Out of the choices we had to read for
today, I liked Yancey’s piece the best. To begin, in Yancey’s Theory, Practice, and the Bridge between the
Methods Course and Reflective Rhetoric I liked the idea she had of “tasks
that resemble ‘real’ teaching . . . that to complete them one acts as (in the
process of becoming) a teacher” (235). What came to my mind after reading that
is students having to teach themselves a lesson then complete the homework
assigned. I did this for a grammar class I was unable to attend, due to a storm
that left me stuck in another state, and I was really surprised that I
understood and did well on the homework. In a way, it can also be compared to
the discussion lead/the written portion Dr. Zamora has us do. In addition, like
Yancey mentioned this also made me think of collaboration. For example, one student
may understand a lesson and explains it to another student. Furthermore while
reading Yancey’s article, I felt like some of the information or suggestions
she presented my teachers already do, and I also recalled other readings from
last semester. I appreciated the fact she also liked the idea of students
taking peers work home like Jaxon.
Continuing in Historical Review: Issues in Rhetorical Invention in Janice Lauer’s
Invention in Rhetoric and Composition, I agree with a statement Carter makes. “Carter
maintained that later, especially in the Roman period, the development of status, identifying the point at issue,
offered a way for the rhetor to gain some control over the moment” (14). I think this statement can be applied to now, and it automatically took me back to my debate
class. In order to have a strong argument, everything you said should have been
supported by experts. If it did, not only did you but the audience felt like
your argument was more valid. In my class, our opinion alone was not good
enough because we did not have status or expertise. Sometimes, expertise leads
to status. Although I think Historical Review
was difficult to read, I think some of the people mentioned had really
interesting things to say.