Reflections, an intermediate reader

It is commonplace that literature, paintings and musical compositions have been inspired by persons, conditions or circumstances which later become associated with the work. Nothing so dramatic as unrequited love or a dream vision lies behind Reflections, of course. Instead, it came about because of a reckless wager that I made to a class of twenty-seven students who were taking a graduate seminar in materials development from me in the spring of 1973. As nearly as I can recall, I said, "You appear to be a very large, talented, and energetic group of people." (Smiles.) "How would you like to try your hands at producing a textbook?" (Fading smiles.) "I'll bet that if we really tried, we could put together a book of readings—an experimental reader—that would be a great deal better than anything around. . . . Would you like to try?" (Muttering and mumbling.) Finally, a hand went up and a clear question emerged: "Will you teach us how to do that?" And I replied, "I've never done this kind of project with a class before. Maybe it's too ambitious. But I think that we'll all teach each other. Shall we try it?" The class looked eager and pleased. The consensus was clearly affirmative. In retrospect, I have come to these two judgments: (1) The work that we did in those fifteen weeks provided us with the most difficult, complicated and gratifying learning experience I've ever had in my twenty years at the University. (2) Classes and moments in time are unique, and the possibility of repeating this experience with other groups of students is extremely unlikely. The difficulties were academic to begin with. Should we develop a book of readings for students of ESL or EFL? Should our materials consist mainly of nonfictional or fictional material? Should the materials be "graded" for difficulty? Should we try to present materials in thematic or topical arrangement? Should there be a consistent format for the "treatment" (questions, exercises, problem-solving) of reading materials? And so on. By mid-semester we had resolved the academic questions fairly amicably and reasonably, but other difficulties arose. As committees met to discuss and judge materials that the members brought in, feelings ran high. People identified themselves with the materials they selected. Rejection of a piece of writing was sometimes taken as a personal rejection. One afternoon a delegation came to see me in order to express its indignation over "the party line" that was developing in the class.

Year

1980

Language

English

Publisher

Heinle & Heinle Publishers

Editions

1

Pages

261

ISBN

9780838427804

Data source: Wikidata