History Lessons for Composition Teachers

"Those who do not know their history have no future." This is a quote from a YouTube clip I showed my seniors in Southwest Literature depicting the stereotyping of the Native American. I asked them if they agreed or disagreed with that statement. To my surprise they agreed. I then asked them to explain. The responses varied, but the consensus summarized was if we do not see and recognize what we have done, accomplished, and learned then we will become stagnant (we discussed what stagnant meant) and never grow, therefore, having no future. I was thoroughly excited about this response since the focus of the class is discovering where we come from, where we are, and where we plan to go with the help of the literature we read in class.

Donald Stewart is basically saying the same thing from the video. We as English teachers have been taught for decades how we should teach English. I remember my English class in middle school - diagram sentences. That was basically about all I remember. Then in high school I no longer needed to diagram sentences, but understand how to write the formulaic five paragraph essay. That formula proved beneficial in my undergraduate work; obviously, I graduated. I did learn the history of the English language (or took a course in the history of the English language), as well as a grueling syntax and grammar class in college. I really don't remember much of my undergraduate work; most of what I learned about English, I learned by teaching a high schooler. That is when my grammar, syntax, writing, speaking all improved. When you teach something you become an expert. But when we become experts, we tend to become comfortable with our methods and practices and not too accepting of new and innovative things because that means more learning. I guess Stewart is saying we need to continue our personal educational growth in order to keep up with our present so we become successful in our future.

Step Up to Writing, Writing Alive, The Six Traits of Writing, The Six Traits of Writing Plus One, The Southern Colorado Writing Project, Kagan, Lindamood-Bell - all of these are, or once were, new innovative ways of teaching writing and/or reading. Teach the steps. Teach the process. Teach the basics. Learn from your peers. Teach your peers. All of these methods enable us as educators to find the best way to teach; but if we are only told how the method works and not shown how to utilize the method then it becomes useless. Stewart does a fine job about telling us how to move away from the grammar, formulas, trends; but he does not show us how to do it. That is the problem with education. We are expected to do so much, be responsible for so much, be accountable for so much, but never really taught so much. Our job is on-the-job training.

As teachers of composition, we need to be aware of what our students need. Stewart talks a little bit about this with the technology portion of his article. We need to keep up with the times and advancements. A good teacher responds to the students; and when one method does not work, it is time to change things up a bit. I will admit, I was the formulaic five-paragraph essay teacher - it's easy, it's comfortable, and it is manageable. It was what I was taught, and I turned out just fine. But over the past few years, I have moved to what Stewart calls the contemporary type of composition. I no longer tell my students how long their composition must be. I want to see if they can communicate their message in the best possible way; whether it is five paragraphs or fifteen paragraphs. But just like us, they have been trained that a sentence must contain at least five sentences, an essay has an introduction, body and conclusion, and everything is wrapped in a pretty box with a bow. Looks are deceiving. I do emphasize the grammar and punctuation, though. Our students are accountable for two mandatory state tests that determine our accreditation - CSAP and ACT. I do not require the diagramming of sentences - it's archaic; however, I do emphasize and teach complex grammar rules that ACT likes to use.

I suppose my true and total response to Mr. Stewart is this:

Old habits die hard, and old dogs have difficulty learning new tricks.

BUT...

If I do not understand my past, I will have no future; nor will my students.

THEREFORE...

I will embrace and learn the new methods so as not to become stagnant.