Vision Statement

Kim Douglas, Heather Faciane, Emma Moghabghab

We must first distinguish between the different areas of English for the purposes of teaching and learning: composition/writing, language skills (ESL), FYC, etc.

 

1.   Beliefs about learning “English” in FYC:

• Practice and application/relevance of “sameness” repetition as a rhetorical component of learning

• writing recreate, redefine, and renegotiate my interaction with the world as mediated by the material encounters with it.

• Ability to use writing appropriately/to serve my purpose in multiple different contexts academic and otherwise

 

2.  Beliefs about teaching “English”:

• What we teach in the classroom is not just for academic purposes but for communication, empowerment, and negotiation of the world

• We should provide the tools necessary for them to make the connection between critical thinking and writing using material(technologies) that is relevant to them and properly adapted to their purposes (define critical thinking skills as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, argumentation)

• It is important for their learning and success inside and outside a university context.

 

3.  Approach to teaching literacy:

• Network-based process-approach based on purpose

• Scaffolding using remediation and recursive response

• Differentiated instruction based on students’ different needs and interests and the different tools available to them

 

4.  Literacy pedagogy response

• Respond to changing ideas of collaboration and collaborative writing by using collaborative writing exercises in class and on assignments

• Respond to changes in modalities by adopting technology as a tool and a purpose (adopting remediation as a writing practice)

• Respond to changes in audience access and distance between writer and reader

• Practice academic research using the multitude kinds of sources available

 

5.  How the vision addresses the needs of World English Speakers

• Availability of resources for writing as a system

• Writing for different purposes and rhetorical situations helps in cultural understanding and negotiation

• Helps them realize, create, and negotiate the connections between all the components of the communicative process

 

Possible name for the framing theory: post-process/posthuman/new materialism