It's probably no surprise that I love the 5 paragraph rebellion. As bold as it is, I think Wesley's bonsai metaphor (along with her entire article) makes such an important point: we who have become complacent are the ones stunting our students' growth, limiting their potential. I've always wondered why the 5 paragraph essay holds such a place of esteem in English departments. Why not something better? Why not more?
It's important to note, though, before we get carried away and react like Novick does (who for some reason thinks that Wesley and the other authors in the English Journal that month wanted to do away with all scholarly writing and have students play all day)--rebelling against the 5 paragraph essay doesn't mean rebellion against form and structure. But how can we expect students to be critical learners and thinkers when we ask the content of their essays to conform to numbers, outlines, prescribed rules? Shouldn't, as Dornan talks about in Within and Beyond the Writing Process, the content of the essay shape its form? Yes, intro, body, and conclusion are important, but for their rhetorical possibilities, not because of the organizational function they fulfill.
Wesley says that "the rigidity of the five paragraph theme actually dissuades students from practicing the rhetorical analysis necessary for them to become critical thinkers" (58). I completely agree, and experienced this today during my observations at South: as students worked on peer-editing their essays on Beloved, I overheard a boy complaining about his conclusion paragraph. He was frustrated because the point he wanted to end with he'd already said in the intro and one other place, but thought the "rules" mandated he restate it again at the end. He said something about wanting to do something different with his ending, but knew he "wouldn't get the points." Aside from the fact that he probably shouldn't just restate the same point three times anyway, and that Corinth (my cooperating teacher) doesn't prescribe a number of paragraphs or a rigid form, the idea that this student really thought he was being graded more on form than content made me both angry and sad. It's the system--he's probably been taught that way most of his life. There are better ways to write, and to teach.
As much as I enjoyed reading Romano's book on multigenre writing, and hope to experiment with it someday in my own teaching, I think we need to be careful not to see these two forms (5 paragraph essay and multigenre creation) as a dichotomy, the only two answers to a complicated question. As Wesley says, every writing assignment poses a unique rhetorical problem. I love the idea of cracking open the essay, exposing students to all the wonderful literature that has been and is being written. What about Wendell Berry? Annie Dillard? David Foster Wallace? Anne Fadiman (she wrote a whole essay on ice cream!)? David Sedaris? V.S. Naipaul? Hundreds more? All unique in their own styles, but all write the essay.
LINK
www.mcsweeneys.net
A fantastic lit mag, online for your own enjoyment as well as use in the class (essays too). On the front page right now: "Rod Blagojevich Writes 25 Things About Himself on Facebook."
Showing posts with label multigenre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multigenre. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
week one: process and possibility
I started this week's readings with Within and Beyond the Writing Process in the Secondary English Classroom--it was hard to get through. While I found the information valuable and relevant, the narrative itself is sometimes dry and redundant. Most of all, I thought that Chapter 3: Teaching Writing as a Process, could have been a whole book in itself, there was so much information. Some things I did take away from the reading as a whole were that:
What Romano says about working with the narrative, rather than just the expository, side of life, is important. Students need to know how to craft story--"story" in its broadest sense--as much as they need to learn how to conduct research in a library. Maybe more. Thinking of differentiation, I can see how this kind of writing allows students to tap into their own styles of learning and work at their best levels. It's freeing and exhilarating. Why not incorporate art? Music? I know that I myself connect most to any subject when it's made personal, which is the point of this style of writing (and the powerful Whitman line). Of course very specific thinking on the part of the teacher is necessary in guiding and evaluating these projects--what understandings do the students need to demonstrate, etc. But this is so much more appealing to me than the 5-paragraph essay.
I wonder how important the idea of choice is here. For example, I'll be teaching Frankenstein during student teaching, and like the idea of incorporating multigenre writing into my unit--but is it real multigenre writing if it's still a literary criticism paper on a specific, teacher-chosen text? Can authentic multigenre writing only be accomplished within a separate unit, where students have complete autonomy, or could I use Frankenstein as a framework and let students go from there? I'm looking forward to reading more and seeing if the second-half of the text helps me answer this question.
LINK
www.twc.org
The Teachers & Writers Collaborative "promotes and provides literary arts education by supporting writers and teachers in developing and implementing strategies to enhance students' interest in and love of literature and writing." The resources tab has techniques, discussions, a newsletter, and other links--all very helpful for teachers of writing.
- writing is thinking, and begins with meaning making
- we learn to write by writing
- writing is a socially constructed process
- writing needs to be motivated from within, tapping into personal feelings, needs, experiences
- the process of writing is important, and never complete
What Romano says about working with the narrative, rather than just the expository, side of life, is important. Students need to know how to craft story--"story" in its broadest sense--as much as they need to learn how to conduct research in a library. Maybe more. Thinking of differentiation, I can see how this kind of writing allows students to tap into their own styles of learning and work at their best levels. It's freeing and exhilarating. Why not incorporate art? Music? I know that I myself connect most to any subject when it's made personal, which is the point of this style of writing (and the powerful Whitman line). Of course very specific thinking on the part of the teacher is necessary in guiding and evaluating these projects--what understandings do the students need to demonstrate, etc. But this is so much more appealing to me than the 5-paragraph essay.
I wonder how important the idea of choice is here. For example, I'll be teaching Frankenstein during student teaching, and like the idea of incorporating multigenre writing into my unit--but is it real multigenre writing if it's still a literary criticism paper on a specific, teacher-chosen text? Can authentic multigenre writing only be accomplished within a separate unit, where students have complete autonomy, or could I use Frankenstein as a framework and let students go from there? I'm looking forward to reading more and seeing if the second-half of the text helps me answer this question.
LINK
www.twc.org
The Teachers & Writers Collaborative "promotes and provides literary arts education by supporting writers and teachers in developing and implementing strategies to enhance students' interest in and love of literature and writing." The resources tab has techniques, discussions, a newsletter, and other links--all very helpful for teachers of writing.
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