 00:15:13.279 a more, I don't know if official is the right 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:17.659 word, but a more official space for them to define 00:15:17.659 --> 00:15:22.159 their own goals, I think has been pretty, that's 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:23.940 part of what's bringing that meaning that I think 00:15:23.940 --> 00:15:27.120 we were craving into the classroom, because it's 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:29.500 not just about... the student learning outcomes 00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:32.159 defined by the college catalog that have to be 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:34.600 transferable across all colleges in the world. 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:42.440 But they are able to add to that their own goals, 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:44.480 which, like, I'm getting things from, like, I 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:47.860 want to be a more empathetic person to I want 00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:51.559 to have a stronger writing style. Things that 00:15:51.559 --> 00:15:54.220 I don't, I think sometimes, especially when we're 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:57.289 feeling burned out, we start to see our students 00:15:57.289 --> 00:15:59.950 in a very static way and like, they don't care. 00:16:00.129 --> 00:16:04.070 They're not in it. They don't have goals, but 00:16:04.070 --> 00:16:07.450 I just feel like this has really reminded me 00:16:07.450 --> 00:16:10.389 that that's not true. They are coming here with 00:16:10.389 --> 00:16:14.450 ideas in mind about who they want to be. Some 00:16:14.450 --> 00:16:15.970 of them are still trying to figure that out, 00:16:16.009 --> 00:16:17.870 but this is giving them an opportunity to do 00:16:17.870 --> 00:16:22.210 that too. Yeah. And I think that the different 00:16:22.210 --> 00:16:24.919 things that we're trying is We've talked about 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:28.299 the engagement, but also the end product. So 00:16:28.299 --> 00:16:30.360 I've had my students just finish their first 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:34.100 projects. And the feedback that I've gotten from 00:16:34.100 --> 00:16:38.139 them, we had a sort of debriefing. So what did 00:16:38.139 --> 00:16:40.879 you like about this experience? What are some 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:44.220 things that you might have liked to have seen 00:16:44.220 --> 00:16:46.080 added to it to where I can kind of refine it 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.139 a little bit? And I think by and large it's been 00:16:49.139 --> 00:16:52.980 really positive. Quite a few students were talking 00:16:52.980 --> 00:16:55.759 about how they did something that they didn't 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:59.980 think that they could do, right? And I don't 00:16:59.980 --> 00:17:02.620 know how many times I've gotten that with essays. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:07.460 Yeah, I agree. To where if they have something 00:17:07.460 --> 00:17:09.339 that they're kind of proud of and that they can 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:11.799 just show it to other people on their phone and 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:17.240 be like, hey, no, I did this. And sort of really, 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.180 really be proud of that. I don't know. To me, 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:23.779 that... That is something that, I don't know, 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:25.319 that's what we're looking for, right? We want 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:28.700 them to have that connection to their work, to 00:17:28.700 --> 00:17:30.839 the writing that they're trying to communicate. 00:17:31.180 --> 00:17:34.019 So ordinarily, you know, they put their paper 00:17:34.019 --> 00:17:37.680 in canvas or in my desk drawer, and it never 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:40.140 leaves canvas or my desk drawer until it eventually 00:17:40.140 --> 00:17:43.940 goes into a shredder in 10 years. So encouraging 00:17:43.940 --> 00:17:48.640 them to deliver their works. to an audience somehow. 