W.T. Pfefferle

2012-03-16T01:00:00.012-07:00

Short Brave Life of Rate Your Students.

2012-03-15T13:32:00.004-07:00

November 28, 2010
The Short, Brave Life of Rate Your Students.
by W.T. Pfefferle

In November of 2005, spurred by a distaste for the anonymous ratings on RateMyProfessors.com, a liberal-arts professor from somewhere in the American South started a blog called Rate Your Students. The first post read: "We will rate our students here. And we will do it without compunction. Then we'll just see where we're at. We'll still be poor academics. But at least those callous and ignorant 'customers' of ours will know what it's like."

Slowly, faculty members from around the country began to find the page, and the founder—"the Professor"—started posting their e-mails. Professors shared student excuses, from the banal "dead Grandma" to the exotic "I left my homework inside my mascot costume." No students were named. Professors, colleges, and identifying details were changed. Right from the beginning the site was raw and shocking. Someone wrote about a student-athlete: "He's never prepared for class, and he mostly shows up so he can run his mouth into the sweet ear of that sorority candy who sits next to him. I'd just like him to write his own paper once. Or at least crack the spine of that $40 textbook. I'd like to smack his smug face." Others saw students' misbehavior as evidence of a system that was in trouble: "All I want students to do is try. It's all I ask. I just want to see that they give a damn, and that they're willing to be a part of their own educational process."

A flurry of national press helped the blog reach thousands of page views per day. Each day the site published a new set of complaints. Professors went on the attack, releasing the day's frustrations or, in some cases, years of pent-up rage. Parents who found the page demanded to know where various posters taught so that their sons and daughters would never have to take a class with someone so angry.

Some students wrote to complain. They were misunderstood, they said, and the site was unfair: "Why rate us? You already give us grades." One such note had a profound impact on the site's readers. The student wrote: "If you really want to understand what it's like to have professors like you grade us, rate us, poke us, and prod us every day, take a walk in my shoes. My major field adviser is a stinking drunk. I can smell his scotch or whatever every time I walk in to his office. I have to smile so he fills out my forms, even though he makes me sick to my stomach. My psychology professor tries to look up my skirt when I wear one. He hardly even pretends to do it casually. ... While you're all getting your jollies picking on students, please realize we're not all the same, and not all of us deserve your scorn."

The post reminded many Rate Your Students readers that the students being rated were real, not just anonymous punching bags. The idea of simply skewering them was limiting.

The tenor of the page began to evolve. A reader who expressed mixed emotions about the site gave this advice: "Bitch, moan, vent, shake fist at heavens. Please do. Because teaching is a human interaction and it affects us just like any other human interaction. But then get on with it, stay open to them. ... The ones with talent, dedication, and drive, they need and want our guidance, advice, and tutelage."

In June 2006, the Professor wrote in Times Higher Education about the change that the page was undergoing: "Academics who had reacted earlier from frustration by calling their students 'dimwits' were now writing about ways to fix things."

A professor in New England wrote a manifesto to his future students: "If I ask you to read a book, or go to a gallery, or watch a video, I really mean it. It's not just some random thought I've had. When someone else is talking in class, that means you are to shut your pie hole and listen in. When I ask you a question, I'm asking a serious question, one that has to do with your ability to pass the class. It's not optional. It's not as if I said, 'Uh, Marcella, if you don't want to I'll understand, but would you care to tell me what you know about cubism?' I mean, 'Tell me what you know about cubism from my handouts, the textbook, the film I showed, and the gallery we walked through for two hours last week. Your life in this class hangs in the balance.'"

When the Professor stepped down, three moderators took the site over and began putting up 30 to 40 essays a month, chosen from hundreds. Students remained the focus. The site called those precious creatures that were at the center of academic vexation snowflakes because so many of them had been told by parents and feel-good teachers that they were special and unique. But the students featured on the blog seemed to have a lot in common. They copied chunks of Wikipedia and turned them in as essays. They cheated on tests in a dizzying variety of ways (notes on cap brims, formulae saved in cellphones). They wanted extensions, they wanted class to meet outside on the lawn, and they really wanted to know if they "had" to do the reading. They drank all night and slept late, and when they did get to class (in pajama bottoms) they were too busy texting and listening to their iPods to get much out of it.

Writers griped about all manner of academic hindrances besides their students: draconian deans, ego-blind department chairs, and colleagues who coveted our office, our publications, or just our parking space. Adjuncts wrote about their miserable salaries and heavy workloads. Fresh Ph.D.'s wrote about their job searches and ponderous interviews with old-fashioned committee members. And committee members complained about the young candidates' rudeness, inattention to detail, and impossibly tiny eyeglasses.

The posts were satirical, profane, irreverent, scandalous, and always interesting—and all anonymous. Rate Your Students had become an academic water cooler where professors could vent, share their misery, and offer tips.

The first time a piece of mine appeared on the page, I felt electrified. I had written things I could not say in my own faculty lounge. The next day, when a number of other readers responded to my post, I felt that I was a part of a new community of professors who, like me, loved teaching but were confused and helpless. I was asked to join Rate Your Students as a moderator several weeks later. Each day I read a hundred e-mails or more and posted a few representative samples. I realized early on that I was getting a rare and unfiltered look into my profession. These people were my colleagues in a very real sense, but their e-mails often closed with, "I can't say this to anyone I teach with."

In our last full month of service, we received almost 400,000 page views. That's nothing compared with mainstream blogs or blogs about Lady Gaga. But for an often-vulgar set of essays full of inside jokes about academe, it was a big, angry crowd, a secret society—and the secrets were sometimes chilling.

I began to have doubts that the page was helping everyone who trafficked it. "Dale from Denver" sent me this: "My students don't want to be there. Does anyone else see that? Why am I beating my head against the wall for them? 'My boyfriend has a split toe.' 'My mother can't find a babysitter for MY BABY.' 'I didn't know we had class today because it was snowing everywhere.' 'Do we have to staple our essays?' 'Do we have to stay all class today?'

"I smoke more than I used to. I drink more. I sit in front of American Idol and just stare at the flashing images instead of prepping class, because I get a knot in my stomach otherwise. I walk the dog at midnight because I can't sleep. I stand under the stars and just wish that a fire would break out on campus and burn down my office and my classrooms.

"I spent half my life in school. I devoted time and energy and passed up countless other opportunities of love and business and money and location so that I could teach what I loved. And now I just want out."

The profession had gotten to Dale, and I worried that the blog was getting to me. I still got jolts of excitement from its humor and crude, inventive, abusive prose. But I started to carry others' pain and anger into my own life and my own classrooms. My students morphed into the students I read about in the mail each morning. I suspected that each would try to fool me, each would do something blogworthy.

I needed to distance myself from Rate Your Students. When I was the last moderator running the page, I tried to recruit new folks I could trust to take it over, but after a few months of trying I could not. So I killed the site.

