Bartholomae&Petrosky - Blog 2

How are the theory and practice of this course similar to and different from "Discovery of Competence"?  (How much would these teachers argue with each other if they had to work together to create a course?)

The primary similarity between DoC and FAC is the instructors' view of what students enter the classroom with. They also agree about the desired outcomes of a Basic Skills Writing class. 

When students enter BSW, they:  

• believe reading is about decoding, finding main ideas
• don't know how to interact with a text (writing to read, annotation, respond, question)
• lack metacognitive reflexivity
• lack practice with critical thinking 
• lack sustained writing practice
• lack sustained reading practice

the BSW course should involve:

• college-level readings
• reflection on many genres of reading
• reflection that occurs in many types of writing (journals, free-writes, formal papers, autobiography, analysis and response)
• reflexive practices for reading and writing
• inquiry & class discussion based on student experience
• students write some of the required reading material themselves

With all this agreement, what is there to argue about? Well...the structure and setup of the DoC and FAC classes is so very very different. It's fascinating to see how two departments, whose instructors have very similar understandings of their students' backgrounds and needs, can come to rather disparate pedagogical ideologies. Yes, there are similarities, but I'd rather take a moment to lay out some differences that struck me in particular.

Grammar

DOC: No grammar instruction

FAC:  Explicit grammar/editing practice, though late in the semester. Allows for possibility of worksheets and instruction of sentence combining, using metaphors, etc. based on common errors for the class.

Use of Class Time/Topics

DOC:  Use of class time isn't clear because explanation of the course outline isn't very clear. BUT it is clear that a DoC class springs forth from student input, inquiries, experience and expression. Very little preliminary planning by the instructor as to a course theme or framework.

FAC:  Class is carefully mapped from day one. There is a ton of reading, writing and discussion to fit in, so a careful calendar of what will be done on each day must be mapped out before the semester begins. A topic is chosen and 7 required texts (full books) are chosen. Pre-discussion activities are carefully prepped by the instructors.

Exams

DOC:  What exams? We just write and talk. 

FAC:  End of semester exam. Class includes several in-class writing prompts that mimic the type of exam writings do to pass out of Basic Writing (and that they'll likely encounter in other disciplines).