Teaching to Write and Writing to Teach

The compulsive cave-writer speaks to me--so many stories to tell, images to write. But then, I notice that his back is to his audience, which doesn't feel very teacherly, at least not in the spirit of a writing class at Pitt, where circles and pairs and groups foster a thoughtful, responsive, accountable creative environment.

Paige Williams said...

Aletha, I'm not sure what this is about -- can you explain?

September 4, 2011 12:21 AM

redatheart said...

I was simply musing on the cartoon of the cave-writing that I found this summer when I was looking for images for my composition class syllabus. And I was imagining my stories filling the walls of a cave, especially those from my descent into depression, my cave-woman period after my divorce. In fact, my undergraduate experience with the writing program at Pitt has been a dynamic environment of writerly interaction, almost a campfire round of storytelling (and reading, like Krakauer's Into the Wild or Dave Eggers' Zeitoun) and honest exploration. This is the the work, the joy that I am privileged to join this year as a TA in the Composition program--encouraging, instructing, workshopping and just plain reading my students' (cave) writing.