GC: Process Pedagogy Response

"The canned, dull, lifeless student essay." This is what Tobin wants to be rid of. I think he is correct. I detest; no, I loathe the student-sounding essay. Not the grammatically weak, the spelling-flawed, or the poorly paced student essay. No, I loathe the essay that sounds like a student wrote it because of its triteness or because it tries to sound like someone else or because it is somehow wholly separated from the student that wrote it. Grammer, spelling, pacing--these are all things that can be sharpened over time. But ingenuity, creativity, inventiveness--these are things that a student must be pressed into and not pulled away from as our current curriculums do. Currently, the canned essay is the one that students are rewarded for producing. It is the essay that receives an A. It is the essay that they will get into student-published lit mags. I think that the way to remove the sense of a-student-wrote-this-essay from the student essay is to show the possibilities of the essay, to show its elasticity. Students have been given the cookie cutter form of thesis-support-conclusion. Essays are not supposed to do that essay comes from the French term essai, a trial. The essay is a trial. It is for students to try something, anything in writing and see if it works or fails and to learn why. An essay is a place to both learn and to teach. Students are prepared for the AP tests by looking at a bunch of other successful and unsuccessful student works. Why not have them look at some of the most successful professional essayists and learn why they are/were successful? After gaining an understanding of what makes an essay successful, employ a happening, have the students write anything about it. Employ a bunch of happenings, and have them write. Then ask them to do the essay on any topic they want. Tobin (like many process preachers) fully supported the "any topic" idea, and I do, too. When the student is allowed to write on any subject they please, they are much more likely to write about something their mind wants to spill all over the page. Imagine the pre-writing for these assignments! If the canned essay is to be removed from the student canon, the canned essay-teaching curriculum must be removed. The essay is a powerful form of writing, and teaching students to harness that power rather than be harnessed by the form will allow for some of the most exciting readings that we as teachers can hope to see. Our students will become the real writers Tobin learned to recognize.