WTL, WW, WTF?

Okay, seriously, try to write about this stuff while listening to Frank Sinatra sing The Girl from Ipanema. Go ahead, I dare ya! If that won't encourage the notion of becoming a drunken writer on a beach faraway nothing will.



Are things changing? Excuse my ignorance, but is not outcome based education based on outcome? I have read about teachers complaining of the time necessary to prepare for the end of year tests. There is some chatter in the news that the reason schools start before Labor Day is to get a jump on the requirements. So, two steps forward and one back? Or am I off-base here?



As for the other stuff, I do not recall my high school English classes nor do I remember my first Eng Comp class in college, waaay too far back, thank you very much. The Creative writing classes taken at HACC were a combination of process and product. Dr. G was concerned that we had coherent stories and poems but was also concerned with how we got the ideas from our head to the paper. There is possibly more leeway in the creative aspect of writing that allows the product to come to the forefront, though drafts were required and we engaged in peer review during the process. Eng Comp 2 also at HACC definitely put emphasis on process. Dr. Yelena quizzed us on grammar and sentence structure and all things we should already know and made a point that how you got there is as important as how you end up.



I agree with Hairston's essay, I guess. Again, I don't recall specific teaching styles, except that the ones more recent seem to follow the teaching paradigm she outlines on page 13. I circled number 12 heavily. I also noted paragraph 3 on page 12 as something that caught my attention. I have never been able to "write in a straight line" so to speak. I have phrases and words and scraps that get pulled out and in and then shuffled and replaced, thank God for computers. I can plug thoughts in when they show up a page later.



Murphy's essay appealed to the creator in me. Stories are an important part of our lives and the things we write, whatever they are, and seem to infiltrate and inform our writing. Everyone uses their own life and experiences when they write sometimes the stories are the best way to to find your muse. Or something like that . . . maybe I should post right after reading the text.

I'll get back to you on Smith.