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:50.859 I think, yeah, to what you're saying, Corey, 00:17:50.980 --> 00:17:53.640 is a game changer for them. Yeah, and maybe we 00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:56.220 should define that a little bit more. So the 00:17:56.220 --> 00:17:58.299 experiment isn't just walking in and saying, 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:01.519 like, it's a free -for -all. We do have some 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:04.559 guidelines that we're following that we developed 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:08.640 as a result of, I mean, on our own years of just 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:13.519 getting worn out by things and trying to find 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:17.630 a new way. But last year, As part of our professional 00:18:17.630 --> 00:18:20.049 development, all of us went through the reading 00:18:20.049 --> 00:18:23.630 apprenticeship, which I don't know how much we 00:18:23.630 --> 00:18:25.329 want to talk about that, but that is kind of 00:18:25.329 --> 00:18:28.990 what pushed us to make this more concrete and 00:18:28.990 --> 00:18:30.970 to say we're going to do this. So we built out 00:18:30.970 --> 00:18:35.789 some guidelines for ourselves. So this experiment 00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:38.930 is students designing their own compositions, 00:18:39.089 --> 00:18:43.849 but with that understanding that they must deliver 00:18:43.849 --> 00:18:48.730 them to an actual audience. which we're still 00:18:48.730 --> 00:18:51.750 working our way toward an understanding of what 00:18:51.750 --> 00:18:54.789 that means and how to do that. But I think that 00:18:54.789 --> 00:18:59.049 for me, it's creating that authenticity that 00:18:59.049 --> 00:19:00.890 I think was missing. And like you said, it's 00:19:00.890 --> 00:19:02.470 just like, what is the point if it doesn't go 00:19:02.470 --> 00:19:05.769 anywhere after the semester? The whole point 00:19:05.769 --> 00:19:08.569 is for you to put your oar in, right? Put your 00:19:08.569 --> 00:19:11.769 voice out there, be part of a conversation that's 00:19:11.769 --> 00:19:15.400 already happening, influence people. entertain 00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:18.480 people, whatever the purpose is there, do it. 00:19:18.900 --> 00:19:24.359 Absolutely. Yeah. I'd say adding on to, you know, 00:19:24.359 --> 00:19:26.859 fleshing out what the experiment is, in addition 00:19:26.859 --> 00:19:31.019 to delivering their work, they are creating, 00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:35.059 they are totally accountable for their own deadlines 00:19:35.059 --> 00:19:37.779 and establishing and keeping up with their own 00:19:37.779 --> 00:19:41.500 deadlines. And they are composing what we've 00:19:41.500 --> 00:19:45.019 landed on as an action plan. breaking down their 00:19:45.019 --> 00:19:48.480 projects into discrete tasks and giving each 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:54.880 task a deadline. And they're also, we haven't 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:56.759 gotten to this yet, I'm not sure Monica if any 00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:58.180 of your classes have yet, but they're going to 00:19:58.180 --> 00:20:01.220 be designing their own evaluation criteria as 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:04.900 well. So there's a lot of layered analysis of 00:20:04.900 --> 00:20:09.500 their own work and their own process in the experiment 00:20:09.500 --> 00:20:13.500 as well. Right. And I would say that even though 00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:16.039 if a student doesn't write an academic essay 00:20:16.039 --> 00:20:18.579 this semester, are they leaving our class with 00:20:18.579 --> 00:20:22.079 academic skills? I think so. Absolutely. Yeah. 00:20:22.180 --> 00:20:24.299 Being able to sit down and use a spreadsheet 00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:26.740 to manage your time and think about the parts 00:20:26.740 --> 00:20:29.940 of a process that need to take place. Being able 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:34.119 to connect goals with actions. I mean, students, 00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:36.880 even if they're not composing an academic text, 00:20:37.099 --> 00:20:39.380 my students have still all been using the databases. 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:43.099 to research, just to become experts on whatever 00:20:43.099 --> 00:20:45.579 they're writing about. So I feel like they're 00:20:45.579 --> 00:20:48.880 still going to leave this class with skills that 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:51.460 they can use that hopefully they will be more 00:20:51.460 --> 00:20:54.079 likely to use because they were invested in the 00:20:54.079 --> 00:21:00.009 process of using them in this class. I think 00:21:00.009 --> 00:21:01.569 it's important to mention, too, that the other 00:21:01.569 --> 00:21:05.470 component of our experiment does involve conferencing, 00:21:05.569 --> 00:21:08.569 right? Required conference time. I don't know 00:21:08.569 --> 00:21:11.569 kind of what your philosophy is with that, Corey, 00:21:11.710 --> 00:21:16.730 or how you're using conferences. Yeah, I did 00:21:16.730 --> 00:21:21.519 it, what, about a year ago. I kind of crammed 00:21:21.519 --> 00:21:24.019 it all in into a short period of time. I think 00:21:24.019 --> 00:21:27.920 maybe that wasn't the right move. Yeah, it's 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:30.140 rough when you're having to do it all at once. 00:21:30.339 --> 00:21:33.660 But I do think that, you know, the little that 00:21:33.660 --> 00:21:35.460 we've kind of spoken about this, that, you know, 00:21:35.460 --> 00:21:37.819 y 'all doing your conferences to where you know 00:21:37.819 --> 00:21:39.920 that the student is being thoughtful about their 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:43.599 process, you know, is obviously the way to go. 