My experience mentoring first-year composition students helped me to identify and refine my teaching goals. While I strive to teach students numerous little things, such as how to write a strong thesis statement or how to find compelling primary sources, my main goal is to give students independence and agency in their learning.

 

Ultimately, most students won't spend their entire lives in a classroom setting. They will move on to their careers, families, and passions. Of course, learning does not end in the classroom. We are constantly learning and growing. That's why it is so important to me that students become active agents in their own learning; they must gain the ability to develop new skills and solve new problems when we are no longer there.

 

To foster this independence, I believe it is crucial to encourage individual, creative, and critical thinking. When we allow writing students to build their individual voices, they retain ownership over their writing projects and gain a lot more from the writing process. Instead of trying to write what the student believes the teacher wants to hear, the student is able to explore her own thoughts and use critical thinking skills to determine the best ways to communicate her ideas. 

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I have found that the most powerful tool in encouraging students to retain writing ownership is an idea that dates back to the 400s BC: as Socrates explained, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” Asking questions to show curiosity (and therefore spark “wonder”) in students' writing is an effective way to get student input and offer the most constructive feedback. Because of this, I stray away from lecture-style writing feedback sessions and instead work to develop a question-filled dialogue. (I explore how I put this into practice in my “Teaching Goals” page.)

 

Students often come to the classroom with the expectation that the teacher will hand them the “correct” essay revisions and send them on their way. By instead asking students questions about their writing goals, I dismantle this unhealthy expectation and instead reaffirm the idea that the students have control over their own writing. Rather than unthinkingly conforming their writing to my version of an Ideal Text, they become an engaged participant in a conversation about how they can improve their writing.

 

When I help students identify their writing goals and critically think through the best ways to achieve those goals, I am ultimately asking students to become active participants who retain ownership over their work and ideas. 

 

This independence gives them the ability to foster an individual voice and develop critical thinking and writing skills that will help them beyond their first-year composition course. 

 

It is my theory that fostering this active, empowering learning will cultivate strong, confident writers, add value to the course, and make their learning applicable beyond the classroom.