Free Books

Recently four of us from my department attended the ERWC (Expository Reading and Writing Course). Five separate days on four weekends . . . the first weekend was a Friday and Saturday combined then we skipped a week and met again the following Saturday and did that two more times. Grueling? Yes! Worthwhile? Definitely! These are just a couple of the free books we were given.

The ERWC was designed by the California State University system to work with high school teachers. The main goal is getting high school juniors and seniors prepared to exit high school and enter college without needing remediation in college English or math.

The four of us from my department are community college instructors. We attended because the local school district has wholeheartedly accepted the invitation of the CSU to participate. Everyone of the local high school English teachers are being trained through the ERWC to improve their teaching methods and to help their students find success. So the chairperson of my department thought we also ought to be trained so that any students who choose to attend our institution, rather than the university, could be met by instructors who are using the same terminology to teach writing. Something that interests me a great deal is much of the focus of ERWC is on getting the students reading and learning to read critically.

In Reading Rhetorically the authors explain in their first paragraph, "As new forms of media proliferate and lines between information and entertainment blur, critical reading and rhetorical analysis become even more important components of college composition courses. Accordingly, this third brief edition of Reading Rhetorically provides explicit instruction in those crucial skills. It is grounded in our conviction that freshly sharpened reading skills will help college students not only write more substantial papers than otherwise but also engage with both the academic and public spheres on more sophisticated and productive terms. To paraphrase Aristotle, 'Everyone uses rhetoric but those who understand it can control those who do not.' We have designed the book to help students understand rhetoric and thus to be critical readers and writers of the word and of the world. "

Attending the five day workshop and reading the books has caused my semester to spin sometimes uncontrollably as I put together assignments new to me. At times I've felt unsteady and without balance. I'm thinking that being prepped for the next class and staying ahead of grading my students' written compositions is an art, and this semester I am a novice.

This instructor, though, finds all of this stimulating. We've just passed the halfway point of the semester so I am hoping the downhill slide will bring balance and possibly an even pace. Mostly, though, I want to arrive at "The Exit" feeling like knowing that I've made a difference in my students' ability to read, discern, and to write about what they've read.

One more tidbit the book conveys is "all authors have designs on their readers; they want those readers to see things their way, to adopt their point of view. But rhetorical readers know how to maintain a critical distance from a text and determine carefully the extent to which they will go along with the author." That is an important skill students should develop.

I guess that has nothing to do with blipping, but currently my life is consumed (at least Mr. Fun thinks so) with understanding and then conveying this material to my students. That is not my biggest task . . . the big task, as it always has been, is to convince students to engage in the work; to do it immediately after class and not wait till the night before the next class and come quite ill-prepared.

So enough of that! Tomorrow, our family gathers for a surprise celebration for Mr. Fun's mom who will be 90 next Friday on November 2. The grandkids from San Diego are coming and even though we aren't a big family, we hope it will be a big moment for Grammie Fun! I'll let you know.

Good night from windy and warm Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol