Collaboration is one of those pedagogical issues I seem to struggle with every semester (and by struggle, I mean trying to effectively incorporate it into the classroom). When I first began teaching at the college level in the spring of ‘05, I had absolutely no collaborative writing assignments (aside from perhaps the occasional in-class writing exercise where all of the students would brainstorm ideas for paper topics). I think my reluctance stemmed from my own undergraduate experiences where I was left to do all of the writing because a). I was perceived by my group members to be a fairly decent writer and b). I didn’t want my grade to suffer because of a lazy few. Now, as an instructor and having realized through my studies that knowledge is constructed through the “culmination of a multitude of social forces that push on individuals, that define who we are, what we think is possible, and who we want to be” (Moxley / Meehan), I understand the necessity for collaborative work…but I just can’t seem to completely cross over the threshold. This could be because, as Moxley and Meehan note, that there is a long engrained notion of writing as the undertaking of one individual, locked away in a room somewhere, toiling away (my creative writing background certainly affirms this perception/relationship of the artist and their work).
Last semester I changed my multi-genre paper to a “collaborative” piece, but saying the final product was collaboratively written by the students is somewhat misleading. A more accurate moniker would be a paper that was “compiled.” Basically, each student was responsible for two separate genres (5 – 6 pages combined), then they had to put all of their genres together (in some sort of concise and logical order) and turn in one 15 – 18 page paper; but (in most cases) the genres were not written or designed by all the students working together – it was more like fitting puzzle pieces together. I think my reasoning for this approach was because I was unsure of how to adequately assess such work. Obviously the entire piece should be given a grade, but what about the individual efforts of students? Putting them in charge of their own genres so I could specifically see who did what seemed like the best solution, but after reading Moxley and Meehan I’m not so sure.
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I completely understand your hesitation for group projects. I have the same issue that also stems from years of being the member of the group t do all the work. Whether it be college, high school, heck probably even elementary school, I was always the one to do everything. It drove me crazy. It would be so much faster, easier, and convenient to do it myself. However, I do see the value to collaborative learning. It build teamwork and harnesses critical thinking skills from different perspectives. Despite my negative attitudes toward group work I am doing a group project at the end of the semester, although I am not sure you would categorize it as collaborative writing. The students will be in groups and present their latest papers in a power point presentation. For tis they will have to come up with a common them and way to coherently present their different papers together. This can be a challenge. Second, it is an opportunity for me to nip their horrible power point skills in the but.
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