How does my writing class at Hunter College satisfy/compare to Freire's ideas of praxis and banking models of teaching in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed?
Intro
I hate writing. Writing is loathsome, taxing and painful to me. This paper is a case study of my 2014 Spring semester English 120 section 24 class. Having an undergraduate degree already under my belt, I expected this class to be boring. I hated my other writing classes in high school and college; they all focused on writing essays about readings chosen by teachers that focused on grammar and mechanical techniques. I never understood why we were learning those techniques, and I never seemed to do them very well.
Paulo Freire described a very different kind of teaching in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire’s educational model challenges traditional teaching methods because they are very rigid and they discourage students from thinking critically, forming their own questions, accessing their own experiences and using their own imaginations. Freire refers to this traditional model as the “‘banking concept of education” (Freire 72). Freire defines the banking model as one where the teacher deposits information into the student, and the student must be able to recall this information when the teacher requests it. Instead, Freire introduces “praxis” which is theory put into practice as they affect social change.
At Hunter College, my English class does not seem to follow Freire's “banking concept.” I conducted a case study to find out: “how does my writing class at Hunter College satisfy/compare to Freire's ideas of praxis and banking models of teaching in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed?
Freire and Dewey
In his Pedagogy of the Oppressed writing, Freire discusses the concepts of humanization, dehumanization and oppression. He says that dehumanization marks both the oppressed and the oppressors because in essence it is a “distortion of being fully human.” (44). He says that there is a “struggle” for humanization because dehumanization is unnatural and causes the oppressed to be violent. (Freire, 44). Freire also talks about the mindsets of the oppressors and the oppressed. He says that the oppressed may not realize they are oppressed because they are trying to model their existence as the oppressors because this is what they idealized. Once the oppressors realize they are oppressed they must be careful about the way in which they seek liberation. He makes an interesting argument that the oppressed wouldn’t truly be walking in the positive direction if they themselves become oppressors lead by the “fear of freedom.” (Freire, 46).
In chapter two of his Pedagogy, Freire goes on to discuss the educational institution of oppression. He introduces how the educators of the oppressed, gift knowledge with no connection to reality. “This relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). The contents, whether values or dimensions of reality, tend in the process of being narrated to become lifeless and petrified.” (Freire, 71). Freire goes on to say that this type of teaching causes a strain on the student-teacher relationship, where students are not consulted on their education and are being given knowledge that the teachers have deemed important and to be remembered when called for. This type of teaching is what he called the “banking” concept (model) of education.
“In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology)of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he- justifies his own existence. The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teachers existence—but, unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher.” (Freire, 72)
Freire doesn’t give a complete prescription on how to reverse or cure the banking model of educational oppression, but he does say on page 73, that the solution cannot be found in the banking model. I understood this to mean that the the contrary of the banking model must be a more effective way of educational freedom. Therefore I’ll use the contrary of the following as a gauge of the anti-banking model of educational model to base my english class off of.
Boiling it down, anti-banking model teaching consists of an idea that education is a symbiotic relationship, where both teacher and pupil will learn from and teach each other. The teacher understands that each student has knowledge and experience to bring to the table and that which is taught should supplement that knowledge. The student can also refute certain aspects of the lessons delved by the teacher based on their personal experiences which will inform and guide that which is taught. Students should be consulted on the educational plan to help keep the student-teacher relationship healthy and communicative. (Freire, 73)
In my paper, I'll have to analyze each phase of the class in order to access whether that portion or certain aspects of the phase supports Freire's Banking Model of teaching or the anti-banking model which I have just described and as modeled in Wardle and Down’s “Writing about Writing” Case study (Wardle).
