Archive for June 9th, 2008

9
Jun

principles of directed self-placement in real time

   Posted by: K. Mahoney   in Uncategorized

A little over a week before we were to begin Directed Self-Placement and the summer Connections orientation programs, I got this email from a member of the College of Education’s Connections staff:

As we understand the Connections “Writing skills” presentation, the students are allowed to self-select either ENG 022 or ENG 023 given their self-assessment of writing skills. Unfortunately, the College of Education course structure does not allow for flexibility in scheduling. If the student self-selects ENG 022, the course is counted as an elective. The difficulty arises because the COE does not have built-in electives- essentially, the course “doesn’t count.”

Would it be possible to not offer the ENG 022 self-select option to the College of Education Connections students? During our part of the Connections presentation, we do outline the advantages of using the Writing Lab, library services, etc. We sincerely appreciate the need for the ENG 022 course but hope that you understand the limitations of our program.

I thought about this for a long while. My initial, rather short response ended up accidentally in my “drafts” folder and never got to the intended recipient. As it turns out, that was a good thing. It gave me a little time to think more about how to respond more in-depth and to explicitly articulate the principles of Directed Self-Placement. Here’s what I wrote back:

I apologize for the delay in my response. I thought that I had replied to you last week when I returned from vacation, but I just found my previous message in my “drafts” folder. Sorry for that. I want to take a little time to respond to your inquiry and let you know how I have incorporated your concerns into my Directed Self-Placement presentation at this point.

Pragmatics: Given the way that Directed Self-Placement works, it is impractical to tailor the presentation to each major. The time I am allotted is packed as it is. In the past I have regularly mentioned that some majors do not have any General Education electives and in that case if students elect to take ENG 022, they may be taking an additional class.

Academic/Pedagogical Philosophy: Directed Self-Placement is grounded in a several key principles.

  1. It is critical that students take responsibility for, or “own,” their education and their educational choices. Given that higher education is “elective,” students have to re-orient themselves toward education. In particular, they have to begin to become agents in their own educational process. (I have attached an article by Daniel Royer and Roger Gilles of Grand Valley State University. Their article, “Directed Self-Placement: An Attitude of Orientation,” is an excellent discussion of Directed Self-Placement and is quite close to our own perspective. When Janice Chernekoff researched DSP programs as part of building this process at KU, she talked with these folks and looked closely at their program in addition to many others).
  2. Standardized tests and high-stakes essay testing have proven to be less than ideal when it comes to placing students into their first-year writing courses. Not only are these tests generally incomplete in terms of their ability to capture a student’s capacity to succeed, they tend to reinforce “deficiency” narratives among poor, inner-city, and minority students who are traditionally the ones who perform the worst on standardized tests. Students who are given the opportunity to make informed choices about their individual needs as opposed to being told what their needs are by some rubric or institutional means become agents as opposed to objects in their educational process.
  3. When asked to seriously consider their own reading and writing histories, students will generally make the right choice for themselves. Put another way, guided self-assessment is a key skill that all students need to develop in becoming agents in their own education.
  4. Writing ability is one of the key indicators for success finding a job and advancing in one’s career. That is, “the ability to write opens doors to professional employment,” according to the National Commission on Writing’s 2004 report, “Writing: A Ticket to Work…Or a Ticket Out” <http://www.writingcommission.org/pr/writing_for_employ.html>. Likewise, ACTs 2003 “National Curriculum Survey” found that “Even jobs that call for little or no postsecondary education often require strong reading, writing, and computer skills.” Perhaps most significant is the assessment of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich who was arguing as early as the 1990s that “symbolic analytic” work is key to our changing economy. As part of my presentation, I touch upon these issues as a way to stress the realities of our world. I would imagine that the job market for teachers would reflect these trends as well–you would know that better than I.
  5. The mission of our university includes an access mission. With that access mission, I believe, we need to do more than “open the door,” we also need to provide resources, courses, and assistance so that all students–especially those students traditionally labeled “at-risk”–can succeed. ENG 022 is one of those resources that responds–materially–to that mission.

My judgment is that it would be a mistake to deny students who may become teachers (we know many students do change their majors) a key resource that may help them make the transition to college and succeed in their academic career. From my standpoint, I have the luxury of not having to advocate for one student’s major over another–I have to look at what I believe is good for all students (in terms of their composition course choices and orientation toward their college career). And I think that the pedagogical and philosophical goals of Directed Self-Placement are sound.

Having said that, I readily admit that my position comes from the perspective of someone who coordinates the composition program, studies writing, and guides students through their composition course choices. You and your colleagues need not agree with me or may make other choices. But, those need to be your choices. In other words, I think the College of Education needs to take ownership of the decision to deny students ENG 022 as a choice. I think it is even more important now as the College of Education has to make significant changes in its curriculum in response to the new PA Department of Ed requirements. For what it’s worth, I think you should make it explicit in your own materials and with your discussions with students and with the administration.

In some ways, this process is already in place. We know, for example, that many education students who elect to take ENG 022 are told later by their advisors to drop it and take ENG 023 because there is “no room in their schedule.” I would just urge you to see if there is another way–for the sake of the students. From my perspective, I think it’s worthwhile privileging the pedagogical and philosphical integrity of our students’ educational process over the more narrow goals of a professional major. But, again, I concede that this is only my perspective and certainly the College of Education is trying to negotiate many competing interests.

In terms of my presentation to students, I now share with potential students your request and my response (not at such length of course). Again, the purpose is to provide students with as much information as possible with which to make their decision. And, of course, students will hear your orientation and meet with their advisors as well.

