Here is something I learned about me tonight: I’m not very good at academic code switching. See, there is a language that is used in the world of academia that might in some way point towards this idea of a ‘deeper understanding’ of the general communication concepts. There are words like synthesis and we perform careful examination of the most minute bits of the process of writing and give those stages names and then we create names for the names and the naming. After a while it is easy to forget that you are talking about someone sitting down to write an essay.
I cannot do it. I tried. I sat through two meetings where it was a lot of language I struggle to understand (both in content and relevancy). Eventually I broke and said something real. That real was retranslated into teacher speak by one of my colleagues. The message, in its new form, was lost to me.
I believe in teaching writing as a form of self expression and argument. I tell students that they need to realize the page is their medium to transmit ideas from their minds directly into someone else’s. That’s it. There are ways to do it and several facets I break down, but the general idea behind the craft is, ‘I want you to experience what I am feeling and how I am feeling it.’
It doesn’t need the excess terminology to give it weight.
Some Thoughts:
- Presently experiencing tech difficulties with this crap server. Who knows when this will post…