Collective Wisdom
A Sourcebook of Lessons for Writing Teachers
Description:... From the Preface: This collection of lessons and assignments reflects our conviction that good teaching should make the composition classroom a place of initiation as well as instruction, in which the teacher becomes the catalyst for a growing engagement with reading and writing, showing students not only how to read and write but also why they should care about the whole enterprise. In fulfilling this purpose, most teachers act as practitioners, not theorists or researchers, and are habitually, incorrigibly, and (in our view) appropriately, eclectic in their methods. No theory can be adequate to all situations; what most teachers want to know is, "What works?" The enthusiasm and generosity with which teachers all over the country have responded to out invitation to submit their best lessons and assignments indicates that this need is widely felt, and we hope the collection will be of service not only to new teachers but also to experienced teachers who wish to keep their teaching fresh and effective. In choosing the lessons we have welcomed widely different styles and strategies in teaching, since we feel that good teaching in composition is necessarily more diverse (and probably more difficult) than in almost any other subject, and that it grows out of a teacher's own instincts and experience. Thus we endorse no single method or vocabulary but have tried to represent a range of temperaments, approaches, teaching levels, student bodies, and institutions. We think that teachers of many kinds will find here material for inspiration, instruction, or emulation.
Show description