Writing Amid Literature

"As English teachers our major responsibility is to enfranchise students in our classes to such a degree that they think of themselves as writers, as those who use written language to both discover thinking and communicate thought, who boldly try varied forms of writing, using them to meet their needs," (131). I completely agree with everything about this thesis. There isn't much to elaborate on about it. It's direct, and exactly what every English teacher should implement in the classroom. It's foolish to suggest that students can learn about reading and writing without enjoying what they're doing in class; by varying the forms of writing within the classroom, students can enjoy learning. "To appreciate great literature and writers... we must link students with the greats who have written."

I really enjoyed this reading because I agreed with everything that was said, I enjoyed the examples of creative writing given, and I respect and admire the teaching methods the author thought up. My favorite part was the Walt Whitman assignment. One of the greatest essay prompts I have ever seen. I love to see teachers  use creativity to create a learning environment for their students, and it seemed that the students were completely engaged and excited about their "test".

On a related subject, my favorite quote out of the whole chapter is "...we teachers would do well to keep in mind the origin of essay, a word derived from the French term essai, which means 'to attempt'," (157). More often than not, teachers hand out standard essay prompts to students because they have to assign essays or want to see what the students have learned thus far. However, having the same type of prompt for years on end leads students to become bored and uninspired by the assignment at hand. Teachers need to attempt new ways of testing, and teaching, so that students are constantly inspired to learn and try new things.