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:45.799 I'm kind of curious to see how it turns out for 00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:49.160 y 'all. Probably still some ideas. We are also 00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:51.579 curious. Yeah, we are also curious. Yeah, we 00:21:51.579 --> 00:21:53.380 should maybe mention that we're about at the 00:21:53.380 --> 00:21:56.119 midterm point in the semester. So halfway through, 00:21:56.200 --> 00:21:59.880 definitely had some moments of thinking this 00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:02.480 is a complete disaster. But then moments of like, 00:22:02.599 --> 00:22:07.200 oh, no, this is working. It's working. Yeah, 00:22:07.259 --> 00:22:10.859 I don't. So we're, I guess. We were briefly talking 00:22:10.859 --> 00:22:13.400 about conferencing on the walk over to the studio 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:18.299 here. I'm working with my students. They have 00:22:18.299 --> 00:22:20.319 four conference checkpoints they have to hit, 00:22:20.420 --> 00:22:22.539 and the first two could be done in one conference 00:22:22.539 --> 00:22:25.720 if they kind of knew what they wanted to do and 00:22:25.720 --> 00:22:27.579 they already had their action plan and timeline 00:22:27.579 --> 00:22:31.259 finished. And now we're working on like a progress 00:22:31.259 --> 00:22:33.180 check. So I'm meeting with them to look at their 00:22:33.180 --> 00:22:35.880 drafts. I'm also preparing them for in -class 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:39.339 workshops. So we're going to be talking about 00:22:39.339 --> 00:22:41.240 the difference between peer review, which is 00:22:41.240 --> 00:22:43.220 probably what most of them have heard of and 00:22:43.220 --> 00:22:46.099 done before, and like how a workshop is different 00:22:46.099 --> 00:22:49.140 from that. Because again, I think it's about 00:22:49.140 --> 00:22:51.680 student agency. It's student driven rather than 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:54.559 here's a list of questions that I as the instructor 00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:56.380 am giving you to make sure you're meeting the 00:22:56.380 --> 00:23:00.000 requirements for the assignment. So I'm actually 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.079 looking forward to how that's going to go. Yeah, 00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:07.519 I think I've been telling my classes that we're 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:10.559 going to start workshops on their composition 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:14.660 projects next week. We've sort of practiced doing 00:23:14.660 --> 00:23:18.839 workshops of imitation pieces they've written 00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:20.700 in class. They imitated a poem. They imitated 00:23:20.700 --> 00:23:23.940 a short story. And they workshopped those. And 00:23:23.940 --> 00:23:26.380 now we're going to try to apply those skills 00:23:26.380 --> 00:23:30.059 to workshopping. at least of their projects. 00:23:31.980 --> 00:23:34.920 Yeah, excerpts. Because I was looking today, 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:38.160 and I'm like, I have a student who composed a 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:42.220 translation. Oh, cool. And it's 10 pages single 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:44.339 -spaced. And I was like, oh, we're going to have 00:23:44.339 --> 00:23:48.960 to just choose a section to workshop. But it's 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:51.859 exciting to see that somebody composed that much. 00:23:51.900 --> 00:23:54.359 I have another student that wrote a profile that's 00:23:54.359 --> 00:23:59.190 like eight pages. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whenever 00:23:59.190 --> 00:24:01.869 you have that student who is just really into 00:24:01.869 --> 00:24:04.230 it, they're like, look, I know you gave me the 00:24:04.230 --> 00:24:06.470 parameter. This video needed to be five minutes 00:24:06.470 --> 00:24:10.109 long, but it's 10 minutes long and it's all substance. 00:24:10.970 --> 00:24:14.130 It's like you can't be mad at that. No, no. It's 00:24:14.130 --> 00:24:18.720 really actually exciting. Like, you know. Yeah, 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:20.400 and then I guess the final conference checkpoint, 00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:23.359 just to kind of go back to that, is the final 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:28.819 evaluation. So they do have to meet with me to 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:32.059 confer about their final grade in the course 00:24:32.059 --> 00:24:35.319 because their composition projects total 50 % 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:41.579 of the grade for the course. Right. So, Monica, 00:24:41.700 --> 00:24:45.829 what are you hoping this podcast will... Yeah, 00:24:45.970 --> 00:24:49.250 I was hoping I would be the one to ask that question. 