“Collaborative Pedagogy” in the Developmental English Classroom:
Introducing the Thesis Statement – The Foundation of the Essay
Dr. Philip R. Jones
Assistant Professor of English
Texas Southern University
Introduction• One major challenge that we as faculty face is building the self-
confidence, self-efficacy, and the creative spark within our students in an effort to develop their writing skills to an advanced level.
• This presentation is a “lesson plan” featuring developmental English students “collaboratively” learning how to generate and compose a thesis statement, which is the foundation of an essay.
• The heart of this lesson plan is the “Procedure” section, which illustrates how the “collaborative” nature of the lesson is executed. Moreover, the “Procedure” section illustrates “how” the students engage in this lesson, as well as the learning outcome that is expected upon completion of the lesson.
Voices from the Literature
• Many freshman writers entering the academy are unfortunately products of very weak high school English programs where the writing, thinking, and analytical standards were deficient. As Gardner states, “The lived curriculum that they bring to the classroom is wide-ranging [. . .] They may be struggling with academic language, content-area language, or even the English language itself” (25).
• As writing is increasingly becoming more of a demand across a wide range of professional and educational settings, it is critical for students to develop the strongest possible foundation in their writing skills. As Brandt states, “Perhaps the first time in the history of mass literacy, writing seems to be eclipsing reading as the literate experience of consequence. What happens when writing, not reading, becomes the dominate grounds of daily literate experience?” (3)
Rhetorical Empowerment Through Collaboration
• Creating a student-centered environment through a “collaborative” focused environment as illustrated in this lesson plan below is also a very innovative strategy that instructors can use to develop the students’ rhetorical skills into a more advanced level.
• As Brufee states, “Collaborative learning provides a social context in which students can experience and practice the kinds of conversations valued by college teachers [. . .]” (642). Moreover, “Students in writing workshops are [. . .] encouraged to explore new forms of thinking and writing and to find new ways to organize and understand their experience” (Ritchie 155).
Literature Supporting Collaborative Learning
• Levi states, “Part of creating an effective group is making sure it has the necessary diversity of knowledge and skills. Interdisciplinary research teams are more productive than teams whose members have similar backgrounds” (23).
• Also, in regard to the “Procedure” section of my lesson plan, Levi is the author that inspired me to design the student teams comprised of a 3-4 team members possessing a different educational background. This diversity, as Levi discusses in his literature will create a unique “melting pot” of diversity ultimately enabling students to engage with varying perspectives on how to best organize and construct their thesis statement.
Literature Supporting Collaborative Learning
• Echoing Levi, Barkley, Major, and Cross state, “Students come to group learning with diverse backgrounds, but their knowledge overlaps enough to allow for a common base for communication. Thus, theoretically at least, students can pool and share knowledge such that they know more as a group than they do as individuals” (17).
• Ultimately, in a collaborative learning setting, the student is exposed to a variety of thought processes and personalities displayed by his or her other peers, which allows them the flexibility and freedom to absorb unlimited levels of imagination and inspiration.
Lesson Plan Rationale
• The rational / purpose of this lesson is for students in the developmental writing classroom to not only acquire knowledge of how to construct an effective thesis statement for an essay, but also to experience the unique “synergy” which occurs between individuals who are engaged in an intellectual task with a unified aim of accomplishing a certain goal.
• Moreover, the rationale of this lesson is also to acquaint students to the innovative practice of working together as a team and engaging with a diverse range of creative views, and perspectives with the ultimate goal of acquiring new knowledge – effective construction of the thesis statement.
Key Points for Constructing a Thesis Statement
• A thesis statement should not be in the form of a question, title, or an announcement.
• A strong thesis statement is one that will require effective evidence and support for the particular claim at hand.
• A strong thesis will contain a discussable idea while also suggesting to the writer a method of developing it.
• A Thesis should not be a fragment. A fragment is a phrase or independent clause that is punctuated as if it were a complete sentence.
• A thesis should not contain phrases like “I Like” or “In my opinion” because phrases such as these tend to weaken the writer’s stance.
• A thesis should tell the reader directly and “specifically” what you intend to prove in an essay. Avoid vague language.
Collaborative Activity: Generating a Thesis Statement through Comparative Analysis
• Homeschooling versus Traditional Public School• The Community College versus The Four-Year University• The Online versus the traditional Face-to-Face Classroom• The use of E-Books versus Traditional Hard Copy Texts
Procedure
• This activity will encompass 4 teams comprised of team members possessing “diverse” educational backgrounds. “Collaboratively” in groups of 3 or 4, choose one of the comparative topics from the list above. Perform a comparative analysis of your given topic by listing two pro and con features of each item, and as a “team,” decide which item is preferable to the other.
• As stated previously, the goal of this lesson is to gain experience drafting an effective, properly formatted thesis statement on a given topic. “Collaboratively” each group will produce a thesis (claim) stating why you feel one item is most preferable to another.
• Each team will share their analysis and thesis statement with the class upon completion.
• In your presentation to the class, each group will discuss how they arrived at the given thesis statement (analysis of pro & con features), the warrants behind the thesis, and a minimum of 3 examples of support for the thesis statement they arrived at. The activity worksheets for each team are presented below and correspond to the particular topic that you chose above.
Student Voices on Collaborative Learning
• One female non-traditional participant named “Shannon” stated that she gained very contemporary insight on a variety of modern social, educational, and cultural topics that dominates today’s society.
• Shannon stated, “frequent collaborative interaction with younger peers in class has enhanced my ability to be more open-minded and understanding of contemporary viewpoints held by the younger generation. I now try to better understand the thoughts of younger people, although sometimes it is difficult depending upon the particular topic.”
• Four traditional student participants (Jessica, Melissa, Michael, and Cameron) stated that they enjoyed engaging in collaborative writing exercises, but were sometimes shy and hesitant with expressing “liberal” views among older “conservative” peers in class.
Student Voices on Collaborative Learning
• Participant “Kendra” stated, “through my collaborative writing activities and discussions, I learned interesting cultural traits associated with my Hispanic and international student peers that I was unaware of prior to my team-work with them.”
• Kendra also stated, “Collaborative work with people from diverse backgrounds has inspire me to learn more about the many ethnicities and cultures that I actually interact with on a daily basis. I was never fond of group work prior to my freshman English course, but I now look forward to it in other courses as I progress through my degree program.”
Works Cited
• Barkley, Elizabeth F., Claire Howell Major, and K. Patricia Cross. Collaborative Learning
Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014.
• Brandt, Deborah. The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• Brufee, Kenneth A. “Collaborative Learning and the ‘Conversation of Mankind.’” College English, vol. 46, no. 7, 1984, pp. 635-652.
• Gardner, Traci. Designing Writing Assignments. Urbana: National Council of
Teachers of English, 2008.
• Levi, D. Group Dynamics for Teams. London: Sage Publications, Inc., 2011.
• Ritchie, Joy S. “Beginning Writers: Diverse Voices and Individual Identity.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 40, 1989, pp. 152-74.
