Thoughts On Process Theory

Murray's short but sweet article, "Teach Writing as a Process Not Product" was really refreshing. I know we have mentioned this idea before, especially in last week's class, but this article refined those ideas. The first quote that drew me in was:


Our students knew it wasnt ltierature when they passed it in, and our attack usually does little more than confirm their lack of self respect for their work....the product doesnt improve, and so, blaming the student--who else?--we pass him along to the next teacher, who is trained, too often, the same way we are...(qtd in Villanueva 3).


I liked this quote because I am already seeing much of its relevance, and it is one of my largest concerns as a future teacher of writing. As many of you many know, I am a English/ESL tutor at HACC, a job which i love for its challenging work and the amazing diversified student population I meet. What frusterates me is that I do see this first hand, students (especially ones with ESL problems) literally passed through English courses (normally with C's) only to find themselves in a more advanced writing course when they realize what they are producing isnt "good enough" for the teacher. Of course, this is a larger problem at whole, but the idea here is, how can we fix this? Can it be fixed?


I enjoyed the fact that Murray gave a list of implications of teaching process. For me, this seemed like a list where I may not have agreed 100% with every method, it was a practical starting ground for me to take into the classroom. Now my new think quest, so to speak, is how am I going to take some of these ideas and use them? Moreover, how to you apply the teaching of "process" w/ limitations and pressure to conform to a more standard approach (especially in an adjunct world) I'm certainly not trying to be pessimistic here, just again, trying to find that illusive middle ground.



Lad Tobin's article also provided an excellent foray into the world of process theory. I enjoyed that he looked at both sides of the matter, what he calls the "binary opposition, the distinction between content and non content" (of course, that was in reference to the conference that he attended proclaiming "process is dead")

(Tobin 14). He wasnt afraid to acknowledge the issues and problems he had with process theory, "criticizing process theorists for idealizing their results" (Tobin 13). At the same time, he wasnt afraid to say he hadnt completely abandoned process writing, just that we have entered a new era of process writing.

Towards the end, I really appreciated the thoughts posed by Tobin.."Should a writing course be organized around production or consumption? It is around this very basic question that (at least) two paths diverge, and how a teacher chooses usually makes all the difference" (Tobin 15)

For this is really at the center of the debates, our heart strings tugging at us in two different ways. How do we cope as teachers? In his closing paragraphs, Tobin suggests that it is a balance of the two: he hasnt abandoned his belief in process theory, but he also uses some current traditional methods and "post process" methods. (as a side note, I really liked his idea of weekly conferences... this was actually something I was thinking about long before I read this essay!)


Lastly, I just wanted to send wishes of good luck to Justin and Melanie as our first
Discussion Leaders tonight!