Hillock

I, as everyone before, agree with Brittany’s reading of Hillock. I also really enjoyed Garth’s reading of the article and his filing of the article as an "In Case of Emergency" reference. I agree with Garth that the article is directed more towards an audience of teachers who have more experience and are caught in their ways; however I can see how the article would still be relevant for us.

The main message in Hillock’s article, to me, was that methods of teaching can be adapted if they aren’t working for the student. That most of the time, teachers don’t consider their teaching theory or practice to be the problem, but lay blame on the student.

I feel that this could definitely be adapted to us as new teachers. Many of us are going to be first time educators and we are building ideas and theories through this class and these readings. What Hillock is saying is that we have to look at our curricula and our students and adapt to make it work for them. We have to be “reflective practitioners” and really be studying what works for our students, while really thinking about how to make the most out of our students.

On that note, someone brought up, in a blog before, the importance of a syllabus and if it’s something that we have to be firm in following. I find this a very interesting question, especially since the entire Hillock piece focused around adapting your goals and theories to aide your students. It seems as though, at least from a Hillock standpoint, that not only can the syllabus change but also the goals of the class itself. This seems a little contradictory to the idea that students love structure: if the goals, the basic building blocks for the course, can change, where is the structure in the class?

On a completely unrelated side note, I find it interesting that in so many of these articles we are reading that the subject of quality vs. quantity comes up so frequently. It seems as if there is a constant battle between whether or not it’s important for the student to write more or write with the utmost care in regards to grammar. Creativity vs. correctness. Justin touched on this point in his blog, bringing up the almost silly notion of describing sea shells and how it can only do so much for the student. I also chuckled during that part of the reading, and I agree with Justin on the fact that at some point the writing for writing’s sake will “start to demean the students and the written word itself”. While it’s important for the students to write and express themselves, it is also important for them to write well. I feel that allowing the writing for writing’s sake is demeaning to them in the long run and that by tolerating this we are doing something that Hillock talks about in his article when he says that many problems with teacher’s lessons and teaching practices revolve around the fact that they think the students “cannot think for themselves” (28).