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last.updated 9.14.08

 

Composition in Movements

Purpose

As James Berlin demonstrates, the field of composition studies has been through several movements–most of these are responses to the Current Traditional Rhetoric pedagogy developed at Harvard in the late 1800s. Although the field of composition studies has experienced multiple paradigm shifts, many of these movements–to various degrees–still have a significant influence on the methods used to teach composition in the contemporary classroom. In his scholarship, Berlin, also argues that the degree to which these movements' principles underscore an instructor's pedagogy reflects how the instructor wants to teach the relationship between the writer, the audience, reality, and language. Therefore, as you develop your own teaching philosophy, you will want to think about how you conceive the writing process and rhetorical influence of the pedagogical principles you (and others) value.

Before Class

  • Read Murray, "Teaching Writing as a Process..." CT [3-6]
  • Read Emig, "Writing as a Mode of Learning" CT [7-16]
  • Read Elbow, "How to Get Power Through Voice" [BB]
  • Read Leki, "The Legacy of First-year Composition" [BB]
  • Read Lovejoy, "Practical Pedagogy for Composition" [BB]
  • Submit PAB entry #1 to the Blackboard Discussion Board by the beginning of class

Discussion I: History, Redux

The instructor will pick up where the readings from last week left off and update the history of composition studies up until the present with a focus on tying in the movements we read about (new classical, expressivism, behaviorist or process approach, social constructivism, abolitionist) and explaining recent agendas in the sub-fields that study bi-dialectic writing and second language writing.

  • What questions do you have about the field's history?

Discussion II: The Movements

We will discuss the readings for today's class. We may use the following questions to guide the discussion:

  • What questions do you have about the readings?
  • Is composition a necessary course for all students? If so, what should be the emphasis of the composition course (as articulated by these various movements)? Why?
  • In what ways is Lovejoy using Elbow's understanding of voice? In what ways are their works different?
  • Which movements seems to address issues of diversity best? Explain.

Activity I: Praxis, From Theory To Practice

You will be divided into the four groups. Each group will be responsible for describing a process of moving from the action of reading a piece of scholarship, such as a research study or a theoretical discussion, to the classroom practices it influences.

As your group works on this, choose a theoretical concept from the readings we have read for this week and either use it to 1) think about how you move from this theory to how you put it into practice in your classroom, or 2) to test the process that you have described.

When you are done, each group will have the opportunity to depict their process on the board and to explain what they did.