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What if Chico had every student do workshops?

What if Chico had every student do workshops?

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I had a few questions regarding Rolby and Fox’s reading regarding the programs. Why would English 30 not be for every single student that takes English 30? Is there not a stigma still attached for those who are required to do the workshop when speaking to their peers about workshop? Why not structure all the classes like the jumbo 130 and give students the ability to improve their writing skills in a small group. For my intern group the students are great and so is the mentor. She uses the resources she has to keep the students working in this two hour block of time. All the time is used efficiently and is clearly laid out with a few exceptions. The students are engaged because they feel as if they have control of the time they work on things because my mentor constantly ask if things are fair and if they need more time. If most groups could be constructive workshop and the university could afford to accommodate every student, this would be such a great perk to coming to Chico State.

I also believe the idea that if an administration wants students to be good at a certain thing then they should just be able to take a class in that subject. I had this issue when I was taking math I thought that taking precalculus would help me leaps and bounds in calculus because I would have been exposed to some of the concepts it seemed logical when I was picking classes. Unfortunately, to my shock and surprise when I took calculus I completely failed and every one who had simply just taken calculus were passing or doing much much better than I was. I had never thought much about the concept until reading this piece Rolby and Fox were absolutely correct there was no way I was going to be good at calculus based on taking pre calculus before they were two completely different classes. If I wanted to pass calculus I shoulds have just taken calculus instead of trying to somehow be slowly transitioned into it. This applies greatly to my workshop because the mentor is very good at making sure that the students are doing things that are a progression to the work that needs to be done in class. There are no detours just the work and working through the difficult work in order to flesh out the ideas that they are working on.

I do agree also on the fact that students do poorly due to other reasons not because they are incapable. Outside forces are a large part of preventing doing things in our education. It is extremely hard to focus on school work if everything else in your life is going amiss. Therefore the students should not be judge based on their capability without knowing the circumstance. I know personally going through high school I had been an A student until the end of my sophomore year when outside of school I was having trouble. The trouble of moving further away from school without transportation, not having food to eat, working intense hours, and family trouble. I was not until my English teacher Ms. Mora took time out of the day to sit me down and help me deal with these outside forces so I could go back and focus on school. Once I had ways of dealing with all those things I went back to being an A student because I was focused. Therefore when teaching taking into account that that student may simply need help outside of school or things are going astray instead of just deeming them a bad student and call it a day.

2 Replies to “What if Chico had every student do workshops?”

  1. Lovely post. And yes, I would agree that all writers can benefit from a writing group who supports your growth as a writer… well said

  2. I agree that placing certain students in workshops does not remove the stigma of being thrown into a remedial class. The students taking the workshop are probably capable of recognizing that they are still taking a course that is not required of more talented writers. However, I would not have liked to be forced into a workshop. Being forced to do things I don’t want to do causes me to resent it and refuse to take it seriously. I am strongly opposed to doing remedial work because I don’t need it. I think the idea of removing the stigma of remedial classes is a good idea, although the execution was not perfect. In fact, it may not even be possible if remedial courses still exist.

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