Man, the start of the spring semester is a slog (and full of alliteration). I find critiquing my creative writing students’ poetry to be one of the most time consuming tasks on the planet; I also give a lot of assignments to my research writing class early in the semester, so between reading and commenting it seems like I have little time for anything else.

Except reading of course. Last week I finished two books heavier on practice than theory in Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom and The Digital Writing Workshop. Both had some interesting ideas, but I’m realizing that it’s quite difficult to work digital projects into a class during the course of the semester. It seems like things will work much more smoothly if the course is tailored to these kinds of projects, since you need to dedicate time to scaffolding how to use the necessary technologies over the course of several weeks. Good to get me thinking.

I’m really enjoying A Better Pencil, which is a highly readable account of how the acts of reading and writing have changed since ancient times. Good stuff, and lots of things to incorporate for the next time I teach English 101.

Current Mood: Fine But Tired |