One last point about Freire, Freire believed in praxis, which is defined as the practice as distinguished from theory; application or use as of knowledge or skills. He taught and practiced that the source of drive for education should stem from the goals of the individual as described by their social situation. If his students were oppressed then he used that as a source to help them to understand that they were oppressed, and also use that vigor for liberation to shape what they wanted to learned in order to become more literate. “They will not gain this liberation by chance but through the praxis of their quest for it, through their recognition of the necessity to fight for it. And this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually constitute an act of love opposing the lovelessness which lies at the heart of the oppressors violence, lovelessness even when clothed in false generosity.” (Freire, 45). Because the education was centered around their eagerness for liberation, they were able to put into practice the theories they learned in attempts to create social change and liberation
Freire’s work is drawn heavily from John Dewey, another literary who wrote a work entitled “How We Think,” for this project I would like to focus on chapter eighteen, “The Recitation of Training and Thought”. Dewey, talks a great deal about the recitation in educational settings. He says in summary that the recitation should should help it's students develop their intellectual thinking, and it is the teacher's purpose to see where its students are in their thinking and help them to go further. (Dewey, 260) In actuality, the recitation is basically a reinforcement of the same information that the teacher has already taught. His use of the concept intimate intellectual contact is intriguing. Intimate, is generally defined as associated in close personal relations; or of, or pertaining to , or existing in the inmost depths of the mind. So intimate intellectual contact is indeed descriptively accurate although an argument can be made saying that a student's family and parents can also be in contact with the student intellectually. (Dewey, 260)
Dewey, also talks about how this practice of recitation decreases the student’s imagination and creative capacities because it causes “passivity of the mind” (Dewey, 261). "It does not need to be mentioned that this practice puts a premium on passivity of the mind. Everything which has been said in the discussion of thinking has emphasized that passivity is the opposite of thought; that is not only a sign of failure to call out judgment and personal understanding, but that it also dulls curiosity, generates mind-wandering, and causes learning to be a task instead of a delight. (Dewey, 261). He also discusses that the driving force to literacy must stem from the student and be encourage by the teacher. This drive for literacy can be likened to the need of food and water when on is famished or parched. (Dewey, 261). This drive for literacy should dictate how the student wants recitation and their education to go. This will be most effective and enjoyable for the student.
We can see where Freire mirrors Dewey. Freire, in essence says that learning should a occur with the goal of social change. In Brazil, he taught in a framework that said challenged the students to learn as much as they could in order to actualize their literary oppression and change it.. Here you see the source of Freire's ideology. Dewey says that instead of forcing knowledge into the minds of the students for "blotting paper" type of retention without the student's real passion to learn and know it, the eager and "appetite" for learning a particular subject of topic should come from the student's own passions and environmental stimuli. This way proves most useful for the student because they have aa vigor to learn a particular topic in order to effect said environment. (Dewey, 265)
Lastly, Dewey gives the three true functions of the recitation, (Dewey, 262) “(1) It should stimulate intellectual eagerness, awaken an intensified desire for intelligent activity and knowledge, and love of study... (2) ...the recitation should guide them into those channels in which they can accomplish intellectual work, just as the great potential force of a river has to be directed into a particular course in order to grind grain or to convert water power into electric energy. (3) It should assist in organizing what has been acquired...” (Dewey, 262). To me, this is Dewey, example of how praxis should be applied to education that will be most useful to both the teacher and student.
Methods
In this case study, my goal is to state how this writing class compares to Freire’s concept of the banking model and how it satisfies the idea of praxis in the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. The method I chose, was to analyze Freire's idea of the banking model, along with Dewey in order to understand how both the banking model and the idea of praxis worked. I used that analysis and looked at a case study that Wardle and Downs wrote about the “Writing about Writing”. Lastly, I used this lense to analyze the English 120 section 24, 2014 Spring semester class. I use the class syllabus to base my study, there are four phases of the class (1) Growth-Process, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Social Constructivist (4) Multi-Modal Composition. With each phase, I detailed how it compares to Freire’s “banking model” and identified if and what praxis was used to explain the concepts of the phase.
Analysis
I. The Theory of this Class
I read a case study written by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs entitled ‘Reflecting Back and Looking Forward: Revisiting “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions” Five Years On.’ The case study they did focuses on an article they wrote in 2007 about courses that center on the topic of “Writing about Writing” and its implementation and results. They basically say that the topic of “Writing about writing, is better than the traditional way in which writing classes are conducted because they make writing the focus of the class and the research behind it as opposed to studying literature and the technicality of writing. “What we advocate for, and what remains stable in our own classrooms, is simply the underlying set of principles: engage students with the research and ideas of the field, using any means necessary and productive, in order to shift students’ conceptions of writing, building declarative and procedural knowledge of writing with an eye toward transfer (Wardle, 3) This mirrors Dewey and Freire because the goal is to keep the student engaged, if you give this the research behind the writing techniques, then they can apply it to their social situation which will inform their writing.
They also find that having students investigate the research behind the writing, it bring the subject to life for them. “We both happen to find that having students read about and engage with empirical research can be particularly productive in bringing ideas and concepts to life, and encouraging transferable knowledge-making” (Wardle, 4)
‘“We argued that “[o]ur field’s current labor practices reinforce cultural misconceptions that anyone can teach writing because there is nothing special to know about it’ (575) and suggested that ‘[b]y employing nonspecialists to teach a specialized body of knowledge, we undermine our own claims as to that specialization and make our detractors’ argument in favor of general writing skills for them”’ (Wardle, 4) This is a claim on the importance of the subject of writing about writing. By having non-trained teachers teach traditional writing courses, the same kinds of writers are produced. But when the research behind writing is presented, students will have a better experience and can become better writers.
