Beethoven vs. English 101

A Composer Composing

Composers vs. Composition. There's a connotation there: composers are artists, they are musicians, they are creative. Composition, on the other hand, is that class we take; it's studious; it's tedious; it involves a desk, a lamp, some white noise, a can of Diet Pepsi or a mug of lukewarm coffee. How can we help our students to think of themselves as composers?

My sons (are not droids)

The medium. That's one place to start. An artist has tools at his disposal. Composer John Williams of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame had violins and trumpets at his disposal. Digital composition offers our artists tools. Do they want sound? An image? A video that works as a metaphor? A hyperlink to another composer whose work has inspired their own? There's a creative freedom with a digital medium that can foster our artists' creativity. On paper, a students' creativity--or lack of it--can be exposed, but that isn't so wrong. We need to see those flaws, too. But what if the images, links, videos and hypertext aren't crutches for students, but instead opportunities?



The topic. The Common Core State Standards offer much in the way of composition if that's how we choose to see it. Students will argue and narrate and inform. But could they do so in a way that they will think of themselves as composers? If it's truly about the skill of being able to argue, narrate, and inform, then maybe we let students have more say in what they write about. Buy-in from students has garnered better results for me, so if a student is arguing if Michael or Kobe is a better player between ages 24-30, and I see support and a well-composed thesis, is it less of a paper than one about the merits of Finland's education system vs. ours in the U.S.?

The audience. Most musicians hope to perform a piece they've written--composed--in front of an audience. Having fronted a grunge band in the '90s, I know that having a few hundred people at a show was always better than having 6 people watch us in a friend's basement. Would students feel more like composers if they knew their work may be viewed by hundreds--even thousands--from around the world? When a student used Blogger to look at traffic to her Rhetoric blog recently, she was nearly blushing when she told me, "Mr. Newman, people in like, France, are reading my blog! And Russia!" I rarely hear that same enthusiasm when a student is submitting an essay just to me.

So, maybe we can get students to really feel like composers--artists, musicians--if we treat our writing courses like the creative opportunities they really can be. If we keep up with authors like Troy Hicks, Kristen Hawley Turner and Larry Ferlazzo--teachers and bloggers who can inspire the rest of us to embrace digital writing--more students will enjoy Composition.