Low-Stakes Writing with a High-Tech Twist >Kella Hammond

Like James Bond, I like my writing (and reading) shaken, not stirred. I seek writing that is provocative, thoughtful, colorful and edgy. Let me read the Louises: Glück, the poet, and Erdrich, the novelist. I love contemporary writers like Vladimir Nabokov, George Saunders, Lorrie Moore, and JoAnn Beard, yet I still turn to Boethius, Basho, and the Brontës.

And like many of you, I will venture to say that as soon as I put forth a writing prompt to my students, one that I think embodies all Ian Fleming hoped James Bond could be, I realize that students sometimes, okay oftentimes, don’t see the sexiness, the danger, or the allure of writing. They see a grade, an assignment, another night’s sleep lost to staring at a blank computer screen, and an upset stomach due to drinking too much coffee, Red Bull or Mountain Dew.

I know all of this because I was "that student." I still battle the dark pull of procrastination or mental drift or whatever you call the semi-permanent, self-imposed pause button, that deadly art that many of us, if we’re being honest, have practiced at one time or another.

So, I think to myself, how can we shake up our students’ writing habits? How can we call them back from the siren song of procrastination and uninspired prose? In a phrase, low-stakes writing.

In the 1997 essay "High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding to Writing," Peter Elbow, the famed writing pedagogy professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, makes a convincing case for integrating low-stakes writing in class:

• 5-10 minutes of writing at the start of class to help students bring to mind their homework reading or lab work or previous lectures.
• 5-10 minutes in mid class when things go dead—or to get students to think about an important question that has come up.
  5-10 minutes at the end of class or lecture to get them to think about what’s been discussed.
• 5 minutes at the end of class to write to us about what they learned that day: what was the main idea for them? What was going on for them during that class? This helps them integrate what they’ve heard, and if we collect it, we learn what’s getting through and what isn’t (Elbow, 1997).

Writing as a form of unevaluated exploration is not a new idea. This is a very basic and classic function of writing and communication in general … to seek, to play, to figure out what one believes and thinks, to disagree with a towering figure that surely won’t listen to the rebuttal until it is hashed out on the safety of paper or screen, and to improve one’s fluency in writing by doing exactly that—writing.

And yet I have felt that if I didn’t review every piece of students’ writing, I am doing them a grave disservice. I am not teaching them; I am slacking. I’ve found I am surely—and sorely—wrong.

Low-stakes—aka, ungraded, though not unread—writing, as Elbow points out, is often "livelier, clearer and more interesting—in spite of any carelessness and mistakes" than high stakes (read, graded) writing (1997). Elbow even goes so far as to say, "I’ve almost never seen a piece of low stakes writing I couldn’t easily understand, but I’ve seen lots of high stakes writing that students have worked very hard on—and found it impenetrable" (1997). I know what he means. I’ve seen students who I know are smart, capable, and contain bucket loads of promise and hard work and I want to cry or laugh when I see them eek out the most confusing, opaque sentences and paragraphs.

But I do think there is hope—the bright and shining technological hope that students already practice low-stakes writing in their Facebook and Twitter updates, in emails to their professors, academic advisors and support services such as the Writing Center, in chat rooms during seminar, and beyond.

Which got me to thinking: How could we incorporate more low-stakes writing in a high-tech classroom?

• Use Twitter to teach students how to write with haiku-like concision. When one only has 140 words to work with, action verbs, strict diction, and a laser-like ability to cut out the fluff are imperative. While many of us use Twitter for class announcements, why not ask students to practice writing topic sentences, emerging thesis statements, and summaries in a Twitter-based workshop? Students who follow class tweets can respond immediately with specific, concrete ideas and receive feedback from one another.
• Incorporate chat room "stop and jots." Have students chat their initial, emerging reactions to controversial ideas, images and concepts in the classroom. It’s amazing how a little wait time can really get student participation and ideas flowing, not to mention how stop and jots encourage critical thinking and low-stakes writing.
• Encourage a sense of playfulness and discovery. Ask students to create word lists with Thinkmap’s Visual Thesaurus as form of ungraded prewiting. Help students see how words and ideas connect, intersect, overlap and influence the stance one takes in his or her writing. See how one word and thought branches out to others. Visual learners will be especially happy to see that writing isn’t a purely text-based pursuit. Images, sounds, sights, and our senses in general prompt us to connect with language and expression. Help students feel the sensual side of writing as Michael Lydon suggests in his essay, "The Art of Phrasing."
• Create sentence-level challenges like Quadrivial Quandary. As the web site says, "Each day we present four words from our favorite dictionary sites. Your challenge is to use them all in one sentence that illustrates their meanings." Create a similar exercise for students as a beginning of class activity based on the ideas you cover in your content area. Push students to make connections, take risks in content-related writing, and reward students who make the effort to write into the unknown.
• Prompt students to respond to real audiences and current events. I think all of us strive to do this, but how cool is it to get students riled about writing when they see their greater role within the marketplace of ideas and not just "a class"? Point out articles, podcasts, blogs, YouTube videos, and other tech-rich texts that require user-generated content and ratings. Remind your students to weigh in and provide their responses and thoughts as global readers and citizens.

