Professor Bob Mayberry Teaches Students the 'Write' Way
鈥淎rt is what you can get away with.鈥� What does Andy mean by that,鈥� asked Bob Mayberry to a room full of freshmen. 鈥淲rite! Whatever comes to your mind, just write it down for the next three minutes, go!鈥�
Mayberry is asking his students to jump-start their minds with an exercise that will trigger words to travel from the mind to where the pen or pencil touches the paper. Everyone in this classroom is writing, and for three minutes no one is staring back at Mayberry with a blank look on his or her face.
鈥淭hey come into my class just out of high school knowing how to write a polished five-paragraph essay. I鈥檓 teaching them the process of writing,鈥� Mayberry explained.
The process of writing is something Mayberry, associate professor of English and director of the Composition Program at 海角社区CI, knows well as it is one of his favorite pastimes. Along with his work as an instructor, Mayberry is a playwright who has published eight plays, most recently one in 2002 titled: 鈥淎 Single Numberless Death,鈥� which recounts the experiences of a woman who was captured by the secret police of the Argentine military junta during the Dirty Little War of the 1970s.
His teaching career began as a composition instructor at the University of Oklahoma in 1979, and over the years he has taught at seven other institutions before taking a position at 海角社区CI.
鈥淲riting is fun like putting together a puzzle is fun,鈥� he said with a smile.聽
While his students continue to write, Mayberry sits and quietly observes. He knows the value this quick writing exercise bears, and for three minutes nothing this crop of 18-year-olds writes will be the wrong answer.
Through this exercise and other assignments Mayberry is giving his students the tools they need to look at things differently. Watching his students, as they read aloud the third essay they have written in the early weeks of the semester, it seems like they are all still testing the boundaries of writing beyond the comfort zone of the five-paragraph essay. Mayberry concentrates on each student as he or she reads, and when he or she finishes reading he asks the student鈥檚 classmates questions about the piece.
There鈥檚 a group discussion. The writer of the piece that鈥檚 being talked about seems more relaxed with the input of his peers, and with the guidance of Mayberry the students suggest changes to his work that will make it stronger. All of this learning is accomplished without Mayberry scrawling notes in red pen in the margins of his students鈥� papers.
鈥淭he greatest thing I鈥檝e learned about teaching composition is to sit on your hands the first time you read a student鈥檚 paper,鈥� Mayberry said.
Though it鈥檚 contrary to every impulse teachers have, not marking student papers not only saves time but is consistent with decades of research showing that teacher corrections inhibit learning and teacher comments are usually ignored or misunderstood.
The group finishes doing its session of peer-reviews and Mayberry writes the next week鈥檚 worth of assignments on the white board. It鈥檚 a Thursday, and next Thursday the class has another essay due. He points at a copy of Andy Warhol鈥檚 famous painting of the Campbell鈥檚 Soup Can and for the assignment he asks his class to take a deeper look at the can and write about the deeper meanings鈥攕ymbolic or otherwise鈥攖hey find in the painting of the can.
鈥淒o we have to come to a conclusion?鈥� a student asks after a few moments of silence.
鈥淣o!鈥� Mayberry exclaims energetically while lifting his arm and pointing at the soup can painting. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 high school writing.鈥�
They all seem a little confused by Mayberry鈥檚 response. But he鈥檚 used to it. He nods and assures them that there isn鈥檛 a right or a wrong answer on the assignment, what鈥檚 important is to look critically at the painting, use the skills they glean from essays written by last year鈥檚 composition students and published in the composition program textbook, 鈥淚sland Voices,鈥� apply that knowledge when they look at the painting again, and then write about it.
Mayberry didn鈥檛 come up with this method of teaching composition overnight. He confesses to burning the midnight oil and scratching comments into the margins of many papers with a red pen early in his career. However, it was studying the research in the field that shifted his approach to grading papers and teaching composition, and one student who so misunderstood his marginal comments that her writing got much worse; she said Mayberry had made her hate writing.
Prior to his arrival at 海角社区CI in 2003, Mayberry wore a few hats at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. It was he and his colleagues who developed a process for students to self-assess their writing in order to make an informed choice between first-year composition courses that separate students based on their abilities.
When Mayberry arrived at 海角社区CI he led the English Composition Program鈥檚 creation of Directed Self-Placement. Unlike the other universities in the 海角社区 system, 海角社区CI doesn鈥檛 use the English Placement Test鈥攕ingle timed essays鈥攖o decide how students will perform in composition courses; instead the Directed Self-Placement allows students to choose one of two composition courses that fit their own needs.
鈥淭he Directed Self-Placement program at 海角社区CI is a vast improvement over testing-based decisions and remedial writing courses,鈥� said Mary Adler, assistant professor of English at 海角社区CI.聽
She explained that the program puts the student in control of his or her education. Rather than seeing their composition course as a remediation for their deficiencies, students who have made their own placement choices see it instead as an opportunity. They begin the class on a positive note and move forward from there.
鈥淏ob has assembled an outstanding team of professionals to teach the composition courses. Under Bob鈥檚 leadership, they collaborate regularly and support one another and the students through holistic team scoring of common assignments and portfolios. This keeps the quality of teaching high and consistent across the program,鈥� Adler said.
The final minutes of Mayberry鈥檚 class tick away and there鈥檚 time for one more three-minute writing exercise with the seed being another quote from Andy Warhol.
鈥溾�楨verybody will be famous for 15 minutes.鈥� Why 15 minutes?鈥� Mayberry asks the class.
Heads bow and from his vantage point at the front of the classroom Mayberry can see his students鈥� hands move without stopping. About two minutes into the exercise notebooks are being flipped over and the backsides of pages are being filled. Mayberry is smiling.
鈥淥.K. that was three minutes, and see, thinking is a relatively easy activity and so is writing,鈥� he tells his students as class ends and they begin to leave. 鈥淩emember to ask why.鈥澛