KaDeWo - The Joy Advocate

"The process of teaching is a conversation that takes place at the intersection of a web of communities in which we are situated." The more I research I do on alternative teaching philosophies and theories the more I am committed to attempting to create classes as communal learning environments, which benefit all learners in multiple ways. I use the word "alternative" due to the oppressive educative practices my primary and secondary school teachers employed as a result of doing things by the book and refraining from group work. Throughout my years of schooling my 8th grade Reading instructor Melissa Evans was the only teacher I had who assigned group work and required community service. I always enjoyed attending her class. She applied many successful teaching techniques that the (Temple) College of Education supports and promotes to engage learners, such as completing an art project with each lesson. Ms. Evans empowered us through educational opportunities that w...

"Education is the practice of freedom." - Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed Since the publishing of Pedagogy of the Oppressed in 1970 how we, society teaches has continued to experiment with alternative approaches to education. The banking model is still very prevalent in schools (across the nation) my cohorts and I have observed, worked, and student-taught in. When information is deposited and stored until withdrawal is requested, usually for testing purposes, the process encourages the absence of critical thinking. The more students receive information, the less they develop the critical consciousness that results in intervention into the community as transformers of that community (1970). Freire goes further with his argument to highlight that classroom practices mirror society. The relationship between teacher and student is one-sided, liken to a dictatorship. The classroom remains a microcosm of society, which clearly demonstrates the treatment and educ...

Similar to Rebecca Moore Howard, Muriel Harris (1992) recognizes the need for collaboration in the writing process. As she examines writing center tutoring and peer responses, in Collaboration Is Not Collaboration Is Not Collaboration: Writing Center Tutorials vs. Peer-Response Groups , readers learn the significant differences and benefits to the approaches. To sum it all up, Harris (1992) explains, "Collaborative writing thus refers to products of multiple authors while collaboratively learning about writing involves interaction between writer and reader to help the writer improve her own abilities and produce her own text - though, of course, her final product is influenced by the collaboration with others" (370). Tutors focus on the quality of the writer regarding all works, where peers focus on a single writing - usually referring back to instructors' expectations and guidelines for the assignment. For instance, when I visit Temple's Writing Center I often get f...

"the pedagogy of writer/text collaboration has the potential for expanding students' linguistic repertoires and increasing the authority of their academic prose voices." - Rebecca Moore Howard  As a tutor and teacher I recognize the importance of providing opportunities for my students to improve their writing skills. As a writer I am grateful for every writing assignment, as it encourages me to explore the another approach to my authentic writing process. In the article Teaching Writing as a Process Not Product, Donald Murray explains the three-step process that is essential to any writer's evolution. 3 Step process, in six word descriptions 1. Prewriting - outlining, title-writing, note-making, lead-writing, researching and (my favorite) daydreaming 2. Writing - first draft, rough, unfinished, searching, fastest part 3. Rewriting - researching, rethinking, reformatting, refocusing, reconsidering, and revising Murray shares ten implications directed at...