ed 366 967 aut7or title institution report no pub date note ... - ERIC

xxIntroductionabout group dynamics, and what should we know? Who gets silencedin our workshops and why? How often do we/should we revise ourworkshop methods? When are the conversations in our workshopsmost productive and why? What might be gained by dismantling theworkshop model altogether and starting from scratch?If such a microcosmic approach might be appealing to some, amacrocosmic, curricular approach might work for others but still seemless exotic than the aforementioned shadowboxing. What seems to bethe function(s) of creative writing in our particular curriculum at ourparticular institution? How does the subject mesh with the Englishmajor, the rest of the writing program, and/or the ethos of theinstitution? What sorts of reading do we/should we assign in the coursesand to what purpose? Who takes creative writing courses and why?What do students think they're getting out of such courses? What dowe think they're getting out of them? Who teaches the courses atdifferent levels and why? What opportunities does the department orthe institution provide for rethinking pedagogy or training new teachers?What is the relationship between "creative" writing and "basic" writing?How does creative writing fit into the narrative histories of rhetoric,literature, and criticism that our professiol has constructed and continuesto revise?One other area of inquiry that might be both attractive and pleasantlyterrifying to some of us is that of "assessment" or "evaluation." Howdo we respond to students' poems, stories, and works-in-progress? Towhat extent do we "see" these texts differently from (or the same as)students'expository essays? What is the rhetoric of our responses? Howare we implicitly shaping students' assessments of their colleagues'writingimplanting critical theory? Should creative writing be graded?What are some reasonable ways of structuring the grading in thesecourses? What are students' expectations concerning evaluation, assessment,and "performance"? To what extent do our colleagues seestudents' poems and stories in a much different light than students'essays? What happens when we get together with colleagues and evaluatea student's story? What arguments ensue, and what literary values andattitudes toward students emerge?A fourth and final topic to consider is "authorship." Given all ofthe developments in feminist criticism, discourse and social-constructionisttheory, and interactive fiction, to what extent should our definitionsof "author" and "authorship" change? To what extent does theidea of solitary authorship still drive our ideas about writing andteaching? In the postmodern carnival, what does "originality" mean?Are more us of becoming collaborative writers? What role should