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Teaching Rhetoric to HS students.

Teach rhetoric and banish the classics from HS English classes? What do you think?

This is the Expository Reading and Writing Course that many of us are adopting. It actually doesn't have to be an either/or. Yes there is less literature and more expository writing; however, most of us also incorporate some literature. I teach Things Fall Apart in a Socratic Seminar format, Macbeth in a more traditional format, and some poetry. The modules from the Expository Reading and Writing Binder are open-ended and need some updating, but they give students an excellent variety of college-like readings and writing instruction. Students learn to critically read passages and interpret their own thinking in writing. The writing instruction is key and not as well defined as the reading instruction in the modules. Teachers need to creatively design the lessons to prepare students to write argument with ease.

The title is a little misleading, because it is not necessarily "brief." However, it offers a history of teaching English. In case anyone needed more of a historical background of how teaching English was developed. The article explains how the trend shifted from the teacher as an omniscient know-it-all, to a classroom focused on the students.