blog number uh ten

On page 300, Williams refers to the regular practice of poor assessment standards and grade inflation amongst high schools: "The skills that served them [the students] well in high school will not enable them to excel at a university."  If we are preparing our high school students for failure in college composition, this raises the question should we then adopt collegial standards for writing?

To the first question, which college's standard for writing would we choose?  Harvard?  Community College?  For me, the one major difference between a college composition course and high school english was the emphasis on writing and not literature.  While we did read and discuss various works, we never had to list all of the characters, describe the plot elements, or take vocabulary tests.  College composition was mainly a student run discussion with the professor sometimes acting as facilitator and participant.  Topics for our papers were chosen among a list, discussed with the professor, drafted and peer reviewed multiple times, and then published.  A grade of B or higher in the class meant the paper was well-written, focused, and revised many times with intermittent discussions with the professor and the class.  This was never ever the case in my high school english classes.  We read books and answered boring right or wrong questions.  I would write maybe four essays a year.  If the focus was on the test, I never paid much attention but still managed to score in the 90th percentile or higher every year.  Comparing and contrasting were such simple terms that I would have been insulted to have been given a graphic organizer highlighting them in the ninth grade.  The key facet of my learning was that I enjoyed solving problems: this involved reading, putting together puzzles, or even organizing my room to highlight my trophies better.  If something wasn't challenging, it was not worth my time, and I think this is how a lot of students feel when we give them boring worksheets.  I wonder what would happen if we really let them discuss whatever they wanted regarding a book.  Wouldn't there be comparing and contrasting, inferencing, mood, etc?    If we foster a collegial sort of environment, where questions are nurtured and answers are student driven, a collegial standard for writing will follow.