PREPARING TO TEACH WRITING Research, Theory, and Practice Third Edition JAMES D. WILLIAMS Preparing to Teach Writing Research, Theory, and Practice Third Edition Preparing to Teach Writing Research, Theory, and Practice Third Edition James D. Williams LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2003 Mahwah, New Jersey London Copyright Ó 2003 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Williams, James D. (James Dale), 1949- Preparing to teach writing: research, theory, and practice / James D. Williams. — 3rd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-4164-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. English language—Rhetoric—Study and teaching—Research. 2. English language—Composition and exercises—Research. 3. Report writing— Study and teaching—Research. 4. English teachers—Training of. I. Title. PE1404.W54 2003 808=.042=071—dc21 200340771 CIP Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability. Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother and father, Jessie and Elmer Williams Contents Preface xiii 1 The Foundations of Rhetoric 1 What Is Rhetoric? 1 History and Theory 2 Classical Greek Rhetoric 3 Rhetoric and the Greek Philosophers 6 Who Were the Sophists? 8 Roman Rhetoric 23 Cicero 24 The Early Christian Period 28 St. Augustine 28 From the Middle Ages to the 19th Century 33 Peter Ramus 36 Art or Science 38 The First Composition Courses 39 2 Contemporary Rhetoric 42 Approaches to Teaching Writing 42 Current–Traditional Rhetoric 43 Bottom-Up Methodology 44 Grading Student Papers 45 Pervasiveness of the Approach 46 New Rhetoric 46 The Influence of Linguistics 48 An Emerging Field 51 vii viii Contents New Rhetoric and Process 53 An Emphasis on Psychology 56 Romantic Rhetoric 58 Grounded in the Counterculture 59 The Allure of Authenticity 61 A Matter of Perspective 64 Writing Across the Curriculum 67 WAC at the Elementary Level 69 WAC at the Middle and High School Levels 70 WAC at the College Level 71 Implementing WAC 75 The Argument Against WAC 77 The Social-Theoretic Model 79 Discourse Communities 80 Writing in a Social-Theoretic-Oriented Classroom 85 Postmodern Rhetoric 86 Post-Postmodern Rhetoric 93 3 Best Practices 98 How Do We Teach Writing Effectively? 98 The Process Approach to Composition 99 Student-Centered Instruction 101 Teacher as Coach 105 Stages of the Composing Process 106 A Phase Model of the Composing Process 120 Making Writing Meaningful 121 E-mail Pen Pals 122 Simulation 125 Expectations and Standards 126 4 The Classroom as Workshop 131 Structuring a Classroom Workshop 131 Building Community 132 Setting Up Work Groups 132 Obstacles to Work Groups 135 Summarizing the Benefits of Work Groups 139 Sharing Student Drafts 141 Social Bonding in Work Groups 142 Computers and Work Groups 145 Grading Group Participation 146 Teacher Intervention 148 Classroom Conferences 149 Contents ix 5 Reading and Writing 151 The Psychology of Reading 151 The Phonics–Whole-Language Debate 154 Examining the Theoretical Issues 155 Problems in Theory and Research 161 Connections Between Reading Skill and Writing Proficiency 165 Models and Writing 167 Reading and Writing With Computers 169 6 Grammar and Writing 171 Why Is Grammar Important? 171 Why Teaching Grammar Does Not Work 173 Considering the Research 174 Internalized Language Patterns 177 Teaching Grammar and Usage 180 Usage and Error 181 Common Usage Problems 183 Grammar Problems 188 Direct and Indirect Instruction 190 Examining the Major Grammars 191 Traditional Grammar 192 Phrase-Structure Grammar 196 Transformational-Generative Grammar 198 Cognitive Grammar 208 7 English as a Second Language and Nonstandard English 215 Bilingual Education 215 Problematic Test Scores 217 Placement and Classification in Bilingual Programs 218 Immersion and Spanish-Speaking Students 220 Addressing the Need for Bilingual Education 221 Bilingualism and Intelligence 223 Revisiting Language Acquisition: The Effect on ESL 224 Language in Infants 225 Home Language 227 Conflicts Between Home and School 228 Second-Language Acquisition in Children 229 Dialects 230 Factors Underlying a Prestige Dialect 231 Nonstandard Dialects 232 x Contents Black-English Vernacular 233 Ebonics 236 Cultural Factors 238 Cognitive Deficit 240 Black-English Grammar 241 Black English and Writing 243 Oral-Language Interference 245 Chicano English 247 Spanglish 250 Code-Switching 251 Teaching Nonmainstream Students 254 8 The Psychology of Writing 257 Mind and Language 257 Cognition Influences Language 258 Problems With Piaget 260 Language Influences Cognition 263 Problems With Linguistic Relativism 268 A Phase Model of Cognition and Language 273 Pauses, Plans, Mental Models, and Social Actions 276 9 Writing Assignments 279 Making Good Writing Assignments 279 Planning and Outcome Objectives 279 Sequencing Assignments 282 Features Every Assignment Should Have 288 Sample Assignments 289 Collaborative Assignments 294 Relating Writing to the Real World 295 10 Assessing and Evaluating Writing 297 What Is Assessment? 