First reflection (Sept. 9th)

After reading Casanave’s articles, a few questions came up in my mind. Some of the questions are related to the usage of textbooks and some are about the power relationships within schools.

1. Beliefs and Realities in Controversies in Second Language Writing:
The author talked about how writing teachers might be outliners or brainstormers which can affect how they teach composition. I was thinking that other than outlining and brainstorming, what are other methods that can assist writing? How do teachers decide what method(s) to be used in a classroom? Since students might react differently toward the methods they learn in class and we do not want them to shy away from developing their individuality and voices. Do we need to incorporate writing textbooks for composition classes?
Casanave also mentioned about teachers’ choices on textbooks and some schools assigning textbooks for teachers. I think that the decision we make about textbooks is important. When we decide what books are to be used, we are supporting certain publishers and the knowledge that they want people to believe. It is like those publishers are colonizing the publishing industry. Do we really believe what they say or are we just following the mainstream perspectives?

2. Looking ahead to more sociopolitical-oriented case study:
I was wondering if exam-based writing is beneficial for students. What can students learn from it? Are there any hidden dis/advantages behind exam-based writing? Since writings are designed to pass exams in some countries, how do teachers balance the real-world writing and exam-based writing in the class? Even though we learn how creative writing or different writing techniques can assist students to develop their voices in the TESOL program, it is difficult to incorporate what we learned to writing classes because schools have the power to decide what is to be taught in order to increase their reputations.