Interacting with Meaning

"Learning to write is not a matter of learning the rules that govern the use of the semicolon or the names of sentence structures, nor is it a matter of manipulating words; it is a matter of making meanings, and that is the work of the active mind." -Berlin

"English is like oxygen. It's an art of expression" - 9th grader at Lubbock Cooper High School

"I know how to speak it, why do they need other rules for it?" other 9th grader at Lubbock Cooper High School
What do these three quotes have in common? What are they really saying? Berlin argues that learning to write is a rhetorical process. It's not about rules, learning where a period, or comma is placed; it's constructing meaning through interaction. This is the method I most enjoyed. I feel teaching composition should be an on-going dialogue between teacher and student. Isn't that what language is anyway, but a dialogue? (Even if we talk to ourselves…)

When I took the quick write survey yesterday at LCHS asking them to explain why the hated or liked English, I was blown away by a few of the responses. Most of them were exactly what we’d talked about in class. However, as with the first quote, one student saw that writing is an art of expression. It’s a “matter of making meanings” as Berlin said.

Most students lose this connection and get stuck with the mechanics. Berlin later argued in his article that the content of the essay was more important than the structure. It’s easy to understand that last student’s comment. Unfortunately, there’s a discrepancy in being able to speak a language and being able to write it. Often don’t we have more freedom in writing to express ourselves? We’re bound by physical means in the spoken language.

However, to get back to the point, if teachers taught more of a rhetorical approach to writing as Berlin suggested, I think we might have more responses like the first student who felt writing was an art and an interactive process with meaning.