Short Story

Theory to Practice
Donald Murray clearly understands that times have changed, and teaching compoistion does too. In his essay, Finding Your Own Voice: Teaching Composition in an Age of Dissent, he clealry states his feelings by declaring, “The times indeed are revolutionary, cleansingly so. And they uniquely offer the composition teacher the opportunity to play a pioneer role in constructing an educational system which removes students’ responsibilities from the teacher and places them firmly on the student” (Murray 118).Writing is an essential skill that all students must learn to do while in school. Though, how the teacher chooses to enstill such knowledge plays a key factor in the student’s success. While observing Mrs. Simms, a secondary ESL/composition teacher, I examined how she implemented Murray’s belief of freedom in the classroom in the following ways: writing assignments, grading, and the diversity of the students’ contradictory voices to be heard.
Mrs. Simms recognizes that writing is a mighty instrument of thought. In, A Framework for Teaching, by Geoffrey Squires, he sees eye to eye with Murray’s theory of expressivism. Squires states, “The teacher may be ‘there for’ his or her students in ways that escape the formulaic confines of method” (Squires 348). Mrs. Simms uses journals in her classroom to foster thinking and learning in different ways. Students’ have the choice to write about things of personal interest for 15 minutes everyday at the beginning of class. Having students’ journal is one way to help them participate, and self-direct their own learning. As Murray wrote, “The student may be shown how to percieve, but he has to do his own percieving” (Murray 119). Also, Mrs. Simms permits her students to write creatively, giving them choices on assignments. For example, the students’ were given a broad assignment to write a paper on one of their most fond memories. They could present it in the form of a paper or poem. Her classroom is based on freedom and flexibility, major components in Murray and Squires opinion.
Murray’s theory suggests that, “Grades, of course, are ridiculous during the writing course. An “A” deludes a student into thinking an early draft is final copy, while an “F” convinces another student that there is no hope” (Murray121). Mrs. Simms finds a happy medium with grading. Instead of grading the journal entries, she comments, or offers positive remarks, upbeat questions, and encouragement. This helps students’ focus on what they think, and an opportunity to help them observe their writing errors on their own. Squires remarks about grading needing to have constructive criticism; “The role of the teacher giving encouraging reflection on the learning process and the students’ own self-image as a learner” (Squires 345). Similar to Murray and Squires, Mrs. Simms believes that if she does not allow her students’ to make mistakes, she will be taking away from the natural learning process required to achieve competency and confidence.
Voice is crucial in the classroom. Writing allows one to learn about themselves and their world and communicate their insights to others. Just as Murray and Squires feel, Mrs. Simms, “will break the class up so that individual students’ exchange papers, and have the class read each other’s papers in small groups” (Murray 120). In most cases, the students’ will better understand the problems of their peer’s and be able to voice the solution better than the teacher. Expressivism as Murray and Squires maintain, is that voice is the major role in good writing. In Mrs. Simms classroom, it is very apparent that voice is key. She tends to fall back and let the class take charge. She challenges them to be participants and spectators, giving her students’ a sense of empowerment and responsibility.
Mrs. Simms has embraced Murray’s concluding thoughts, “The teacher of composition should welcome the age of dissent. He should glory diversity, and he should discover that by giving his students’ freedom they will accept responsibility” (Murray 123). I truly think that expressivist teaching allows so much more growth from the student. Expressivist theory allows the student to think and write in a reflective manner, thus, creating a wonderful way to learn and think and speak more clearly, to be more precise, and more actively aware of what ones own thoughts and ideas consist of. Mrs. Simms is a superb teacher, and I applaud her methods of teaching!