Teaching

Abstract

Thhroughout my career, a question has tugged at the hem of my consciousness: what is the value of teaching English? Which is to say, what is my value? What do my students gain from my classes? I have usually responded to my self-doubt by referencing critical thinking, close reading, and effective writing, but never to my complete satisfaction. Lately, though, I’ve come to recognize a mismatch between how I evaluate my own teaching and what I can hope to achieve in the classroom. Take the case of “effective writing.” I can feel dispirited when I consider how little the writing of most of my students has improved after a semester; more often than not, final papers are only so much better than first ones, even when students produce multiple drafts. The development of robust skills in critical thinking and close reading can seem a similarly elusive goal. What, then, have my students really learned? How do I measure it and, thereby, demonstrate to the world and myself the validity of what I do?