A La Mode (Christ that’s cheesy.)
I confess I’m not really sure what to do with the "historical" pieces Jeff has asked us to read. I guess it shows a weakness in my approach to 6010 thus far: I’ve been looking at the course more as a way to develop teaching ideas and to shape my own pedagogy (which I think is part of Jeff’s aim). Perhaps what we’re meant to respond to is to see how our own ideas abut pedagogy have been shaped by the history of the craft, to see how the work of teaching writing has changed and to begin to ask where we want to position ourselves in the ongoing discourse that various pedagogical models engage in with one another. See, I know that and understand it, but I don’t yet feel I know what my purpose is an instructor, or really yet how I want to teach comp. I’m getting some ideas, slowly getting more confident that it is in fact something of which I’m capable, but I guess I don’t yet feel prepared to jump into the larger discourse about composition pedagogy.
Anyway. . .
Re: Connors "Modes of Discourse"
I don’t necessarily see that the shift from a modes-based pedagogy to a purpose-based pedagogy is the severe break Connors reads. To me, the modes, as presented by Connors, are merely descriptors of various writing purposes. It is perhaps limiting to think all writing falls into one of the four categories the modes model offers, but I see the shift to a focus on purpose as more evolution than revolution. I would like to have seen some examples of how these different theories of comp influenced practical pedagogy. Connors suggests the modes made writing inflexible and formulaic, which seems to make sense given their apparent rigidity, but I’m curious how one taught the varying formulas.
I see too how Harris’s approach (and that of many of the others whose work he comments on) seems like a reaction to the modes. Connors quotes Kitzhaber:
They represent an unrealistic view of the writing process, a view that assumes writing is done by formula and in a social vacuum.
Harris, instead, sees writing nearly as an entirely social phenomenon, an interaction between writers, culture, and readers–a model I for one find much more appealing than the staid modes.
