Engaging Performance

We began WRDS 150 with a Sorting Hat Writing exercise – a private, stream-of-consciousness activity that I designed as a welcome activity for first year Music students. Research shows that students perform better when they feel a sense of agency, what some researchers call “self-regulated learning” (Nicol & MacFarlane-Dick 2006). Self-regulated learning refers to a learner’s ability to set reasonable goals, to choose appropriate strategies, to manage resources, time, and effort, to incorporate feedback, and to provide evidence of mastery over the material (p. 199). Throughout their paper, Nicol & MacFarlane-Dick draw out the relation between self-regulated learning and successful feedback activity, what I am calling the giving, receiving, and incorporation of feedback on written work. These authors support the idea that student authors should maintain a level of control over the feedback they receive. They also suggest that good feedback practice requires good assignment design (instructor) and self-regulation (student) in meeting the assignment goals.

Their seven principles of good feedback provide a solid starting place for thinking about the interaction involved in feedback activity. I include them here for reference:

Nicol & Mac-Farlane-Dick’s good feedback practice:

1. helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);
2. facilitates the development of self-assessment (reflection) in learning;
3. delivers high quality information to students about their learning;
4. encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;
5. encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;
6. provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance;
7. provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching.

(Nicol & MacFarlane-Dick 2006, p. 205)

I developed the Sorting Hat Writing activity to support principles 2, 4, and 5, above (later I will talk about how this activity informs our situational awareness of writing). The Sorting Hat Writing activity is inspired by fiction, by psychology, and by process-oriented writing instruction (see further resources below). Writing is a technology that we use to harness and direct thought (Menary 2007). We use it here for self-reflection.

Sorting Hat Writing

This Sorting Hat Writing activity asks that you allow your pen to guide your thought process as you sort yourself into a fictive house in the School of Music.

Task: Write, non-stop, for a timed period. If your pen gets stuck, ask questions with it, or repeat words with it until it becomes unstuck. The only rule is – don’t stop writing. No one will read this but you.

Purpose: The activity serves two purposes: 1. to develop a situational awareness of the activities of writing, and 2. to take time to touch base with personal goals for learning. 

Knowledge: Students will draw on their experiences and self-concepts as they write.

Format: There are no format requirements on this exercise.

[NOTE: Because this was our first timed writing exercise, we wrote for 5 minutes. But for a regular practice, I suggest gradually increasing the time to 10-20 minutes per day. Use this prompt, a different prompt, or no prompt at all for regular practice. You may discover yourself in new houses altogether.]

The Houses:

Beaks – Prefer verbal modalities (reading and writing, speeches, concepts, laws)

Wiffles – Prefer social interaction (groups, ensembles, friends, parties)

Strings/Springs – Prefer the technical and mechanical (know-how)

Batons – Prefer leadership and distinction (standing on podiums, taking chances)

Blank Pages – Prefer the new and the unexpressed, creativity, invention, improvisation

Of course, there are no right answers in this activity. There is only the opportunity to observe. It is the process of connecting your goals and experiences with your situations of learning that will help cultivate the self-regulation skills for success in University.

References:

Elbow, Peter, (1998). Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press. Library call number: Education Library PE1409.5 .E5 1998 (an older edition is in Koerner).

Menary, R. (2007). “Writing as thinking.” Language Sciences 29: 621-632.

Nicol, D. J. & MacFarlane-Dick, D. (2006). “Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice.” Studies in Higher Education (2006), Vol 31(2), 199-218.

To try some more scientific personality tests please visit:

https://openpsychometrics.org/

To discover your magical house at Hogwart’s:

https://www.pottermore.com/explore-the-story/the-sorting-hat

To read more about Freewriting, check this book out of the library:

Elbow, Peter, (1998). Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press. Library call number: Education Library PE1409.5 .E5 1998 (an older edition is in Koerner).

To bravely wrestle with the cognitive integrationist account of writing as thinking:

Menary, R. (2007). “Writing as thinking.” Language Sciences 29: 621-632.