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78 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great for parents, teachers, and professors, August 19, 2003
This is the book on learning in the classroom that I've been waiting for. So often, even interested students don't get what their teacher wants. When this happens, they can lose confidence in their native abilities and teachers become frustrated in themselves and their students. With Gerald Graff's guidance, teachers can now demistify their expectations while validating their students' intelligence. While this book is directed to teachers, parents will appreciate it as well and may want to pass it on to their child's teachers. (Indeed, some goal-oriented parents may find the chapter on writing an admission essay worth the price of the book alone.) Graff is an English professor, formerly of the University of Chicago and now at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He gained some fame in the early 1990s for arguing against his then-U. Chicago colleague Allan Bloom's understanding of Western culture. In this book, Graff looks into the great chasm between students and teachers and finds on one side Arguespeak, the language of teachers, and, on the other side, Studentspeak, the language of everyone else. Arguespeak consists of looking at particular aspects of a subject matter critically, in light of what one knows about the whole field. Studentspeak makes itself heard whenever people talk about everyday things: friends, food, movies, work, video games, t.v. shows, and so on. Problems arise when teachers want to hear Arguespeak from their students but only get Studentspeak. Graff's book offers concrete ways to help teachers teach their language to students. The main obstacle to understanding Arguespeak is that every critical comment uttered by a teacher is made within a larger conversation about a topic or subject. Teachers make their judgements about, say, the historical significance of the Magna Carta, or Twain's sense of irony, based on their knowledge of what others in their field have to say about these issues. Students rarely know how to formulate such judgements because they are unaware of the conversation their teacher is participating in. They are clueless. But, their teachers are just as clueless about helping them. Graff draws on the work of several education theorists and compositionists (writing instructors) to offer a commonsense way to align the expectations of students and teachers without sacrificing achievement. First, teachers must not feel compelled to teach everything--better to teach a fewer number of topics in depth rather than treat the whole range of a subject like a giant slalom course. Graff would rather see teachers spend more time teaching their students to think. Second, teachers must show students how to enter the critical conversation of their subject by having them practice with the conversations they participate in all the time. Everyone has an opinion about something; everyone has a topic they can think critically about. Graff recommends using what kids already know, especially with regard to popular culture, in class to develop their critical faculties. Graff offers concrete ways to integrate students' nonacademic interests with their academic responsibilities and get them on the road to expressing their opinions in academically useful ways. Following these measures in combination with the regular study of the humanities, math, and sciences bridges the gap between the students' way of thinking and their teachers' way of thinking. To make things very clear, Graff even offers a template for writing the standard five-paragraph critical essay. While some may find this objectionable, I agree with Graff that this kind of essay is a valuable pedagogical exercise. The student doesn't sacrifice any originality if he's given a structure within which to operate because he still has to come up with his own ideas about the topic itself. I look forward to using it in my own classes this year and expect that this template will free up the students to express their ideas in a more critical and engaging manner. I can't overemphasize this book's practicality. At all points, Graff has his eye on what actually goes on in the classroom, on what the students are actually thinking about and working on. I am certain that teachers, especially at the high school and college levels, and parents will value his insights.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some good points, February 23, 2004
"Clueless in Academe" is a discussion on how to make the academic intellectual life more accessible and desirable for incoming college students. The underlying premise of the book is that "becoming educated has more to do with thinking and talking about subjects or texts in analytical ways than with the subjects or texts you study." While this premise breaks down rapidly as students progress in their major course of study, it is a useful assumption for teaching beginning college students. Graff's focus is on how English departments should go about their business, and in doing so recommends making connections with popular culture -- since he assumes the subject of study is secondary to learning how to argue. Graff goes on to criticize how different disciplines send different messages about what kind of composition is expected, mentioning not just the humanities and social sciences, but also the sciences and mathematics. While using popular culture as a means of imparting analytical thinking skills is clearly inappropriate for these subjects, Graff does discuss an alternative means that I found interesting: a particular way of intertwining of natural language explanations along with the technical discourse. His use of templates for writing essays also has analogs in the analysis that goes on in other disciplines. Other topics touched upon in the book include the value of analytical thinking and a discussion of progressive versus traditional models of education. Overall, "Clueless in Academe" is useful reading for any teacher trying to get their students to think.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Teaching Argument for Academic Accomplishment, April 13, 2009
Gerald Graff says the great crime of modern academe is not that we deal with tough subjects in dense prose. Our crime is that we withhold the keys to our subjects and prose from students who so desperately want in on what we offer. Reading this book offers new insights into teaching, and reminds me what my students most need to succeed. Graff describes what students need to know to flourish in current academia, and contrasts that with the content of typical high school and university classes. We who teach have a specialized academic vocabulary, which we expect students to gain through osmosis. Teachers are so immersed in our subjects that we forget which ideas we take for granted are obscure to our students, so we come across as opaque blowhards. The problem, Graff says, is that the most significant education themes are those of debate and argument. Yet because we teachers don't state this in student language, students see our questions and criticisms as condemnations. We need to teach them how to argue in respectful, productive terms on issues that are not self-evidently true, if we want students to succeed. This book is not meant exclusively for teachers. Students will find useful chapters on how to create admission essays, negotiate writing intensive classes, and craft class papers without tears. Graff's explication of rhetoric and controversy covers every major theme you should have gotten in ninth grade English, and does so in clear language. Though Graff comes from a composition background, he stresses how his ideas apply to all disciplines and can be addressed across fields. He uses multiple sources, and diverse educational traditions, to create a synthesis that proposes new options in teaching and studying. This book offers ideas for teachers, students, administrators, and anyone who cares whether students have the skills they need in school and in life.
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