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- Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 20:37:39 CST
- Sender: "Megabyte University (Computers & Writing)" <MBU-L@TTUVM1.BITNET>
- From: Irvin Peckham <peckham@CWIS.UNOMAHA.EDU>
- Subject: Re: Standard English
- In-Reply-To: <no.id>; from "MLB14%PSUVM.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu" at Dec 18,
- 92 2:38 pm
- Lines: 29
-
- > My first thought is, "That'd never fly here." I am currently embroiled in an
- > effort to create a "common" syllabus for all sections of freshman
- > writing--the administration at my school is concerned that all sections of
- > our writing classes have roughly equivalent experiences and assignments.
- > While I am resisting the push to make the sections identical, I can see the
- > administration's point: there needs to be some assurance that an "A" in one
- > section means the same thing as an "A" in the next.
- >
- > must live with. How is it possible to maintain a situation where students
- > write for real audiences and purposes and still maintain a fairly homogenous
- > writing curriculum? Any ideas?
- >
- You didn't ask me, but . . . a couple of ideas.
- You can have everyone write, for instance, personal experience essays,
- memoirs, problem solution essays, evaluations, profiles, position papers,
- editorials, book reviews, interpreations of literature. They don't have
- to all be reading the same thing. It does work best with some of these
- kinds of writing if they work in groups, though, where they can share
- information, ideas, drafts, etc. You can have groups interpret, for
- example, stories in a collection for other groups who may have read them
- but not looked at them closely. Something like Steinbeck's Pastures of
- Heaven works great here. If you wanted, you could then have the whole
- class write a long essay on the book (assuming that you don't have
- to write the long essay in the traditional linear fashion).
-
- --
- Irvin Peckham
- University of Nebraska at Omaha
- peckham@unomaha.edu
-