How FYC Can Aid the
Journey to Self-Discovery

Theory

You may be thinking to yourself, "Geez, that's great Vanessa, but why does this need to happen in an FYC classroom?" I believe it is important to consider a student's path of self-discovery when teaching an FYC course, as students will need many of the tools FYC courses prioritize when joining their chosen communities. According to Kevin Roozen's essay, "Writing is Linked to Identity," from Linda Alder-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle's book, Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, "The extent to which we align ourselves with a particular community, for example, can be gauged by the extent to which we are able and willing to use that community's language, make its rhetorical moves, act with its privileged texts, and participate in its writing processes and practices," (51). Here, Roozen describes the many ways in which writing studies helps people assimilate to communities. If writing studies prioritizes connection, then why can't FYC courses also prioritize helping students in their discovery of self and the communities in which they would like to join? 

I think it is also important to note the impact writing can have on one discovering their identities. As I have discussed in my previous blog post, writing can act as a way to connect the writing to an audience by forcing oneself to think about one's audience and the vast amount of information they are conversing with. As writers stop to think about who they want to connect to, the words they want to use, and the conversations they want to pursue, they are forced to stop and reflect about their intentions and what it is that they truly believe. According to Roozen, the act of writing "is not so much about using a particular set of skills as it is about becoming a particular kind of person, about developing a sense of who we are," (51). 

Now, just as I believe it is important to give students the opportunity to discover themselves, I also believe it is important to understand the power instructor's hold over students and how this power could impact a student's ability to discover themselves. In Nancy Welsh's article, "Revising a Student's Identity: Reading and 'Remodeling' in a Composition Class," Welsh describes this very problem with one of her students, Sydney, and highlights the ways in which students try to imitate instructors. I think this is an important risk to be aware of, as students are impressionable and identities "are the ongoing, continually under-construction product of our participation in a number of engagements, including those from our near and distant pasts and our potential futures," (Roozen 51). Just as Welch encourages Sydney to like different things and to experience new perspectives, I believe it is important to give my students the space and freedom to uncover new things and create their own arguments (so long as they back it up with evidence) that are outside my field of interests. 

Practice

I believe there are multiple ways one can go about giving students the opportunity to discover new areas of interest, and hopefully parts of themselves. For one, the ENGL 1102 course that I am shadowing is currently in the midst of a semester-long research project. My mentor has implemented a few broad guidelines to help students pick a researchable topic, but students are largely encouraged to topics that they are curious and passionate about. As of now, we are about to wrap up Unit 1, and students are preparing to submit their Exploratory Bibliography, in which case students researched three different topics with a total of six sources, with the goal of allowing students to explore the world around them. I often see assignments such as this while working at the Writing Center, and although students can struggle determining their topic in the beginning, students are typically more passionate about the project when given this level of freedom, and finish the semester with a better understanding of how the world works and their place in it.

Also, the other day while scroll through the internet, I found this article about curiosity journals. It is basically where people keep a journal that acts as a log for everything they are interested in or what to learn about. There is a company that sells actual curiosity journals, although I think having students submit a Word or Google Doc at the beginning of every class would work just a well and be more cost-effective. There are many reasons as to why journaling in general could be beneficial to FYC as a whole, but I really like the idea of focusing on creativity as it could lead students down new avenues of exploration.