Focusing Loop: Success?

A Map of the Brain

Saturday, 15. June 2002

mccomas, June 15, 2002 at 4:54:24 PM CEST

From my previous Focusing I writing, two things stood out that were interesting for me to think more about. One of those:

"By distinctly successful, I am referring to the work created that is astonishing in some way...the papers that evidence deep and profound transformation of thinking."

Again, some unpacking is necessary. Several years ago, when I became involved with WAC on Marshall's campus, I learned about the need for providing students with some indication of how their work would be assessed...that is the criteria against which their work would be judged. After several of us began developing criteria we discovered that first of all, we weren't always sure what we wanted (I know that's scary for students to read) and secondly, we weren't very adept at articulating what we wanted even when we thought we knew. I began developing PTAs (primary traits analysis) for some of my major assignments, forcing myself to articulate exactly what I was interested in having students achieve and demonstrate in their work. In order to do that, however, I did a good bit of reading about assessing writing. One book, in particular, really stood out to me. It wasn't the newest text on the market, in fact I hadn't even discovered it...Dolores pointed it out to me when I was almost at the end of my research into this particular topic. Since it has been a while since I read this, my paraphrase will be horrendous but I hope to impart the sentiment he expressed. First, he suggested that it was essentially impossible to articulate exactly what an "A" paper looked like because the "A" papers are the ones where students go way beyond the minimum expectations, they are creative in a variety of unique ways, and more importantly, they show independence by the learner as they take an assignment and make it uniquely their own. He suggested (or hinted?) that teachers should determine what a "B" paper is (not nearly as hard to do) and then suggest that an "A" paper goes beyond that. It's true, what he says. If I articulate clearly what an A paper looks like, it is no longer an A paper because all of the creativity is gone. When students ask "What do you want?" it is no longer their original work in the most creative way they can develop it...it becomes their work through my filter...the creativity is gone.

This then, is where I am with understanding what "distinctly successful" work is. Perhaps I need to begin to understand the many ways that distinctly successful work can appear, the many faces it has (certainly, the three case studies I am using have very different faces). Is my question about success? Do I want to know what success looks like? What success is?

online for 8265 Days
last updated: 1/4/11, 4:56 PM

Youre not logged in ... Login

... home
... search
... topics
...
...
...
... what I'm reading
... future stories

... Home

... Tags

... Galleries

... antville home