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last.updated 9.13.12

Composition's History

Purpose

Composition studies' history is rich and complex. As with many fields of study, developing an understanding of where the field has been will help you to understand the practices that are currently advocated by the field and those that have fallen out of favor. The field's history helps to explain why certain practices were developed for teaching writing, why some of these eventually fell out of favor, and why some practices have staying power whether they are pedagogically sound or not. Understanding this history will help you to decide how you want to participate in the current conversation through the design of your classroom practices.

Before Class

• Respond to instructor's introductory email
• Read Crowley, "The Evolution of Invention in Current-Traditional Rhetoric" [Rhetoric Review, 3.2]
• Read Matsuda, "The Myth of Linguistic Homogeneity in US Composition" [College English, 68.6]
• Read Gilyard, "African-American Contributions..." [College Composition and Communication, 50.4]
• Read The New London Group, "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies"
• Read Downs & Wardle, "Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions" [College Composition and Communication, 58.4]
• Submit Blog Entry #1 on Blogger by the beginning of class

FreeWrite I

Use the first ten minutes of class to answer the following questions

Crowley talks about a relationship between reality, thought, and language (p. 158). Why should writing instructors consider at the three together and not just at language? Then choose any one of the other authors we read for this week and explain how this author's argument can be explained by this relationship between reality, thought, and language.

Lecture: From the Scottish Realists to CTR

The instructor will guide the students through the early history of composition studies focusing on the Scottish Common Sense Realists, post-Civil War Harvard, and Current Traditional Rhetoric pedagogy.

Discussion: Composition's History

We will work together to understand the assigned readings by addressing the following questions:

• What questions, comments, or concerns do you have about the assigned readings?
• What is the relationship be reality, thought, and language? How do the authors we read, talk about or imply this relationship?
• In addition to the reasons provided above, why should composition instructors understand the field's history?
• Why has invention lost its place in the teaching of writing? How do you see your goals (see yesterday's freewrite) addressing the canon of invention?
• How do Gilyard and Matsuda's histories shed light on the ways that you experience multilingual writers, including bi-dialectic students and second language writers, in your classroom? In what ways are these narratives similar in what ways do they diverge?
• Although the New London Group's article is not written by compositionists per se, how is their proposed pedagogical approach applicable to the composition class?
• Downs and Wardle present a fairly radical revision to composition pedagogy. Why might you teach this approach? What concerns would you have about teaching this approach?