Abstract
The first main assignment required in the first six weeks of Writing II class was designed on the expressivist approach. The article provides an actual class realization when the assignment was given to a group of thirty, English-major students at one Jordanian university. Those six weeks were a mixture of hard work, complaint, excitement, and actual texts produced. An overview of the theoretical basis on which the assignment was built is provided followed by a quick account of how the class was conducted employing expressivist pedagogy. At the end of the sixth week, students were asked to write a one-page journal entry to reflect on and evaluate their writing experience. The article tries to analyze this journal entry to uncover what students learned from doing the assignment and how they evaluated their learning. Analysis reveals that students achieved firsthand knowledge of the writing process and the requirements needed to develop readable effective texts. They finished the assignment believing that they had high potentials, that they could produce texts of good quality and with purpose—just like real writers. In other words, they could write; they could become authors. Key words: Composition studies, Advanced Writing, expressivist theories, writing workshop.
Highlights
The study adopts the qualitative methods, what is widely known and accepted as class/teacher research
Writing II class was run as a writing workshop in which students worked individually and collaborated among themselves and with their teacher to produce authentic, effective texts
In a 1991 College English article, Peter Elbow insists that the expressivist writing class is capable of teaching students all the norms of academic writing
Summary
The study adopts the qualitative methods, what is widely known and accepted as class/teacher research. The subjective/expressivist and the dialectical/social-critical were the two approaches used in the design and teaching of the class, in which the assignment described and analyzed in this article was a main requirement. The expressivist approach started in the 1960s and was dominant in the 1970s and 1980s in American college writing classes It is still a strong direction in the teaching of writing as many teachers, theorists and practitioners strongly defend it. Pedagogies based on the process approach to the teaching of writing have found their ways to the ESL/EFL writing classes as early as the 1960s of the twentieth century The other origin of the expressivist movement was said to be in Dewey's progressive education with its emphasis on learners’ experience and motivation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
