I often feel that community college teachers are expected to teach an
overwhelming assortment of subjects in one composition class. I was at a
meeting with other English teachers at my college today, and the totally
unfocused discussion on various problems reflected the confusion I often
feel. One teacher insisted that we shouldn't be "teaching grammar" because
the students should already know it.

We have a hefty reader which introduces 10 rhetorical strategies (narrative,
description, etc). Students write a 10 page I-Search paper based on data
they gather from interviews. They also have to do 10 summary and response
papers. I give fairly challenging open book comprehension tests to get them
to read the essays and learn new vocabulary. I like to think my students are
learning, but it's hard to tell if it carries over.

I would love to teach a class just on the structure of English. It sounds
wonderful.

--

Christine Reintjes Martin
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----Original Message Follows----
From: "John E. Dews" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar

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