Teaching With Student Texts: Essays Toward an Informed Practice

by Joseph Harris (Editor), John D Miles (Editor), Charles Paine (Editor)

Harris, Miles and Paine ask:  What happens when the texts that students write become the focus of a writing course? In response, a distinguished group of scholar/teachers suggests that teaching with students texts is not simply a classroom technique, but a way of working with writing that defines composition as a field.

In Teaching with Student Texts, authors discuss ways of revaluing student writing as intellectual work, of circulating student texts in the classroom and beyond, and of changing our classroom practices by bringing student writings to the table. Together, these essays articulate a variety of ways that student texts can take a central place in classroom work and can, in the process, redefine the ways our field talks about writing.

281 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

Reviews

[Bruce Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag. Some good ideas for classroom management, but considerations beyond assumptions are absent. For example, the discussion of using student texts in development/basic writing is sparse and needs to be covered in more depth. Further, using student texts for first-generation students, especially those students of color, is nearly completely absent. The assumption in most chapters is that the writing classroom is composed of middle-class white students with ample experience in reading academic texts. More discussion of firs-generation student and their reflection on "what is college writing" and how using student texts answers that question would be useful.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

While some of these pieces feel a bit dated (like the one on Young Scholars in Writing’s early years), and a couple pieces felt redundant - recycling old ideas about texts in the classroom - I’m a sucker for a book loaded down with writing pedagogy. The ethics chapter was excellent, as were a few others with some good ideas that have changed how I think about student workshops and using a process-based focus.