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Madison Wilson

Dr. Heather Fox

ENG 303

4 May 2021

ENG 303 Final Exam: Writing Pedagogy Portfolio

Sample #1: P3 Introduction

When Ggiving students the opportunity to choose their own topics whenin writing papers or

researching articles , it can lead them to a world of possibilities forr them to enter a creative state

of minde of mind. In our own classroom writing experiences, we have not always been provided

these creative opportunities this has not always been the case. Madi’s writing experience in high

school and college has primarily been teacher-led; t. Teachers or professors have attempted to

give some freedoms through writing, but sheit never felt like she had any artistic decision in

writing. Madi wishes her writing experience included more opportunities to express herself in

her writing. Similarly, Grace’s classroom writing experience included both positive and negative

personal experiences. These experiences includedconsist of being assigned a prompted paper

prompts every Monday in high school that had needed to be 500-words and being assigned a

critical analysis paper with no specific rubric. Finally, Maddie’s classroom writing experience

that she considers less enjoyable or beneficial was her high school English research papers. In

these papers, the topics were essentially chosen for her. This led to her writing in fear of bad

grades as opposed to writing for enjoyment, creativity, or improvement. Differently, we enjoyed

our classroom writing experience in ENG 303. ENG 303This course included specific yet open

writing prompts where we were able to write for improvement and enjoyment rather than for a

good grade. 
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In prompt one of project one for 303, the professor had our class write about our first writing

memories of writing that occurred before or in the earliest years of school. Considering that the

opportunity was presented to write about whatever our first writing memory was, freedom was

introduced. We felt more successful in not only our writing as a whole , but specifically more

successful and content in the writing process. Because we were given the freedom to choose

what we wrote about and how we told our own memory, we were more focused on the writing

for writing’s sake rather than satisfying a grade. With this freedom came the willingness and

excitement to improve the writing with others’ insight, two things that are crucial to the writing

process and students’ own writing self-esteem. 

Later in this course, the professor assigned the students to groups in which an article of

choice was researched to later use in creating a lesson plan for a hypothetical class.  In

considering our own past classroom experiences with writing and our new ones in 303 for the

lesson that integrates an artifact and student creativity, we determined that student engagement

and decision making are imperative to their writing success in the classroom and their overall

writing self-esteem. 

Historically, tThe use of student imagination and decision making within the learning

environment has historically not been very extremely common when designing curriculum.

Through researching and creating a modern lesson that is centered around student

expressiveness, it is apparent that students will feel a stronger drive and connection to the content

when it is relevant to their life and/or hobbies. Comparatively, when students feel disconnected

from the information their engagement is far lower. When designing the praxis proposal, it was

decided that the artistry and decisiveness of students are key components in creating a lesson that

would impact student learning and confidence in their writing.

As a result of the discussion based on student engagement and their being given choice in their

writing, a problem in classrooms may be identified. Our writing instruction concern is low

student engagement and investment in their writing due to lack of personal freedom and

creativity. A second concern is regarding instruction that encourages students to write in fear of a

failing grade; with that approach, students will lose investment in their writing and their hope or

opportunity for improvement. Students’ classroom engagement and confidence correlates with

the freedom they have to choose in their writing, making a lack of student choice in writing and

their subsequent low engagement a concern. Allowing personal creativity in writing will increase

engagement and is critical to student writing process, success, improvement, and investment. 

Sample #2: P1 Prompt 1

My earliest writing memory memory of writing comes from my earliest years of school; I

was probably about four or five years old. I remember venturing downstairs to gather white

printer paper from my dad's office and later gathering my widest array of crayons so that I could

illustrate the story I planned to write. After gathering the necessary materials to make what

would be my first "book," with a bounce in my step I travelled back upstairs to my bedroom.

with a bounce in my step as I knew the content of my story already; it my story would be titled

the door that "creeked" open, and it would contain many tragic misspellings. I remember

beginning the process of my story writing by numbering each piece of white printer paper to

make my pages, and I filled each page with short sentences that worked together to narrate the

story. "The Door That Creeked Open" told of a child's closet door that repeatedly creaked open

every night , night after night after the child was put to bed. I imagine that I wrote this story

shortly after moving into my first "big girl" room and being afraid of my closet, though I cannot

be sure. The story about the little girl and the closet door continued for about five pages of
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printer pages paper until the child finally came in contact with thea monster living in her closet.

