Writing What We Teach

Although I see a great deal of benefit in writing the same assignments we ask our students to write, it is a rather difficult task (at least for me). It is not difficult because the types of papers are difficult - I have no doubt that I can write each type of paper that I ask my students to write. It is difficult because time is something that is not easy to come by (at least for me). I put a great deal of time and energy into my the classes that I teach and take. I love teaching, but when you are trying to write degree papers, study for comps, and write all the other papers and projects for your other classes, there is little time left to write along with my students.

I recognize the importance of being able to do so, and giving them solid examples definitely helps. Luckily this semester we have composing ourselves and I have found that in terms of introducing the textual analysis this time around it was much easier. My students read the examples in CO and read the article from Lunsford allowing us to break down what the author did in a textual analysis. My process is a little screwy sometimes and to try and show that and explain it to my students would probably scare them.

So, I don't really know what else to say on this whole "writing what we teach" except that I understand the reasoning behind it. I just wish I had more time (but don't we all).