Letters for the Living: Teaching Writing in a Violent AgeThis book takes up issues of violence in the lives of college students and looks for possibilities of teaching composition as an act of peace making. Through a variety of writings, the book illustrates students' experiences on the city streets of New York and in the small mining and steel towns of western Pennsylvania. One section of the book reports on a project that linked one author/educator's (Hurlbert) research writing class and the other author/educator's (Blitz) freshman composition II class. In the semester-long project, the classes researched and wrote about their own neighborhoods and the neighborhoods of their interstate partners. The book states that these two groups of students taught each other about the places in which they live and the ways in which they live there, and in many cases, what each learned about the other was "shocking." It also shares with the reader letters in which the two author/educators reflect upon their work as teachers, in an effort to understand the personal and cultural implications of what students write and say. (Contains 101 references.) (NKA). |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 10
Page 35
... voice asked , “ When your class reads poems that show anger at the white man , do you get upset ? " I said , " Sometimes I do . " He nodded , as if he'd guessed right . I told him that sometimes I feel impressed by the honesty , and ...
... voice asked , “ When your class reads poems that show anger at the white man , do you get upset ? " I said , " Sometimes I do . " He nodded , as if he'd guessed right . I told him that sometimes I feel impressed by the honesty , and ...
Page 36
... voice hardened that she sees the company as the enemy . In fact , I have heard the same tone from other children of miners — and ex - miners themselves — a level of anger that resonates with the years of strain and conflict between the ...
... voice hardened that she sees the company as the enemy . In fact , I have heard the same tone from other children of miners — and ex - miners themselves — a level of anger that resonates with the years of strain and conflict between the ...
Page 42
... voice you could conjure , one of my students read aloud from his composition on the meanings of " hanging out . " He told us that in the 13 years or so that he's been hanging out on one particular Brooklyn street corner ( mind you ...
... voice you could conjure , one of my students read aloud from his composition on the meanings of " hanging out . " He told us that in the 13 years or so that he's been hanging out on one particular Brooklyn street corner ( mind you ...
Common terms and phrases
Act of Hope African American American asked Bed-Stuy bell hooks boyfriend Bronx brother building change the world classroom composing composition class composition teachers course culture Daina death discussion drafts drugs English English Studies experience father feel friends going grade Greg guess happened hear Here's high school housing projects Hurlbert idea imagine John Jay College kids kind letters listen lives look Mark Mark mean Michael Mark Michael Michael mother neighbor neighborhood night pain peace pedagogy poem poetry Portsmouth problems questions remember respond rhetorical seems semester sense share Sharon social someone sometimes Spanish Harlem stories strange street Stuckey's student wrote Studies talk teaching tell Theresa things told town Vicente Huidobro violence walk wonder words workshop writing class York York City young