The writing about writing philosophy believes one way to empower students as critical thinkers and writers is to talk about writing. Seems obvious, right? Except it’s not. Often instructors use reading material and writing assignments that don’t focus exclusively on writing. In fact, take a look at archived courses here and you’ll see I taught composition using Chasing the Scream (a book about addiction), various newspaper articles, etc.I’m not claiming one version of composition is more impactful than another. However, I am inviting you to consider the value of studying writing as its own discipline. How might reading an article on writer’s block have an impact on you as a writer? How might writing a narrative about your experiences of learning to read and write challenge what you think you know about yourself? What knowledge have you gained through writing and reading about writing that you can transfer to your other classes? These are only some of the questions we’ll be trying to answer by composing paragraphs, summaries, and analysis of children’s books, movies, and our memories.
Below I have linked you to important resources that we will be using in class discussions:
- Writing about Writing philosophy
- Paragraphs
- More on paragraphs
- Questions to ask during an analysis
- A great example of an autoethnography
- What is your angle?
- Summary
- Importance of outlining
- Archive of Literacy Narratives
Blog Post #1 (Three Experiences)
Blog Post #1: Three Life Experiences …
Integrate a quote from The Guardian article
Please post your integrated quote here!
The Mouth With a Mind of Its Own
The children book by Patricia L. Mervine “The Mouth With a Mind of Its Own” describes the challenges children with speech problems encounter communicating in their early childhood. In the book, Mathew for example had difficulties with speech that made…
Summarize your children’s book
Please submit a summary of your children’s book. Remember: ANGLES and MEAL.
Summarize Harriet the Spy
Please summarize Harriet the Spy. Remember to use an ANGLE. For more information on summaries, check out this link: https://english121.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2017/09/04/summarizing/
Literacy Sponsor and Deborah Brandt
Please respond to the following prompt: Compose a paragraph using the MEAL strategy that examines the purpose of Deborah Brandt’s “Sponsor of Literacy” Examination can mean: -summarizing -explaining -discussing -reflecting
Autoethnography– “My Struggles with American Small Talk”
Reflect on the autoethnography distributed in class here!
Homemade Love (extra credit)
What does Homemade Love try to teach children? Use the MEAL or SEE strategy to develop this paragraph.
Alexander Chee’s “The Writing Life”
Pick one paragraph from Chee’s essay and do the following: Report on its meaning: What is the paragraph saying? What does it mean? Reflect on its meaning: How did you feel about this paragraph? What did it make you think of?…