The mail poured in. "Thank you so very much for being there when I needed you," wrote one longtime reader. Another wrote, "Perhaps in the future, academics won't be dismissed (in more ways than one) for speaking honestly about what's really going on in our institutions of higher learning." Others grieved the loss of the page: "It's like I've been sucker-punched in the stomach. And all I can do to somehow resolve the cognitive dissonance is to say, 'I hate you.' Please don't leave me. I'll go insane."

I don't miss the hours of sorting through e-mails or the feeling I got after reading a hundred depressing messages from people teetering on the edge of a career. But I do miss seeing into the heart of my profession. Rate Your Students taught me that I was not alone and that my anxieties were shared by many others. It made me braver.

The academy is full of well-intentioned, wonderful teachers who are afraid, lost, and in need of support. Teaching has many pleasures, but it does not resemble what many of us imagined our academic career would be. If we want to save the profession, we need a place—like Rate Your Students—where we can talk about that.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20037

Creative Nonfiction Syllabus

2012-03-15T10:38:00.007-07:00

W.T. Pfefferle
Creative Nonfiction Syllabus
Books:

In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction. Lee Gutkind. WW Norton. 2004
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Dave Eggers. Vintage. 2001.
The Course:

Creative Nonfiction is like essay writing on acid. (The essays are on acid...not the writers.) Lee Gutkind, the editor of Creativenonficton.org, a terrific magazine devoted to the genre, says that creative nonfiction pieces are true and real stories that are told “using scenes, dialogue, close, detailed descriptions and other techniques usually employed by poets and fiction writers.”

Creative nonfiction has been around for a long time, usually called “new journalism” or “literary journalism,” and that last term is actually the best marker for the genre. If you've ever read a lengthy article or feature in a popular magazine like Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harpers - some of the best examples I can point you toward - you've read creative nonfiction. Other forms traditionally associated with CNF include: feature writing, travel writing, nature writing, science writing, and the memoir.

Some writers you may have read whose work probably falls into the genre would include: Annie Dillard, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Sebastian Junger, Bill Bryson, David Sedaris, Dave Eggers, and of course the unfortunate - although megarich - James Frey, whose 2003 memoir A Million Little Pieces came under fierce attack (by Oprah and many others) for not being quite truthful enough.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers is a book we’ll read this semester, and in my mind it’s the best and most creative memoir of the past decade. It strives for a number of CNF’s most lofty goals, and even when Eggers falls short, his ambition is thrilling.

Since this is a writing course, part of the new Creative Writing minor and emphasis, you'll be asked to do a fair amount of writing. We will study the genre a bit through our readings in the other text, Lee Gutkind’s In Fact, but our chief goal is to develop our own essay writing skills.

Your writing will be discussed in class – workshopped. You’ll meet with me occasionally to have a conference about a piece of yours in progress. You'll be required to submit at least one of your pieces to a magazine or journal for possible publication.
In-class discussion takes up the majority of our class time. In order for these discussions to be worthwhile, you need to be familiar with the material. I run the discussion in a fairly informal way; I ask questions and try to move the conversation along, but for the most part it’s up to you. If you are unprepared or willing to discuss the work in class, it is likely you will not pass.
Each on of you will present a 10 minute report over an assigned reading. This means you’re in charge of the content and the specifics of the first part of our discussion. We’re trying to learn and extract ideas from the readings, so your job will be to discuss the material and also suggest to us how the material can be useful to our own writing. This can be a rather involved project, and outside research is expected.
Should you miss a class, you’re not expected to provide me a written excuse; I treat all absences as the same. Things that you miss in class (information and discussion) are impossible to recreate, but you should make attempts to meet with some of your classmates and find out what we discussed. Anyone who misses 3 classes should consider dropping the class.
Passing off anyone else’s work as your own is plagiarism. I expect you to comply with the college's Honor System, which can be round on page 194 of the 2006-2007 Student Handbook. If I discover any of the work you do in this class is plagiarized, I shall report your name to the Honor Council, and you will fail this course.
I’ve established an online weblog (blog, of course) for this class at: http://cwcnf.blogspot.com. All of our assignments will being at that location. I will convey assignments to you through it, and we will even operate our rough draft process through it. I’ve sent invites to everyone’s school email addresses, and the instructions to join the blog should be fairly easy to follow.
Grades:

Twenty-six points are available over the course of the semester, and they correspond to letter grades as the chart below denotes:
A: 23-26
A/B: 22
B: 20-21
B/C: 19
C: 17-18
D: 15-16
F: 0-14
Class Grade - 6 points
The class grade is a subjective grade I give you based on your “performance” in our general class discussions. Typically, a bad grade can be earned in one of three ways: 1) by not taking part in our discussions, 2) by not preparing enough to take part, and/or 3) by not being in class enough to take part in a substantive way.

5-6
Someone who has been a reliable and constant positive force in class and who has never missed a class, and who did a sterling presentation.
3-4
A reliable and constant positive force who may have missed a class, but did a good presentation.
2
A mostly positive force in class, but sometimes unprepared to fully engage us. Someone who has likely missed more than one class.
1
Someone who has not contributed enough to be a positive force through poor attendance, poor participation, or poor preparedness. Likely someone with a poor presentation.

Presentation Grade - 4 points

4
Completely successful completion of the assignment. Persuasively and imaginatively pursues the task. Substantial and cogent. Error free.
3
Mostly successful completion of the assignment. Solid work, but lacking elegance, power, or vision. Perhaps minor errors.
2
Competent work, but nothing in this stands out as exceptional. Lacks depth.
1
An unsuccessful assignment. Assignment not properly addressed. Unsatisfactory.

Essays - 4 points each (4 essays)

You get the opportunity to write four essays or articles. Each one will be discussed more fully in class, and each varies with regard to topic, style, etc. These pieces will range in length from roughly 4 – 10 pages, depending on the topic and assignment. Essay styles will be discussed, topics will be generated and presented to the entire class, and then essays will be workshopped in class and conferenced with me before due dates.

