Paul says it better and more succinctly than I could. I too teach high
school drama and English. But despite our own attitudes toward what ought
to be happening in a classroom, I always have the impression that those
of us who believe and teach in this way are in the a minority. I only
seem to meet the teachers who care -- either online, or at conferences
and AP English Exam readings, or through my state NCTE affiliate. But
everyone tells me the other sorts of teachers are out there. Some may
care passionately for tradition, others without passion or care. I
honestly feel it's hard to tell where the majority stands, without
appealing to past beliefs and experiences as justification. Books
continue to be written demonstrating through transcripts of classroom
interactions between teachers and students what really goes on in a
limited number of classrooms, and attempting to generalize through small
sample sizes what the country's English teachers are doing. Such reports
usually serve to convince me that I'm doing something right.
I also know that what looks great in a book, in an email, or in my own
plans sometimes looks different in the classroom practice -- where I
catch myself falling into an old pattern that doesn't mesh with the
critical and independent thinking I prize so highly. I hope this year I
can get some peer evaluators to watch and see if I practice what I
preach.
Gordon Hultberg
At 08:22 PM 08/16/2006, you wrote:
Peter Adams raised an interesting issue with:
"In fact, I am
wondering why the role of English teachers seems to always be to slow
down this process and defend the traditional
conventions." Is this really
the role of English teachers? What do others think about this?
Personally, I don't see myself as a defender of traditional conventions
at all. I suspect that many of my colleagues in the high school English
classroom feel the same as I do. I rather see the English teacher in me
as a promoter/fascilitator of deep thinking (and critical and creative
thinking) through the disciplines of reading, writing, listening, and
speaking. Grammar instruction is one item in the toolbox, albeit an
important one (and a too often neglected one at that). However, it's not
for me so much as a teaching of convention as it is a teaching of the way
language works -- as a means towards better/deeper thinking in these four
disciplines.
I'd add that as a drama teacher, grammar is important in a similar way.
When I ask my acting students to point up the nouns or "play to (or
'with' or 'on')" the verbs, I need first to make sure they know what
these words are. My goal for them, however, is not grammatical, but
theatrical -- I want them to make the language meaningful and rich, and
to bring the text across clearly to the audience.
Paul D.
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