I’d also love to hear from others about how they encourage low-stakes writing with technology so students create "livelier, clearer, and more interesting" texts for authentic audiences. Please post your comments below so we can begin to compile a "living" list for those who are interested.

Like Diane Martinez, Writing Specialist at the KU Writing Center, said in response to an article I wrote for the October 2009 edition of the Writing Across the Curriculum Newsletter, "We need to give students room to practice writing. We are sometimes so focused on the end product of a project that we don’t afford students the opportunity to practice. Just how can we incorporate more practice into our curriculum and resources?"

Personally, I think we can incorporate more writing practice into our students’ learning by using low-stakes writing more often in the writing process. We have the opportunity to empower students to find their own words for the issues that really matter by practicing writing that sets the foundation for polished drafts and finished essays. Low-stakes writing promotes active learning in our classes and communities. And let’s not forget: "Low stakes writing takes little of our time and expertise" (Elbow, 1997). We can create a culture of inquiry by reminding students that the most important writing they’ll do, especially once they’re outside of our classes, won’t be for a grade.

References
Elbow, P. (1997). High stakes and low stakes in assigning and responding to writing. In Deane Sorinelli, M. & Elbow, P. (Eds.), Assigning and Responding to Writing in the Discipline. Retrieved from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Faculty Center on November 16, 2009, from http://www.wsc.mass.edu/facultycenter/lowstakes-benefits.pdf
Lydon, M. (2009, October 8). The art of phrasing. Retrieved from Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus on November 23, 2009, from http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/2013/
Quadrivial Quandary. (2009). Retrieved November 23, 2009, from http://www.quadrivialquandary.com/
Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus. (2009). Retrieved November 23, 2009, from http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Did you know...
Michaella was named after her great-aunt Megella, who was a teeny tiny Sicilian spitfire who chain smoked filtered cigarettes and wore leopard-print outfits? Kella is somewhat taller (um, by a foot) than her namesake, but she channels her great-aunt’s spirit whenever she’s in need of a sassy approach to life.

Kella is a resource specialist in the Writing Center.

How to Be A WAC Groupie, Or Three Easy Steps to Following this Blog >Kella Hammond

Click on the tutorial below for a video of the directions in this post.

1. Subscribe to an online content aggregator (Really Simple Syndication [RSS] reader) such as Google Reader, Bloglines, Netvibes, Newsgator, My Yahoo, or Atom. These free and fairly simple feed readers check your favorite blogs, web sites, or other routinely updated online content daily and place all of the information you choose to receive in one easy-to-use, accessible, and private place. I love Google Reader because I don’t have to spend time visiting each and every web site I’m interested in; the information comes to me. Remember when news services (you know, like newspapers... poor old dinosaurs… a student of mine last semester laughed at me when I told him I had majored in journalism as an undergraduate [true story]) subscribed to syndication services such as United Press International, Reuters, or the Associated Press? The RSS feed reader follows the same premise—you subscribe to the information you want to follow by adding URLs to your feed reader and then the reader brings that information to you in one centralized place.

Additional resources you may find handy if the idea of an RSS reader is new to you:

• “How to Use Google Reader” by Andy Wibbels: http://andywibbels.com/flash/google_reader.htm
  
• Common Craft’s “RSS in Plain English" by Lee LeFever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

2. Follow the Writing Across the Curriculum blog by clicking on the “Follow” button on the right hand side of the site. By following our blog, you’ll not only join a diverse community of scholars, professors, writers, and thinkers, you’ll also get a chance to show public support of the Writing Across the Curriculum initiative and the ideas on this blog. Lastly, when you follow the WAC Newsletter blog, you also automatically import your blog subscription into Google Reader, one of the RSS readers I mentioned above.

3. Simply enter your e-mail address in the “Subscribe Via Email” form on the Writing Across the Curriculum blog and you’ll receive an email from us whenever we update our content. As they say at FeedBurner, “No new content, no email for you.” Period.

