9/9 Response

Point of Departure: Point of departure in the text is referred to as a primary point of reference for students who have just begun college composition. It is what a college student will need to take with them as they begin a new “writing journey” in college—one different than their journey through high school composition. By referencing the point of departure in the RWC, I can ask a student what techniques he or she may have used in his or her writing. Basically, I am asking him or her what he or she already knows about writing. I can see if the student’s writing style and skills are prevalent to the essay being written and go from there. If changes or needed to be made, the point of departure can “motivate” the student to try something else or something new to enhance his or her writing skills. 

Prior Knowledge: Prior knowledge is drawing back on past experiences. What the text mentions is that there is an “absence” of prior knowledge, meaning there is a “gap” between high school and college composition courses. Necessary concepts are missing from a student’s prior knowledge, which should be there. In the RWC, as a tutor, I can help a student retrieve his or her prior knowledge and simply enhance what he or she may already know. 

Assemblage: A type of prior knowledge mentioned in the reading is assemblage. Assemblage is grafting isolated bits of new knowledge onto a continuing schema or prior knowledge, which basically means putting together new and old knowledge. Although this practice may have its flaws, it can still help a student realize what he or she already know and use it to question what he or she needs to learn.  With this term, remix and critical incident come into play.

Remix: The second type of prior knowledge mentioned is remix. Remix is prior knowledge revised synthetically to incorporate new concepts and practices into the prior model of writing. In general, remix is taking past writing knowledge and new writing knowledge and bringing them together. This technique can help a student enhance his or her essay to make it not better paper, but a more advanced, “college-like” paper. As mentioned in the reading, the student went from listing points to writing an analysis. I can use this technique in the RWC to help students figure out how to advance his or her knowledge of writing.

Critical Incident: Critical incident is a situation where efforts either do not succeed at all or succeed only minimally. It is the failure to meet a new task successfully; rethinking writing all together, which can be used as a prompt to learn about writing. If a student comes into the RWC and his or her paper is not working whatsoever with the strategies he or she decided to use, I can aid them in finding a new approach to the essay, starting from scratch.