Score

Grading Narrative
4
This is a superior piece of writing. It clearly and adequately forwards a point that is almost completely supported throughout the essay. The language is sharp. The paper is clear, focused, and free of spelling, typographic, and/or grammatical errors. It is separated from other essays by its originality and/or style. It shows excellent critical thought, and is elegant, thoughtful, and persuasive.
3
This is a good piece of writing. It’s very solid work, but lacks some of the innovation and sharpness of better articles. There’s a good point that is mostly supported throughout the essay. Transitions are here, but are not compelling or not vital. There may be very minor spelling, typographic, and/or grammatical errors. It typically contains certain shortcomings, notably routine errors, occasional monotony in expression, lack of originality, and/or ambiguity in purpose. It displays good critical sense, and is interesting enough to hold a reader throughout.
2
This essay is an average piece of writing, acceptable college work. It meets the requirements of the assignment, but does not go beyond the assignment in any way. There is likely a point to it, but it is either far too broad or narrow, or merely not supported throughout the essay. Most likely there are spelling, typographic, and/or grammatical errors, but not so much as to hinder a normal reader from getting the point of the essay. There is nothing outstanding, compelling, original, or thought provoking in the essay. It lacks originality, significant purpose, or point of view. Its critical power is only passing. It will likely lose many readers.
1
This essay falls below acceptable college standards. It may partially address the assignment, but it lacks insight as to the goal of the essay. Its writer has not understood or addressed the assignment. It may express a point or have some direction, but it is likely inappropriately sized for the assignment. Paragraphs exist on their own without adequate movement. Sentences are poorly constructed and spelling, typographic and/or grammatical errors appear frequently. It likely contains some of these flaws: monotonous sentence patterns, imprecise use of words, rambling organization, and repetition of ideas. It lacks critical thought.
0
This grade is only given to an unacceptable piece of writing. It has a rich variety of flaws. It may have no thesis or support. There are flaws of organization and development. It likely includes an unacceptable number of grammatical errors. Shows no real understanding of the assignment.
Tentative Article List

This list is subject to change and amplification as we move through the semester.

Using “Celestial Navigation,” “Prayer Dogs,” and “Why I Ride” from the Gutkind text, write a personal article that attempts to explain a topic you’re passionate about. “Why I Ride” is closest to the form I have in mind, but the level of detail and background in “Celestial Navigation” is to be admired and aimed for as well.
Using what we learn from discussing and reading “The Three Spheres” and “Being Brian,” write an article that deals with identity. Explore any variety of elements that make up your identity. Additional requirements for this article come specifically from “The Three Spheres,” especially the need to include a secret that you slowly reveal to the reader, and the need to include a dramatic and apt metaphor (like her piano as family metaphor).
Either, write an article that plumbs the depths of what you can discover about one of the historical documents distributed and discussed in class, or use techniques from the first 165 page section of the Eggers book to write a “tiny” memoir that uses specific techniques that come from AHWOSG’s chapter 4 & 5.
This final article will be discussed in greater detail in class. But it’s probably best characterized as a “feature” article, which will require that you choose a subject who you can interview, shadow, and research. The two Matt Taibbi articles we’ll discuss in class will display some of the chief elements of the paper, but you will also be expected to use skills we learn from the Wideman piece in the Gutkind text.

Literature Syllabus

2012-03-15T10:38:00.006-07:00

W.T. Pfefferle
Literature Syllabus

American Literature
ENG 2143 – Intro to Fiction

Books:
Norton Introduction to Fiction, Sixth Edition, WW Norton, 1995.
Pears on a Willow Tree, Leslie Pietrzyk, Avon Books, 1998.

Objectives:
To discuss a collection of texts. To forward our thoughts and beliefs about these writings: in class, in testing, and in two essays. Your main charge during the semester is to come to your own “understanding” about the work that we study. My goal is to help you develop your critical and creative thinking and writing abilities. We strive to reach these goals through a number of different methods described below:

The Course:
I lecture at the beginning of each class. I discuss class administration, our scheduling, the readings at hand, material coming up, etc. Usually these lectures are quite brief, but at times they may extend to 30 minutes or more.

In-class discussion takes up the majority of our time, and your performance in class determines your “class grade.” In order for these discussions to be worthwhile, you need to be familiar with the material. It is not acceptable to come to class unprepared. If a text is on the schedule for a certain day, that means the ideal student will not only have read the material beforehand, but will have also allowed him or herself time to think and write about the text in some way. Coming to class unprepared hurts both you and the entire class, since you certainly can’t help us in your quest to bring meaning to the texts we read. I run these discussion in a fairly informal way; I ask questions and try to move the conversation along, but for the most part it’s up to you. We do our best to be respectful of other people’s ideas and opinions. It’s an open forum. While I have no guidelines about how often you should take part in our discussions, it has been my experience that students who do well in this class are always those same students who have been active and helpful participants in our meetings.

You will be assigned to teams during the semester and on several occasions your team will meet separately from the rest of class to study, discuss, and then present information essential to our understanding of the texts. These presentations contribute to your “team grade” discussed on the next page. The makeup of the teams will be modified during the semester to offer you as many different perspectives as possible. A good team meeting allows you to work in a small group dynamic with peers. Students tell me every semester that they love team meetings, because they feel a little freer in a small group. I do wander around from group to group, to throw ideas into the mix, but I’m just a friendly neighbor. I’m not coming by to check up on you. Your ability to learn and then teach this material is key to your development as a thinker and communicator. We get about 8-10 team meetings a semester; make the best of them. As for grades, if you are in the team and your name appears on the team assignment sheet, then you get a full grade, or an “A” for every team meeting you take part in. Obviously, being in class for these meetings will help your overall grade. You cannot make up any missed team meetings.

There are two tests and one comprehensive final exam. I’ll provide you a sample test before Test One to help you understand the type of questions I ask. The tests are similar in construct. I discuss the tests more fully below.

You get the opportunity to write two essays, one a rather short “reader’s response” piece, the second, a longer, more involved, documented essay. The first essay (E1) occurs early in the semester and is merely your interpretation of a single piece. The second essay (E2) will still focus on your reading of a single writer’s work, but you will be expected to augment your ideas with a number of outside sources. The paper will be prepared according to the documentation style of the MLA. More details about the essays will be given to you in a handout later in the semester.

You should do your best to come to class all the time, on time. It helps you a great deal. It’s also very helpful to the rest of us since we rely on the group dynamic to help us make sense of the readings. Should you miss a class you’re not expected to provide me a written excuse; I treat all absences as the same. Things that you miss in class (information and discussion) are impossible to recreate, but you should attempt to meet with some of your colleagues and find out what we discussed. Assignments, the mid-term, team assignments, and the final exam cannot be made up in ANY way. There are no extra-credit opportunities of any kind.
Passing off anyone else’s work (your roommate, your sister, your friend, someone famous, etc.) as your own is plagiarism, the worst academic offense. It’s usually punishable by: failure of the work and/or failure of the class. In extreme cases, it can also be punished by expulsion from the University.

It’s your responsibility to drop the course if you are unable to finish. If you stop coming and fail to drop, the chances are good you’ll get an “F.”

Grades:

Class Grade 10%
The class grade is a subjective letter grade I give you based on your “performance” in our general class discussions. Generally these grades are quite high, because usually all members of the class participate and help the discussions stay lively. Typically, a bad grade can be earned in one of two ways: 1) by not taking part in our discussions, and/or 2) by not being in class enough to take part in a substantive way. Our class depends upon your active and helpful participation, and this is a terrific reward for playing along.

