Teaching English in the Two-Year College - Volume 27, Issue 3, 2000

Suggests that beginning writers can improve skills when they exchange letters with peers, teachers, and others. Offers a brief historical perspective on the use of letters as a pedagogical device. Outlines current applications of letter writing and exchanges in: English as a second language; technical and business writing; composition and literature classes; and portfolio reflection letters.

Shows how letter writing can motivate basic writers. Describes how the author began teaching his first remedial writing class with a class-wide engagement in letter writing. Discusses how the class developed an active, collaborative, engaged, and inclusive spirit as students learned to put expression first and polishing later.

Discusses 5 principles from the “Tao Te Ching” (an ancient Chinese classic intended for rulers) and how they can be applied by composition teachers. Suggests many of the insights in the “Tao” have become accepted wisdom in the teaching of composition.

Argues that composition teachers, rather than dismiss their students’ consumption of popular culture, should juxtapose popular culture with scholarly interpretations of popular culture and with traditional texts to draw students in and encourage analysis, interpretation and reevaluation of their assumptions.

Describes a writing class activity to encourage peer feedback when peers are reluctant to give it. Notes how it invites personal dialectic and critical analysis while protecting the writer’s originality and sense of control.

Suggests that the five-paragraph theme does in fact have value, and explains why assumptions about its ills are wrong-minded

Describes a modified method of reader-response used as a core activity in a literature classroom in which students write a short written response at the beginning of every class to the reading due that day. Describes the procedure, its relationship to effective writing, and its benefits, including reading more critically, writing more effectively, and enjoying books more

Discusses how psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott’s framework of “potential space” can help teachers deal with students’ emotional response to literature. Describes creating the right classroom environment and outlines teaching strategies to counteract either a too literal or a too emotional reading of a text, reducing anxiety and helping students consider multiple meanings and viewpoints.

Notes that students today do not seem less prepared and less literate than students 30 years ago, but they do seem less loved and cared for. Uses examples of Morrie Schwartz, John Stanford, and one particular classroom community to argue that teachers must create classrooms in which empathy and reciprocity open the hearts and heads of students and teachers.

Describes the author’s 35-year career teaching in the California Community College System. Discusses social, political, intellectual, and emotional changes over that time span and into retirement.

Offers 4 brief descriptions from college writing teachers of activities they use successfully. Describes using a “round robin” process for group writing and revision; addressing stylistic and grammatical issues by using anonymous student writing; “showing” versus “telling” words; and using film to model “larger” meaning in personal narrative.