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Basic Writing: Teaching PhilosophiesBelanger, Kelly. "Gender and Teaching Academic Discourse: How Teachers Talk About Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts." Berthoff, Ann E. "What Works? How Do We Know?." Daiker, Donald A. and Max Morenberg, eds. The Writing Teacher as Researcher: Essays in the Theory and Practice of Class-Based Research. Kutz, Eleanor and Hephizibah Roskelly. An Unquiet Pedagogy: Transforming Practice in the English Classroom. Rose, Mike. Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America. Sheridan-Rabideau, Mary P. And Gordon Brossell. "Finding Basic Writing’s Place." This study looks at 10 teachers in classrooms built around Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts and analyzes their approach to teaching in terms of gender. There are four categories: masculine, androgynous, indeterminate, and feminine. This is an interesting article for those who are using this textbook. Berthoff, Ann E. "What Works? How Do We Know?." Journal of Basic Writing 12.2 (1993): 3-17. In a paper that was originally the keynote address at the CUNY Association of Writing Supervisors Conference in October 1992, Berthoff addresses the problem of deans--particularly those deans who would assume to dictate writing program pedagogy. Her address is, therefore, an attempt to define what works in the writing classroom, and how to explain the purposes and procedures of classroom practices to those unfamiliar with composition pedagogy. She uses the term Ineinandersein (defined here as "the in-one-anotherness of purposes and practices") to "represent the mutual dependence of the what and the how of all we are doing" (5). To teachers dealing with deans who would prescribe a heavy dose of grammar drills and five-paragraph themes, Berthoff offers three suggestions. The first suggestion is to ask the dean (who she characterizes as a business school type) if analytic skills are not important in the business world--more important, in fact, than the ability to write five-paragraph themes. The second suggestion is to offer the dean an example of the composing process via a portfolio of student work from initial investigation to "finished" product. Finally, Berthoff offers the suggestion that the instructor explain to the dean that in teaching her students to read and write, the instructor must begin with where students are. Berthoff considers this suggestion a trap; the dean, being a dean, will assume that begin with where they are means to begin with their errors. Teachers of writing, however, recognize the need to begin with student strengths. All of these suggestions, however, lead to answering the question proposed in the title: What works? How do we know? According to Berthoff, the types of assignments that "work" in the classroom are those that engage the imaginations of students. She dismisses the idea that the personal is somehow more important or full of detail than the public; the dichotomy of the personal and the public works against the principle of Ineinandersein that defines experience in the world. Begin with where they are means beginning with where the students are as citizens, as well as where they are as students. It also means beginning with students as "language animals"-- Berthoff writes, "We do not have to teach our students how to symbolize; what we teach is THAT they symbolize" (11). Both of these concepts--of students as citizens and as "language animals"--echo the work of Paulo Freire and the concept of conscientization: as learners come to an awareness of what they are doing, they will discover how to do it. In both the political and the private, students bring a wealth of knowledge; the goal of the teacher, then, is to engage their minds and enable them to tap into that knowledge; in the process, more knowledge will be created. That is the heart of Berthoff's argument: when something works in the classroom, the students are engaged, excited, and in the process of creating knowledge. When those things are happening, we know that what we are doing is working. The vital work of the teacher-researcher is the subject of this collection of essays written by some of the most important researchers in the field of composition. Essay topics range from the political nature of testing and evaluation to the role of the teacher in the development of a pedagogy appropriate to the context of his/her own particular classroom and students to the ways students can become partners in their own educational process. The dominate theme of the book is the notion that teachers are in a position to challenge and change the way we approach teaching and learning in composition, and that if there is to be effective change it will come from within the classroom, not from research distanced from it. The first essay, written by James Berlin, is titled "The Teacher as Researcher: Democracy, Dialogue, and Power." Berlin sets the tone for the book, insisting that the role of the teacher-as-transformer in education is one that is long overdue. Essays that follow focus on how teachers can use their classroom experiences to create an atmosphere that more accurately reflects the true nature of teaching--the inevitable learn-as-we-go process of both students and teachers as each semester takes shape. Lee Odell, for example, offers a look at our reluctance to take our own advice in "The Construction of Meaning: Practicing What We Preach." Odell notes that by opening themselves up to everyday inquiry in the classroom, writing instructors can become more aware of the "critical thinking" lessons they are teaching their students--lessons in drawing on prior knowledge, in observation, in values--and experience the discomfort such experiences can create in the learner. He writes, "For many, this is a terribly disconcerting thought, if only because it's almost certain that our prior education has not prepared us to do this sort of work. From our own experience as students, we have probably learned that teaching is in large measure a process of imparting information" (221). Other authors provide an overview of classroom research that allowed them to develop more accurate theories