00:24:51.329 --> 00:24:57.150 No, I think I hope that it will encourage maybe 00:24:57.150 --> 00:24:59.509 a wider conversation. I mean, at least among 00:24:59.509 --> 00:25:03.430 our faculty here at Delgado about not necessarily 00:25:03.430 --> 00:25:06.490 divorcing the academic essay, but maybe not spending 00:25:06.490 --> 00:25:09.230 so much time with it. And then also just maybe 00:25:09.230 --> 00:25:12.450 trying to share that conversation with other 00:25:12.450 --> 00:25:16.450 colleges. to see what's going on and how are 00:25:16.450 --> 00:25:20.150 other colleagues responding to kind of the changing 00:25:20.150 --> 00:25:23.230 nature of composition and our students' skills, 00:25:23.329 --> 00:25:26.750 as Corey mentioned, and just kind of trying to 00:25:26.750 --> 00:25:33.150 reinvigorate the process of teaching in 2023. 00:25:33.829 --> 00:25:39.769 Yeah. What do you want? What is your hope for 00:25:39.769 --> 00:25:48.430 this podcast? Well, coming from your answer and 00:25:48.430 --> 00:25:50.569 tying it back to our purpose with the experiment, 00:25:50.849 --> 00:25:55.529 this idea that we want to spread, at least among 00:25:55.529 --> 00:25:59.549 our faculty here at Delgado, again goes back 00:25:59.549 --> 00:26:04.009 to, for me, where this idea begins in that creative 00:26:04.009 --> 00:26:07.430 writing class when I was... 12 or something right 00:26:07.430 --> 00:26:11.609 in school I learned how to write academic essays 00:26:11.609 --> 00:26:14.109 but I was good at them because I loved language 00:26:14.109 --> 00:26:18.789 and I loved language because I learned I didn't 00:26:18.789 --> 00:26:20.250 I didn't love language because I learned how 00:26:20.250 --> 00:26:22.509 to write an essay right I loved language because 00:26:22.509 --> 00:26:24.849 I learned I learned about poetry I learned about 00:26:24.849 --> 00:26:27.470 short fiction I learned you know I learned about 00:26:27.470 --> 00:26:31.309 the the language that feeds the soul first and 00:26:31.309 --> 00:26:34.420 and that's where my mind is let's Let's help 00:26:34.420 --> 00:26:36.740 the students who could fall in love with language. 00:26:36.859 --> 00:26:40.259 Let's help that happen. Yeah. And if we've got 00:26:40.259 --> 00:26:43.779 that, they can write anything. Yeah, it's like 00:26:43.779 --> 00:26:45.859 you learned to write an essay because you loved 00:26:45.859 --> 00:26:49.880 language. Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, so I mean, 00:26:49.900 --> 00:26:52.640 that's not exactly the goal of the podcast. That's 00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:54.599 the goal of the experiment. And the goal of the 00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:57.720 podcast, I'd say, is to document certainly how 00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:04.680 this goes for more of a... logistic standpoint 00:27:04.680 --> 00:27:08.200 um does is this going to work in a classroom 00:27:08.200 --> 00:27:10.839 so there's that yeah but more largely you have 00:27:10.839 --> 00:27:12.740 to spread that message but go ahead monica i 00:27:12.740 --> 00:27:14.480 was just gonna add that i think documenting it 00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:17.660 as it's in progress keeps it's we're being honest 00:27:17.660 --> 00:27:20.039 right because i think if you do this in retrospect 00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:22.599 it's easy to polish things up and make it sound 00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:25.680 like it was just perfect it worked so well but 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:28.589 i think talking about it in real time is helpful 00:27:28.589 --> 00:27:31.150 for just, yeah, keeping it real, being authentic 00:27:31.150 --> 00:27:36.009 in our practice. Which I think this idea of falling 00:27:36.009 --> 00:27:38.009 in love with writing and wanting our students 00:27:38.009 --> 00:27:41.690 to do that, I hope to help people remember why 00:27:41.690 --> 00:27:46.259 they became... writing instructors. I didn't 00:27:46.259 --> 00:27:49.099 get into this because I want to enforce rules 00:27:49.099 --> 00:27:54.539 and nitpick over grammar. I got into it because 00:27:54.539 --> 00:27:56.680 of my own love for language, as you've been talking 00:27:56.680 --> 00:27:59.980 about, and wanting to share that with people. 