“We don’t want to completely disavow our earlier view about the telling nature of the need to build instructor expertise in order to make writing about writing work. We said that teaching about the content of the field produces ‘a truth-telling course; it forefronts the field's current labor practices and requires that we ask how FYC [students] are currently being served by writing instructors who couldn't teach a writing studies pedagogy” (Wardle, 5) Here we can see the student-teacher relationship. Building a good student-teacher relationship is essential. I say this because the language used here is “how FYC [students] are currently being served by writing instructors], the Wardle and Downs understand that students bring their own experiences, knowledge, and social motivations with them and cannot be forced into cookie cutter writing courses which can damage their creativity and flow.
“What we are not finding is one of the direst predictions of critics of the about-writing writing course; bored students. many people responded to our article, and continue to respond when the occasion arises, by staying they could not imagine a writing-focused class in which student wouldn’t be utterly bored. We were initially surprised by this criticism because, while there are some difficulties with teaching this way, we have never found student boredom to be one of them - at least not in any greater degree than any other pedagogy we’d used before” (Wardle, 6) Lastly, Wardle and Downs, state how their and other’s “writing about writing” courses keep students engaged. Dewey talks about how learning should be a delight and pleasurable. In their experiences, they find that because students are engaged, they can be in praxis and application of their acquired skills.
II. Practice
A. Growth-Process
In the Growth-Process Phase, thinking and writing are intricately intertwined. Risks and mistakes are encouraged, because they help your writing to grow. In this first phase, the student’s concept of writing is identified and challenged to be looked at like an organism. An animated thing that has life and the ability to grow, change, develop, and evolve as the student’s thinking processes about the topic grows. Multiple drafts of each major writing assignment was expected and we were able to see how our writing grew with each successive draft.
During this phase we read “The Process of Writing and Growing” by Peter Elbow, “S*tty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, “Felt Sense” by Sondra Perl, “The Mindsets” by Carol Dweck, “Cut and Paste” and “Getting Rid of Grammar Mistakes by Peter Elbow. For each reading, we were required to write a response paper that contained a summary, analysis and some quotes. The following class we had a group discussion about the readings and were allowed to share our thought, concerns, and opinions towards the readings. Professor Molloy, allowed us to share our opinions first and shaped the discussions around what we were saying. This is very anti-Banking model because, Freire explains that in the banking model educators reinforce what they want the students to learn. Also, this way of teaching favors Dewey, where educators should understand where students are finding trouble and help evolve their thinking.
Also in this phase we did four drafts of our Growth Process Essay. In this essay we started out by discussing a freewrite about our passion. For me it grew into an essay that dealt with my experiences with my mom. The approach to this essay was very anti-banking, because we picked topics from whence he could draw experience and were important to us. From there it made the writing more comfortable because it related to us directly.
Lastly, in this phase, we learned through the readings the research behind growth-process writing. This made the process very interesting and interactive. Because we were able to add our experiences and issues we had with writing, we were able to address them and try to think about writing differently. As you can tell, this is very anti-banking because, the readings create a drive in each student for wanting to move forward in the opening up of their thoughts on how to approach writing. We also see Wardle and Downs, notion of teaching about the research behind the topic being learned.
B. Rhetorical
In the Rhetorical Phase we started off by covering Ancient Classical rules of rhetoric as organized and explained by Aristotle and Plato. By understanding the four types of classical rhetoric, we can understand how people can try to influence us in their writing.
During this phase, we read a comic book chapter about Ancient Rhetoric (Losh) as well as Annotated Notes on Aristotle and Plato’s take on rhetoric (Aristotle). We read some other pieces about how words can affects us and visual rhetoric with emphasis on color. This phase was very interactive. Although, we spent a considerable time on Ancient Rhetoric, it was the highlight of the course. Being able to see the different types of influence that words can be formed into, was interesting for the majority of the class. We also watched the movie “Lincoln” starring Daniel Day-Lewis and did a rhetorical analysis about a scene in the movie to practice how rhetoric is and can be used and identify it as well. We also had a field trip (How anti-banking is that?) to the Frick Museum, where we were able to see how argument can be all around us.. The building, the organization of the exhibits, even the way the place was furnished was a huge rhetorical statement.
Although the coverage aspect of classical rhetoric can be viewed as banking, in context we did need the coverage of the rules in order to grow our thinking on how writing could be done. We were invited to learn the different rhetorical arguments (Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Kairos, and Topoi), so that we could start to identify them in commercials, movies, and readings that covered. As Freire can attest, there has to be some coverage so that students can take the information that they’ve learned in order to do apply their knowledge into their social situation.
