Teaching & Learning with Women's Perspectives: A Resource Kit

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Introduction

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Writer’s block…

Sometimes students and teachers just need a little encouragement to get started with writing. Students may narrowly view writing as “good mechanics.” As a result, fear about using grammar incorrectly, experience as a poor speller, or confusion about punctuation may create barriers to students’ desires to write. In other situations, students often believe they have nothing important to write about, or feel they lack creativity, or no one would want to read their story.

Similarly, teachers sometimes have their own fears or dislikes about writing and may not feel comfortable or skilled enough to be able to teach students to write, or to guide them through the process.

We recently asked locally based WE LEARN teachers this question:

“What prevents teachers or programs from encouraging student participation in Women’s Perspectives?”

Some of their replies (and our responses) include:

Ø “I teach both men and women, so we can’t use this.”

NOTE: Please see Section 2 for our suggestions on ways to use Women’s Perspectives in mixed-gender settings.

Ø “I thought the target was more for ABE/ASE students--I assumed our students' [ESOL] writings would be too low level to be of interest for the publication.”

NOTE: We accept writings from students at ALL levels. (See Section 1 for more details)

Ø “We don't really prioritize writing because a lot of our students don't like to do it.”

NOTE: Hmmmmm. Well, it seems that adult learners at all levels will have much to gain by doing some form of writing on a regular basis. Like it or not, some level of proficiency will be demanded of them whatever their learning and job related goals may be.

Ø “[Our] classes set their own themes for the semester and then plan all their lessons based on these themes. So the topics they write on wouldn't necessarily be suited to Women’s Perspectives.”

NOTE: Our student leaders and the WE LEARN Membership choose our themes annually. But the themes can be viewed broadly. We encourage you to check the lesson plans each year; perhaps some creative connections can be made. Hopefully in the future your themes will match our themes!

Ø “I know I have some copies of Women’s Perspectives but I'm not sure if our teachers have seen them….I need a nudge and a few reminders.”

NOTE: We’ll do a better job of regularly reminding those on our mailing list about the reminder.

SUGGESTONS:

· Encourage your teachers and colleagues to join our mailing list and they’ll directly get the reminders as well!

· Purchase multiple copies for your teachers/tutors to use in their lessons. [HINT: Past issues can be downloaded from our website!]

Ø “We have participated and it was wonderful. The student who was published was so very proud of herself! It's sad to say, but I don't prioritize student writing in my program. I don't enjoy writing, so I don't like teaching it! I would love to have some PD [professional development] to help me with the teaching of writing….Maybe some ongoing writing workshops held in my classroom with my students???”

Ø “We do have a learner newsletter, and our advanced learners do a lot of writing, so teaching writing is on our radar, we just haven't focused on it in our training and PD [professional development]....”

These last comments (and several others like them) provided the impetus for us to develop Teaching and Learning with Women’s Perspectives: A Resource Kit. These resources will assist students to participate as writers for Women’s Perspectives as well as guide teachers/tutors on the many ways to begin a writing process with your students.

This is a work in progress. If you have comments or suggestions on how to improve this resource, we’d be happy to receive your input.

(return to Women's Perspectives webpage)