Annotated Table of Contents, Chapters 1 - 4

Teaching English, How To….
Annotated Table of Contents

Part One: Teaching English

Chapter 1. Goals: Why teach English? Somewhere I read that
the goals of a college education are to learn how to learn, to learn
how to think, to learn how to communicate, and to learn how to
solve problems. I believe that that statement is a concise summary of what we try to accomplish when we teach English. In this chapter, I give examples of how to teach each of these skills.

Chapter 2: Active Learning: How can teachers motivate students to learn? Of course, active learning is the goal. Dewey is quoted as saying, “We learn what we do.” I guess, because education is mandatory in the United States, motivating students is part of the teacher’s role. In this chapter, I suggest a fundamental method for motivating students to want to learn.

Chapter 3. Professional Research: How can teachers use professional research? The value of professional research depends on what readers want to do with it. If they want definite answers to their questions about teaching, I’m afraid professional research in education won’t help much. In my experience, most educational research is essentially inconclusive, with findings expressed as “indicates” and “suggests.” Therefore, educational research used as a political device to support certain points of view must be read critically. However, if teachers are looking for ideas that help to answer questions about teaching, published research is a treasure trove. And conducting research in the classroom can help to answer questions about the effectiveness of teaching methods.

Chapter 4. Professional Research Adapted: How can ten minutes a day contribute to writing confidence? The story of how I applied research to a problem in the teaching of writing begins with a girl I am going to call Mary, a student in tenth-grade English. She soon distanced herself from the rest of the students in her ability to write. Her improvement was startling. She was the best writer with whom I had ever worked. One day, I asked Mary about the secret of her success. I knew that my teaching was not the reason because I also taught the other students, and none had progressed as well as Mary. She told me….

RayS