In the past decades American academic institutions have experienced a steady increase in the numbers of international students. Increasing economic pressures and the commodification of education have led college administrators to intensify recruitment efforts overseas in an attempt to bring an even larger number of international students to US campuses – a development that in […]
Working with Students
Using Student Texts
In our Teaching Develop Seminar on Tuesday, one side note of the conversation fascinated me. As instructors talked about how they respond to student writing, it became apparent that many (possibly most) feel reluctant to use current student work (“live writing,” Lisa called it) as content to be addressed in class time. These instructors may […]
Legos and Eggs
I’ve been sampling bits of the new 4th edition of Jim Williams’s Preparing to Teach Writing, in part because I wanted to see whether Williams had changed any of his approach (he hasn’t), but mostly because I was thinking about his chapter on the relationship between teaching grammar and improving writing (there is no causative […]
Post-Scribing
I think the bones of our course are fairly easy to describe. I might say to a new teacher something like this: 1. Create an environment where writing seems an appropriate action (with readings, engagements, questions, problems), and 2. Respond vigorously to what gets written (and said) as both a reader and an interested colleague […]