Hello, I'm Lydia Noland

Though it may have killed the cat, curiosity is the best policy in any classroom.

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Though I am a composition instructor, in some ways, I still draw on my past work as a librarian to encourage a love of reading and writing through my engagement strategies. In his essay “Why All Writing is Creative Writing,” David McVey suggests, “writers (and teachers) in education should work to promote both reading and a love of reading, and writing as a pleasure and process, not just means to an end” (293). I know that I am not the final authority on anything, I simply lead my students to the knowledge that they require. It’s a process of trying different approaches and exploring different genres, but the payoff feels very similar to getting someone to find the perfect book. I use the term “Goldilocks-ing” quite frequently, to say that it’s not too little or too much, that it’s just right. I don’t want my students to be under- or overwhelmed by what they learn in class, I want them to find their perfect fit in those materials and ideas so that they can see effective communication and writing as an essential tool that can be implemented every day. I constantly encourage my students to be curious– with what they’re reading, watching, or creating. The focus of ENG 101 is rhetorical analysis. It is about getting students to criticize and filter everything that they consume, boiling it down to its most simple purpose or function, and then seeing how the different elements interact to create that effect. What I encourage them to do, and what I do with them all semester, is ask, “why?”.

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Most of them already have the knowledge that we teach them in composition- the baseline skills are already there. They may not know how to define or refine them, but most students enter the class already knowing how to write, and in some ways how to analyze, they just need to build up those skills and, hopefully, learn to see them as enjoyable and productive, even outside of the classroom.

One of my favorite ways to get students engaged in class is to get them to open up and share their stories, to explore self-expression and reflection. bell hooks finds that education should “connect the will to know with the will to become” (18-19). Students first have to understand themselves, or at least begin to, to really understand how they view the world and their future selves. My favorite project to do with students is a This I Believe essay in which they share the values they have, and the rules they live by. I let students be as serious or trivial as they want to be; I’ve had topics ranging from religious values and family to coming out stories and homelessness, and I’ve had students write about their love for ranch dressing and Taylor Swift. These are the essays I’ve found most memorable, for me and for my students, because it helps them navigate who they really are now that they’re out on their own, and helps them figure out who they truly want to be. I encourage some play with this project by having students practice presenting by reading children’s books aloud to the class, being as silly as possible- another idea pulled from my past storytimes at the library. Hopefully, this removes any nerves they have about performing their essays. I give an example first, being entirely ridiculous, in a way- to shock them out of our usual more serious learning setting- and then let them go as they choose. Not everyone has to, just those who choose to embrace the assignment for what it is, play. 

 

McVey asks, “how can we give students the confidence to write, and how can we ensure that they flex their writing muscles so that essays and other written work do not come as such a shock?” (292). I think the solution to this is small, scaffolded creative writing prompts that tie into the same reflective or analytical skills that the larger projects require. Students see these as fun exercises, and I use them to help meet class goals. I often call them “brain breaks,” so they recognize I’m asking for a different, more informal kind of writing. However, the prompts tangentially relate to their larger project topics, and help them start thinking in new ways about the same idea, or developing new methods for the same end goal. This gets them to understand that academic writing, or even professional writing, is still an act of creativity and that these processes help inform each other. 

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Throughout all of these activities, it is important to me that I stay in dialogue with my students and that they remain that way with each other. Learning is easier when it is an act of community where everyone can get involved and work to strengthen each other. This constant conversation helps my students see me as closer to a peer than a teacher. I, like them, am a student constantly engaged in the learning process. It is important that they understand I learn just as much from them as they do from me.