C. Social Constructivist
As we segued from the Rhetorical Phase, understanding how people can try to influence and manipulate us through words, we were able to open our minds and see how we can be influenced and manipulate in our education. In the Social Constructivist Phase, through the readings and our writing, we were able to analyze how a lot of our thinking has been formed for us through our sponsors of literacy and environment.
In the transition to this phase of the course, we studied the rhetoric of Fannie Lou Hamer in a speech she gave entitled “Until I’m Free” which helped the class transition into the Social Constructivist phase. Ms. Hamer has her own style of rhetoric which may not appear to be elite, but her style is irrefutable. The content of her speech was influential, for she touches upon the topics that highlight social oppression and in turn oppressive literacy. In this section of the course we were enlightened into how literacy could be oppressive, as Freire did to his liberated students in Brazil. We can see how anti-banking this is, because we are introduced to information in a way that we can accept or reject it and see how it applied to our literacy in general.
D. Multi-Modal
In the Multi-Modal phase, we are understanding how our writing translates audio-visually as well as digitally. Movies and Website construction and organization are not traditionally thought about as writing, but essentially it is. There must be thought that goes into how they are organized and structured and with emphasis on rhetorical organization. In this phase we are putting into practice all that we have learned in the course, in multi-modal format.
Lastly we have our Multi-Modal phase. This seems to be the most challenging phase of the course. By learning how to see writing in different ways, we are faced with the praxis of it all. With this phase of the class we have to apply everything that we’ve learned into something audiovisual and digital. The most anti-banking aspect of the tasks at hand, is that both the movie and the website should mean something to use. It should reflect who we are in a sense and make rhetorical arguments that the viewer can understand.
We read an excerpt entitled “Films as Rollercoasters.” In this piece, Donna C talks about how capturing your audience emotionally is better than any logic that you can come up with. Grabbing your audience’s and getting them emotionally invested will keep your audience interested. She asks us to think of our screenplays as a roller coaster, and for us to think about if you were reading a piece and your heart is hooked up to an ekg machine, we would see how your heart rate changes as you read. The same can be said for screenplays. Dona Cooper discusses it in 5 aspects which are Structure, Plot, Characters, Momentum, and Style. Cooper poses an interesting challenge to make a screen play most palatable to audiences.She makes the same argument Zinnser and Vonnegut does, which is to have pity for your audience and make it compelling for them, making the audience more likely to finish the piece and enjoy it.
We applied this concepts to the treatment of our research paper/project based movies. In class, when we discussed this concept, we created our own Roller Coasters regarding the movies we were going to make. We can see the anti-banking model, being used here in the class by the overall creative use of technology to transforms our written projects into an audio-visual format as well as Wardle and Downs idea of teaching the research behind the theory and practice.
I hate writing. Writing is loathsome, taxing and painful to me. This paper is a case study of my 2014 Spring semester English 120 section 24 class. Having an undergraduate degree already under my belt, I expected this class to be boring. I hated my other writing classes in high school and college; they all focused on writing essays about readings chosen by teachers that focused on grammar and mechanical techniques. I never understood why we were learning those techniques, and I never seemed to do them very well.
Paulo Freire described a very different kind of teaching in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire’s educational model challenges traditional teaching methods because they are very rigid and they discourage students from thinking critically, forming their own questions, accessing their own experiences and using their own imaginations. Freire refers to this traditional model as the “‘banking concept of education” (Freire 72). Freire defines the banking model as one where the teacher deposits information into the student, and the student must be able to recall this information when the teacher requests it. Instead, Freire introduces “praxis” which is theory put into practice as they affect social change.
At Hunter College, my English class does not seem to follow Freire's “banking concept.” I conducted a case study to find out: “how does my writing class at Hunter College satisfy/compare to Freire's ideas of praxis and banking models of teaching in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed?
Freire and Dewey
In his Pedagogy of the Oppressed writing, Freire discusses the concepts of humanization, dehumanization and oppression. He says that dehumanization marks both the oppressed and the oppressors because in essence it is a “distortion of being fully human.” (44). He says that there is a “struggle” for humanization because dehumanization is unnatural and causes the oppressed to be violent. (Freire, 44). Freire also talks about the mindsets of the oppressors and the oppressed. He says that the oppressed may not realize they are oppressed because they are trying to model their existence as the oppressors because this is what they idealized. Once the oppressors realize they are oppressed they must be careful about the way in which they seek liberation. He makes an interesting argument that the oppressed wouldn’t truly be walking in the positive direction if they themselves become oppressors lead by the “fear of freedom.” (Freire, 46).