STEP 1: Enter your email address into the appropriate form [found on our blog].

STEP 2: Check your email to see if you received the subscription request.

STEP 3: Click on the URL link in the subscription email request from FeedBurner to activate your subscription.

Hello there,

You recently requested an email subscription to Writing Across the Curriculum Newsletter. We can't wait to send the updates you want via email, so please click the following link to activate your subscription immediately:

(If the link above does not appear clickable or does not open a browser window when you click it, copy it and paste it into your web browser's Location bar.)

STEP 4: Bask in your confirmation glory! [And then our updated content comes to you.]

And as always, if you have questions about how to get the most out of your Writing Across the Curriculum blogging experience, don’t hesitate to let us know. We’re happy to help!

Kella Hammond is a resource specialist in the Writing Center.

Did you know...

Kella walked a half marathon [13.1 miles] on a sprained ankle in October 2008 for the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco, California? She doesn’t recommend this practice, but she did think the buffalo at the Golden Gate Park were totally worth the price of admission and the ice bath she took afterwards. Seriously, buffalo rock.

Fragments > Kella Hammond

"Fragments of specialized knowledge in sealed, disconnected boxes…Synthesis are often a Cinderella in our classrooms and curriculum." -Professor Pan Papacosta, Columbia College

It’s after midnight in St. Louis, Missouri, and this is what I’m meditating on: “Specialization has weakened our ability to see interdisciplinary connections.” These are the words of Professor Pan Papacosta, a man born in Cyprus and educated at the University of London in Physics and the History of Science. He teaches physics to non-science majors in Chicago. I have transcribed Mr. Papacosta’s Association of General and Liberal Studies’ plenary speech in fits and spurts in a spiral-bound notebook with a kaleidoscope cover in aquamarine, crimson, mustard yellow, and olive green.

In this colorful book, I note Papacosta’s thrilling charge, and then sketch,

• A lump of coal that a grade-school teacher created a single year-round course around, from the Industrial Revolution and clean energy to organic chemistry and art.

• A Baudelaire quote in my best cursive, “Modernity … to extract from fashion the poetry that resides in the historical envelope, to distill the eternal from the transitory” (qtd. by Carter Goebel, 2009).

• Double stars next to Papacosta’s call to action, “We need to start talking with each other. Not chit chat… real, meaningful conversations about what we teach and the bridges we want to build” (2009).

While writing down these fragmented thoughts, I begin to consider how writing at our university plays a crucial role in spearheading and deepening the conversations we are currently having about what we teach (aka, our content areas in addition to general-education literacies such as communication, research and writing) and how our students benefit from an interdisciplinary approach.

As a relative newcomer to Kaplan University, I am impressed by the fact that writing courses here are, for the most part, geared towards a student’s major field of study, that the rhetorical situation is customized by each departments’ unique yet uniform standards, and that our learning institution truly values the notion that “real knowledge is not how much we know, but how much we use and integrate that knowledge into our lives” (Papacosta, 2009).

I am thrilled to see theoretical knowledge and real-life examples come together as an integrated whole because we know students will benefit from this marriage, and meaningful, authentic writing often connects higher-order concepts to concrete examples, humanizes audiences beyond the professor’s comment boxes, and requires students to consider their voice and its effect on future employers, colleagues, and professional communities.

That’s the great news.

What I contemplate at this late hour is how writing plays an essential role for students who are struggling to make sense of disparate, disconnected information (Papacosta, 2009). For instance, recently I received an e-mail from a disgruntled student who bemoaned, as she saw it, the over-emphasis on APA guidelines above writing and the invention of engaging, informative viewpoints. I assured this student that most, if not all, of us are concerned not only with her ability to write for a professional audience in an agreed-upon style (and the importance for writers to be informative and credible at the same time), but we’re also excited to see her thought processes and the ways she connects readers to her ideas based on evidence, insight and analysis. She wasn’t buying my assurances.

Which makes me wonder how much more work needs to be done across KU departments and schools to help our students see not just one aspect of the writing process, but rather the panoramic whole? What can we model in our instruction, curriculum, departmental collaboration, tutoring services, workshops, reference materials and tutorials, and writing feedback that reinforce the notion that while APA is incredibly important, it’s not the forest, but the trees.

The more we listen and talk to one another and our students, truly converse about how writing and research skills help or hinder us in the here-and-now and beyond, the better the chance that students like the one I mention above will begin to see how and why APA matters in addition to feeling listened to and respected for putting new, often unformed and emerging, ideas on the page. The goal, I believe, for a successful WAC program to grow and flourish is to promote the synthesis of writing skills by honestly talking about the perceived and real fragments in an otherwise solid curriculum.

