Abstract
This study draws on media literacy to suggest pedagogical techniques that aim to combat boredom and enhance student engagement in freshman writing classes. Students often complain they cannot relate to course work; they maintain that course materials do not connect to their real lives and are therefore uninteresting. Because writing classes can serve as an introduction to academic discourse and skillful writing promotes academic success, negative attitudes about writing matter. Instructors craft courses to achieve learning outcomes but also to foster the habits of mind effective writing demands. I contend that discussing and writing about timely, controversial topics from students’ social media feeds teaches them to identify the complex power structures at play in the materials they do find pertinent. Students gain confidence by demonstrating adept understandings of contentious issues and, in fostering this process, instructors neutralize the relatability problem by allowing students to choose the topics they deem compelling.
Recommended Citation
Zimmemran, Lynn D.
(2021)
"Guiding Students Down that “Old Town Road:” Writing Pedagogy, Relatability and the Sitch,"
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy: Vol. 8:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dialogue/vol8/iss1/5
Included in
American Popular Culture Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Community-Based Learning Commons, Creative Writing Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Social Justice Commons