Williams:
"Now, the Joshua tree is a weird-looking tree and I looked at that picture and said to myself, 'Oh, we don't have that kind of tree in Northern California. That is a weird looking tree and I would know if I saw that tree, and I never seen one before.'... I took a walk around the block, and there must have been a a sale at the nursery when everyone was landscaping their new homes- at least 80 percent of the homes had Joshua trees in the front yards. And I had never seen one before!" (p.11)
Psomas:
I found the analogy of Williams' experience with the naming of the Joshua tree to the naming of design principles to be a remarkable one. It is so very true that you may be unaware of something for so long and thus take for granted what has been in front of your nose the whole time. Williams goes on to share his "epiphany" with the recognition of the Joshua tree and being able to "name" it. Williams states that by naming something we are now in control, just like when it comes to learning the design principles. The lay out of the chapters is very explainable and focused, therefore giving me an idea of what to expect and how to absorb what I will be reading. The analogy seems to me to also be an interesting way to look at life as well.
Murray:
"We have to be patient and wait, and wait, and wait. The suspense in the beginning of a writing course is agonizing for the teacher, but if we break first, if we do the prewriting for our students they will not learn the the largest part of the writing process...You are not teaching a product, you are teaching a process." (p.5-6)
Psomas:
I absolutely agree with Murray's Implications of teaching a writing course as a process instead of a product. Exploratory writing and discovery amongst students is critical and important. I am pleased to hear someone else speak of the teaching as being agonizing when it comes to being "quiet" and letting the students prewrite over and over again (Murray States prewriting takes about 85% of the time p.4) when all you want to do is share your knowledge on what to do. But the truth is students indeed need to discover the writing process on their own, with us a guide. If we can learn to teach writing as a process, rather than as a product like Murray states, then we have done our job in the course.
I like where you are going with this, "Exploratory writing and discovery amongst students is critical and important." But I just have gotta know more about what you think about teaching process. How does one teach pre-writing? How does a teacher teach that it's more than jotting down notes and can include something like daydreaming?
ReplyDelete