References
Carter Goebel, C. (Plenary speaker). (2009, October 1).
Bridging the cultures: Humanities, science and art.
Plenary speech at the annual meeting of the Association
for General and Liberal Studies.
Papacosta, P. (Plenary speaker). (2009, October 1). Bridging
the cultures: Humanities, science and art. Plenary speech at
the annual meeting of the Association for General and
Liberal Studies.

Did you know...

... that Kella Hammond once sold baked goods at a farmer’s market in Liberty, Missouri? She also made cinnamon rolls, scones, and cookies at 5 am before she went to market at 8. Yum!

Kella is a Resource Specialist at the Kaplan University Writing Center.

On the Lighter Side -- I’m So Excited! > Kella Hammond

“It makes me think of all the people in New York who can't speak English and who must be terrified of the guy who comes to read their gas meter or desperately hope the clerk will show them how much they owe instead of just telling them. I've never thought about those people and now I'm one of those people.”
-David Sedaris

Jose Alberto guarded the condominium where I stayed in San Jose, Costa Rica. He is an efficient, stately little man with smiling eyes and a debonair graciousness he displayed when he unlocked the gate for me each morning. Every morning for three weeks, I got up around 6:30 am, ate a lovely breakfast of pineapple, mango, papaya or watermelon, buttered toast, and drank the most amazing coffee I’ve ever tasted, and then walked out the door towards my Spanish immersion program at Intensa, a language school located in Barrio Escalante, a quiet little suburb near downtown San Jose.

After breakfast, I would always say good morning and goodbye to Jose Alberto, who patiently, sweetly listened to my mangled Spanish.

While I love learning Spanish, I am an almost hopeless case, and this was especially frustrating in Costa Rica since language had been something I had excelled in as long as I was speaking my mother tongue (English). Like many of our students, I have a lot to learn for someone who has returned to the classroom 15 years after my first high school Spanish class.

During my time in Costa Rica, I routinely messed up verb conjugations and told my host family that I planned to bake them spinach-ricotta calzones without realizing my Italian recipe would be translated as preparing the family “spinach-ricotta underwear.” As Lera Boroditsky, assistant professor of psychology, neuroscience, and symbolic systems at Stanford University, says about learning language, “You're inheriting much more than just how to speak. You're learning a whole cultural system.” My cultural and linguistic finesse in Costa Rica was roughly akin to Tarzan: “Me Kella; You Jane!”

But I was not insecure or shy when I spoke with Jose Alberto, the condo’s guard. I was eager to show off what I had learned in school, to show this 50-something Tico that I would learn his language, poco a poco, little by little.

Finally, at the end of my three-week immersion program, I couldn’t wait to express my gratitude to Jose Alberto. I wanted him to understand just how excited I was to return home to the United States with improved, albeit emerging, Spanish skills thanks to easy-going listeners who didn’t correct me every time I used the wrong article or verb. In preparation for our last exchange, I consulted my Webster’s Spanish-English Dictionary and found the perfect word to describe my state of bliss: excitada.

“Yo estoy muy excitada,” I said proudly to Jose Alberto. His eyes widened and he stared at me for a moment before he spoke. He began to laugh. Finally he said, “Tu estas feliz o contenta, pero no excitada.” I was puzzled but unfazed. I waved one last time to Jose Alberto, and then turned the corner, past birds of paradise and the wrought iron gate.

When I arrived at school, I told Grace, my teacher, what I had said to Jose Alberto. She too began to giggle. “He was right,” she finally managed to say. “You are happy (feliz) or content (contenta), but not excitada.”

“But why?” I asked.

“Because you told the guard you were horny.”

McKenna, B. (1998, November 2). An interview with the ‘wickedly

     funny’ David Sedaris.” Retrieved September 22, 2009, from the

     University of California, Santa Cruz’s Currents Web site:

      http://www.ucsc.edu/oncampus/currents/98-99/11-02/ 

      sedaris.htm

Krulwich, R. (2009, April 6). Shakespeare had roses all wrong.

     Retrieved September 22, 2009, from the NPR Web site:

     http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript

     /transcript.php?storyId=102518565

Did you know…

Kella Hammond was a member of the NFL? The National Forensics League that is. She qualified for nationals in a cross-examination debate when she was a junior in high school. Thankfully, she didn’t become the attorney everyone said she should become.  Kella is a Resource Specialist at the Kaplan University Writing Center.

[This article was originally published in our September, 2009 issue.]

