Argument

Question: How does one define “argument”?

Answer: An article on the many definitions of “argument” in textbooks, from opposition to trying to understand an issue without “winning.”

Comment: I would suggest that my readers find this article on argument as defined in a variety of textbooks and read it. The opening paragraph sets the stage for the “limitations” of argument. RayS.

Quote: “…Jennifer Bay’s 2002 response essay, ‘The Limits of Argument.’ Using the attacks o the World Trade Center as one striking and horrifying example, Bay laments: ‘While we teach students argument and vehemently defend its importance, argument fails. In the place of argument, wars are fought, violence committed, vengeance inflicted. For all our conviction about arguments and the ability of arguments to accomplish understanding and mediation, they often fail to enact

change….’ "

Title: “A Textbook Argument: Definitions of Argument in Leading Composition Textbooks.” AA Knoblauch. College Composition and Communication (December 2011), 244-268.

Twittering

Question: How can English teachers help their students develop conciseness in their writing?

 Answer: Limit their writing to 140 words. Possible exercises: Describe a picture. Describe a favorite place.

Title: “Twitter Poem In-Class Writing Exercise.” Kate Bradley. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (December 2011), 195.

Book Reviews

Question: How help students write book reviews?

Answer/Quote: Include the following:

> An interesting and creative introduction that will get readers interested in reading your review.

> Author, title, publication date, and subject.

> Why you [self-] selected this book.

> What you found interesting in this book.

> What you enjoyed in this book.

> What you learned from this book.

> Please include at least two quotes from your book and discuss why you found these quotations important or interesting.

> Your overall assessment of the book. P, 132,

Title: “ ‘A Livelong Aversion to Writing’: What If Writing Courses Emphasized Motivation.” Patrick Sullivan. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (December 2011), 118-140.

Aversion to Writing

Question: Why do students develop a life-long aversion to writing?

Answer/Quote: “With all due respect to the many excellent scholars working in the field of composition, I would suggest that the single most important sentence in the last twenty-five years of composition scholarship occurs in Linda Brodkey’s essay ‘Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only’:

While it appears to take longer in some cases than in others, composition instruction appears to have succeeded best at establishing a life-long aversion to writing in most people, who have learned to associate a desire to write with a set of punishing exercises called writing in school: printing, penmanship. Spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary in nearly all cases; grammar lessons, thesis sentences, paragraphs, themes, book reports, and library research papers in college preparatory or advanced placement courses. P. 118. 

Comment: The author goes on to suggest that teachers cannot motivate students to write; students must motivate themselves to write: He provides a quote from Edward Deci (Why We Do What We Do):

In fact, the answer to this important question can be provided only when the question is reformulated. The proper question is not, ‘How can people motivate others’ but rather ‘how can people create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves? P.121.

His answer is not very satisfying, but he has framed the problem. How do teachers help students motivate themselves to write? RayS.

Title: “ ‘A Livelong Aversion to Writing’: What If Writing Courses Emphasized Motivation.” Patrick Sullivan. Teaching English in the Two-Year College (December 2011), 118-140.

English Journal 1912-2012

Question: What have we learned from 100 years of teaching English as reflected in the articles in English Journal?

Quote: “To look back to the early contributors to is, in many ways, to look into a mirror. Sometimes we like to think that our ideas are novel, that there is something inherently superior in this exact moment, but when we gaze back into the past, we are reminded that in our own voices linger echoes of those early NCTE teachers facing many of the same challenges we face today. Indeed, Shakespeare was right when he said, ‘what’s past is prologue.’ ” p. 65.

Comment: A generalization that is only half true. The topics of articles might be similar, but the ideas dealing with them are also different. And the perspective is different. Still, I have learned much from past ideas published in the English Journal and other publications. RayS.

Title: “ ‘What’s Past Is Prologue’: English Journal Roots of a Performance-Based Approach to Teaching Shakespeare.” J Haughey. English Journal (January 2012), 60-65.

Some Interesting Questions

Note: In an article on the work of James Moffett, the author identifies two of Moffett’s questions that are relevant to the teaching of English today.

Quote: “Moffett went on to pose two ‘haunting’ questions: ‘How differently would you teach if your students did not have to come to class?’…and ‘How differently would you teach if you never had to test?’ ”

Comment: For me, two intriguing questions. Ironic in the face of the NCLB law that has turned testing into success or failure of teachers and schools. Worth considering. RayS.

Title: “James Moffett’s Legacy to English Journal.” E Spalding, DC Kosnick, M Myers. English Journal (January 2012), 26-33.

Rubrics

Note: The English Journal is celebrating 100 years of publication. In this particular article, today’s English teachers talk about an article from the Journal that caused them to act.

Name of Article: “On the Uses of Rubrics: Reframing the Great Rubric Debate: by Eric D. Turley and Chris W. Gallagher (March 2009).

Teacher who read it and acted on it: Karin Jozefowski, Superstition High School, Mesa, Arizona.

Quote: “…but as Turley and Gallagher aptly noted, rubrics should be more than a prescriptive tool. They should be a negotiated language for discussing quality in writing if they are to incite and inform dynamic dialogue in the classroom. Turley and Gallagher acknowledge and honor the slippery subjectivity of assessment by viewing rubrics as a flexible tool when created by students and teacher collaboratively. Since my reading of that article, every writing assignment in my class reflects, directly or indirectly, on the four guiding questions they posed because they offered more than a framework for assessing writing. They offered a framework for teaching writing as an active learning process.” P. 22.

Comment: The rubrics probably change for each writing assignment. As the author states, the changing rubrics become an excellent tool for teaching writing. RayS.

Title: “An English Journal Article That Made a Difference: A Forum.” Compiled by D Zancanella. English Journal (January 2012), 19-26.