Designing Writing Courses

Summary:
This comprehensive chapter begins by giving the author's definition of teaching as a rhetorical activity. In other words, the purpose and audience should be considered carefully by the teacher and be ready to shift with the needs of that purpose and audience.
The second section of this chapter is a draft of the NCTE's foundation for writing courses through the act, purpose, scene, teacher, and means of writing. In each of these discussions there are goals listed that are there, theoretically, to enhance the writing course.
A discussion of "what" (process centered) and "how" (student centered) course models follows the foundational elements of any writing class. The models are discussed in detail of how the class is taught and the goals of each respectively. The process centered classes are further divided into individual and collaborative settings.
The rest of this chapter deals with the specifics of how to organize and structure any writing class effectively through the use of syllabus, weekly and daily lesson plans, and finally the teacher's actual performance.

Response:
I thought this chapter was enormously helpful. When I first read the title, I didn't really think that it would be all that beneficial for a public school teacher since, let's face it, the classes are designed for the teacher more than the other way around and the goals are usually already in place in the guise of standards and administrative expectations.
However, I was impressed with the layout. First of all, I thought the introduction to the "what" and "how" models were good because they are good tools in helping the future educator in developing their philosophy of teaching.
The sections which seemed the best, though, were those concerned with organization and teacher performance. I had never really considered the freedom which might be found in the ultra-structured arena of high school English courses, but the author gave great tips for developing your own style within the set parameters. It was also nice to get a different take on the lesson plans, since most of the ones education students see are already set. This put the lesson plan in a different perspective for me.
The final section on teacher performance was also helpful. I won't be doing my student teaching until next year but I will definitely be using Lindeman's text as a guide when I do.