In chapter two of his Pedagogy, Freire goes on to discuss the educational institution of oppression. He introduces how the educators of the oppressed, gift knowledge with no connection to reality. “This relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). The contents, whether values or dimensions of reality, tend in the process of being narrated to become lifeless and petrified.” (Freire, 71). Freire goes on to say that this type of teaching causes a strain on the student-teacher relationship, where students are not consulted on their education and are being given knowledge that the teachers have deemed important and to be remembered when called for. This type of teaching is what he called the “banking” concept (model) of education.
“In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology)of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he- justifies his own existence. The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teachers existence—but, unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher.” (Freire, 72)
Freire doesn’t give a complete prescription on how to reverse or cure the banking model of educational oppression, but he does say on page 73, that the solution cannot be found in the banking model. I understood this to mean that the the contrary of the banking model must be a more effective way of educational freedom. Therefore I’ll use the contrary of the following as a gauge of the anti-banking model of educational model to base my english class off of.
Boiling it down, anti-banking model teaching consists of an idea that education is a symbiotic relationship, where both teacher and pupil will learn from and teach each other. The teacher understands that each student has knowledge and experience to bring to the table and that which is taught should supplement that knowledge. The student can also refute certain aspects of the lessons delved by the teacher based on their personal experiences which will inform and guide that which is taught. Students should be consulted on the educational plan to help keep the student-teacher relationship healthy and communicative. (Freire, 73)
In my paper, I'll have to analyze each phase of the class in order to access whether that portion or certain aspects of the phase supports Freire's Banking Model of teaching or the anti-banking model which I have just described and as modeled in Wardle and Down’s “Writing about Writing” Case study (Wardle).
One last point about Freire, Freire believed in praxis, which is defined as the practice as distinguished from theory; application or use as of knowledge or skills. He taught and practiced that the source of drive for education should stem from the goals of the individual as described by their social situation. If his students were oppressed then he used that as a source to help them to understand that they were oppressed, and also use that vigor for liberation to shape what they wanted to learned in order to become more literate. “They will not gain this liberation by chance but through the praxis of their quest for it, through their recognition of the necessity to fight for it. And this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually constitute an act of love opposing the lovelessness which lies at the heart of the oppressors violence, lovelessness even when clothed in false generosity.” (Freire, 45). Because the education was centered around their eagerness for liberation, they were able to put into practice the theories they learned in attempts to create social change and liberation
Freire’s work is drawn heavily from John Dewey, another literary who wrote a work entitled “How We Think,” for this project I would like to focus on chapter eighteen, “The Recitation of Training and Thought”. Dewey, talks a great deal about the recitation in educational settings. He says in summary that the recitation should should help it's students develop their intellectual thinking, and it is the teacher's purpose to see where its students are in their thinking and help them to go further. (Dewey, 260) In actuality, the recitation is basically a reinforcement of the same information that the teacher has already taught. His use of the concept intimate intellectual contact is intriguing. Intimate, is generally defined as associated in close personal relations; or of, or pertaining to , or existing in the inmost depths of the mind. So intimate intellectual contact is indeed descriptively accurate although an argument can be made saying that a student's family and parents can also be in contact with the student intellectually. (Dewey, 260)
Dewey, also talks about how this practice of recitation decreases the student’s imagination and creative capacities because it causes “passivity of the mind” (Dewey, 261). "It does not need to be mentioned that this practice puts a premium on passivity of the mind. Everything which has been said in the discussion of thinking has emphasized that passivity is the opposite of thought; that is not only a sign of failure to call out judgment and personal understanding, but that it also dulls curiosity, generates mind-wandering, and causes learning to be a task instead of a delight. (Dewey, 261). He also discusses that the driving force to literacy must stem from the student and be encourage by the teacher. This drive for literacy can be likened to the need of food and water when on is famished or parched. (Dewey, 261). This drive for literacy should dictate how the student wants recitation and their education to go. This will be most effective and enjoyable for the student.
We can see where Freire mirrors Dewey. Freire, in essence says that learning should a occur with the goal of social change. In Brazil, he taught in a framework that said challenged the students to learn as much as they could in order to actualize their literary oppression and change it.. Here you see the source of Freire's ideology. Dewey says that instead of forcing knowledge into the minds of the students for "blotting paper" type of retention without the student's real passion to learn and know it, the eager and "appetite" for learning a particular subject of topic should come from the student's own passions and environmental stimuli. This way proves most useful for the student because they have aa vigor to learn a particular topic in order to effect said environment. (Dewey, 265)
Lastly, Dewey gives the three true functions of the recitation, (Dewey, 262) “(1) It should stimulate intellectual eagerness, awaken an intensified desire for intelligent activity and knowledge, and love of study... (2) ...the recitation should guide them into those channels in which they can accomplish intellectual work, just as the great potential force of a river has to be directed into a particular course in order to grind grain or to convert water power into electric energy. (3) It should assist in organizing what has been acquired...” (Dewey, 262). To me, this is Dewey, example of how praxis should be applied to education that will be most useful to both the teacher and student.