297 Key Factors in Assessment and Evaluation 301 Validity 301 Reliability 304 Predictability 305 Cost of Assessment 307 Fairness of Assessment 308 The Politics of Assessment 308 Reducing the Paper Load 314 Teacher Comments on Papers 314 Contents xi Holistic Scoring 317 Scoring Rubrics 315 Implementing Holistic Scoring in the Classroom 319 General Rubric 1: Elementary 320 General Rubric 2: Middle and Secondary 321 Scoring Student Papers 324 Converting Numeric Scores to Letter Grades 327 Following the Protocol 328 Portfolio Grading 328 Sample Rubrics and Sample Papers 331 Assignment 1 (Grade 6) 332 Rubric: Assignment 1 332 Assignment 2 (Grade 8) 334 Rubric: Assignment 2 334 Assignment 3 (Grade 12) 338 Rubric: Assignment 3 338 Appendix A: Writing Myths 345 Sentence Openers 346 Sentence Closers 347 To Be or Not to Be: Weak Verbs/Strong Verbs 349 The Poor Passive 350 Misconceptions About Sentence Length 351 Conclusion 353 Appendix B: Sample Essays 354 References 362 Author Index 385 Subject Index 391 Preface My first teaching job many years ago was at a high school just outside San Jose, California. I taught six writing classes and monitored the rest rooms during lunch hours while trying to understand why my stu- dents couldn’t write. In spite of my English degree and credential, nothing I did seemed to help, perhaps because I really had not been prepared to teach writing. It just wasn’t part of the education curricu- lum in those days. Overwhelmed by how much I didn’t know, I began reading everything I could about teaching writing, which wasn’t much because there wasn’t much available. Over the next decade, that situation changed. Rhetoric and composi- tion emerged as a field of study, and eventually I completed a PhD in that field. My first university position was at UCLA, where I was asked to teach, among other things, a class in composition theory and meth- ods for young people seeking their teaching credentials. This course determined the direction of my career, and I have been training teach- ers, with only a few interruptions, ever since. That summer, I reflected on my experiences as a teacher and began planning the course. I quickly realized that most of the materials I had used for my graduate work were inappropriate for prospective elementary and high school teachers, and I started looking for a text or two that covered all the topics that I thought were important for these students. A couple of ti- tles looked promising until I reviewed them. They were either too deep or too shallow. I finally resorted to profligate photocopying, putting to- gether a “course pack” that was expensive and hard to use. By the end of my first year at UCLA, I decided that I would write my own book that would include all the topics and information that begin- ning teachers need if they are going to teach writing effectively. Pre- xiii xiv Preface paring to Teach Writing began to take shape during that summer, even though it was not finished until some years later. From the beginning, I wanted Preparing to Teach Writing to be comprehensive because there are so many factors that influence learn- ing to write and thus teaching writing. I wanted to provide a text that truly would prepare future writing teachers for the many challenges they would face in the classroom. The first edition (1989) was posi- tioned firmly in the cognitive approach to composition that dominated the field at that time. It explored writing as a psychosocial action and advocated a “pragmatic” approach to instruction before the ideas of “social constructivism” had fully jelled in the profession. A bit to my surprise, the book proved popular in spite of the fact that some of the chapters were fairly demanding. After a decade, I was asked to produce a second edition, which was released in 1998. By that time, the field of rhetoric and composition had changed significantly, becoming more political and less concerned about the pragmatics of in- struction. The second edition explored some of the ramifications of this change and raised a number of questions associated with the focus in the field on postmodernism. OVERVIEW Today, with the publication of the third edition, we have entered what some have referred to as the post-postmodern period, which has been characterized as a time of professional fragmentation. What this means is twofold. First, there is no dominant theory or approach for writing instruction. Second, rhetoric and composition now, more than ever, has separated theory and practice to such a degree that there are very few points of contact between them.