In each step of the writing process in chapter 29 of the Anthology, there were so many choices the teacher was required to make. Raimes writes that teachers need to recognize ideology and "recognize their perceptions of the relationship between the type of writing they teach and the roles they are preparing students for in academia and the wider world of work" (307). In other words, we must first establish that we do, actually, bring ideology about writing and students' needs into the classroom. After that, in the steps that follow, however, we must somehow recognize and organize the goals and constraints and the content we wish to convey (do they write about personal experience, social and cultural issues, literature?). And amidst all this, Raimes makes a very important point that there is no formula for writing - that it is messy and chaotic. This is painful to the organized teacher! However, that is how writing is. It requires lots of choices and lots of flexibility. I have often heard the phrase, "you cannot teach writing". I think it holds some truth.
Raimes does offer that of course there is the option of giving all that power of choice to a textbook. But when you look at it that way, choice is so freeing! There is a fine line between too many choices and not enough. She writes, "the easy way out of syllabus design, of course, is to simply choose a book, and build a day-by-day syllabus around it. But then we give all our power of choice to a textbook writer who does not know our students" (emphasis mine) (311). Is that really what we want? Students' writing should reflect them and our writing classes should be tailored to their needs. Raimes goes on to explain that in current writing classes, students' own writings have become the texts for the class. They are analyzed, edited, torn apart, revised, and created over and over again.
The power of choice is reflected in editing as well. In chapter 32 of the Anthology, Dana Ferris discusses how to teach students to self-edit. In conclusion, Ferris writes, "our goal should be to have our students become skillful, independent editors who can function beyond the ESL writing class" (334). Ferris' chapter and his article that we read explained the ineffectiveness and un-practical-ness of 100% error correction. He explained that even when teachers teach grammar, it will not necessarily result in a change in the students writing; those learning experiences don't always get carried over. In essence, he explained that we can only teach so much. Rather, we need to teach students strategies; empower them to do their own error correction, and CHOOSE to make their writing better.
I know first-hand that it is extremely difficult to teach writing. I saw it in action for the first time this summer during the Migrant Program and it made my head hurt. It does not come naturally to very many students! They don't want to write, and they don't want to make it better, and it is so hard to motivate them. I think that the power of choice is so important in writing, but especially in second-language writing. If students feel that through expressing themselves in writing, it will only result in error correction, they will become even more discouraged. As Ferris says in the Anthology chapter, "Although some teachers assume that all ESL students are obsessively concerned with grammar to the detriment of developing and presenting their ideas, I have found that many students have little interest in and pay limited attention to editing their work. They find editing tedious or unimportant or they have become overly dependent on teachers or tutors to correct their work for them. A crucial step in teaching students to become good editors is to convince them of the necessity of doing so" (329). Amen. It is ineffective to correct every error, but we can give students strategies to correct their own errors; this can lead to better understanding of the error and it may be less likely that the student will commit the error again. We can give our students autonomy. The power of choice.
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