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Growth through Blogging! Tuesday, June 19, 2007 More than a generation ago, British educator John Dixon offered a critique of skills-based language arts curricula devoid of meaningful context for student learners, one that paid “fatal inattention to the processes involved in such everyday activities as talking and thinking things over, writing a diary or a letter home, even enjoying a TV play. Discussion was virtually ignored, as we know to our cost today on both sides of the Atlantic. In other words, the part of the map that relates a man’s language to his experience was largely unexplored.” I can’t help but think that John Dixon would be ecstatic with the educational possibilities afforded by blogging as students share what matters to them with an authentic audience of interested readers and fellow writers. How different Dixon and his colleagues’ vision was following the Dartmouth Conference in 1967 compared to the reality of so many empty classroom writing experiences today—what fellow English educator Jimmy Britton would doubtless call “dummy runs.” I’ll be eager to learn over the days ahead, how your own experiential learning and your opportunity to discuss that learning informally in a study abroad setting will impact your future classroom teaching. Happy blogging, my friends, and see you at the airport on Friday! Don't forget your passports!!Dr. Shosh / 0 comments |
About the Adventure “You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” - Samuel Johnson (1777) From June 22nd to July 2nd, eight students and their professor will explore firsthand sites of primary interest to English teachers throughout greater London, Oxford, and Stratford-on-Avon. While doing so, they'll write about the value of curriculum as lived experience in the context of English language and literature, critique the educational value of contemporary British artistic and cultural events, and go on to develop a plan for teaching and learning the English language arts that addresses experiential learning and authentic reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities. Moravian sends student teachers to inner city London neighborhoods each semester, and this course will allow registrants to explore in detail ways to use the city's resources to construct curriculum. Blog Archives |