Team Grade 20%
Over the course of the semester you work within groups or “teams,” and I give you a cumulative score based on how many team presentations you successfully take part in. Everyone who partakes in a team presentation gets an effective “A.” Over the course of the semester, you should expect 8-10 of these events to take place. If you’re a part of a team presentation every time we have one, obviously you’ll earn an A. If you miss a few, you should be prepared for a grade somewhat less than an A.

Test One 10%
Test Two 10%
These tests are similar. One is usually of the “take-home” variety. They cover just the material that precedes the test. Test One covers the material we read from the beginning of the semester. Test Two covers the material we’ve read since Test One. They are essay exams, and usually require one or two answers. (I sometimes give you a choice of questions.) They are open book/open notes affairs, and you should expect to use your book and notes to support your answers. If you have the option of a take home exam, then you should be prepared for some stringent length requirements. Usually I specify a word count on take-home exams, so that someone who spends an unusual amount of time on the take-home will earn no unfair advantage. As for test answers, I expect them to be focused and cogent. Without a doubt, the biggest mistake students make on tests is that they fail to provide a clearly stated thesis. After all, the thesis should be your answer to the question. You are expected to provide a thesis and then support the thesis with textual support from our readers. Your support, more or less, proves that your answer is a reasonable and valid “understanding” of the texts under question.

E1 10%
This first essay is merely an interpretive piece. You are to forward a thesis about a text we’ve read in class prior to the essay’s due date. A handout will be passed out before the essay to give you more details about this brief (500-word) essay.

E2 20%
This essay is rather different from the short E1. In the E2, you get the opportunity to write an essay that covers a text, texts, or an author. The principal criterion I enforce when grading the E2 is whether or not you go beyond the class’ knowledge. Merely discussing items we’re already familiar with is not very useful, and therefore, is not rewarded. During the E2, you will have the opportunity to take part in a workshop and a conference. A workshop is a gathering of other writers; a conference is a meeting with me in my office. Those writers who avail themselves off these opportunities always do a better job on the essay. The worst method to follow on theE2 is to write it yourself, without counsel.

Final Exam 20%
The final is similar in construct to Test One and Test Two; however, it is comprehensive. It’s an in-class event only.

Tentative Schedule
This schedule is subject to change. I will publish a new schedule if any changes occur. Whatever text is listed on a certain date indicates that the text needs to be read and ready for that day’s meeting.

1.20 Class Intro.
1.25 Bobbie Ann Mason: Shiloh.
1.27 John Cheever: The Country Husband.

2.1 Elizabeth Tallent: No One’s a Mystery.
2.3 Flannery O’Connor: Everything that Rises Must Converge.

2.8 Richard Ford: Great Falls.
2.10 Test preparation: bring sample questions.

2.15 Test One
2.17 selections from “Writing about Fiction.”

2.22 Ann Beattie: Janus.
2.24 Eudora Welty: Why I Live at the P.O.

3.1 William Faulkner: A Rose for Emily. E1 due in class.
3.3 Margaret Atwood: Happy Endings.

3.8 James Baldwin: Sonny’s Blues.
3.10 Denise Chavez: The Last of the Menu Girls.

3.15 Spring Break.
3.17 Spring Break.

3.22 Test Two.
3.24 Leslie Pietrzyk: Pears on a Willow Tree. [pages 1-119.]

3.29 E2 handout and discussion. Selections from “Writing about Fiction.”
3.31 E2 discussion. Library time.

4.5 E2 workshop day. Bring 3 copies of a rough draft of your E2 for group discussion.
4.7 E2 conferences. Bring a draft to my office at your scheduled time.

4.12 Pears on a Willow Tree. (cont.) [pages 120-end.]
4.14 Pears on a Willow Tree. (cont.) [pages 120-end.]

4.19 Toni Cade Bambara: Gorilla, My Love.
4.21 Alice Munro: Boys and Girls.

4.26 Essay Workshop Day: Bring rough draft of E2 to class.
4.28 Anton Chekhov: The Lady with the Dog.

5.3 No class. Optional conference day.
5.5 E2 due. Final Exam preparation

Creative Nonfiction Sample

2012-03-15T10:37:00.010-07:00

Introduction

All books start as ideas, but Poets on Place started as a choice to leave one life behind and to go in search of another. My wife and I had great careers. We had worked hard for them, had been busted and broke during our early years, but now I was a writing program administrator, and she was a sales executive for a network-owned TV station. We had worked hard for almost twenty years, and we loved our jobs and the life we led. But we lived in almost ten different places during that time, and when we both eased into our 40s, we started wondering about another move, one not predicated on a job. We thought about taking a look around the country and seeing everything we could.

We had the fantasies of drifting around and starting a business in a pretty little town on the water. A bed and breakfast place, maybe. I wanted a place where you could have poetry readings and live music. My wife wanted to make soup (but not salad) and cookies (but not cakes). I thought maybe a Laundromat would be easy to own, but my wife wanted to know who’d fix the dryers. I wanted to open a radio station, play all my favorite songs, and hire college kids for pennies to run it when I wanted to sleep. My wife wanted to know who was going to clean the bathrooms. We kept the fantasies to ourselves. There was always something a little secretive and naughty about our desire to break from the real world.

A move from Texas took us to a suburban community outside Baltimore, Maryland. When house prices began to skyrocket, and our neighborhood boomed, the fantasies gained new life. A neighbor sold his three-year-old house for twice what he bought it for and we began to do calculations in our heads. How much time and space would that money buy us?

We liked where we were; it was a nice bustling suburb, near two big cities (I worked in Baltimore and my wife commuted to D.C.), but it wasn’t really home. We had never found that place. We were visitors wherever we went, never afraid to go on to the next stop. In some ways, home for us was always somewhere else. Home could be anywhere we slept that night. Home, really, was just with each other.

We don’t have kids; our dear 14-year-old Boston Terrier had recently died, and so we just thought we’d go and see what there was to see. It became a real thing, this fantasy. We could investigate the red and black and “blue highways” of the big country and see if we’d stumble across a place that held a deeper magnetic resonance for us than all the other places we’d lived in in the past.

But we couldn’t just sneak off in the night. We told our families and friends. People told us we were brave. We liked that at first. But after a while, “brave” started to sound like “stupid.” People said “brave” with their voices lifting at the end, like a question. Like “brave” really meant, “Are you both insane?” And we got nervous.

We had sleepless nights. No jobs meant no money. Sure, there’d be money at the beginning; the house sale would solve that problem. But it wasn’t a lot of money. It was a year’s worth, if we kept things simple. If we bought the generic macaroni and cheese. If we did laundry on a rock in a river.

But it still was in our heads, so we started planning. None of it was as romantic as I hoped. I started thinking about mail. Where would our bills go? How would we get health insurance? We started thinking of things we could do with our stuff, and then – like a switch getting thrown – things just moved forward. We quit our jobs. Over the phone, we bought a small investment house near my wife’s folks, and then we gave our furniture and boxes to burly men in a moving van praying that they would be willing to take it there.

