Christenbury is one of my favorite teaching texts ever. No, seriously. I loved this chapter about teaching writing. I loved her ideas, especially about group feedback. It pretty much confirmed and supplemented what I already assumed about writing instruction.
Here's a question - do you think it would be better to integrate literature and writing every year of high school, or to teach some years more writing-intensive and some years more lit-intensive? I don't think they should be isolated - how can you teach writing without reading anything? But some days I feel that I want to focus on each a bit more - that it's too much to squeeze in during one year.
I didn't really get a lot out of Gallagher. To me, his activities and reading strategies seemed a bit shallow. I realized that students have to comprehend what they're reading in order to go deeper, but the fill-in outlines reminded me of horrible civics classes that didn't teach me anything. But to each his own, I guess.
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Thanks for posing a question, it makes it easier to comment :-) Personally I think that it's better to keep literature and writing together, but I can see how some days may be only focused on one or the other. Year to year though, you can do both by having students write about things that may relate to the text you are reading.
I had a student in my field exerience tell me that she loves to write but hates reading, this seemed so strange to me because I couldn't figure out how a good writer could be a bad reader...I think we definitely need to teach lit and writing together, it is such a huge benefit to the students!
I think that we can all agree how much we love the Christenbury book!! Its amazing!!
On the topic of keeping literature and writing together...until college, I was one of those students who LOVED to write, but wasn't thrilled to read a book that held little to no interest to me. I hope that I can incorporate the two subjects, literature and writing, in my classroom in a way in which my classroom "flows" (for lack of a better word). I also hope that I can give my students options, not just in writing assignment topics, but in some of the literature we read in class as well.
I concur with the others about combining writing and literature. I believe that the two work well together, and switching from one to the other breaks the monotony compared to just teaching one the entire year.
I agree too. I think literature and writing should be combined in the standard English classes. However, I am completely in favor of elective classes that lean one way or another for students who express interest in concentrating on one genre more intensely.
I think it's a good idea to keep the different aspects of communication arts as tied together as possible--i.e. to show how the study of literature affects your vocabulary; how knowing proper grammar improves your writing, and etc..
As for Gallagher, I agree that students need to be learning how to read at a deeper level, but sometimes the "shallow" stuff has to come first in order to build off that.
I think that the two aspects should be kept together. But at Study Middle School they actually have Literature/Reading in one class and writing in another. All students are still required to have both but it gives more time to focus on one area.
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