This article examines the applicability of controversial course themes in the first-year writing classroom. It narrates examples of student resistance to readings and discussions that led to intellectual and personal discomfort, and then assesses the benefits (improved critical thinking skills, opportunities for lessons in rhetoric and audience awareness) and drawbacks (self-imposed silence, fear of writing beyond clichéd responses to difficult questions) that controversial material can bring to the writing seminar. After comparing the results of student writing in two course themes built on varied degrees of explicitly ideological content, Sponenberg concludes that a less politicized theme allows students more room to explore controversial subjects on their own terms because they feel less anxiety about “saying the wrong thing” than they experienced when responding to overt political arguments.

Introduction| October 01 2012 Introduction: Meeting Students Where They Are Ashlie K. Sponenberg Ashlie K. Sponenberg Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Pedagogy (2012) 12 (3): 541–543. https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-1625289 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Ashlie K. Sponenberg; Introduction: Meeting Students Where They Are. Pedagogy 1 October 2012; 12 (3): 541–543. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/15314200-1625289 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsPedagogy Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2012 by Duke University Press2012 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: From the Classroom You do not currently have access to this content.