1. With regards to
our discussion from Tuesday on genre, what do you think of Devitt’s
statement: “Genres construct and respond to situation; they are
actions” (578)? Does this idea of a genre as an action conflict
with the fact that it is a kind of tool to guide writing? Do you
think framing genre in this way could be useful in class or might it
confuse your students?
2. While I’m
still iffy on the idea of using a portfolio in my own classroom, a
smaller portion of Yancey’s piece is a reference to the benefit of
providing a specific audience to students (112-3). This always
benefited my own writing because it helped me push my work: whether
I was instructed to write as if to explain to a high schooler, if I
was trying to get into a conference, or if we were doing a public
reading of our own work. I suppose even presenting a project would
broaden my audience. ENC 2135 already seems designed to encourage
students to think of a broader audience. Are there any ways you
intend to utilize in your own class to put students in the mindset of
directing their work at more than just their teacher and maybe a few
classmates?
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteIn response to Question 1: I buy the Devitt quote and idea that a genre is an action. Case in point: I think, when I write a poem, I'm responding to other poems in the discourse. If poetry didn't exist, could I respond? Devitt's message tends to gets lost in abstraction; so I'm not sure if I would explain it that way to my students. I might offer an example (like the one I just provided) to introduce the concept, however.
All the best,
Tom