For this essay, I interviewed Dr. Wendy Horwitz. She is an Assistant Teaching Professor for English at Penn State Abington. As a writing fellow, I will be working with her in the Spring semester to help English 015 students. The interesting facts I learnt about her during the interview are that she used to live in Japan and France. She also speaks 3 different languages other than English: Spanish, French, and Hebrew. Through this interview, I realised that she is a very organised professor, who is open-minded and motivated to not only teach but to help her students. What follows below are selections of questions I asked during the interview with my reflection.
- How do you teach writing as a process in your course?
Dr. Horwitz mentioned that there are different stages and types of writing. For example, there are analysis, open-ended, and explanation. She claims that by understanding the steps of writing, students can improve their writing skills. She also focuses on practice, explicit explaining, and revision. She states, “I let students revise their essays because it is crucial to learn the methods of thinking and rewriting. And to understand that there are different angles or directions they can take.” It is common for writers to get stuck when writing essays because they tend to be single-minded, but after getting feedback from peers and the teacher, they can gain different perspectives, leading them to write from another direction. Furthermore, she talked about the methods of thinking and writing. She believes that thinking critically is a crucial part of writing because it helps students to analyse objectively.
As Sondra Perl discusses in her essay “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers”, many unskilled writers tend to be concerned with small parts of their writing such as grammar. For example, Perl talks about a student who keeps going back to his essay to check if there were any mistakes, which stops the student to write in a smooth flow. However, by thinking critically, students will be able to find out the core issue with the essay as they will conduct a rational and unbiased analysis. Additionally, Dr. Horwitz allowing students to revise would help students to see differently, leading them to approach from another angle. I think that this helps students to become a better writer because once they understand how to think and analyse properly, they can apply it to so many different situations.
2. What genres of writing do your students learn to write in and how and why do you teach these genres?
She changes the genres and the readings semester by semesters because it keeps her interested. She also changes some materials to something that are more relevant to the class. This is because a material that worked for one class doesn’t necessarily work for other classes, meaning that there may be a better approach or a topic for different classes. However, she usually chooses from the following genres: personal narrative, rhetorical analysis, research paper, evaluation of a film, oral presentation, and profile of individuals. Dr. Horwitz states, “I want my students to become aware of different audiences and communities. I want them to be flexible and nimble, allowing them to think critically.” I very much agree with this statement, because if students were told to just write, it is extremely hard since they don’t know who they are writing for.
As Elizabeth Wardle approaches the topic of mutt genre and how it is out of context, it is hard for schools to teach specific writing skills to students according to their majors. However, by teaching them the different fields of writing and essence of writing, students can adapt their skills to write differently according to what they are writing. As Wardle mentions, “course emerges fromm disciplines, not the other way around” (Wardle 784). Meaning that they should not learn the writing when I is out of context, but rather learn the core. In addition, she believes that reading and writing is a two-way street. In other words, students must learn to read in order to write and must learn to write in order to read.
3. What’s a successful moment you had as a writing teacher?
Dr. Horwitz states, “One of the most memorable moments is when one of my students came to me and said my English isn’t good. Can you help me?” As an English teacher, she taught many different students from who speak different languages. These students have a tendency to be insecure about their English and it could be challenging for them to reach out to their teachers. However, when Dr. Horwitz’s student came to her to seek support, she was very proud and pleased. When Dr. Horwitz looked at the student’s work, it had many flaws and mistakes in terms of grammar. Nonetheless, when they started to talk about the essay, she realised that the student was verbally articulate and had solid ideas of what she wanted to write. Even though the issue with the student was that she had a hard time putting her thoughts on to the papers, she had a realisation that other students have different struggles. With the help of Dr. Horwitz, the student became aware that writing doesn’t have to be lonely. Meaning that everyone can help each other since many students are going through their individual struggles.
As many scholars such as Harry Denny, Jennifer Staben, and Kathryn Dempsey Nordhaus mention, there are many stumbling blocks when it comes to tutoring students who are not confident with their English. Although this could be challenging, I would like to take Dr. Horwitz successful moment and scholars’ opinions as valuable advice. In Jennifer Staben, and Kathryn Dempsey Nordhaus’s essay Looking at the Whole Text, they mention that the purpose of the writing centre is “[t]o produce better writers, not writing (Staben and Nordhaus, 71). I completely agree with this statement, especially because this is what Dr. Horwitz talked about. By seeking help and becoming aware that she doesn’t have to write alone, she gained confidence, which made her a better writer. As a writing fellow, I would like to mentor students to become the best writers they can and apply the skills to different writings.
4. How does your social identity shape your teaching at a diverse institution like Penn State Abington?
Dr. Horwitz answered, “I become more present in class as I teach more and longer”. There are students from more than 25 different countries at Penn State Abington, which means that their first language is not English. As a teacher who speaks 3 different languages other than English, Dr. Horwitz believes empathy is crucial. She does not mean empathy as understanding sad or unhappiness of others, but being able to put yourself in another’s shoes and understand the challenge they are going through. She feels especially strong about being empathetic because she saw her son struggle with school when they lived in France. She understands that when she is herself in class, it represents her students that they can be overt and be themselves. Dr. Horwitz also told me that she repeatedly advises her students not to lose their quirkiness.
I personally think that this is one of the best advices a professor can give to students because it helps the students to gain confidence. In addition, when students with different identities write, it enriches their writing. As Vershawn Young discusses in Should Writer’s Use They Own English? students should be able to use their own unique styles that were formed by their experiences because that quirkiness is their identities.
5. What is your main goal when teaching English 015?
When I asked the question above, she laughed and said “Do I have to choose one?”, which made me extremely happy because it proved to me that she has a clear view of what she wants to do and achieve. And I think this is important as professor’s motivation is contagious. In other words, when a professor is motivated, many students are inspired and become motivated as well. In spite of her response, she told me one main goal with an interesting frame of reference. Dr. Horwitz siad, “I usually don’t like to use sports metaphors, but I want my students to advance the fields like in football.” What she means by this metaphor is that she wants her students to reach to the next levels. This does not mean that everyone has to write like a graduate student because everyone is in different stages. One may advance from 10-yard to 20-yard, and others might advance from 60-yard to 80-yard. She also mentioned that she does not necessarily care about the students’ grades because she does not believe that one semester of English class would dramatically improve one’s writing. However, she wants students to improve qualitatively. For example, critical thinking is one of the core skills in writing as well as in many different subjects and situations.
I strongly believe that this interview was valuable for me and for Dr. Horwitz. This is because we not only had the opportunity to know each other, we were able to understand our positions and perspectives as a writing fellow and a professor. Additionally, it was very fun and easy to talk to her because we had similar views on how a class should be and how we should treat the students. As a writing fellow, I want to be able to help as many students as I can for them to be better writers. Because I am an international student who received help with English from many people, I am grateful for all the support and I feel that it is my time to give back.
Works Cited:
Horwitz, W. (2018). Major Essay 3 Interview.
Perl, Sondra. Https://Www.Jstor.Org/Stable/40170774. National Council Of Teachers Of English, 1979, pp. 317-336, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40170774. Accessed 5 Dec 2018.
Staben, J. and Nordhaus, K. (n.d.). Looking at the Whole Text. [ebook] p.71. Available at: http://www.pitt.edu/~writecen/ESL_chapter.pdf [Accessed 30 October 2018
Wardle, Elizabeth. Mutt Genres. National Council Of Teachers Of English, 2009, pp. 765-789, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40593429. Accessed 6 Dec 2018.
Yu's English Project 