Methods
In this case study, my goal is to state how this writing class compares to Freire’s concept of the banking model and how it satisfies the idea of praxis in the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. The method I chose, was to analyze Freire's idea of the banking model, along with Dewey in order to understand how both the banking model and the idea of praxis worked. I used that analysis and looked at a case study that Wardle and Downs wrote about the “Writing about Writing”. Lastly, I used this lense to analyze the English 120 section 24, 2014 Spring semester class. I use the class syllabus to base my study, there are four phases of the class (1) Growth-Process, (2) Rhetoric, (3) Social Constructivist (4) Multi-Modal Composition. With each phase, I detailed how it compares to Freire’s “banking model” and identified if and what praxis was used to explain the concepts of the phase.
Analysis
I. The Theory of this Class
I read a case study written by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs entitled ‘Reflecting Back and Looking Forward: Revisiting “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions” Five Years On.’ The case study they did focuses on an article they wrote in 2007 about courses that center on the topic of “Writing about Writing” and its implementation and results. They basically say that the topic of “Writing about writing, is better than the traditional way in which writing classes are conducted because they make writing the focus of the class and the research behind it as opposed to studying literature and the technicality of writing. “What we advocate for, and what remains stable in our own classrooms, is simply the underlying set of principles: engage students with the research and ideas of the field, using any means necessary and productive, in order to shift students’ conceptions of writing, building declarative and procedural knowledge of writing with an eye toward transfer (Wardle, 3) This mirrors Dewey and Freire because the goal is to keep the student engaged, if you give this the research behind the writing techniques, then they can apply it to their social situation which will inform their writing.
They also find that having students investigate the research behind the writing, it bring the subject to life for them. “We both happen to find that having students read about and engage with empirical research can be particularly productive in bringing ideas and concepts to life, and encouraging transferable knowledge-making” (Wardle, 4)
‘“We argued that “[o]ur field’s current labor practices reinforce cultural misconceptions that anyone can teach writing because there is nothing special to know about it’ (575) and suggested that ‘[b]y employing nonspecialists to teach a specialized body of knowledge, we undermine our own claims as to that specialization and make our detractors’ argument in favor of general writing skills for them”’ (Wardle, 4) This is a claim on the importance of the subject of writing about writing. By having non-trained teachers teach traditional writing courses, the same kinds of writers are produced. But when the research behind writing is presented, students will have a better experience and can become better writers.
“We don’t want to completely disavow our earlier view about the telling nature of the need to build instructor expertise in order to make writing about writing work. We said that teaching about the content of the field produces ‘a truth-telling course; it forefronts the field's current labor practices and requires that we ask how FYC [students] are currently being served by writing instructors who couldn't teach a writing studies pedagogy” (Wardle, 5) Here we can see the student-teacher relationship. Building a good student-teacher relationship is essential. I say this because the language used here is “how FYC [students] are currently being served by writing instructors], the Wardle and Downs understand that students bring their own experiences, knowledge, and social motivations with them and cannot be forced into cookie cutter writing courses which can damage their creativity and flow.
“What we are not finding is one of the direst predictions of critics of the about-writing writing course; bored students. many people responded to our article, and continue to respond when the occasion arises, by staying they could not imagine a writing-focused class in which student wouldn’t be utterly bored. We were initially surprised by this criticism because, while there are some difficulties with teaching this way, we have never found student boredom to be one of them - at least not in any greater degree than any other pedagogy we’d used before” (Wardle, 6) Lastly, Wardle and Downs, state how their and other’s “writing about writing” courses keep students engaged. Dewey talks about how learning should be a delight and pleasurable. In their experiences, they find that because students are engaged, they can be in praxis and application of their acquired skills.
II. Practice
A. Growth-Process
In the Growth-Process Phase, thinking and writing are intricately intertwined. Risks and mistakes are encouraged, because they help your writing to grow. In this first phase, the student’s concept of writing is identified and challenged to be looked at like an organism. An animated thing that has life and the ability to grow, change, develop, and evolve as the student’s thinking processes about the topic grows. Multiple drafts of each major writing assignment was expected and we were able to see how our writing grew with each successive draft.
