April 24 Pedagogy

Rhetorical Pedagogy

Hmmm....honestly I found this chapter so boring. I guess I just had a hard time reading it because of how it was written, and the subject. This pedagogy seems to set for me. I liked the Platonic pedagogy for some reasons, such as the lack of seriousness and the mystery involved. I think though that in general, rhetorical pedagogy is all about truth and clarity, as well as correctness. These are things that are important, but not the way I think I'll be teaching. I think it is important for teachers to mess up. I don't think that it is a sign of weakness, but it shows students that teachers are human, and if we make mistakes, then they should be okay with making mistakes too. I also think that second and third chances just need to be given some times. I don't want to focus on correctness, that isn't the most important thing. I want to focus on the student learning and getting something from my class, and maybe possibly even enjoying themselves. I don't really need to persuade my students into thinking something, I want them all to have and keep their own ideas and values. I know that Truth is a big part of this pedagogy, and I am down with that, I just think perhaps I am too student focused for it.
Collaborative Pedagogy
This pedagogy is something more that I would do. Actually, I don't need to do anything, it is already there. I do think, especially now that I have listened to Shipka, that we are always collaborating. I do think that all writing is collaborative, as Howard points out that Charlotte Thralls says, "Active readers function as collaborative partners; the writers sense of anticipated audience constitutes a form of collaboration; the community in which the act of writing takes place or toward which it is aimed contributes constraining (and enabling) conventions such as word choice, tone, organization; and sources that the writer has read exert their influence." I think that the pedagogy of collaborating is beneficial in many ways. It does eliminate some of the competition between students, it also gives students an example of work place writing, and so on. I don't think that collaborating in the sense of peer review is always helpful as I have said before. In general though, I think this is a good way to teach.