Workshopping in the FYC

On Friday, my class started workshopping. The first day went well and I prodded students along when their responses were surface-level ones such as: I thought it was interesting... or, it was imaginative. On day two, I can say that I am satisfied with my workshops thus far. Since I want to use this same approach next quarter (fingers crossed that I will still be around this time next quarter), I have decided to give a description of how I got the students to this point.

Monday, November 14th
All quarter long, I have stressed the importance of revision. I told students that all the great writers and the not-so-great writers MUST take full advantage of the opportunity to revise. I have made it a point to show my students my own writing process when drafting up prompts and such. I even allowed 30 minutes of class time to go over my prompt thoroughly before printing it out and bringing it to class with me the following class meeting.

I also have stressed to the students that I would never assign them something that I wouldn't be willing to do. Since workshops can be a terrifying experience, I wanted to make sure that my students knew I am willing to put myself out there and be workshopped too. To accomplish this, I decided that we, as a class, would workshop my memoir piece from Jim Brown's 621 class. I printed out copies of my story and passed them out to my students. I prefaced it by telling my students that "This is a sample of a student's paper." I didn't want to tell them right off the bat that it was my paper for fear that they would hold back with their critiques. The only other bit of information I gave them was that "the first step to workshopping a paper is reading the piece with a pen or pencil in hand."

I gave the students sufficient time to read my story. After the majority of the students had finished, we listed 4 positives to the piece. Each time a student would say an "I liked ____" statement, I would ask why and for the student to take us to the exact point in the text to support the claim. Once we reached 4 "concerns" for my story, I let the students openly discuss for a few minutes. When the conversation winded down, I told the students that the story was mine. The class gasped and instantly there were shouts of "I knew it!" and "ohmygoshwhathappenednext!!?"

I know that workshoppping can be scary, but that I put myself out there to be workshopped to show them that it isn't TOO scary. Over all, I was glad that my gamble paid off.

Wednesday, November 16th

Since I was in a gambling mood, I thought of another approach to teaching the art of workshopping. I invited Bridgette, Candice, and Nicole to come to my class and workshop my story. Instead of participating in the workshop, my students were to observe how we workshop because this is how I expect them to behave in their workshops. Before we began, I wrote the following on the board:
What to look for in our workshop:
*What "moves" we make --> how to give constructive criticism
*How the person being workshopped behaves
*What are some differences between peer-editing and workshopping?

With that information given, I began the workshopping session. My group of peers workshopped me for roughly 15 minutes. During that time, I took copious notes and made sure to make eye contact with those who were providing me feedback. Most importantly, I sat in silence. When the session was over, I brought the conversation back to my students and had them address what I had written on the board.

To my surprise, seeing our workshop model really connected the dots for my students! I'm more than satisfied with the way my class is handling workshopping and I look forward to updating my blog with moments of glory (yay) and moments that need reconsideration (nay)!