We bought an RV. A motorhome. A Class C. A giant cab-over with a slick interior, a tiny stove, a tiny bathroom, a tiny bed, and giant tanks for gasoline and water. It was a great big rolling tin can, a moving version of our home. In went the smallest version of our stuff that we could imagine. We piled in clothes and cans of soup, paper towels, hoses, wrenches, flashlights. My Swiss Army knife. It was a mini-everything-we-owned; it only got eight miles to the gallon, but it was our ticket to the highway.

Suddenly, 12 months stretched ahead of us like a long, straight line. We wondered what in the world we were going to do for all that time. We knew that the first days would be delicious and long. No work. No clocks. Nobody waiting at school for me or at the office for my wife. We didn’t have deadlines or reports that were due. There were no students waiting in a classroom. We imagined the bliss would be overwhelming.

Until the second week. Then what? My wife had longed for more time in the natural world than her career afforded. For years she had stolen the occasional three-day trip to go rafting or camping. She’d come back hungry for more, more trees, more land, but would settle for more reports and more paperwork instead. So the immediate future was intoxicating for her. She shed her old self like it was a stinky coat. She was ready for new places, new experiences, and was going to eat them up no matter how they came to us.

I’m considerably more trouble, however. I have to have something to do. I have to have something to finish. So we talked projects. I’m a writer, a poet, and the thought came to me that I could do something with that. For as long as I’ve written, my own work has been grounded in place, steeped in the sensibility that where we live and work matters. Shortly after we got married, we lived for a dozen years in Texas. I felt that state’s effect on everything in my work from the content of a poem to the length of the line. The endless vista of west Texas, the scrubby desert outside Van Horn. I wrote what the wind sounded like. In the places of Texas I found my own voice as a writer. Texas taught me patience. It taught me that what was in between the towns was more important than the towns themselves. And though Texas continued to work on me after I left, the new places added their own colors and textures. So Florida added something, and then Maryland. I wondered about the rush my poetry got from a new place, a new setting, and I thought about how the places of my life were a part of what I wrote, how I wrote.

And I wondered about other poets. How does a poet go from Chicago to Montana, and how is her life different? What happens when a writer from the mountains ends up in a prairie state surrounded by grasslands? How is the art different for someone living on a mountain in Idaho and someone in a 300-square-foot apartment in Greenwich Village?

For me, poetry was always somewhere else. Poetry is a rich collection of things, people, ideas, language, and places. And it rocketed through my head that the greatesttest poem ever written is that stretch of highway on the way to a town you’ve never heard of before. The wondrous discovery of every turn. The tasty arrival as you clear the hill and peer into a new landscape.

Each state, another poem. Each town its own stanza. There was poetry in every bump on the interstate, through every corner of every tiny road. It was all poetry, every place I’d lived. A poetry of places that stretched for endless miles in every direction, under tree-lined streets in Ohio, and under the ominous skies of the Pacific Northwest, and under the perfect blue canopy of the Florida Gulf Coast.

I wanted to know what other writers thought of it. How did their work spring from the places of their lives? And there was only one way to find all of this. We’d have to go to them.

Elevation

The weather is freezing, and we’ve gone as far north and east as we are able. Time is crushing us and we have to get back to the middle of the country for a western route that will take us all the way to Utah on the last leg of the trip. We start across Pennsylvania in one shot, stopping once to get gas and once to make the latest in an inexhaustible supply of sandwiches. Later, I find myself exhausted, but pushing along the Pennsylvania Turnpike at 11:30 at night. My wife has given out and is asleep, beautifully, in the passenger seat.

Somewhere just outside of Harrisburg, we start climbing. Endless switchbacks. There's a three-quarter moon, yellow to orange, right ahead of me, and the traffic is light.

The switchbacks continue, and the climb is steady. Somehow – and this is not normal – Winnie Cooper is running like a small sedan. The accelerator is responsive; its nimbleness amazes me.

A Harley Davidson, its distinctive rat-a-tat-tat sound coming first, passes me. The guy has a black helmet with “Tommy” stenciled on the back. He begins to pull away, but I give it some gas and follow along behind him. We're doing 60 mph for the first couple of miles. We occasionally come behind two or three semis struggling up the hills. I keep thinking that we'll level off, hit a valley, something, but the incline is steady.

Eighty miles from Pittsburgh I notice I'm up to 70 mph. The pavement is glassy smooth and the moon gives a little light. But it's still a highway near midnight so it's dark everywhere else. We bend left and right, up the switchbacks. I keep thinking, what the hell is the elevation here? How high are we going?

Two semis have to weave from the slow lane in front of me. Tommy, the bike guy, is still ahead. The slow lane has narrowed because of construction barriers. The semis are in front of me; I ease off the gas and watch my speedometer start to fall. This is more normal. Winnie is brave, has a V10, but rarely goes north of 50 mph on hills like these.

Off to the right, up another climb, I see Tommy's tail light as he pulls away. I tap my steering wheel a while, and I take a drink of water out of a bottle next to me. It takes about five miles for me to pass the semis, but when the road flattens temporarily, I really get rolling. I hit 75 mph and the road is empty.

I have my window open, and the wind is rushing through here like I'm on a roller coaster. I see Tommy's light ahead of me. In a few minutes I'm behind him and we settle in together. We bank the long, slow corners, he a second ahead of me or so, and we use both lanes, the left lane for bends that way, and the right lane when we cut back.

He's aware of me – he couldn't not be – but he senses I'm not passing. We climb higher and impossibly higher. As we pass about the 50-mile mark, we haven't seen another car in five minutes. I look down once and blink. My speedometer says 80, and the sound of both engines is nearly deafening, the echoes slapping back from the rocks that crowd both sides of the turnpike.

Higher still. Impossible, I think. The moon hangs ahead of us, the only light save our own, and we're headed up another switchback when I hear Tommy's engine misfire a time or two. Altitude. The gas mixture on the big bike is off a hair, not noticeable anywhere else but here.

He drops to 70 and I stay behind him. When two semis appear ahead of us on the right, Tommy pulls into the slow lane and gives me one finger point, motioning me to go on ahead. He eases his throttle back as he nears what appears to be a level spot of highway.

I go past, not waving, not looking, just pushing on. I eat up the two semis and am now on a giant sloping downhill. In a dream of some kind, I see the speedometer flicker back and forth on either side of 85 mph. The hum of the engine and the roar of the wind is exhilarating. It's the best I've felt about anything in a year, maybe five years. That's a horrible and sad thing to say, and my life is full of incredible blessings. But tonight is extraordinary. It's one of the best nights of my life. I love driving, I guess. Highways. I love the feeling of going somewhere. There are few things as beautiful as the rushing of the wheels.

