Febuary 6th

Thinking Out of the Pro-verbal box

I agree with Williams her. I think that it is important to not just teach using the verbal. Students in this day and age will be expected to understand not only what is said, but what is seen. There are so many visuals and other forms of media now, that students need to be taught differently than they used to. Teachers who only lecture, and talk, while students sit there and listen, will not teach students what they really need to know. By combining the verbal and the visual, teachers can start teaching in a way that students will better understand in their futures. There are so many ways for the students to be literate, not just the way that it has always been. I am willing to accept that technology is moving forward, even if I don't like it. I recognize that students today need to know computers, film, music, advertising, etc. Since that is the case, I MUST be willing to teach using those things so that the students will get the most out of my class for their lives. Critical thinking is also important for the students lives, and that is taken away by only focusing on the verbal. Like Williams says, "if composition's role is to help students acquire the skills to live a critically engaged life--that is, to identify problems, to solve them, and to communicate with others about them--then we need to expand our view of writing instruction to include the diverse media forms that actually represent and shape the discursive reality of students."

Writing and Learning at Cross Purposes in the Academy

I'm somewhat torn on this subject. I think that writing does lead to "a deeper level of processing" which leads to better learning. I do see though that students write for teachers, and that is the main reason for writing. Writing is important no matter what, and I already talked about teaching writing in an earlier blog. Even if the students are writing because they have to, even if they are "copying" other peoples writing (through form, etc.) they are still gaining something. Whether it be continued practice on grammar and spelling, process production, or whatever, they are getting something out of it. I'm sure a lot of students will say they get nothing out of this type of writing, but I think they are. I'm not sure how we could go about changing why students write. I would love to tell them to just write whatever they want all the time, but I'm afraid that many will not know what to do, or will need structure. It is a difficult topic.