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International Students in a Composition Classroom

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Different Background I have had the opportunity to study under two distinct education systems: Kenyan and American. The Kenyan system of education is mostly lecture-based and teacher oriented. In most cases, the teacher is the central figure of authority in the classroom who is in charge of the entire learning process, creating classroom policy, and makes all the decisions regarding teaching and learning in the classroom. There are less classroom activities that require students’ direct participation and most lessons are designed in a lecture format with students taking notes. The danger of this is that the students  often regurgitate this information on their exams without critically analyzing its content. There are assignments given in the course but this rarely contributes to the final grade which is solely based on the final exam. Furthermore, transition from primary school to secondary school and from secondary school to college is based on one final national exam tha
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The Outsider

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Coming from Without I grew up in rural Kenya. I went to a local primary school where everyone knew everyone else, you had a ton of friends and there was no way you were left out in anything. School was fun. This perspective became narrower as I progressed in my education. However, regardless of attending a boarding high school far away from home, joining university even further and in the city, and disconnecting with all the friends I had in my primary school; I never felt out of place. It was easy to interact and make friends with new people that I met along the way. Well, things changed when I moved to the US. It was the first time I travelled outside my country and I think I was not prepared enough for the tremendous changes this would have on me. I felt like an outsider in many ways. First, I am African. I come from an entirely different culture. Second, I am from an entirely different education system that has very little in common with the American one. Third, I share very
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My Philosophy of Response.

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"You can Do Better," But How? In high school, grades meant a lot to me. A grade meant I was passing or failing and I had to figure out how to either maintain the status or improve. Commentary feedback was rarely given and if it appeared at all then it took two distinct forms. One was the usual “Good work”, “Excellent” and similar positive feedback that appeared against my grade. Second was the one that pointed out that I needed to improve but never really said how I was to go about that. They were constructions such as “You can do better”, “You need to revise” or even the dated “Pull up your socks!” One other type of comment that would rarely appear on my assignments was the dreaded “See me!” that would often end punishment for failing on a test. The teachers at this point lacked targeted feedback that would give me a clear indication of what I needed to work on. This was a challenge especially in English and Literature classes where we wrote endless compositions and ess
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Think Multimodality: It Makes it Much Better.

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I went through a traditional system of education that utilized minimal modalities in teaching and learning. My initial reaction to multimodality was therefore both excitement and uncertainty. Excitement because I could see just how beneficial and fun it would be to incorporate multimodality in my classroom, but uncertain whether I am really able to apply multimodality considering that it is relatively a new concept to me. Well, experience, though minimal, has been gained. Here are ideas to get you thinking multimodality and hopefully, get you started!  What is multimodality anyway? Come to think of it: what if the only means of communication was through words to be read and spoken. The world would be a boring place. In addition to written texts, multimodality allows for the incorporation of auditory elements, such as speech and music and Visual elements such as images, video, colors, animations and so forth in the composition of text. With multimodality, students are expose
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The Teacher as the Facilitator of Learning.

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My Education Foundation was Teacher Centered! Sterehe High School students during an exam. Education in Kenya, especially at primary and high school levels, is mainly teacher centered and exam oriented. The teacher is the central figure of authority in the classroom. For instance, the teacher is responsible of the entire learning process, designing classroom policy, and the sole decision maker regarding classroom activities. Furthermore, the teacher is to be respected, even feared, and cannot be challenged. There are less classroom activities that require students’ direct participation, and lessons are designed in such a way that all students do is listen to lectures and take down lesson notes dictated by the teacher or from a textbook. In high school, some learner centered practices such as group discussions are encouraged; however, the teacher remains the know-it-all-can’t-be-challenged figure that the students are often afraid of. Basically, the role of the teacher is more
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Who Am I?

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First Impression. I was very nervous on the first day of class this semester. I knew I was only going to observe a class and not teach but I still was extremely nervous. I had arrived in Muncie from Kenya a few days before. After spending more than 24 hours travelling, I was immensely jetlagged and completely disoriented. I was tired and confused and my body betrayed me. I came to class a few minutes late (after missing the bus from my apartment and having no internet access on my phone, I had no idea how otherwise to get to school) and the moment I stepped in class I couldn’t help but notice how I stuck out. I was the only international student in class and more so the only African. I was obviously different from everyone else. But what did I expect anyway? This is of course, what I expected to find and yet the reality still unsettled me, I felt I wasn’t prepared enough for this. When my mentor introduced me, I was extremely aware of the scrutiny. I could tell most of the studen
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A Moment with Multimodality.

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Multimodality in The Composition Classroom As a student, I did not have much interaction with multimodality. Communication was mainly through reading and writing about the same. The resources available to me were pen and paper and the computer where I would type essays as required by the course and submit hard copies to the professor. My experience with multimodality was towards the end of my undergraduate study where one of my professors required the use of PowerPoint presentations in class. These had to incorporate a variety of media including video, sound, still images and graphics to communicate our understanding of various topics we had learnt in class. This was by far my favorite class. Multimodality in the classroom proved to be an important way of interpreting texts and creating meaning in ways I had not experienced before. I am observing ENG 103: Rhetoric and Writing class. On the first day of lessons, the professor drew a simple two-dimensional structure on the wh
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