There鈥檚 been an interesting discussion amongst 起点传媒members in the Teaching and Learning Forum this week. It began with an inquiry about how to approach the teaching of compare/contrast, division/classification, definition, and cause/effect essays in College English Comp, but it quickly became a lively back and forth about the benefits and drawbacks of 鈥渕odes as a reason for writing.鈥�
Discussion participants highlighted both the artificial nature of writing for a mode and the value of learning the modes as a way of understanding how written ideas are constructed. One commenter said,聽聽 鈥淚 agree that we don’t teach students to write for 鈥榯hat鈥� reason (mode), however, we must teach them to write for a reason鈥攊n other words, writing always has a purpose, a focus, and they need to learn the purposes that writing accomplishes.鈥� Another added, 鈥淭he purpose of the essay needs to grow out of the occasion and audience for the piece, not be the starting point.鈥�
I found this discussion fascinating because for the past several years, I worked with teachers to develop middle-school curriculum in a school system that focused entirely on the modes when looking at the writing standards of the Common Core. We never had a deep discussion questioning that approach, but I think it would have been so valuable if we had. I wish we鈥檇 built that discussion around a document like the .
I don鈥檛 know that we did harm with the curriculum we developed, but I hope as more teachers adapt it they see it just as a starting place and not an end. As another commentator in the discussion wrote, 鈥淩egarding modes, it’s probably a mistake to think our students are beyond the need for such old-fashioned pedagogy. Because we’re in a sudden New Age of information overload, modes have new usefulness in providing curation and clarity. 聽And, like algebra, modes are not “real life”鈥攂ut can be good training for it.鈥�
There are great discussions like the one described here happening on the 起点传媒members-only Teaching and Learning Forum every day. If you want to get in on the conversation !