After writing the words in pencil and illustrating multiple brown closet doors with my

trustworthy pack of Crayolas, I presented my incomplete work to my mother.; I needed her help

in drawing the most important illustration: , the monster creeping around the closet door. She

drew what looked like an alien; with large hands, big bulging eyes, and large antennas. The

monster looked absolutely perfect, and it went so well with the illustrations I had already

madeleft on the pages. This memory is so special to me because such a large part of what was

my first writing experience included my mom; her support and excitement for me radiated from

her, and I remember the feeling it gave meit to this day. I feltremember feeling so proud and so

loved when I took my completed masterpiece to my mom (I thought it was a masterpiece at that

time), and when she helped me illustrate the monsterr antagonist of the story I felt it was

something we had done together. My mother stapled and bound the printer paper for me with my

dad's stapler from his office, which I thought was so special and made my story into a real book.

My mom has kept that first story until this day, so I will always have a sweet reminder of my

first experience writing and a special memory with my mom.

Sample #3: Source Summary on David Bergman’s “It’s Easier When It’s Personal: What

Made Reading Real for Two”

David Bergman’s articleThe article “It's Easier When It's Personal: What Made Reading

Real for Two Teens with Learning Disabilities” by David Bergman focuses on how involving

choice in school is useful not only to general classroom students but to students who havehave

special accommodationss needed. Bergman, a human rights activist and investigative journalist,

The author is qualified to talk about this topic because he is a human rights activist and

investigative journalist. uses The methodology used in this would have been one on one
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interviews and a case study called the sound case study to convey his message. T, and the

audience for Bergman’sthis article is currentteachers and future educators teachers. Bergman

describes The author first mentions support for the case study by describing how the case studyit

is “guided by a theoretical framework that deems motivation as essential to reading

achievement” (180). He. He later discusses what worked in the classroom to make reading

“real,” stating that “Minerva was very strong in expressing that she was most motivated by

material that was relevant to the outside world” and certain contemporary books “contained

language, structures, and subject matter that were highly familiar to the participants” (186).

Bergman’s article contained significantwas a great addition to research regardinging how choice

in writing assignments can help motivate students. BergmanThis article focuses on two African

American tweens that both have learning disabilities. Both of these students struggled with

reading and writing in elementary school, but as they came to middle school their test scores

increasedserged tremendously. When asked what had motivated the students to become more

interested in reading and writing, they both saidhad said that they enjoyed reading and writing

much more when their daily lives connected with the content. They also said that these

connections made learning much more enjoyable and interesting.

(Bergman, David. “It's Easier When It's Personal: What Made Reading Real for Two 

Teens with Learning Disabilities.” National Council of Teachers of English, vol. 94, no. 3, Jan.

2017, pp. 180–189.)

Reflection

In considering what I have learned from my work and observations in ENG 303, it is

difficult to narrow down my overall insight regarding the writing process and future teaching as I
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have learned so much. From start to finish, I gained insights into the writing process and writing

pedagogy in the work I completed for 303; from reading blog excerpts from Sean Dietrich to

putting into practice the revisions and research articles I encountered in my writing for 303, my

writing and understanding of how I will teach writing has been significantly influenced by the

education I have received in this course. Not only did I learn about these concepts from the

content and assignments presented in the class but I learned about the writing process down to

the fundamentals and set up in ENG 303. While the content presented was phenomenal and

incredibly insightful, it was in the set-up of the class itself that I think I learned the most about

the writing process and how I want to teach writing in my future classroom. ENG 303 started

with free writing prompts where I was able to free write about memories of my choosing without

concern of receiving a bad grade for mechanics, style, etc. After project one with the free

