Leana Jensen
April 9, 2008ENGL 610
Professor Sample
I actually applied some Graff knowledge to my classroom today. Yes, again, I cannot help but think of my own teaching situation when reading these books. In the chapter, “Why Johnny Can’t Argue,” I couldn’t help but think of my own Johnnys and Jonettes. I think teaching kids to argue on paper and in discussions is a difficult feat. I agree that teachers and academics can sometimes make kids feel that are incapable of reaching some higher level thinking that involves a highly scripted literary masterpiece. First off, who defines a masterpiece and secondly, why can’t kids be just as persuasive in the language they are comfortable with.
Because teaching argument can be daunting, I appreciated the argument templates section of the book. Though I am very much against template writing, I think presenting template-like information in more of a model/bulleted points example will be less structured and will invite strong, critical thinking. A template might be good for very reluctant learner, or for those students that crave direction. I think the best method is taking making arguments more simplistic and therefore accessible to the student. Personally, I know a lot of teachers who complain so much about the job, but teach their students through textbook created handouts and an outdated vocabulary book. We complain that kids aren’t learning in school, but I know a lot of teachers who are unwilling to take the steps to fuse good teaching with state mandated requirements. I know I may sound like an idealist, but I think it’s possible. Instead of asking my students to write me a persuasive essay about the hero capabilities of Odysseus, they are writing a letter posing as Odysseus persuading the Cyclops, Polyphemus, not to eat him. I asked them to think about reasons why Polyphemus should eat Odysseus. I mean he’s a jerk, he doesn’t follow the god’s rules, but that’s who he is. Who’s to say all Cyclopes don’t eat people.
After we discussed and I gave them an example, they understood that to understand why Odysseus gets to live, they must think of possible reasons he shouldn’t. I was inspired to rethink my assignment and show them how to create a balanced, yet strong argument after reading Graff’s suggestions. I have a really small class, so I could write a sample paragraph because I wasn’t under 120 essays. I think it makes sense to make the directions simple and easy to understand. Teachers I work with won’t write their own samples and models, but that’s what needs to be done to teach good reading and writing. They need to write persuasively, but they need to learn how to read critically and extract those strong statements and images. I honestly think that’s how they will learn to do it themselves. I have no doubt that a 9th grader that can learn that a convincing argument sounds legit when you actually acknowledge the counterclaims, can go to college to write against or in support of the literary critics they will have to research.
I understand JJ’s concerns about Graff’s ideal educational world, and I do think it will be hard to really implement this kind of learning into the conformity known as forced school curriculums. I think teachers who are in it for the right reasons, can work with smaller class sizes and really get to teach to the students abilities, not state standards would be a great world. Perhaps Graff does need to go back to a contemporary 10th grade English class and rework how he’d implement these great ideas.