Beyond Kumbaya: Exploring Writing Together > Kella Hammond

I have a little secret to share before I get too philosophical: I approach the teaching of writing as a writer, first and foremost. When I work with a student on his or her paper in the KU Writing Center, I try to remember what it’s like for me to share my work with another reader, how I best receive feedback, and how to reflect on what worked or didn’t work for a particular piece of writing after it’s been published.

 I was reminded to do all of this and more when I recently read The National Commission on Writing’s May 2006 report, Writing and School Reform. Dr. Patricia Lambert Stock, Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures; English; and Education at Michigan State University, highlighted six effective instructional practices to challenge and support authentic student writing:

• Encourage students to bring the languages, experiences, and images of their home communities into the classroom to be used as resources in service of student learning;

• Position students and teachers as co-inquirers and co-learners, a process that allowed teachers to model inquiry, study, and learning for their students;

• Ask students to use writing to collect, analyze, synthesize, and communicate information and opinions;

• Call on students to draft, compose, and revise a variety of writings for a variety of audiences, purposes, and occasions;

• Require students to use all the language arts (listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking) all at once and all together in the service of learning and sharing their ideas; and

• Encourage students to make some of their writing public beyond the classroom, so as to gain a better understanding of how literacy works in the world (2006, p. 12).

Yet, the point that fascinates me the most right now is the second bullet:

Position students and teachers as co-inquirers and co-learners, a process that allowed teachers to model inquiry, study, and learning for their students.

I think the more we can show students that writing is truly a collaborative process, one that we actively take part in and often fumble through, the better. I enhance my teaching when I write alongside my students because I receive an opportunity to remember what the writing process is like firsthand — not as a reader-observer, but as a writer-participant.

We can “co-learn” with our students by sharing what we’ve written, especially the drafts that we know are not finished or look picture-perfect (yet), facilitating honest conversations about what our varied writing processes look like and which approaches set us up for success, and asking students to determine what effective writing looks and sounds like not only in the classroom but also in the workplace.

     The wonderful part of “co-learning” is that this phrase assumes that both parties may share and impart knowledge. Of course, our students have so much to share with us. As writers who not only write essays but also compose their work in the office, e-mails, the blogosphere, social media websites, and text messages, our students are writing with a fervor and openness today that leads us to important conversations about the role of writing in our classrooms, careers, personal lives, and society at large.

     As novelist E.L. Doctorow once said, “Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” The more we as educators remember what it’s like to “start from nothing” the better we will be at scaffolding the support, encouragement, and constructive feedback our students need. And while I believe that many of us already do what I’m suggesting, I think it bears repeating because every time I write for this newsletter, I realize just how hard (and impor-tant) writing is. Writing connects not only thoughts but also people, and what better way to do both of those pursuits than in community?

Kella Hammond is a Resource Specialist at the Kaplan University Writing Center.

[This article was originally published in our July, 2009 issue.]

It's Not What The Software Does > Kella Hammond

I was poking around the blogosphere the other day, and I found a cartoon written on the back of a business card that resonated with why I'm here. As the new resource specialist for the KU Writing Center and the Writing Across the Curriculum initiative, I'm here to support you, the faculty, in thinking about creative, innovative, and meaningful ways to integrate learning technologies into the writing and learning process. Many of you are already doing this, but sometimes it's easy to get lost in the glitz and glam of the hottest application and forget to reflect on why we're using these gizmos and gadgets. And since I'm a visual kind of gal, I thought I'd share what Hugh MacLeod posted on his blog, Gapingvoid.com, over two years ago:

I highlight Hugh's business-card cartoon because ultimately our “users” are our students. Whatever we do to help our students to become better writers, and ultimately thinkers, has to include incorporating meaningful learning technologies, and not just because it's what we do as a premier online university.

Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist and the CASE/Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's 2008 U.S. Professor of the Year, reminds us in a fascinating YouTube video entitled, “A Vision of Students Today,” that we're, in many cases, preparing students for careers that don't yet exist. And while our students' futures may not be clear, we do know that our society will need leaders who have exceptional writing and critical thinking skills to confront the world that awaits them.

I can't think of a better way to instill those communication skills than through a dynamic, cooperative WAC initiative. I'm going to emphasize the dynamic and cooperative parts of that last sentence by inviting all of you to let me know what ideas and opinions you have about the resources you'd like to see developed to support the teaching of writing across the curriculum. Please e-mail me at Mhammond[at]kaplan[dot]edu to share your feedback about how we can best serve our students.

Kella Hammond is a Resource Specialist at the Kaplan University Writing Center.

[This article was originally published in our June, 2009 issue.]