impoverished artifices

One of the goals I'm keeping in mind after and during the first day of Comp Camp is to try to build upon the experiences and strategies I've accumulated teaching second semester composition, while coming to the best possible understanding of the specific goals of the UWM composition program. In trying to achieve this, I find that the idea of a list of goals for interpretative and reflective writing (and really, the student handbook, in general, as an organizing text for what is expected of the composition learning community) is a convenient way of remixing what I've previously remixed.

The static nature of these printed goals as compared to the student examples we've encountered as a group does expose the problematics of applying to strict-ish goals to varied student-produced texts. Particularly, I'm referencing the excerpts from reflective essays John Couture introduced. I found this to be a particularly worthwhile exercise, as it highlights the often divergent approaches and understandings of what an assignment's goals, executions, controlling purposes might be - and the resulting challenge of assessing student's work through varied approaches.