I rather enjoyed the analogy of the two starlings compared with the teaching of basic writing from The Discovery of Competence by Eleanor Kutz, Suzy Q. Groden, and Vivian Zamel (1-6). I thought the situations worked very well together to illustrate Groden's point. One similarity between the two situations of helping frightened birds and teaching basic writing students that struck me the most is the sheer awkwardness for all who are involved in both matters. I believe that might be one of the biggest obstacles to teaching basic writing. The same I think is true for helping frightened birds. The awkwardness for myself as a teacher is knowing the best way to start the class. The students' feelings of awkwardness might stem from knowing that English is not a subject in which they are strongly competent. That is why I think it would be key to start off the class by putting the students at ease a bit. I think that was demonstrated by the part of the starling analogy where Suzy Groden was asking the birds questions in futility (1). As Groden puts it about beginning to try to catch the birds, "I found this thought rather daunting (2)." I must admit the thought of teaching my first basic writing class is the same. I hope to attain the tools I need to start my first class off in the right direction in this class. I certainly do not want my students to have to keep flying into glass by mistake. Rather I would prefer them to write with flying colors, but one must be realistic that there will mistakes made by them and myself from learning. However one of the keys to it is to keep in mind mistakes are natural and part of the learning process for all.
Kutz, Eleanor, Suzy Q. Groden, and Vivian Zamel. The Discovery of Competence. Portsmouth,
NH: Boynton/Cook, 1993.
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I'm with you. The first class sets the pace for the rest of the classes, so it is important to both relax and entice the students to better learn. With the bird analogy, one of the first things the lady did was put down her books and other articles. I likened this to a "Reading Don't Fix No Chevys" approach, where we have to meet the students on their own ground at the beginning. Mike Rose brought this up with the Rap discussion. I think I would be tempted to have a relaxed conversation with the students about previous experiences with writing and/or why students hate to write. A theater teacher I had once started off the first class of THE 101 with the statement: "Theater kids: all the women are fat and all the men are gay. What else do we think about theater kids?" Then, the class went on to list stereotypes associated with theater students. We all ended up having a good laugh, and it really set up a relaxed atmosphere.
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