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Kyle Bjorems Philosophy of Teaching Writing

If there were one word that I could use in trying describe my approach to writing pedagogy, it would

be synthesis. I believe that all traditional and emerging schools of thought on the subject havesomething to offer that is of great value, and that these schools of thought ought to be aimed directly

at the natural synthesis that occurs in the student. What he or she learns does not then become placed

in separate storage areas of the mind. Rather, all becomes seamlessly blended and becomes what theyexperience as their subjective selfwhich will then continue a perpetual process of evolution as it

interacts and effects society.

What is called a personal growth approach to teaching writing appeals to me greatly. Absolutely

everything begins with the experience of the individual, and that is perhaps the most important tenet ofmy teaching. My experience in life began in a very rural place where I had ample time and space to

explore the natural world and discover what my place in the world was and possibly could be.

Eventually, that grew into a love of learning and attempting to understand all that was far beyond my

little corner of the world - something that I accomplished through books. By the time I was in college,

I found out something astounding: There is absolutely no end to learning. Everything is interconnectedwith everything else, one thing leads to another, and once you have come to an understanding of

something it effects everything you learned before, and how you will react to everything you learn in

the future - it seems to me that knowledge expands like a fog with no limits rather than like a towerbuilt floor by floor. If every single person on the planet were given the same book to read, each one

would have would have a different reaction/relation to it. The transition from text, to subjective mind,

to writing assignment should be made as seamless as possible.

The sociocultural approach is also of tremendous worth. I think of myself as a key conduit in theinterdependent, globally connected system that civilization has become. As civilization continues to

progress, the interrelationships between communities and people will continue to multiply. Context is

key. In my classroom, everything is interrelated with everything else. A short story by ErnestHemingway or James Baldwin can be contextualized within its own historical situation, but also speak

to the individual across time, communicating constants in the human experience that we all share. Astudent can be taught rich methods of enhancing comprehension through strategic critical questioning

and by engaging in a constant dialogue about the society that surrounds themtheir own immediate

community especially. As a result, they are more able to create the change that they want to see in theworld, as well as in their own lives.

These I consider the more broad theoretical foundations of my teaching style. However, theseideals are pretty much worthless without a strong underlying structure. I believe that breaking

the writing process up into stages (prewriting, planning, early drafting, revision, reflection) is a

must. If done correctly, this seamlessness that I speak of will occur and what may at first seemlike a large and daunting assignment almost constructs itself. Constant scaffolding and the

implicitteaching of low-order concerns such as grammar and syntax are done as a part of the

ongoing process toward a larger goal. Even when a particular unit is finished it is simply justanother baby step toward the ultimate goal of being able to comprehend multiple genres, points

of view, styles, and so forth as well as communicate yourself to the world by using them in

their appropriate contexts. Basically, while the soul of my approach is a synthesis of thepersonal growth and sociocultural models, the bones of any good writing pedagogy mustfinally be the rhetorical model - putting students in the position of writing for real situations and

in the real world so that the forms that we work with are understood not as academic

abstractions or varying sized hoops to jump through to please an instructor, but the method by

which they are able to construct personal meaning and make a meaningful contribution to society.