Dan’s experience with his writing process, from “The Reading-Writing Connection” really engaged me throughout the entire reading. Glen argued that Dan was writing about an idea that he did not believe in (p.111), but later she admitted that it was her who was not “letting” Dan write the argument in the manner that he saw it. She engages the reader with the questions she asks herself about Dan, but she does not answer them. The semester comes to an end and all along I wanted to know what happened to Dan. Did he change his argument? Did he receive a better grade? And if so why? How can we connect with the student who sees the text completely different from the rest of the class, and as a result enters his/her own quiet zone during class discussions? These and many more questions cross my mind as I prepare to begin my teaching career.

Another one of Glen’s methods that interested me was her experience on teaching the reading of Frankenstein as a first time reader of Frankenstein. I wonder if novice students will think differently about an instructor they feel is not experienced in a specific work he/she is teaching. Will that take away from the instructor’s authority, or will it create confidence in the students? In general, I liked how Glen would bring her student’s writings to support the methods she used in class.

Bloom’s piece also provided practical theories that can help students in the reading and writing process. He argues that when students understand what they have done, they will be the one’s worried about perfecting the text. I completely agree with this idea. I had Literature and writing instructors who made the process of understanding text, writing about it, and rewriting so clear, that it made me change my undergraduate major from IT to English. In order for students learn the process, they must take risks in their writing. Glenn shows good examples on how students can take risks. For example on page 101 when she asks students to imitate sentence structure and summarize the text. Short activities like these not only motivates students to work without overwhelming them, but also teaches issues like style and sentence structure.