I apologize for the length of this email, but since you were writing “on behalf of the College of Education Connections staff” I wanted to provide you with a sustained response that you can share with others involved in Connections and the College of Education.

Hope your Cycle I went well!

Best,
Kevin Mahoney

I thought this would be a useful follow up to my previous post! Still early. Still hot.

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9
Jun

tamale

   Posted by: K. Mahoney   in Uncategorized

Summer is certainly here. Today and tomorrow will continue the 95+ degree temps, heat advisories, and all-around uncomfortableness. Barely into June and we have our first heat wave. I’m not a fan of the heat and humidity for sure, but usually I’ll tolerate it OK. This year, however, it’s a bit early and given how cold and rainy May was, this heat feels that much hotter…that “Bermuda high” doesn’t want to leave us alone here in Eastern PA.

I’m particularly preoccupied with the heat today because it’s the second week of Directed Self-Placement. Today, Wednesday, and Friday I will be taking 200+ incoming students through the process of choosing their first-year composition courses. The week happens to be the largest sessions of the summer. Based on past experience, the room we hold DSP in will get hot and stuffy. And yes, I sweat. Yuk.

We’ve altered the session this year a bit. First, instead of one big session every twice or three times a week for the month of June, this year we’re doing TWO sessions a day twice or three times a week. So far the double-session has worked out pretty good. It’s nice having fewer students in each placement session–I mean, I can actually see all of the students I am talking to. The comparison to class-size is unavoidable here. In the bigger sessions, there are gaps in the room so to speak. That is, it’s much more difficult to connect to students and hold their attention when you are speaking to a room of 200-250 students. Today, Wednesday, and Friday I will probably have 110+ students per session, which will be a little improvement. I am just hoping the smaller numbers (compared to last year) will cut down on the heat in that room. It’s bad enough I’ve got to walk across campus in-between sessions in the sweltering heat…if that room is hot, I’m gonna be a big ball of sweat.

The other thing we’re doing differently is that we are cutting the usual 5 minute video presentation (which includes the university president and two faculty members talking about the importance of writing) and replacing it with some time to hear “student perspectives” on taking college composition. DSP is part of Kutztown’s Connections orientation program for incoming students and there are usually about 15 or so students–the Connections staff–that staff the sessions, help get students where they need to go, put on presentations about the student experience at Kutztown, and generally serve as peer ambassadors for incoming students. During DSP, the Connections staff helps me by passing out the surveys, answering new students questions when they can, and collecting and counting the course selections at the end of each session. During the “training” session this year, one of the more veteran Connections staff suggested that it might be good for new students to get the “students’ perspective” on their composition courses–since, after all, they’ve been through it.

I thought it was an interesting suggestion, but one that comes with a caveat. During that training session, it became clear that there is a sub-group of this year’s Connections staff that is clearly anti-ENG 022. That is, anti-Introduction to College Composition. For example, a few of the Connections staff suggested that they were “scared into” or “knew students who were scared into” taking ENG 022 because of my Directed Self-Placement presentation. One student relayed that their advisor even told them that ENG 022 was a “waste of time” because it “did not count” for anything–a statement not even accurate (and for this I blame the advisor, not the student–ENG 022 counts as a general education elective). So, as I read it, part of the reason for wanting to present the “students’ perspective” is to dissuade incoming students from taking ENG 022. And, based upon last week’s sessions, that reading seems to hold true. In each session, at least one of the Connections students has spoken out against ENG 022 to “represent those students who were scared into taking it.”

This poses several interesting issues. Last week I described this situation as “subtle guerrilla warfare” against ENG 022 (and, obviously, my presentation of the importance of writing). However, I also know that part of my presentation (and of the presentation when Janice and Walt were doing DSP) has strongly emphasized the difference between high school and college-level writing. And to stress the seriousness of our college composition courses. So, I don’t doubt that I may have made some students nervous–”scared”–about college writing. And, some of those students may have chosen ENG 022 because they were scared. After our first session this year, I was tempted to “defend” ENG 022. I have since decided to take a different approach–especially after re-reading an article by Dan Royer and Roger Gilles about their approach to Directed Self-Placement. I decided to simply emphasized the importance of each students thinking carefully about their own reading and writing histories after hearing the presentation. After all, DSP is based on the principle that students need to take responsibility for their educational choices and that given enough information and opportunity to ask questions and self-assess, they will generally make the right choice (at least in terms of their college composition courses).

So that’s where we stand. My one concern is for the “at-risk” students coming to KU. What kind of impact will the new anti-ENG 022 discourse have on those student’s choices? Will fewer students choose ENG 022? If so, will we see more failures in ENG 023? We won’t know that until we run the numbers. But, the choice is still left to the incoming student. As long as I keep on bringing us back to that basic principle–that each student needs to think honestly and carefully about their past experiences and practice with academic writing–then we are in good shape. We will see.

One of the by-products of having the Connections staff included in the presentation is that they are taking on part of the responsibility for incoming students’ choices. That is, if there is a strong anti-ENG 022 discourse that persuades incoming students not to take ENG 022 and then some of those students go on to struggle in ENG 023, then part of that responsibility falls on the Connections staff. That is, a new student could come back to one of the Connections staff next semester and say “I thought you said I wouldn’t have a problem in ENG 023?” That’s what I need to be a little cautious about…I think I need to make those lines of accountability clear in my presentation as well.

Anyway, those are my morning, it’s-already-72 degrees-at-7am ramblings. When I get a chance, I’ll have to post more about some of the stuff I am reading now–English Studies and a book I just got through inter-library loan (and will order for our library now) Cogs in the University Classroom…the latter fits well with my robot themes of late. :-)

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