Re: comfort ye, my peepul


Subject: Re: comfort ye, my peepul
From: Will Hochman (hochman@southernct.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 12 2002 - 00:34:44 GMT


>
>
>At any rate, I think addressing grammatical rules and basic sentence
>structure issues can give students the tools to really say what they want
>to say. If they stay stuck in their language of birth -- their dialect
>-- they often don't have the tools or vocabulary to express the more
>sophisticated ideas found in academic discourse. It's a disservice to
>leave them there.
>
>Jim
>
YES! I agree and I was trying to show that I work hard to do just
that. In point of fact, I gave up a gig where I was "too important to
the dept" to teach first-year writing and took a job where that's all
I do. I want to help students gain access to academic discourse as
readers and writers and knowing rules matters. However, I'm also
talking about a two-way street. Students teach teachers, right? They
bring rich insights in dialect from their experiences and cultures
that need to be voiced. John Dewey's work in education means nothing
if we haven't realized that the "empty vessel" approach doesn't work.
Dewey believed education happens when students and teachers
experience ideas. We know that lecturing students about rules and
giving them handbooks doesn't work. When we challenge students to
think critically (btw, here's a nice url that sets up a Critical
Thinking rubric: http://www.ctl.wsu.edu/ctrubric.asp) we have to
realize that writing is thinking. I am all for thinking about rules
and proper use of language, I just know that concern is not typically
the best thing I can teach students about writing. Writing, from my
point of view is about encountering ideas and expressing the
experience of that encounter. Getting my students to the point where
they are able to "play" with reading ideas and write with critical
and creative insight takes more of my teaching time and energy than
rules. It's not one or the other, but the mix and how well it works
for individual classes (I sense yours is more advanced than mine), as
well as how well we can teach. Uh oh, I'm going to be late for class,
will

-- 
	Will Hochman

Assistant Professor of English Southern Connecticut State University 501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515 203 392 5024

http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html

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