Respect:
The first and foremost belief I have about teaching, especially teaching 1301, is the importance of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. (Sing one for me Aretha.) Some people reading this post might think that I am speaking of respect for my "authority as a teacher." Although this is important as well, respecting my students takes precedence. I believe you have to give respect to your students. Respect gives students confidence in their own ability as writers. Giving respect also means that in the classroom I might be the expert, but on the football field, in a math class, or basket weaving, they could teach me a lesson or two.
I hear far too many first and second year teachers belittling a student's intelligence and effort. It disgusts me. I think some graduate students get high and mighty on their own ability as grammarians (please). They too soon forget that we are the plebeians. Tenured professors anyone?
Relevancy:
(So, what are you going to do with an Master's Degree in English?)
Seriously though, I want the students to know how and why learning the assignment is important. The relevancy of my instruction should explain how they will successfully complete the assignment. What they learn needs to be relevant for more than just making a grade in 1301. The cohesion of the entire class should produce informative relevancy in their other academic endeavors and individual lives.
Literacy:
I believe it is more than the ability to read or write. Literacy translates into confidence: Confidence in one's ability to approach a text and glean the message the author attempts to convey. Literacy makes each person an audience of one. It gives that person an opportunity to take themselves to another time period, culture, section of the world, etc. I am passionate about the arts, especially that of text (i.e. fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, manuscripts, letters, journal entries, etc.) The world of text is available to those who are literate, and I want each of my students to possess fluent literacy.
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3 comments:
Ed:
Your first post presented writing and knowledge making not so much as developing a new truth, but identifying with existing ones. That is very much a rhetorical perspective, which would suggest that there are multiple truths and the process of writing or speaking is aligning with one of them.I would agree, although I can except some expressivist criticism that such a view denies the uniqueness of the individual.
Your three concepts for composition make sense to me: respect, relevancy, and literacy. They each cover separate relationships.
Respect deals with the relationship between writer and audience, regardless of the 'rank' of each (teacher, student, boss, employee, etc.).
Relevancy deals with the relationship between writer and writing topic, implying that the topic must matter to the writer if it is to inspire good writing.
Finally, literacy deals with the relationship between the writer and the text, as you suggest. It's the confidence in ones abilities that allows her to approach the writing task confidently.
September 8, 2008 9:27 AM
P.S. I removed my first two comments which were exactly the same as this one, but because I used the wrong name in the salutation. I am still getting used to managing blogs.
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