How to write a Creative and Individual Text Post

I lied, this isn’t a how-to. You can, however, learn by observing ;)

So, I don’t exactly have my book in front of me because I’m an idiot, so my blog post is primarily based off of my understanding of what LPP is based on what was discussed in class.  LPP focuses primarily on analyzing learning in social settings, on the ways in which people observe and eventually participate in a group they’d like to be apart of (for the most part); chapter 1 references how “children are…quintessentially legitimate peripheral participants in adult social worlds” (I found a solution to my predicament) and that “learners inevitably participate in communities of practitioners and that the mastery of knowledge and skill requires newcomers to move toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community.”

Comparing this definition to that of my internship, I know know that there are two groups of LPP going on. I feel as if the students are unintentionally trying to figure out how they should interact with us (the mentor and I) since we are both students ourselves. There are no other points of reference for them to go off of, which leads them to being flat out told how they can approach us and to observe the responses that other students are given in the way they talk to us and the questions they ask. The form of LPP that the students are aware of doing is working on ‘better improving’ their writing. This is what they’ve been put in the workshop for, and it starts with them observing what they’ve been deemed to be ‘doing wrong’ in their papers. I don’t know how the workshop is going to be run, so they could be observing how to write ‘better’ papers through examples and lectures/tips before participating through writing their own papers with these methods. At the same time, they could also be picking up tips from the mentor and I in navigating through college life/freshman year: we spent our Wednesday class making a list of links on a google doc for the freshman consisting of food delivery websites, taxi services, places that are fun to go to, bus schedule, etc- anything they could possibly get information for online in regards to their education, enjoyment, and safety.

I wonder if the students are even aware of this kind of social learning. I certainly wasn’t aware of it until LPP was brought up in class. I guess I always found myself picking up habits from ‘more experienced’ people without even thinking about it. I’d just be “oh, the teacher’s don’t mind if I leave to go to the bathroom without asking? Sweet,” or “The seniors (in highschool) park in the back of the parking lot? I’ll park there next week I guess” or something like that.

At the same time, it makes me sad because isn’t that just a form of conforming to fit in with another group? We’re so hellbent on being individuals, but in our endeavors we find that we’re removing ourselves out of one group and placing ourselves into another. It’s all very bleak.