I teach English 0890 and English 0990. These classes are for those students who score below the required level to take English 1010 or Freshman English. In other words, their scores are below 18 on the ACT or 15 for English 0890. Some of the students are ESL, some are brilliant underachievers, some missed out on basic concepts somewhere, and some have learning disabilities. Because of their diverse backgrounds, I must approach the students with various pedagogies.
The majority of my class is basic grammar and sentence construction. The beginning of the course is focused mainly on Process Pedagogy and Basic Writing Pedagogy. We start with practice paragraphs wherein the students create a body paragraph on a rhetorical topic. The process is followed closely in each practice paragraph: brainstorming, outline, draft, revision. In addition, we concentrate on word choice and standard English syntax.
Throughout the class we also use Collaborative Pedagogy and Technical Pedagogy. The students are able to access WebCT on the internet. Before they write a practice paragraph, the must first read an article on a similar topic and respond to prompts in discussion groups in WebCT. Through the prompts and responses, they are able to gather brainstorming ideas and reflect on the topics each week. They also post their reflections for the week in their journals, which are also located in WebCT. However, these are private, and only the student and instructor are able to access individual journals.
Finally, once the students understand the concepts of paragraph construction, they are ready to begin essays. Each essay is based on a type of rhetorical mode. Thus, we also incorporate the Rhetorical Pedagogy. These essays are constructed in a standard five paragraph format.
It is my plan to begin using a Visual Pedagogy in the future because I am being persuaded that this could be a helpful teaching method for the level of students that I teach.
In spite of all the relatively new pedagogical methods being introduced, I strongly believe that students must begin with the basics of writing (the old fashioned way). I will leave it to the English 1010 instructors to use unproven but engaging methods of composition.
