Facilitate Dialogue

Here, I reflect on my use of dialogue to help my composition students grow as independent writers.

One of the most influential readings I encountered in my ENG 484 course was Lil Brannon and C. H. Knoblauch's "On Students' Rights to Their Own Texts," which explores the importance of using dialogue to help student writers express their own thoughts.

They explain, "teachers view themselves as the authorities, intellectually maturer, rhetorically more experienced, technically more expert than their apprentice writers." This can create a strange student-teacher dynamic wherein the reader assumes the control, which can be detrimental to the student's progress if the teacher begins to make writing choices for the student. When a teacher takes over the text's fate, the student becomes a passive player who believes she is "just writing what the teacher wants to hear." Whether we mean to or not, when we take over the essay's fate, we are implying that our agenda is more important than that of the student.

To combat this issue, Brannon and Knoblauch suggest that we resist the urge to dictate and instead create a dialogue. In this setting, the teacher's role is to "consul[t] a student writer about what he or she wanted to say before suggesting how he or she ought to say it."

In order to have these sorts of constructive conversations with students, I believe there are two necessary steps: first invite friendly conversation to build trust and rapport, then foster a dialogue rather than a lecture.

Step One: Invite friendly conversation

I start this process by creating a class blog post on the first week that explains a little bit about myself and encourages students to email me with any questions they might have. With this first message, students have a better sense of who I am and how I'll be working with them in the class.

During the first week, I ask students to share a little bit about themselves with their classmates in a discussion board assignment titled "Ice Breaker." When I grade this assignment, I welcome them to the class and comment on their "fun facts" to start building a dialogue on a more personal level. 

I use these two types of messages to begin a dialogue with students that I hope encourages students to reach out to me for writing support.

Step Two: Foster a dialogue, not a lecture

I aim to create a classroom environment where I am not telling students what I think is right and wrong, but instead one where I am trying to understand what a student wants to say and then giving my feedback to guide them to possible solutions.

In order to accomplish this, I frequently ask questions. By doing this, I can guarantee that I am inviting conversation and reminding myself to get student input as well. Before I meet with students over a video call, I make comments on a Google Doc version of their essay. Though I do not read my comments verbatim, I use my comments as a reminder of what I want to cover in the workshop. It's here that I begin to remind myself to ask questions and invite conversation. When I'm reviewing the feedback, and I see a question mark, it reminds me to not simply tell the student how I would write it. Instead, I ask a question to spark a conversation and encourage the student to answer with his or her own voice and knowledge.

In addition to this, before I begin with my own comments, I like to ask students to describe the purpose of their essay and pinpoint their thesis. This helps me understand if their rough draft is matching their writing goals. If their description does not seem to match their draft, I can provide better feedback on how to meet their writing goals.

I also develop specific, genuine compliments on their drafts to motivate students and to help them understand which elements of their drafts are worth repeating.

I believe that, by inviting friendly conversation and fostering a dialogue, I am able to provide feedback that can truly help composition students build writing skills and learn how to create stronger written arguments.