by Valerie McLaurin
Over the past semester as a WIP TA I’ve truly enjoyed immersing myself in the pedagogy of the program. The training has opened my mind to many simple but revelatory approaches to responding to student writing. In the past, as a TA for large intro level history courses, I sometimes gave into the tendency to over-correct student papers. While genuinely attempting to help students who sought out extra writing advice, I would point out any and all errors like an editor and likely overwhelmed them with too much feedback. I knew in principle that their ideas mattered the most, but I mistakenly thought this extra effort on my part to point out literally everything that could be improved would be the best way to benefit them.
Thankfully teaching is an iterative process, and with the help of WIP training I’ve unlocked a new way of thinking about and approaching student writing. I’m relieved to have the tools I need to better do one of the things that inspires me most: helping students grapple with and articulate their ideas through writing.
I’m relieved to have the tools I need to better do one of the things that inspires me most: helping students grapple with and articulate their ideas through writing.
This semester as I received student papers I focused first and foremost on taking each individual’s ideas seriously. I served as WIP TA for two upper level history courses and most of my job entailed working with students to revise and improve historical arguments for short and long form papers. As I read their work, I took a macro view and focused on engaging with the structure and meaning of their argument. Devoting less time to sentence-level errors allowed me to concentrate on foundational issues like incorporating compelling evidence and thesis writing.
When I met with students, I tried to ask them questions to encourage them to think about their own subjectivity in the writing process in terms of why they chose their topics, how they felt about their drafts, and what the writing process had been like for them. I found that their own self reflections and assessments would often lead us into better conversations about what to improve than a laundry list of things to fix ever could. Instead of discussing mistakes, we were discussing ideas.
Thinking and learning about effective teaching strategies for writing during WIP training made me often reflect back on my own time as an undergraduate and graduate writer. What I remember the most about writing feedback are the teachers who took my ideas seriously and engaged with them in meaningful ways that pushed me to new levels of analysis. The WIP principles have helped me understand how to begin to foster this type of dialogue with my own students.
Valerie McLaurin was a WIP TA for history in Fall 2021.