My love of place, of new places, has to have a genesis. There has to be a reason why a night like this brings me such happiness. My folks worked for a long time in the hotel industry, and we would move every few years. About the time I’d find a friend in one town, we’d move on to the next. I learned not to put posters up on the walls of my bedrooms, or to get too attached to my teachers. And as I got older and left for college, I realized that I never gave a shit about any place that was called home. That’s 25 years ago, and I’m still moving, still running. I’m going someplace else. Anyplace. Anywhere.

And suddenly, there's Tommy again. I can see his single headlight coming up. We're on a flat when he pulls even with me. We’re more than an hour into this event. I can see the lights of Pittsburgh in the distance, and though part of me wants to keep pushing along under this moon, I’m tired, sleepy, and ready for rest.

I think about Tommy. He looks to be my age, or a bit older. On a Sunday night like this, I think he is going home, home to someplace where someone is waiting for him. I look over at my wife, her name is Beth. Beth since I was nineteen years old, and Beth for all of my life. I would drive to the end of the world if I knew she were waiting.It's one in the morning. Another day and another place.

Just before an exit, Tommy goes by, the Harley pouring through the night like sand. I pull into the parking lot of a giant Wal-Mart that is closed for the evening. As always, a handful of other motorhomes are here, scattered loosely in the furthest regions of the parking lot. I pull in under a soft yellow light and wake my wife up. I don’t tell her anything but, “We’re here. We’re stopping for the night.”

Poetry Syllabus

2012-03-15T10:37:00.009-07:00

W.T. Pfefferle
Poetry Syllabus

Required Texts:
Writing Poems, Michelle Boisseau, Longman, 2003.
Sailing Alone Around the Room, Billy Collins, Random House, 2002.
Poets on Place: Interviews and Tales from the Road, W.T. Pfefferle, Utah State University Press, 2005.

Course Description and Objectives:
Introduces students to poetry writing. Students will work within a workshop atmosphere providing and accepting critiques of their own work and the work of others. In addition, there will also be in-depth discussion of some classic and contemporary work by established writers.

Objectives include:

to guide writers in developing skills in poetry writing
to study recent trends in contemporary poetry
to research manuscript submission processes and to develop these for each writer
to study recent interviews of American poets in hopes of understanding a poet’s process and inspiration.

Course Units:

selections of contemporary poetry in textbook.
selections of interviews with American poets from textbook.
study of literary magazines.
review of poetry in recent Georgetown Review.
manuscript submission for publication.
spoken-word poetry (including public performance).
poetry portfolio.

Grading:

participation in writing workshops (10 points)
You receive a grade based on your participation in our class meetings. These workshops are crucial to your development as a poet, and therefore crucial in your value to the class. You should be expected to be active in every workshop, especially those where your poetry is not actually being discussed.
assessment of final portfolio (30 points)
At semester end you turn in a final portfolio of your work. This will include early and revised drafts of your best poems.
assessment and completion of manuscript submission (20 points)
By semester end, everyone will have chosen a national literary mag to which they will then prepare a professional submission of a batch of poems. Choosing an appropriate magazine, preparing your work professionally, and getting those poems in front of an editor are all crucial steps in your development as a poet.
E1: response paper on interviews (20 points)You will write an essay that responds to at least two of the interviews in the book. You can take any line of inquiry with this essay.
E2: response paper on poems (20 points)You will write an essay that discusses a selection of poems that you have read this semester. These poems must include at least one poem from Poets on Place, at least one poem from Georgetown Review, and at least one poem that you find on your own – can include anything from the Billy Collins book.

Academic Honesty:
I expect you to be familiar with and to comply with the college's Honor System. If I discover that you have plagiarized, I shall report your name to the Honor Council, and you will fail this course. For more information about Georgetown’s Honor Code, check this website: http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/ honorsystem.htm.

Attendance:
It is expected that you attend every class, and that you arrive on time. Attendance is mandatory. Any student missing 3 sessions will lose one full letter grade.

Schedule:

8.31 Class introduction. Discuss poems from Billy Collins book. Boisseau, Chapter 1.

9.7 Read the David Citino and Michael Dennis Browne sections in the text. Choose one Billy Collins poem to read aloud in class and discuss. Exercises.

9.14 Read the Nicole Cooley and Frederick Smock sections in the text. Choose another Billy Collins poem to read aloud in class and discuss. Exercises. Boisseau, Chapter 4.

9.21 First workshop. All writers bring two new pieces. Read the Naomi Shihab Nye section.

9.28 Read the Barbara Drake and Campbell McGrath sections. Discuss and Assign E1.

10.5 Second workshop. All writers bring two new pieces.

10.12 Discuss outside readings from Georgetown Review. Assign first of individual workshop sessions. Boisseau, Chapter 10.

10.19 Third workshop (group A poets).

10.26 Fourth workshop (group B poets).

11.2 E1 due in class. Discuss manuscript submission project. Review of literary magazines.

11.9 Fifth workshop. All writers bring in one revised piece (with its earlier draft) from third and fourth workshop only. Boisseau, Chapter 7.

11.16 Discuss and Assign E2. Come prepared to discuss your choices of poems from Poets on Place, the Billy Collins collection, and Georgetown Review.

11.23 Manuscript submission workshop. Bring what you intend to send. Boisseau, Chapter 11.

11.30 Sixth workshop. Bring portfolio poems in revision.

12.7 E2 due in class. Bring manuscript submission materials. Bring final portfolio, showing six poems in early and revised versions.

Composition Syllabus Sample

2012-03-15T10:37:00.006-07:00

W.T. Pfefferle
Composition Syllabus

Required Texts:

QA Compact, Lynn Troyka & Doug Hesse. Prentice Hall, 2006.
Prentice Hall Guide For College Writers, Stephen Reid. Prentice Hall, 2005.

Course Objectives:

This course “develops satisfactory proficiency in basic skills of composition and reading comprehension. Students must demonstrate their ability to produce a portfolio of literate, reasonably logical, and perceptive short themes. Grades given are A, B, C, or X (conditional incomplete – to be satisfied by repeating the course).” By the end of the course, you should demonstrate college-level reading, thinking, and writing proficiency by producing a three-essay portfolio that satisfies college-level writing criteria. Some essays will be based on assigned readings. You will brainstorm, outline, draft, edit, write, and revise a number of essays. Some will be written out-of-class and some in-class. To demonstrate proficiency, you must:

organize ideas that are appropriate to assigned length, purpose, and audience,
support generalizations using appropriate and logical modes of writing and thinking,
use English language grammar and diction appropriately,
paraphrase and quote sources correctly,
and demonstrate reading comprehension and critical thinking skills in your essays.

General Outcomes:

This course contributes to the purpose of Georgetown College by helping students develop skills in critical reading and thinking, analytical reasoning, and effective communication.

