CI5461: Week 2

I know that I should be skeptical of a chapter that begins with the heading, "Making Good Writing Assignments," but at this point in my education/career I really want something prescribed to me as to how to be a good teacher. Unfortunately, Williams proved to me (once again) that there is no such thing as a prescription for a good teacher. Chapter nine of his book, "Preparing to Teach Writing" was just as cynical as the others that we have read so far. It's important to embrace a certain amount of cynicism in order to keep a realistic outlook on the field of teaching, yet a statement such as: "Especially problematic is the fact that talented and experienced writers also have interesting stories to tell; typically, students do not because they have not lived long enough," (Williams, 284) is so cynical that it is shocking and disturbing. Instantly, I was turned off to Williams' methods and ideas because of his disregard for students' lives and abilities.

Williams discusses sequencing assignments in order to help scaffold students (which makes sense), but does not take into account who the students are as individuals. He also illustrates detailed prompts about specific topics. He states that "teachers must decide what they want students to do in an assignment, how they want them to do it, who the students are writing for, and what constitutes a successful response to the assignment." (Williams, 288) To me, the most important aspect of creating an assignment is to take into account the students you have in the classroom. Generally, students feel more ownership of a paper if they are given a choice as to the topic, audience, and even grading criteria for the assignment. And when students feel more ownership, more investment, and more interest, you are likely to get a better paper. Certainly, the teacher needs to address these issues with the students to make sure they are appropriate for the class goals and structure, but Williams suggests that students are incapable of finding topics, et cetera that are in line with the class itself.

With Williams' structure in place in the classroom, I think students would quickly be bored and discouraged with writing. Luckily, our other reading was about a much more interesting, more fun style of writing: multigenre. Which leads me to this week's resource...

This week's resource is a website about multigenre writing. While Williams really riled me up this week, I thought Romano's book was very interesting. I'd like to have my students write a multigenre paper (or project) at some point in my teaching career. I think it would be more fun to do (and more fun to grade!) than a five-paragraph essay. This website is organized in a way that makes sense for me as a teacher to begin planning this project. Hopefully it will be helpful to others, too! :)