teacher

A response to chapter three, “Best Practices”! The essential interest of this chapter is centered on how to get students to become great writers. What I have found problematic in this chapter is that it lacked an extensive research on how cultural studies and social issues impact the students’ reading and writing. Another problematic issue is if the teachers are teaching topics that students can relate to instead of what makes them feel alienated. When I think of the education system, “diversity” comes to mind. I don’t know who Williams is writing about when he talks about the students in the school system. This is actually a complex issue because of the diversity in the school system.

Students need motivation in order to write superbly, topics that relate to them, and social issues and cultural studies are topics that affect students’ personal lives. Students need to have a sense of “belonging” in this society; it can either enhance their writing and reading skills or stymie it.  I don’t think that the mechanics is the major issue of students’ lack of good performance in composition, it is the alienation, but Williams doesn’t address how students from diverse backgrounds respond to mainstream literature. Williams claims that, “Applying rigid rules, studying grammar or composition topics or reading works of literature does not improve student writing” (Williams 101). Again, if I had some idea of who are the students that Williams is addressing, than I can have a clear understanding of how to respond to this chapter.

However, I will state that social issues and cultural studies should be a major part of topics in the writing process, and creative ways to discuss these topics: magazine projects, business proposals, journalism “news papers”, advertisement spreads, etc. These exercises can be warm up tools that can include “inventing, planning, drafting, pausing, reading, revising, editing, and publishing; it introduces and prepares students for careers outside of academia. The students need to feel as if they are a part of a major cause that will impact their communities and the world.