Academic Honesty:

I expect you to be familiar with and to comply with the college's Honor System. If I discover that you have plagiarized, I will report your name to the Honor Council, and you will fail this course. There are no exceptions to the policy. For more information aboutGeorgetown’s Honor Code, check this website: http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/ honorsystem.htm. To commit plagiarism means to present the ideas and/or words of someone else as one’s own. The someone else could be your roommate, your pal, William Shakespeare, some guy on the web, etc. You commit plagiarism if you use anyone else’s ideas as your own without credit. You commit plagiarism if you use (without proper attribution):

any part of another person’s book, article, essay, speech, or ideas.
any part of an article in a magazine, journal, newspaper; any part of a book, encyclopedia, CD-ROM, online database, online magazine or newspaper, webpage, blog, etc.
any idea from another person or writer, even if you finally express that idea in your own words.

Essays:

During the semester you will write and revise eight essays. The essays will vary in length, but usually the range is 2-5 pages. A typing format for the final versions of these essays will be shown in class. You may rewrite one essay for a higher grade if you choose. Occasionally, if a paper is deficient in a number of ways, you’ll be given a “RW” grade. That means you must rewrite the paper for a grade, and this would not count against your opportunity to rewrite another paper on your own later. It is crucial that you keep all of your drafts for all of your essays as that will be useful to us as we put the final portfolio together. All essays have due dates. Essays must be turned in to me in person ahead of or on the due date, or you’ll receive a zero.

Attendance:

There is no attendance policy. Students who attend and take part do well in class, and those that don’t, usually don’t. Not being an active and helpful class member will certainly negatively impact your class grade (see below).

Portfolio Requirement:

In addition to earning a passing grade for the work you do for me, you must also satisfy the English Department’s “portfolio” requirement. You will receive an X for this class if you do not earn a C average on the work you do for me, or if you do not complete a passing portfolio. Generally, about 1/3 of all first time 111 students receive an X.

The portfolio must contain:

1 passing essay that has been written in class
1 passing essay that is in response to a reading assignment
1 passing essay that has gone through multiple drafts

All of our out of class essays are multiple draft essays, so you’ll have a number to choose from. We do at least 2 essays that are response papers, and most in-class essays also result from a text or prompt. Because the in-class essay is often the toughest for many writers, you will have several opportunities to write a passing version of that type. (Some of these don’t count for your final score, but may be necessities for completion of your portfolio.) <>
If at semester-end your portfolio does not contain three passing essays of the types noted above, you’ll receive an ‘X’ for this class. That is not the same as an F. It stands for "conditional incomplete." It means that you must repeat the course next semester. While you will not receive credit for the course until your complete it with an A, B or C grade, your GPA will not be adversely affected by the X.

Grading & Grading Standards:

In addition to completing a passing and “X-free” portfolio, you must earn enough points on your assignments to earn a passing grade. You do this through the successful completion of our 8 essays. Let me show you a grid that explains that part of things:

Class

You can see that all essays are worth 6 points. There is a subjective “class” grade that you earn based on your participation and performance in class. As you earn points along the way, you have the following levels to shoot for. I give you this so you can keep track of your own status during the semester. Additionally, you must complete a three-essay portfolio (described above) by semester-end in order to pass. Portfolio essays must be 3 points or higher. I will drop the lowest essay score from the semester, and just count the highest 7 grades.

Letter Grade	Points Needed (out of 54)
A	43
B	36
C	27
X	0-26 or X Portfolio

Essay Grades:

Score	Grading Narrative
6	This is an extraordinary piece of writing. It forwards an indisputable thesis that is supported throughout the essay. It is structurally sound, with clear, convincing, and apt transitions between paragraphs. The essay has “movement” or “flow” toward its stated purpose, and is appropriate in language and style for its audience. The writing is clear and controlled, and the language is often sharp, effective, and interesting. The essay is original, forceful, and compelling. It is wholly free of spelling, typographic, and/or other grammatical errors. It is polished, clean, and a pleasure to read.
5	This is also a superior piece of writing, something like an “A” paper. It clearly and adequately forwards a thesis that is almost completely supported throughout the essay. The language is sharp. The paper is clear, focused, and free of spelling, typographic, and/or grammatical errors. It is separated from a higher scoring essay by the relative dearth of originality and/or style.
4	This is a good piece of writing, something like a “B” paper. It’s very solid work, but lacks some of the innovation and sharpness of higher scored papers. Good thesis, mostly supported throughout the essay. Transitions are here, but are not compelling or not vital. There are very minor spelling, typographic, and/or grammatical errors. It typically contains certain shortcomings, notably routine errors, occasional monotony in expression, lack of originality, ambiguity in purpose, or some lack of precision and economy in use of words.
3	This essay is an average piece of writing, acceptable college work. It meets the requirements of the assignment, but does not go beyond the assignment in any way. There is likely a thesis, but it is either far too broad or narrow, or merely not supported throughout the essay. There are likely transitional flaws. Language is likely okay, but flawed with awkwardness and/or imprecision. Most likely there are spelling, typographic, and/or grammatical errors, but not so much as to hinder a normal reader from getting the point of the essay. There is nothing outstanding, compelling, original, or thought provoking in the essay. It lacks originality, significant purpose, or point of view.
2	This essay is a below average piece of writing. It falls below acceptable college standards. It may partially address the assignment, but it surely lacks any expected insight as to the goal of the essay. Frequently, its writer has not understood the assignment and therefore does not address or respond to a definite purpose. It may express a thesis, but it is likely inappropriately sized for the assignment. Paragraphs exist on their own without adequate movement. The language of the essay is flawed. Sentences are poorly constructed and spelling, typographic and/or grammatical errors appear frequently. It likely contains some of these flaws: monotonous sentence patterns, imprecise use of words, rambling organization, and repetition of ideas. It is crucial to visit the WritingCenter and seek extra assistance if you have an essay with this score on it.
1	This grade is only given to an unacceptable piece of writing. It has a rich variety of flaws. It may have no thesis or support. There are flaws of organization and development. It likely includes an unacceptable number of spelling, typographic, and/or grammatical errors. The essay shows no real understanding of the assignment. An essay that receives a failing grade does not automatically mean a failing grade in the course.

Class Grade: This is a subjective grade based on participation and performance. If you come to class every day, and are a regular member of our conversations, workshops, etc., and if you demonstrate through your revision process and conference attendance that the betterment of your writing is your main goal, then you have a very likely shot at getting a top score for this grade. But ANY let down in those areas mentioned above will drop you to a lower score. Generally, folks do well on the class grade. You don't have to talk ALL the time, but you should be a positive and active force all semester. I will attempt to make clear in class if you are NOT meeting my expectations through the mid-term “early warning report.”

11-12	A superior student, someone who has unfailingly aided the development of fellow writers, and who has been a consistently and dazzling force in our class all semester long.
9-10	Someone who has been a reliable and constant positive force in class and who has never missed a class, conference, workshop, etc.
7-8	A reliable and constant positive force who may have missed a class, conference, workshop, etc.
5-6	A mostly positive force in class, but sometimes unprepared to fully engage us.
3-4	Someone who has not contributed enough to be a positive force, either through poor attendance, poor participation, or poor preparedness.
0-2	Someone who has been a negative force in the class.

