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Day 33: What to Teach in Methods Courses

Source:
Ours, K.E. (2015) "I learned it in my methods course": How secondary English/language arts teachers learn about writing instruction before graduation. Masters Essays. 

What is Sacred:
This paper is on a study of what kinds of skills/strategies should be taught in an English/language arts methods course. One agreement and one surprise:

Although philosophy of the content is important, writing process is very important. Agree. 

Bring in language arts teachers from the community to talk about their craft. Duh. Why didn't I think about that.

Connections to Current/Future Work:
The writing process, what it feels like, how it can be done is important for my content area teachers because it demystifies the mystery. It takes the stigma of reading and writing  out of the language arts realms.

For my methods courses, definitely start looking for those mentor teachers that I want to invite to speak in the classroom. 

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