of the way students learn to read, to write, and to respond to writing (see Kathleen Geissler's "Negotiating Authority in Peer Response"), as well as insight into the use of research to study aspects of literacy previously unrecognized as critical to developing effective teaching practices (see Ruth Ray's "Language and Literacy from the Student Perspective: What We Can Learn from the Long-term Case Study"). Qualitative research is represented in a way that validates knowledge gathered from interaction with students and participation in the writing classroom. Covering the language arts from theory to practice, and from kindergarten to college, this book offers a wealth of information for the beginning teacher-researcher who may wonder where to start, what to do, and why the research needs to be done. This book is a whole-hearted application of the pedagogical theory of Paulo Friere, which was developed in the slums of Brazil, to the modern American classroom. Friere's "banking model of education" is used to describe American schools, where the teacher imparts knowledge in the form of facts. Little context is used, and the outside world never intrudes. As with most applications of Friere, this one is set against E.D. Hirsch's Cultural Literacy. But where Winterowd sees some use in Hirsch's need for a shared background knowledge, Kutz and Roskelly see his list as another traditional pedagogy which relies on conveying facts to students. They want to transform the American classroom from a banking-model pedagogy to a problem-posing, dialogical pedagogy in which students actively participate in creating their own literate environment. Parts one and two deal with theory and part three is given to the application of the theory. They begin by examining the role of the teacher, calling for a change from stereotypical roles as "the hanging judge" or "god" of the classroom to the teacher as a guide. The preferred classroom activity is groupwork. Groups of four or five students give students the opportunity to voice their opinion among smaller groups, changing the dynamics of the classroom by making it easier for students to voice an opinion. The teacher as guide (269-270) shows the teacher working as an informed reader (Fish's term), using his/her own experience and knowledge for writing and modelling the activity for the students. Writing as learning (271-78) and journal keeping and informal writing are covered, and evaluating and grading are covered quickly (279-82). Chapter ten deals with the curriculum. Rose, Mike. Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America. New York: Penguin, 1995. This book is a collection of Rose's observations of public schools throughout the United States. During his four year sojourn, Rose observed a variety of schools ranging from inner-city high schools to a collaborative teaching of a college and public school to a one-room schoolhouse in Montana. He covers all the major regions of the country, although Indiana is conspicuously absent in favor of Kentucky. What follows is a breakdown of each chapter with the type of school observed and the teaching strategy pursued. Ch. 1: Los Angeles and the LA Basin Ch. 2: Calexico, California Ch. 3: Baltimore, California Ch. 4: Chicago, Illinois Ch. 5: New York, New York (193-) Ch. 6: Berea and Wheelwright, Kentucky (236-) Ch. 7: Hattiesburg, Tupelo, Jackson, Indianola, Hollandale, and Webb,
Mississippi Hattiesburg High School (284-) Ch. 8: Polaris and Missoula, Montana (320) Missoula, MT, the University of Montana and the Missoula Public Schools work together to teach preschool children with disabilities using multiple funding sources and many student interns, all in an effort to create optimal learning conditions for children with varied physical and mental capabilities. This is, perhaps, the ultimate in individualized attention. Each student needs and receives instruction tailored to specific needs and goals. Ch. 9: Tucson, Arizona (365-) Ch. 10: Possible Lives Rejecting the call to eliminate basic writing courses, the authors defend the place of basic writing within composition studies. They base their defense on their experience as basic writing instructors, noting that if the university accepts students who write below a defined level, the university then has an obligation to help those students learn to write above that level. While Sheridan-Rabideau and Brossell do not try to define basic writing students (an impossible task given the diversity of basic writing programs and students who participate in them), they do note that there are some commonalities among both the courses and the students who take them. The most common factor among basic writing students is inexperience. The nonstandard language usage of basic writers is more complex than merely struggling to find one’s way into academic discourse; it represents a consistent struggle with language that more experienced writers do not demonstrate. It is this difference that leads the authors to insist on the importance of basic writing in the university. Valuing basic writing is one of the predictors of a successful basic writing program. If the university values the basic writing program, seeing it not as less than other courses, but an important component of the entire educational process, the program will offer students a positive and enriching educational experience. As Sheridan-Rabideau and Brossell note, basic writing students often have difficulty in other college courses. They are unfamiliar with and underprepared for the rigors of college work. In response to those who decry basic writing courses on the basis that they "brand" students, the authors note that basic writers themselves often "express their appreciation for having the chance to accomplish in basic writing classes what they could not in regular classes" (25). The basic writing classroom can provide such students a "safe space" in which to express their writing difficulties. As much college work involves writing, the basic writing class can serve to move these students away from the "at risk" categories many of them occupy, allowing them to succeed in other university courses.
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