Schedule: (tentative & subject to change)

Essays are denoted with their possible portfolio designations: MD (multiple draft), RR (reading response), and/or IC (in-class.)

8.30 Syllabus distribution. Class introduction. Diagnostic essay assignment. Magazine ad.

9.1 Discuss Chapter 2 of Reid (17-33). Bring a recent magazine ad. Assign E1 (MD or RR).

9.6 Rough draft of E1 due in class. E1 Workshop.

9.8 E1 due in class. Discuss Chapter 3 of Reid (52-60, 81-88). Assign E2 (MD).

9.13 Observed data due in class for E2.
9.15 Rough draft of E2 due in class. E2 Workshop.

9.20 No class. You’ll meet with me individually in my office for E2 conferences.

9.22 No class. You’ll meet with me individually in my office for E2 conferences.

9.27 Discuss Chapter 5 of Reid (158-178). Assign E3 (IC or RR).
9.29 E3 takes place in class. Bring looseleaf paper, multiple pens, and a dictionary.

10.4 Discuss Chapter 8 of Reid (362-370, 388-393, & 396-405). Assign E4 (MD).
10.6 Topic & Criteria Workshop.

10.11 Rough draft of E4 due in class. E4 Workshop
10.13 No class. You’ll meet with me individually in my office for E4 conferences.

10.18 No class. You’ll meet with me individually in my office for E4 conferences.
10.20 E5 (IC or RR) takes place in class. Bring looseleaf paper, multiple pens, and a dictionary.

10.25 E4 due in class. Discuss Chapter 7 of Reid (304-314, & 356-358). Assign E6 (MD).
10.27 Topic day for E6. Bring at least two possible topics and be prepared to pitch them to us.

11.1 Rough draft of E6 due in class. E6 Workshop.
11.3 TBA

11.8 E6 due in class. Outside readings provided.
11.10 Discuss Chapter 11 of Reid (554-563). Assign E7 (MD or RR).

11.15 Bring to class the lyrics to at least one song. (You can bring a CD, too.)

11.17 Rought draft of E7 due in class. E7 Workshop.

11.22 No class. Optional conferences as scheduled.

11.24 No class. Thanksgiving Holiday.

11.29 E7 due in class. E8 readings distributed in class.

12.1 Portfolio Day. Bring all past essays and all drafts.

12.6 E8 (IC or RR) takes place in class. Bring looseleaf paper, multiple pens, and a dictionary.

12.8 TBA

Statement of Teaching Philosophy.

2012-03-15T10:36:00.003-07:00

I love those light bulbs that go off over someone’s head in a cartoon. I’ve seen it happen in my classroom every semester. Those light bulbs signify moments when my writers are succeeding. Maybe they’re getting in touch with an idea, or figuring out why it’s important to consider “audience.” Maybe it’s just the moment when they first look into a poem and are able to draw meaning that goes beyond the surface. Regardless, suddenly something makes sense to them. “Writing is good,” I can almost hear them say. “Thinking is good.”

Those light bulbs have become my drug. I taught as a young man because it was a profession I respected. I had some terrific professors in college, and I admired their commitment to writing, both that of their own and of others. But it wasn’t until after years of teaching that I discovered the real rewards. I get to help eager students develop their critical and creative skills. As I say, my students become better thinkers and communicators. In the end, it’s my only real goal. All other agendas are secondary.

I believe that empowerment is the first step. My courses are designed in such a way that the student has ultimate control of the topics and ideas with which he or she will spend time. Whether it’s a freshman writer sorting through his or her beliefs on a campus issue, a sophomore lit student explaining where he or she finds the true essence of a poem, or a beginning poet shepherding words and phrases for the first time, I always stand back as much as possible so that the student can fumble toward meaning. Of course, there is help given, both by the other writers and me. But a lot of the work that goes on is in that dynamic that occurs between the writers and their words.

Regardless of the course, I think we have to offer our writers a multi-disciplinary experience. We should open their minds to texts and ideas from a variety of sources—not just multicultural, but also multi-generational, multi-modal, etc. We can separate the good from the bad, the truthful from the false, the well intentioned from the mean-spirited, but in order to learn they have to be exposed to texts and ideas of all kinds. To that end, I include readings in my composition classes from a wide variety of disciplines. I’ve taught texts as diverse as famed scientist B.F. Skinner’sWalden Two (about a utopian community), and Robert Pirsig’s long psychological meditation, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. If a student is struggling with the notion of his or her own spirituality, I get out the Diamond Sutra. If a writer wonders about his or her own free will, I get out some William James. Thankfully, I went to school when it was still okay to stumble around from major to major. I trekked through Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology on my way to English and the Liberal Arts. It was a great trip, and I try to help my writers and thinkers do something similar, even those who are in strict programs that don’t allow much wandering.

They need to read, think, discuss, and write. And they need to be in an environment that welcomes all of it. In all of my writing courses, regular workshopping and conferencing are keys. I want my writers to understand that their texts come at the end of a process. We discuss topics, set about our tasks, but keep coming back to a developing set of readers for help. On my own, in conferencing, I can help focus each writer on his/her words, the things already accomplished, the things still in need of help.

At some point, the semester ends and the students leave. I don’t care if they remember me, but I hope they remember the experience. I hope they remember the opportunities I gave them, and the encouragement I offered. I hope that the next time they have to interact with the world, whether it is in the real world, or elsewhere in the academy, they’ll be better prepared to handle the exhilarating but sometimes confusing world of communicating. “What do I believe? How do I say it so others will understand? What does this mean? How can I make manifest my own understanding of these texts and ideas?”

I don’t watch with sadness as they go. I know there is a new group, and I am ready for them.

Chronicle Articles by W.T. Pfefferle

2012-03-15T10:35:00.013-07:00

"The Short, Brave Life of Rate Your Students." Chronicle of Higher Education (Web). 28 Nov. 2010."
"All it Takes is One Good Student." Chronicle of Higher Education (Web). 8 Sept. 2010."
"All it Takes is One Good Student." Chronicle of Higher Education 57:3 (10 Sept. 2010): A30. Print. [Print version of article linked directly above.]
“An Academic Wanderer Accepts Tenure.” Chronicle of Higher Education 51:26 (4 March 2005): C3.
“The 'Easeful' Life of the Professor.” Chronicle of Higher Education (Web). 1 Dec. 2000.
“The Sorry Plight of the Successful Job Candidate.” Chronicle of Higher Education 46:21 (28 Jan. 2000): B8. Print. [Print version of article linked directly below.]
“The New Guy Needs a Break.” Chronicle of Higher Education (Web). 21 Jan. 2000.
“A Former Adjunct Comes (Mostly) Clean.” Chronicle of Higher Education (Web). 6 Aug. 1999.