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Teaching Developmental Writing: Background Readings
Bernstein, S. N. (2004), Teaching Developmental Writing: Background Readings, 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Susan Naomi Bernstein addresses a wide variety of issues that are common to those of us who teach developmental writing in Teaching Developmental Writing: Background Readings. Some of the questions she addresses deal with the philosophy of education. "What is the purpose of a developmental writing course?"(p. iii) What is the impact of technology on all developmental courses? "How do we create an environment in which a culturally diverse student body can thrive?"(p. iii) Other questions address pedagogy. What kinds of activities can we use in the classroom to make our varied student populations successful, not just as writers but as students as well?
This book is divided into fourteen chapters, and each chapter has a similar arrangement. There is an introduction that briefly summarizes the readings that will follow in the chapter. Bernstein then discusses issues that will be raised in the readings. Each chapter consists of two or three articles written by educators such as Mina Shaughnessy and Peter Elbow. Each article is followed by suggestions for classroom activities and also by a section titled "Thinking about Teaching". Bernstein concludes the book with an extensive (and very useful) bibliography. Chapter topics include: basic writing from both the teachers' and students'...