prompts concluded, the class moved into research and concepts that support various writing

pedagogy techniques. Finally, the class concluded with a project regarding how to combine the

first two projects of creative and encouraging writing and pedagogical research to create a

writing lesson plan to be implemented into the classroom. It is in this set up that I gained insight

into how I want to teach the writing process in my own classroom: free and creative at first

without concern for failure and subsequent encouragement to seek out insightful feedback from

the teacher. With creativity and one’s own level of writing being put at the forefront and writing

research coming second, this taught me to allow students creativity and their own talents first to

keep writing encouraging before introducing more concrete writing “rules.” Because of this

insight I gained from the class, I chose to demonstrate my revised samples in the order of

introduction from project 3 first, prompt one from project one second, and writing pedagogy

research source summary third.

The written introduction from project three introduces the idea of a writing concern being

students’ allowance of creativity in order to keep writing encouraging and engaging. As

mentioned, from ENG 303 what I feel is my most valuable insight is to keep writing creative and

encouraging first before making students fear failure of not being good writers. The introduction

from project three discusses this in the writing concern it is addressing, saying “with this

freedom came the willingness and excitement to improve the writing with others’ insight, two

things that are crucial to the writing process and students’ own writing self-esteem.” I felt that

this specific sample was fitting to be ordered first as it is written as an introduction in its form

but also speaks to introduce the concept of the insight I gained in 303. The insight is articulated

in the introduction, stating “a second concern is regarding instruction that encourages students to

write in fear of a failing grade; with that approach, students will lose investment in their writing

and their hope or opportunity for improvement.”

The first prompt from project one regarding my earliest writing memory demonstrates

allowing writing creativity. I ordered this piece second because after providing an introduction

paragraph that articulates the insight I gained from this class, the writing prompt example

demonstrates free writing that allowed student choice first before introducing research and more

concrete writing expectations. This writing prompt required that I write about my first writing

memory, and in writing about that memory without concern for failing for mechanics or style I

was encouraged to seek out Dr. Fox’s feedback rather than be afraid waiting for my grade. Dr.

Fox provided useful feedback for my writing including saying how my writing experience was

relatable and touching to other writers. This specific strategy in the class of allowing me to write

using my own choices and creativity first supports my insight and plan to allow my students to
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do the same; I did not fear failure in my writing from this assignment and was encouraged to

seek out the professor’s feedback rather than fear it.

The source summary for David Bergman’s article was placed after the writing memory

prompt as his research asserting that making reading and writing personal makes students more

engaged supports the reasoning behind prompt one above it. Prompt one allowed for writing

choice in asking students to write about their first writing memory of their choosing, and

allowing choice and taking interest in students’ lives through the writing assignment encouraged

them to write; Bergman’s article supports this assignment as it argues that reading and writing

should be made personal to students. Essentially, placing the research source summary last in the

revisions order provided credible support for every idea that was made above in the project three

introduction and the support for the project one writing prompt.

In revising various samples from the course and choosing what order they belonged in, I

was able to identify the overall insight I gained from ENG 303. Many students fear writing for

the thought of being “bad writers,” and because writing is a creative act it should not be made to

follow “black and white” expectations. Too often in classroom great students and writers are

discouraged from lack of choice and creativity in writing because they are expected to fit into a

writing “box” that common curriculum has encouraged. While some standards and expectations

are important to keep, it is also important to encourage students in their creative differences

considering writing is indeed creative. It is this insight or “tool” I took from ENG 303 that I will

use in my own classroom. Creativity, choice, and meeting students where they are at in their

writing will come before introducing intimidating and discouraging standards or grades so as to

keep the writing culture encouraging. I will do so by imitating the set-up of this class in thr

writing process I expect my students to follow and in perpetuating the attitudes about writing I
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gained from the Sean Dietrich articles. Ultimately, as an English teacher my students will be

encouraged to write creatively and seek out insightful feedback from me in a writing

relationship, not write out of fear of a grade or writing what I want to hear.