Madison Wilson

Dr. Dominic Ashby

ENG 405

28 November 2022

Response Paper Prompt 1

As a future educator, I have spent the entirety of my college career considering how I

want to approach writing pedagogy in my classroom. As a student, I have seen writing pedagogy

be discussed and put in practice from various angles: first, I have the experience of what

pedagogical practices my teachers used during grades K-12, and second I have the experience of

studying under professors who specialize in teaching future educators the various approaches to

writing pedagogy. All that being said, in my own development as a student preparing to be an

educator I have garnered my own knowledge and values as an English teacher and will

enthusiastically incorporate those in my classroom. I will incorporate those values into my

classroom in numerous ways, including the design and sequencing of the class itself, the

approaches to teaching writing I take, the amount of student agency I allow, and the “stakes” I

attach to my students’ assignments.

In choosing pedagogical approaches for my instruction, there are two specific pedagogies

I see as being the most effective and realistic practices for students to develop their writing in an

environment that lowers their affective filter. Students’ affective filter can be described as an

imaginary blockage that prevents them from best learning or performing, and it can be due to a

number of causes; some students’ affective filters are raised because of anxiety, for example,

which prevents them from learning to their full potential. Those best practices I believe are

process and expressive pedagogy. Both of these pedagogies can apply not only to the
overarching sequence and big ideas of teaching writing in a high school classroom but also have

a place in the day to day learning process as well. In addition to process and expressive

pedagogy, I value responding to student writing as an added effort to assist both these

approaches. These pedagogies have been either present or absent for me throughout my

educational journey in the English classroom, and I take notice that when they are missing my

writing struggles alongside my effort. Moreover, I realize choosing pedagogy is based on not

merely my own preferences; however, I believe that all students must learn to write through

process, expressing themselves, and with frequent feedback in order to improve. Each of the

aforementioned methods place high value on those ideas.

First, process pedagogy allows for students to focus on the progression and effort

throughout the entire writing endeavor; and that focus is valuable for not only its impact on

students’ writing skills but also its impact on the psychological experience students have when

writing. Process pedagogy can be described as “a shift from a focus on the product of writing to

its process” (Anson 215). Chris M. Anson describes the impact process approaches have on

students’ writing as it allows for students to discover several integral elements of writing without

the feeling of pressure from a large final product. Some of those elements include students

finding their own voice through the process of choosing a subject and creating several drafts in

addition to discovering conventions about their writing as they naturally move from one stage to

another (217). In finding their own voice, students are able to write as Kate Ronald describes

“where somebody’s home” (Ronald 171). Writing like somebody’s home describes when writers

clearly include their own voice and expression as opposed to writing the way they think they

should for a class or other task. Moreover, process pedagogy shifts students’ focus “away from

expectations for a final text and toward developing the knowledge and abilities needed to
produce it” (Anson 217). As Caroline Schack mentions in her professional blog, “Instead of

worrying about turning in something that’s perfect, students can focus more on learning the

difficult parts of writing…” Mike Rose describes a teacher he feels modeled this for him in his

book Lives on the Boundary in explaining how he “never got technical.” Instead, the teacher

would look at Rose’s writing and its “moving parts” and make suggestions such as “[t]ry this

here” or “[h]ere’s another way to say it'' along with asking Rose to switch between writing and

his voice to help him find his own language (Rose 55). Good educators teach students to succeed

within the walls of their classrooms; great educators teach students the skills and make them

aware of the abilities they have to succeed and apply their knowledge outside the classroom.

Process pedagogy is an approach that focuses on teaching students the skills, not teaching

students to write for the grade.

Similarly, expressive pedagogy prepares students to write outside the bounds of the

classroom. According to Chris Burnham and Rebecca Powell, “expressivists share some

theoretical grounding with process pedagogy… Murray proposes an instrumental relation

between composing and meaning-making… The writer is constantly learning from the writing

what it intends to say” (Burnham and Powell 115). Expressive pedagogy focuses largely on the

writer as the center of the process, and it prioritizes the writer’s own development as a person

above all else (115). As mentioned earlier, students in the classroom often write out of fear of a

bad grade or write to a rubric and end up missing the integral knowledge they need to take with

them to communicate effectively; Heather Siefert writes in her professional blog “[m]any

students struggle to write in their own voice. Instead, they spend the duration of their paper(s)

trying to sound like someone else…” Ultimately, writing is an activity completed to

communicate one’s thoughts or knowledge with others; so, it is important that individuals know
how to do so in a way that values his/her personal voice and values and is simultaneously

effective. Moreover, student writers must learn to write in a way that makes them successful in

more than just writing to a grade or a rubric. As Lindemann states in her essay, “[t]he impulse to

assess competence in writing is not solely an educational issue… [i]ncreasing economic and

political pressures will make testing our students’ writing abilities a concern well into the

twenty-first century” (224). Expressive pedagogy allows students to focus on expressing their

voice while learning to write effectively so that others may share in it and they may take the skill

with them outside the walls of a classroom. Moreover, it encourages students to not fear writing

but take refuge in it.

While both process and expressive pedagogy are beneficial for student writers in the

classroom, responding to student writing throughout the process is just as important as the

pedagogical approach a teacher chooses to use while teaching students to write. Specifically with

process pedagogy, because such an emphasis is placed on the process of creating a product rather

than the product itself the approach can only be successful if writers are receiving feedback to

guide them through the process of drafting and revising their work. With responding to student

writing can come concerns for educators such as how much feedback to provide, how to keep it

positive, and how much to allow the students’ voices to show before providing stylistic

suggestions. Caroline Schack mentions in her blog about responding to student writing that a

“good way to avoid hurting feelings is by providing at least a 50:50 ratio of positive to negative

feedback.” Process pedagogy, expressive pedagogy, and responding to student writing all tie into

one another; process approaches must be accompanied by consistent and constructive feedback,

and teacher approaches to responding to student writing can have significant effects on students’

expressivism. Expressivism encourages students finding their own voice and articulating their
knowledge, so the feedback teachers provide throughout the process can either encourage

students’ individual voices or discourage them. Consequently, it is important for teachers to

understand and have a grasp on efficient and constructive response to student writing so these

pedagogies may all work together successfully to create improved and confident student writers.
 Works Cited

Anson, Chris M. “Process Pedagogy and Its Legacy.” Tate, Gary, et al., pp. 212-230.

Burnam, Chris, and Rebecca Powell. “Expressive Pedagogy.” Tate, Gary, et al., pp. 111-127

CarolineSchack1. “Process Pedagogy.” Theteachingschack, 11 Nov. 2022,

https://theteachingschack.wordpress.com/composition-blogs/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2022.

CarolineSchack1. “Responding to Student Writing.” Theteachingschack, 11 Nov. 2022,

https://theteachingschack.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/responding-to-student-writing/.

Accessed 14 Nov. 2022.

Heathernsiefert. “Expressive Pedagogy.” Heathernsiefert,

https://heathernsiefert.wordpress.com/blog-posts/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2022.

Lindemann, Erika. “Responding to Student Writing.” Course materials, ENG 405, Fall 2022.

Ronald, Kate. “Style.” Course materials, ENG 405, Fall 2022.

Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary. New York, Penguin Group, 1989.

Tate, Gary, et al., editors. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. Oxford University Press, 2014.