00:28:00.299 --> 00:28:03.559 And also, to keep it real, I think now is a good 00:28:03.559 --> 00:28:05.779 time as any to say there are definitely students 00:28:05.779 --> 00:28:08.839 in my class now that I fear are not taking the 00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:12.490 self -directed writing projects seriously. I 00:28:12.490 --> 00:28:14.890 mean, there are students that I'm concerned about 00:28:14.890 --> 00:28:18.970 and trying to meet with those students and get 00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:20.849 to what they want to say and what they want to 00:28:20.849 --> 00:28:23.250 write and how they're going about it. It's a 00:28:23.250 --> 00:28:26.549 challenge. It is. I don't want to, this first 00:28:26.549 --> 00:28:28.849 episode, to paint like, it's going like such 00:28:28.849 --> 00:28:31.470 a breeze already. We've already mastered teaching. 00:28:32.049 --> 00:28:34.470 We're going to retire after this semester. You 00:28:34.470 --> 00:28:38.529 know, it isn't perfect so far. No, I'm with you. 00:28:38.549 --> 00:28:40.430 I do have a couple that I'm concerned about. 00:28:42.670 --> 00:28:46.410 But I think the question is, would these be students 00:28:46.410 --> 00:28:48.630 that I would still be concerned about even if 00:28:48.630 --> 00:28:52.269 I were following a more traditional route here? 00:28:53.589 --> 00:28:57.190 So I think, yeah, definitely let's keep that 00:28:57.190 --> 00:29:02.980 conversation going and keep it honest. We're 00:29:02.980 --> 00:29:04.519 running out of time, so I want to offer Corey, 00:29:04.599 --> 00:29:07.180 do you have any final thoughts or comments that 00:29:07.180 --> 00:29:12.519 you want to offer? Yeah, no, just that I'm pretty 00:29:12.519 --> 00:29:15.700 excited about other instructors being passionate 00:29:15.700 --> 00:29:18.859 about this, hearing that students are excited 00:29:18.859 --> 00:29:24.200 about it. It's sort of a rejuvenation, as I think 00:29:24.200 --> 00:29:28.000 you had mentioned. for for us to be excited about 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:29.779 it for students to be excited about it i mean 00:29:29.779 --> 00:29:33.039 like that's what we want right we want like conversations 00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:37.059 to be having we want for for our students to 00:29:37.059 --> 00:29:40.480 be passionate about what they're doing and you 00:29:40.480 --> 00:29:43.700 know honestly i i i like looking at these different 00:29:43.700 --> 00:29:47.240 forms of their like their their projects they're 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:50.200 in in projects because they're just I don't know, 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:52.259 you get tired of reading thousands and thousands 00:29:52.259 --> 00:29:55.400 and thousands of words and you're not really 00:29:55.400 --> 00:29:59.059 convinced that their heart's into it and that 00:29:59.059 --> 00:30:01.559 they're really internalizing what it is that 00:30:01.559 --> 00:30:04.319 they're doing. But whenever you see these projects 00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:07.539 that they have spent a lot of time on, that it's 00:30:07.539 --> 00:30:10.859 just careful consideration, you know that you've 00:30:10.859 --> 00:30:14.839 done, at least I think, you know, we'll feel 00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:18.619 like we've accomplished something. They've created 00:30:18.619 --> 00:30:21.619 something that represents them as a creator, 00:30:21.799 --> 00:30:27.000 which we don't get that with an evaluation essay 00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:29.299 or whatever, where it really feels like the product 00:30:29.299 --> 00:30:31.759 that they're giving you is them as a creator. 00:30:35.279 --> 00:30:38.180 Yeah, I think that's probably about it. Just 00:30:38.180 --> 00:30:41.559 pretty excited that this is going on. Well, thank 00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:45.140 you so much for chatting with us today and sharing 00:30:45.140 --> 00:30:46.779 a little bit about what you're doing as well. 00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:50.880 And we're going to keep talking with a few of 00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:54.299 our other colleagues from Delgado. We're going 00:30:54.299 --> 00:30:56.980 to dive into more detail about how projects are 00:30:56.980 --> 00:30:59.259 developed and monitored, what we do in class 00:30:59.259 --> 00:31:03.049 each day, how we're dealing with... The question 00:31:03.049 --> 00:31:07.269 of grading, evaluating the students, and then, 00:31:07.289 --> 00:31:10.049 of course, what some of the challenges and also 00:31:10.049 --> 00:31:12.369 maybe pleasant surprises have been along the 00:31:12.369 --> 00:31:14.529 way. Yeah, well, thank you all for having me. 00:31:14.569 --> 00:31:16.789 I appreciate it. Thank you, Corey. And thank 00:31:16.789 --> 00:31:25.269 you, listener. Thank you for tuning in to this 00:31:25.269 --> 00:31:28.789 episode of the English 101 Experiment. Special 00:31:28.789 --> 00:31:31.250 thanks to Christopher Nicotera, instructor of 00:31:31.250 --> 00:31:33.269 music business at Delgado Community College, 00:31:33.490 --> 00:31:36.730 for his recording assistance. All music heard 00:31:36.730 --> 00:31:39.410 during this episode comes from the Free Music 00:31:39.410 --> 00:31:43.109 Archive. Specific titles and artists are listed 00:31:43.109 --> 00:31:45.470 on the English 101 Experiment website.