During this phase we read “The Process of Writing and Growing” by Peter Elbow, “S*tty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, “Felt Sense” by Sondra Perl, “The Mindsets” by Carol Dweck, “Cut and Paste” and “Getting Rid of Grammar Mistakes by Peter Elbow. For each reading, we were required to write a response paper that contained a summary, analysis and some quotes. The following class we had a group discussion about the readings and were allowed to share our thought, concerns, and opinions towards the readings. Professor Molloy, allowed us to share our opinions first and shaped the discussions around what we were saying. This is very anti-Banking model because, Freire explains that in the banking model educators reinforce what they want the students to learn. Also, this way of teaching favors Dewey, where educators should understand where students are finding trouble and help evolve their thinking.
Also in this phase we did four drafts of our Growth Process Essay. In this essay we started out by discussing a freewrite about our passion. For me it grew into an essay that dealt with my experiences with my mom. The approach to this essay was very anti-banking, because we picked topics from whence he could draw experience and were important to us. From there it made the writing more comfortable because it related to us directly.
Lastly, in this phase, we learned through the readings the research behind growth-process writing. This made the process very interesting and interactive. Because we were able to add our experiences and issues we had with writing, we were able to address them and try to think about writing differently. As you can tell, this is very anti-banking because, the readings create a drive in each student for wanting to move forward in the opening up of their thoughts on how to approach writing. We also see Wardle and Downs, notion of teaching about the research behind the topic being learned.
B. Rhetorical
In the Rhetorical Phase we started off by covering Ancient Classical rules of rhetoric as organized and explained by Aristotle and Plato. By understanding the four types of classical rhetoric, we can understand how people can try to influence us in their writing.
During this phase, we read a comic book chapter about Ancient Rhetoric (Losh) as well as Annotated Notes on Aristotle and Plato’s take on rhetoric (Aristotle). We read some other pieces about how words can affects us and visual rhetoric with emphasis on color. This phase was very interactive. Although, we spent a considerable time on Ancient Rhetoric, it was the highlight of the course. Being able to see the different types of influence that words can be formed into, was interesting for the majority of the class. We also watched the movie “Lincoln” starring Daniel Day-Lewis and did a rhetorical analysis about a scene in the movie to practice how rhetoric is and can be used and identify it as well. We also had a field trip (How anti-banking is that?) to the Frick Museum, where we were able to see how argument can be all around us.. The building, the organization of the exhibits, even the way the place was furnished was a huge rhetorical statement.
Although the coverage aspect of classical rhetoric can be viewed as banking, in context we did need the coverage of the rules in order to grow our thinking on how writing could be done. We were invited to learn the different rhetorical arguments (Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Kairos, and Topoi), so that we could start to identify them in commercials, movies, and readings that covered. As Freire can attest, there has to be some coverage so that students can take the information that they’ve learned in order to do apply their knowledge into their social situation.
C. Social Constructivist
As we segued from the Rhetorical Phase, understanding how people can try to influence and manipulate us through words, we were able to open our minds and see how we can be influenced and manipulate in our education. In the Social Constructivist Phase, through the readings and our writing, we were able to analyze how a lot of our thinking has been formed for us through our sponsors of literacy and environment.
In the transition to this phase of the course, we studied the rhetoric of Fannie Lou Hamer in a speech she gave entitled “Until I’m Free” which helped the class transition into the Social Constructivist phase. Ms. Hamer has her own style of rhetoric which may not appear to be elite, but her style is irrefutable. The content of her speech was influential, for she touches upon the topics that highlight social oppression and in turn oppressive literacy. In this section of the course we were enlightened into how literacy could be oppressive, as Freire did to his liberated students in Brazil. We can see how anti-banking this is, because we are introduced to information in a way that we can accept or reject it and see how it applied to our literacy in general.
D. Multi-Modal
In the Multi-Modal phase, we are understanding how our writing translates audio-visually as well as digitally. Movies and Website construction and organization are not traditionally thought about as writing, but essentially it is. There must be thought that goes into how they are organized and structured and with emphasis on rhetorical organization. In this phase we are putting into practice all that we have learned in the course, in multi-modal format.
Lastly we have our Multi-Modal phase. This seems to be the most challenging phase of the course. By learning how to see writing in different ways, we are faced with the praxis of it all. With this phase of the class we have to apply everything that we’ve learned into something audiovisual and digital. The most anti-banking aspect of the tasks at hand, is that both the movie and the website should mean something to use. It should reflect who we are in a sense and make rhetorical arguments that the viewer can understand.
