Chapter+9

1) Bomer mentions four specific reasons for writing about reading:

a) writing as a tool for mediating thinking b) writing as a preparation for discussion c) writing to argue a point about a reading d) writing to imitate the genre of the reading

Which of these seem most valuable for your teaching about literature? Why? Address no more than two reasons.

2) Bomer says that the audience for writing about literature should be the peer group: "In order for it to be socially real, the student needs to be thinking about the person whose mind he means to change, the other student who said in class an unjustifiable contradiction to his point. Teaching students to make arguments, to justify points and reason through the relationship of evidence to thesis, is much more concrete and socially realistic if they are writing for the other students with whom they have already been discussing." (161)

Some teachers object to students discussing an assignment or issue in class before writing, because they will be more dependent on others' ideas. What do you think?