Week 8: Bartholomae

Bartholomae claims that in order to get our students writing, teachers shouldn't be giving  instructions to writing as a subject, he calls this the "Big Bang Theory". To teach an entire semester on writing, and have no writing in the process because the students are "poor writers" doesn't help anyone in the process. This would be like giving students a math lecture with no homework--there would be no time to absorb the lesson. Instead, Barthalomae gives examples of how writing can be incorporated in the classroom so it can be dissected, and be seen as a learning process. Through revision, and repetition on past writings, students can look at old writings with a new "richness", allowing them to look at old work through a new light, and learn from others within the composing process.
------------
Writing should be taught through the composing process
--------

I find when Bartholomae talks about the negative aspects of learning about writing, while not incorporating the terms into your own writing important. I myself, need to try and incorporate more of these devices into my writing. I found it suprising how past writings, such as journals, can be used and made into a new assignment. By having the students write about write about what they learned through reading their journal, rather than write about what they learned while writing the journal, forced the students to look at past writing through a new lens. I wouldn't mind using this technique in my own classroom eventually. This is a non judgmental form of writing practice that allows the student "to write about journal writing without writing about the writing in the journal"(37). This would be good for students that speak in languages that are not the Standard White English  It will allow them to write in their native thoughts, and then through the composing process, look back on what they wrote.