Final Comment: Learning Experience in Basic Writing

In the span of this semester and through this Basic Writing course, I have come to understand how basic writing programs work and the factors that influence its development. I’ve learned more about the history of basic writing and the ways it has taken shape throughout the years, but most importantly, and what I appreciate the most about this course, is that I’ve become so much aware of the challenges basic writing students face in the classroom. I initially wasn’t familiar with the basic writers before starting the L&L program, I didn’t even know about developmental education that has students placed in non-credit bearing remedial courses that they need to pass before taking college-level courses. We’ve discussed developmental education before in my other courses, but here we’ve viewed basic writing through different roles: basic writing students, administration, and as faculty in other departments, adjuncts, and as full-time composition professors.It was very useful to approach writing assignments, readings, and classroom discussions through various different roles because it helped me as a future educator to understand the reasoning behind the decisions made in basic writing programs by everyone involved. 

This semester, I have also taken a closer a look at my own writing process, and although challenging at times, the literacy narrative allowed me to approach writing in a way that I hadn’t before. Not only in a different genre, but examining how I use language to serve a particular purpose. That assignment required a lot of self-reflection but it was also geared to help us as teacher understand the writing process in literacy narratives so that we could help our basic writing students when they have to undergo the same writing assignment. 

The book review group was great in allowing me to see that innovative programs, such as ALP, have changed the structure of the current basic writing to meet the needs of the students and help increase their success rate. I’ve become aware that there are so many different approaches to take in the classrooms that can help students, not only develop their writing, but also transfer their success to other courses. The approaches taken in many basic writing programs focus heavily on the mechanics of language, and growing up with in academic environment that also focused on grammar, I would have gone down the same route as a teacher if I hadn’t been in this course or even in this program.