nancy Historia of Rhetoric

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Nancy Historia and Rhetoric

I want to respond to the two articles that are related to composition studies and the history from the turn of the 20th century.

The article Edwin Hopkins and the Costly Labor of Composition was a little confusing at first with Randall Popken as author but who took from Bruce Horner who it seems is experiencing what Edwin Hopkins experienced as a composition teacher at the university level. We did learn a great deal about our composition history as far as poor treatment or "the material social conditions professors had to put up with( tho we don't really learn about Mr. Horner?)

Horner says we value scholarship and publishing much more than teaching. In fact teaching is referred to as labor while publishing is called work!

The subject Edwin Hopkins, who we study, was a committed professor and writing teacher as well as a committed Christian. He suffered as his student load grew and grew and we teachers of writing know that this means more and more papers to grade and students to conference with.I enjoyed this article as I was able to connect or identify with him in several places in the article. I couldn't help thinking that ESL teachers in my district K-12 are working harder and spending less time with our students or less quality time. Our numbers like ELLs everywhere continue to go up. And additional teachers are not beng hired quickly enough. We are asked to do more and more record keeping and it takes away from our student contact time.

Though I am also a committed Christian I don't feel exactly as Hopkins did. I too feel a certain calling to be a teacher. But when I was looking for a job I looked not where I might be needed most but where I could be paid well. But agreeing with this article,we know that a high student load breaks down to more hours of work ( in my case record keeping paperwork) and thus working for less money.

I at times am struck with a desire to be more of an activist and explain to the top administrators that our students are getting the short end. We too as ELL teachers are marginalized. Because we are tutors, we are considered as Paraprofessionals instead of the licensed professionals that we are, and thus we are squeezed into the smallest work area , perhaps sharing space and often asked to move again to let someone else have our room. At one point last year I thought I had no room at all and was expected to tutor in the hallways practically. While I am a survivor I am not a fighter as was Mr. Hopkins. Just as teachers of writing , as tutors we need to individualize and teach every student differently according to their needs. This is one reason that I want to get a masters degree. I want to exude more authority and also teach teachers to better take care of ELLs in their regular classrooms. that in theory is what we are going for, to equip the regular teachers with more training , but we are not receiving that time to do the training.

I was a little annoyed with Mr. Hopkins for letting his commitment to his students begin to ruin his health. He had a wife and I believe while our jobs are important - so is our family. Although I too have the same problem. Twice during my career my physical and emotional health was going down. My mentor said I cared too much! How does a teacher "care less?" I have been married for 35 years now and though we have had our bumps., I am taking seriously how my stress affects my husband. For that reason I did not argue when I was asked to move to

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Nancy Historia and Rhetoric

I want to respond to the two articles that are related to composition studies and the history from the turn of the 20th century.

The article Edwin Hopkins and the Costly Labor of Composition was a little confusing at first with Randall Popken as author but who took from Bruce Horner who it seems is experiencing what Edwin Hopkins experienced as a composition teacher at the university level. We did learn a great deal about our composition history as far as poor treatment or "the material social conditions professors had to put up with( tho we don't really learn about Mr. Horner?)

Horner says we value scholarship and publishing much more than teaching. In fact teaching is referred to as labor while publishing is called work!

The subject Edwin Hopkins, who we study, was a committed professor and writing teacher as well as a committed Christian. He suffered as his student load grew and grew and we teachers of writing know that this means more and more papers to grade and students to conference with.I enjoyed this article as I was able to connect or identify with him in several places in the article. I couldn't help thinking that ESL teachers in my district K-12 are working harder and spending less time with our students or less quality time. Out numbers like ELLs everywhere continue to go up. And additional teachers are not beng hired quickly enough. We are asked to do more and more record keeping and it takes away from our student contact time.

Though I am also a committed Christian I don't feel exactly as Hopkins did. I too feel a certain calling to be a teacher. But when I was looking for a job I looked not where I might be needed most but where I could be paid well.

I at times am struck with a desire to be more of an activist and explain to the top administrators that our students are getting the short end. We too as ELL teachers are marginalized. Because we are tutors, we are considered as Paraprofessionals instead of the licensed professionals that we are, and thus we are squeezed into the smallest work area , perhaps sharing space and often asked to move again to let someone else have our room. At one point last year I thought I had no room at all and was expected to tutor in the hallways practically. While I am a survivor I am not a fighter as was Mr. Hopkins. Just as teachers of writing , as tutors we need to individualize and teach every student differently according to their needs. This is one reason that I want to get a masters degree. I want to teach regular teachers to know better how to teach their ELL students, as we are often blocked access to them.

I was a little annoyed with Mr. Hopkins for letting his commitment to his students begin to ruin his health. He had a wife and I believe while our jobs are important - so is our family. Although I too have the same problem. Twice during my career my physical and emotional health was going down. My mentor said I cared too much! How do yo care less ? I have been married for 35 years now and though we have had our bumps., I am taking seriously how my stress affects my husband. and so I did not argue when I was asked to move to a second elementary school instead of an elementary and a middle school. I was working night and day trying to help those middle schoolers and most of my energy was going toward guiding them into the joy of composition. I was sad to leave them mid year, but the other teacher wanted to leave the elementary and be at the middle school and high school, and tho it was difficult, I realize now it was good for my physical and mental, emotional health.

I am grateful for the work that he and the NCTE have done to convince administrators that students need individual attention to their writing and therefore giving professors less student load. My son is a professor at a private school but he has a very very reasonable student load!! He has enough flexible time that he will be much of a house husband when their first child comes in May

Following are comments on the second historia compositon article - shorter but less interesting...