The other main component of my writing curriculum is the use of reflection.  With each paper, students will submit a "commentary" in which they reflect on their writing process and on their stylistic choices.  What did they try to accomplish in the paper, and more importantly how did they try to accomplish it?  This component is based on the work of Sharon Pianko, who as early as 1979 discovered through her research that "the act of reflection during composing . . . is the single most significant aspect of the composing process."  Pianko argues that through reflection, students become aware of the choices they make while writing, the mental, linguistic, syntactical or organizational strategies they are using to communicate.  Because I want my students to become aware that good writing is not an accident, I have them reflect on their writing. 

Writing Assignments
In the first series of assignments, the focus of Aristotelian rhetoric is the speaker.  Traditionally, this focus produces narratives and other expressive discourse.  The first assignment simply asks students to tell about an experience, not necessarily an earth-shaking one, but one that they now realize is important to them.  They are to recreate the experience and make the reader understand its significance.  As students work on their essays, we discuss features of an effective story (details, figurative language, dialogue perhaps) and revise to include those features.  Their commentary begins with the basic question, "what did you try to do in this essay and how did you try to do it?"

The second assignment in this focus increases the difficulty level.  In effect, it "revises" the first assignment by asking students to tell a story, recreate the events, and make the reader understand its significance.  This time, however, they are to include a crisis or turning point in the story, something their first paper didn't necessarily include.  This assignment, then, helps students learn to create a conflict, build tension, and to share a resolution.  During their writing processes, students discuss the difference between just telling a story and creating a crisis moment as well as what it takes for a writer to do so effectively.  They also address this issue in their commentary.

The third (and final) assignment in the speaker focus is meant to straddle the gap between speaker and audience, which will be the focus of the next series of assignments.  For this paper, they are to tell yet another story, but they will tell it in two ways, objectively and subjectively.  By this time, students are fairly comfortable with recreating a story and making the reader understand its significance.  Along with the traditional narrative, they will submit a plausible document written from someone outside the situation, such as a disciplinary referral, police report, or the like.  In this way, we begin discussing the difference between objectivity and subjectivity, between personal and public discourse.  This again provides a scaffold for the next assignment when we begin to write for audiences other than ourselves.  The commentary helps them discover the differences between the objective and subjective form and discuss whether or not it is really the same experience in both texts.

Detailed Lessons for One of the Assignments

This is the assignment sheet for paper #3, described above.

This is the activity we would do as part of the introduction.

An Assessment Plan

I will be using a portfolio assessment for these assignments, based on extensive research in the use of portfolios by Kathleen Yancy, Porter and Cleland, and Murphy and Smith.  Because the papers are so closely related in each section, I will consider assigning a grade for the papers only after all three have been completed.  Students will individually conference with me to negotiate a grade for the pieces, much as Maja Wilson suggests in Rethinking Rubrics.  Prior to the conference, students will write and submit a summative commentary in which they discuss their process and progress throughout the writing assignments.  This will prepare them to discuss their strengths and weaknesses as writers without focusing solely on the grade.  I will continue this method of assigning related pieces, having students write summative commentaries, and negotiating grades throughout the school year.