We read an excerpt entitled “Films as Rollercoasters.” In this piece, Donna C talks about how capturing your audience emotionally is better than any logic that you can come up with. Grabbing your audience’s and getting them emotionally invested will keep your audience interested. She asks us to think of our screenplays as a roller coaster, and for us to think about if you were reading a piece and your heart is hooked up to an ekg machine, we would see how your heart rate changes as you read. The same can be said for screenplays. Dona Cooper discusses it in 5 aspects which are Structure, Plot, Characters, Momentum, and Style. Cooper poses an interesting challenge to make a screen play most palatable to audiences.She makes the same argument Zinnser and Vonnegut does, which is to have pity for your audience and make it compelling for them, making the audience more likely to finish the piece and enjoy it.
We applied this concepts to the treatment of our research paper/project based movies. In class, when we discussed this concept, we created our own Roller Coasters regarding the movies we were going to make. We can see the anti-banking model, being used here in the class by the overall creative use of technology to transforms our written projects into an audio-visual format as well as Wardle and Downs idea of teaching the research behind the theory and practice.
III. Social Change
Unfortunately, the scope of this class did not complete the full definition of Freire’s practice in regards to social change. As the class started, we discuss our passions and that which interested us most but the idea of social change was not a main thread throughout the class although, if it were, each student had a topic that they were passionate about, as detailed by the growth process essay and research paper/project. It is unfortunate that this thread was not weaved through the class because the caliber of students in the class would have come up with some interesting ways and concepts in order to effect social change regarding the aforementioned concepts that they expressed passions of. This leg of praxis may have helped create an even power thirst or drive to finish tasks in the class.
Conclusion
To conclude this project, my English class is successful in its aim to help my fellow students and I think about writing differently and more openly. It is extremely anti-banking model in theory and practice. It creates an open atmosphere where the research behind writing can be discussed and students can bring their own passions and social situations to the forefront. This atmosphere helps students to take the tools that they have learned and apply it directly to their own everyday writing tasks as well as educational approaches.
Unfortunately, the scope of this class did not complete the full definition of Freire’s practice in regards to social change. As the class started, we discuss our passions and that which interested us most but the idea of social change was not a main thread throughout the class although, if it were, each student had a topic that they were passionate about, as detailed by the growth process essay and research paper/project. It is unfortunate that this thread was not weaved through the class because the caliber of students in the class would have come up with some interesting ways and concepts in order to effect social change regarding the aforementioned concepts that they expressed passions of. This leg of praxis may have helped create an even power thirst or drive to finish tasks in the class.
Conclusion
To conclude this project, my English class is successful in its aim to help my fellow students and I think about writing differently and more openly. It is extremely anti-banking model in theory and practice. It creates an open atmosphere where the research behind writing can be discussed and students can bring their own passions and social situations to the forefront. This atmosphere helps students to take the tools that they have learned and apply it directly to their own everyday writing tasks as well as educational approaches.
Works Cited
- Aristotle. The Rhetoric and Poetics of Aristotle. (c.360-353 BCE) New York: McGraw Hill, 2d Ed. 1984. [Excerpt Book Two, Chapter One.] Print.
- Carroll, Laura Bolin. “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis.” Writing Spaces: Readings On Writing, Volume One. Eds, Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Parlour Press, 2010. 45-58. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.Dewey, John. How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process. Boston: D.C. Health and Company, Print.
- Cooper, Dana. “Films as Rollercoasters” Writing Great Screenplays for Film and TV. 2d ed. New York: Macmillan, 1997. Print.
- Dewey, John. "The Recitation and the Training of Thought." How we think, a restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process,. Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1933. . Print.
- Dweck, Carol. “The Mindsets.” Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine, 2006. 3-14. Print.
- Elbow, Peter “The Process of Writing and Growing.” Writing Without Teachers. (1973) 2d ed. New York: Oxford U P, 1998. [excerpt] 12-25. Print.
- Freire, Paulo. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (1968) New York: Continuum, 2005. [Excerpts 43-47, 71-75.] Print.
- Hamer, Fannie Lou. “Until I am Free, You are Not Free Either.” (Jan 1971) The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is. _____: U P of Miss, 2010. 121-130. Print.
- Losh, Elizabeth M., and Jonathan Alexander. Understanding rhetoric: a graphic guide to writing. Print.
- Molloy, Sean. "SYLLABUS – SPRING 2014 “Expository Writing -- ENGL 120”." . N.p., 1 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
- Perl, Sondra. Felt Sense: Writing With the Body. Portsmouth: Boynton-Cook, 2004. 1-10. Print.
- Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. "Reflecting Back and Looking Forward: Revisiting “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions” Five Years On." . Composition Forum, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 May 2014. <http://compositionforum.com/issue/27/reflecting-back.php>.
Click here to check out my Annotated Bibliography