Realizations
I confess that my only encounter with first-year composition was when I enrolled 23 years ago. I have friends who have taught this course and have shared their syllabi with me, but I realized while reading for next class how much I do not know about the history and purpose of first-year composition. What is fun is that I see many parallels to teaching high school English (or middle school, or elementary school). For instance – there is the notion that in a first-year course the purpose (historically) was to correct the wrongs of the previous teachers and fix-up the students so they are ready for higher learning. How many times have I heard teachers K-12 express concern over how to prepare their students for the next year, and complain that the previous teachers did not teach the students well enough.
I was also struck by the similar views in the Strategies book compared to the writers in English education: Everyone can write because it’s not just a gift to the few; students need to take responsibility for their writing; a writing classroom should be set up like an artist’s workshop; there is not one right way to teach someone how to write; we improve at writing through practice. Gilles surprised me in a quote about the view of composition as a service course. He said we get to explore the “foundational skills of democratic citizenship” (8). All this in addition to grammar and punctuation? What power! What privilege! What responsibility….doesn’t this tie into the political discussions of last week? I asked then if all of what we do in the classroom is in ways political? I’m still thinking about this….
My question for all of you is how do campuses here and elsewhere view first-year composition courses now? Not until the Gilles chapter did I realize that Harvard started these courses as they waited for secondary schools to do “their jobs properly” (2). Ouch. My second question is how you all view high school English courses? I don’t like generalized questions or answers, so I realize that any responses to these will only take into account your own experiences and not a universal view.
I was also struck by the similar views in the Strategies book compared to the writers in English education: Everyone can write because it’s not just a gift to the few; students need to take responsibility for their writing; a writing classroom should be set up like an artist’s workshop; there is not one right way to teach someone how to write; we improve at writing through practice. Gilles surprised me in a quote about the view of composition as a service course. He said we get to explore the “foundational skills of democratic citizenship” (8). All this in addition to grammar and punctuation? What power! What privilege! What responsibility….doesn’t this tie into the political discussions of last week? I asked then if all of what we do in the classroom is in ways political? I’m still thinking about this….
My question for all of you is how do campuses here and elsewhere view first-year composition courses now? Not until the Gilles chapter did I realize that Harvard started these courses as they waited for secondary schools to do “their jobs properly” (2). Ouch. My second question is how you all view high school English courses? I don’t like generalized questions or answers, so I realize that any responses to these will only take into account your own experiences and not a universal view.
posted by Amy | 9:14 PM
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