Re: Authenticity in education

Peter Smagorinsky (smago who-is-at peachnet.campuscwix.net)
Sat, 22 May 1999 07:45:46 -0400

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The ref. is:
Smagorinsky, P. (1997). Personal growth in social context: A high
school
senior=92s search for meaning in and through writing. Written Communicati=
on, 14,
63-105.

He didn't follow through exactly as planned, but 3 years after the main d=
ata
collection he was still doing a lot of what I'd call authentic writing,
particularly as an email correspondent with a young woman in another stat=
e--the
writing retained the emotional character of the writing he did in high sc=
hool.=20
Like a lot of 17-yr-olds, his goals changed after h.s. graduation--he wen=
t to
college but did poorly and last time I talked to him he was on the univer=
sity
campus security force, monitoring parking lots. But very happy, at least =
as he
told me. The main point is that while he lost steam on some particular pl=
ans, 3
yrs. later he still viewed writing as a valuable tool for both expressing=
his
feelings and communicating them to selected others, and credited his high
school teacher for helping him see this potential.

Peter

At 05:29 PM 5/21/99 -0400, you wrote:
>A couple examples. I recall a student that Peter Smagorinsky wrote about
>awhile back, Doug, who latched onto writing with an enthusiasm that had
>authenticity about it for sure. Doug concluded the project extolling the
>benefits of writing, journaling, etc., and of his plans to continue. But=
Doug
>admitted a year later, if I'm remembering his story right, that he hadn'=
t
>followed through with his plan.
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The ref. is:
        Smagorinsky, P. (1997). Personal growth in social context: A high school senior=92s search for meaning in and through writing. Written Communication, 14, 63-105.

He didn't follow through exactly as planned, but 3 years after the main data collection he was still doing a lot of what I'd call authentic writing, particularly as an email correspondent with a young woman in another state--the writing retained the emotional character of the writing he did in high school.  Like a lot of 17-yr-olds, his goals changed after h.s. graduation--he went to college but did poorly and last time I talked to him he was on the university campus security force, monitoring parking lots. But very happy, at least as he told me. The main point is that while he lost steam on some particular plans, 3 yrs. later he still viewed writing as a valuable tool for both expressing his feelings and communicating them to selected others, and credited his high school teacher for helping him see this potential.

Peter

At 05:29 PM 5/21/99 -0400, you wrote:
>A couple examples. I recall a student that Peter Smagorinsky wrote about
>awhile back, Doug, who latched onto writing with an enthusiasm that had
>authenticity about it for sure. Doug concluded the project extolling the
>benefits of writing, journaling, etc., and of his plans to continue. But Doug
>admitted a year later, if I'm remembering his story right, that he hadn't
>followed through with his plan. --=====================_149937076==_.ALT--