Methods

As I read Smagorinsky's and Whiting's "How English Teachers Get Taught", I was struck with what a good idea this book was. Is there an updated version planned for anytime soon? A methods course is part of an apprenticeship into the professions; so, by definition, it's a dense experience. I like how the authors talk about the work involved in a methods course and how tht work must be engaging, relevant and lead to "flow": "Our criterion of work as a requisite part of a methods course refers to the process that leads to growth and complexity in understanding, infused with high levels of affect and engagement" (28). I've been thinking about what I want to include and how I'd orchestrate all of it....it was heartenting to read the authors' recommendations for a "less is more", or depth-over-breadth approach, while still warning of a tendency of that approach to lead to an unrealistic or even "parochial" view of what good teaching is. I agree that it cannot all happen in one course. I think one should emerge from a methods course with a running engine made up of an intact ethic of inquiry, reflection, and student-centeredness, and "with an understanding of how students learn" (23).