Teacherless class...

I think the idea of having a teacherless class is great, but it is nearly impossible to get a group of seven people together that wants to do this. I personally am extremely busy with school and three jobs. It would be very difficult for me to make time to meet with a group for ten weeks. I also don’t think I would be able to find six other people who would be interested in a writing group. I think the teacherless class could be beneficial, but I think it would be hard to put together.

Elbow makes some great points when he talks about a teacherless class. It should take off the pressure of trying to impress the teacher. He says that you can designate a leader for the group. It would probably be a good idea to have a leader if you are in a writing group. This person can keep track of time and make sure everyone gets to share their writings. It can work with or without a leader, but having a leader makes it more organized.

Being involved in a writing group outside of the classroom allows you to share you writing and get some type of feedback. This feedback will hopefully improve your writing. Reading aloud to the group allows you to hear what you wrote. Does it make sense? Does is flow? These are things you and the rest of the group will be able to point out. You will know whether or not your listeners understand what you wrote. It might make sense as you are writing, but it might not make sense to your audience when you are reading. This is something that can be very beneficial to you as a writer.

On the other hand, some groups prefer not to read their writings out loud. They might pass their writings around the room and silently read them. This is a great way to make corrections to the paper. I personally want to look at the paper to make corrections. I also want to hear the paper being read so I can tell the person whether or not it flows. This is very time consuming, so it might not be a great idea when you are with a group of seven.

I think we can take Elbow’s advice by sharing your writings with a few people rather than seven. I doubt there are many people who are able to meet at the same time every week for ten weeks. It would be hard to actually find people who would want to. I love getting feedback from other people. It helps with my writing skills. It gives you the opportunity to find out what people are looking for. I enjoy having the writing workshops in class. It is basically having a teacherless class.