Summer Time Blues

This summer I am teaching a twelve-day class on writing. This is a summer school class and while it is open to students for enrichment it is purposed toward students who failed their regular language arts class.

There are two schools of thought on how to teach writing, both would call themselves skills based or describe themselves in this manner. The first is a grammar skills based method that emphasizes mechanics and usage of the language. The second, the one that I would subscribe to, emphasizes expressing ideas and stories over strict adherence to form and function in language.

The approach that I use has the valid criticism that it does not teach, explicitly, the ‘rules’ of English grammar and from my own grammar in this sentence I have a few problems with the rules myself. My biggest problem with this approach is that people who can diagram a sentence cannot necessarily construct one well and teachers who support this approach tend to trample right over a student’s idea – discouraging them – in their quest to teach them perfect grammar and rule adherence. I would rather the student present the perfect story imperfectly than bore us with stunning technical proficiency. Don’t roll your eyes at me, we’ve all read that blog.

I also conceit to consider myself a great storyteller and an excellent teacher. Teaching writing to students is something that I do exceptionally well. This summer class has been an enormous challenge for me. I have taught all low students, all day before but this year I was spoiled by students who contributed in class discussions and could serve as role models for their peers. This is the first time that I can really say teaching has been difficult.

I feel like I am doing an academic acrobatic trick every time I try to teach them something new or refine the skills they already have. The magic and power of blogging is that everyone is a writer and that everyone has something to contribute. Certainly, not everyone is a Suburban Island or Whimsical Diatribe, but everyone has something to say. The trick to doing what I am doing right now it to first convince them they have something important to say and then to teach them how to tell the rest of us what they have inside them.

This has been the hardest teaching I have ever done but it is probably the most fun I have had teaching.

Comments

[golfwidow]

I once asked my English teacher how come my mad diagramming skillz didn't make me more popular with boys. He said, "I don't know," and he seemed generally dumbfounded that it hadn't worked.

[liz]

Hey, thanks for the seet reference...I would add that not everybody is a Caustically Optimistic, either :)
Now I guess I had better go put Whimsical Diatribe back on my blog so people can give me the proper accolades...and just for the record, my 6th grade teacher had me standing at the board diagramming sentences for the duration of and entrie open house once beccause I was so good at it and he wanted to show off his madd teaching skillz.

[Suburban Island]

Thanks for the kind mention - now I have to make sure I live up to it. You are my blogging hero - I am just waiting for your book to come out. Me and sentence diagrams have never gotten along. I believe that understanding sentence structure and grammar is important but that in the end, you have to write so that the words come from your heart, even if you are taking liberties with the rules, and that you are careful to recognize that the smallest details of our life can yield the greatest stories we can ever tell. I wish you had been my English teacher.