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Teaching the Teacherless Class: Applying Peter Elbow

Peter Elbow's book Writing Without Teachers shows teachers that they can teach without being a teacher.

I'd been teaching College English, everything from the "Developmental" (i.e. remedial) class to Freshman English to Sophomore Literature (i.e. British Lit, etc), for almost five years before I read Peter Elbow's Writing Without Teachers. Without realizing what I'd been doing, I'd slowly started shifting my teaching methods to the very same ones he advocated. His freewriting and peer reviews were, to me, a natural progression as I learned from experience that many of my students become bored, disinterested, or discouraged by "regular" teaching methods. My students did not enjoy being told where their writing was wrong, and they definitely did not appreciate the standard, formal, enforced outline they were made to create after picking a thesis statement. I had begun to ask myself a question that I feel Peter Elbow has a positive answer to - Can I teach without being a teacher? I agree with his conviction that teaching can occur without teachers and feel that his theories about teaching writing are beneficial to writing teachers, in most cases.

Peter Elbow preaches that chaos is acceptable, writing is not mysterious and impossible, freewriting is freeing, and communication and sincerity are key. He believes that teachers must allow students to come to their own conclusions and beliefs, and that if the students are properly motivated, they will be able to achieve high-level communication and thought. This can all be done through an open classroom style, without graded papers or enforced writing topics, but with freewriting and peer review.

Joseph Mersand, an English teacher and administrator for over forty years, believes that "[an English] teacher teaches something to a class. The something is the content of the lesson and must be planned carefully" (156). He agrees with the 1913 National Council of Teachers of English report that,

the large and complex terminology of English be clearly defined by those whose position enables them to speak with authority so that the work to be done in any particular part of the school course can be accurately stated and clearly understood (Mersand 194).

These beliefs are the things that Elbow preaches against. This dynamic - that of teacher as the expert who imparts knowledge and the student as passive receptor - is dismissed by those who believe in Elbow's ways. Instead, Elbow's theory "…reveals the teacher to be simply another reader, and a flawed one…" (Boyd 14). The teacher, in Elbow's world, is there to help facilitate each student's learning and function as a catalyst, not a dictator.

Dissenters of Elbow's theory find problems within some of the basic ideas that Elbow puts forth. They feel that Elbow's methods merely impose Elbow's personal feelings - the fear of writing, the need to organize thoughts through uncontrolled writing and thinking, and the need for occasional chaos - on his students, thus keeping them in another, just different, controlled environment (Gardiner). Others feel that students must learn to follow strict spelling and grammar rules before the freedom Elbow allows is permitted (Hassler). While both of those observations have some validity, what is being forgotten is that "motivation is the key to learning. If students are not motivated to learn something, they will not do so" (Brazil and Koch 1). Without a need to express themselves, students will not have any motivation to learn grammar and spelling. Without motivation, students will have nothing to write about.

Danling Fu, a Chinese teacher who did graduate study in the United States, followed four Laotian refugees in a mainstreamed environment at a local high school in her book "My Trouble Is My English" Asian Students and the American Dream. One of the students, Cham, struggled horribly in his English class. There were weekly tests, lists to memorize, and standard, structured assignments that forced him to learn by rote with little care given to motivation. Because of his problems, Cham was dropped a grade level into another English class. In the new class, Cham was given open-ended assignments and allowed to write about things that mattered to him. In true Elbow style, Cham excelled. He was motivated, and he was given the freedom to write. His grammar and spelling, while still important, were no longer the focus - instead, he was allowed to focus on communicating. This freedom, instead of being disastrous, as some opponents of Elbow believe it will be, instead kept Cham interested and in school.

One of Elbow's students, Irene Papoulis, started as a "Peter-Elbow-people," but soon decided to go back to the traditional methods of teaching. In doing so, she encountered a student in an "at risk" class who was struggling - not because he was unintelligent, but because he was unmotivated. She admitted that if she had gone back to Elbow's methods, he may have done better, but she felt trapped by her syllabus and class objectives, and instead she allowed him to flounder, even while she believed that allowing him the freedom of freewriting, personal communication, and peer review would solve his problems.

Even William Zinsser, who spends a chapter of his book On Writing Well discussing "usage," the importance of not allowing certain changes within the English language, and how vital it is that all writers follow the same rules, admits that,

Students often avoid subjects close to their heart…because they assume that their teachers will regard those topics as 'stupid.' No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your affections you will write well and engage your readers (91).

Even the traditionalists find that students need to feel a connection to what they're doing - they need motivation, and that motivation, while sometimes lost in the traditional setting, is something that is reinforced within Elbow's methods. Allowing students to learn from themselves and each other gives them a motivation they cannot find in being forced to memorize and focus on things of no interest to them.

His theory has both positive and negative aspects when applied to the levels and classes that I teach. As I mentioned previously, I teach English at varying levels. I actually teach at three different levels, at three different schools, and in three different formats. First, I teach developmental/remedial college classes. Second, I teach freshman English/college English classes. Third, I teach Sophomore English classes, such as British Literature. Of the schools, one is a purely online university, "K," and two are community colleges, "A" and "C." "K" is taught purely online, and the only classes taught are at the Freshman English level. Once a week, there is an online lecture where the students and teacher meet real-time and talk in a chat room. The teacher's freedom is in how to present the information given/asked for. The department determines the topic and sets the entire syllabus. Any change is unacceptable. "A" is where I teach both online and on campus. I teach all levels there, and the online classes are purely online with no real-time component. All on campus are purely on campus, although papers are submitted through an online component (i.e. Turnitin.com) to be checked for plagiarism. I have freedom in my on campus classes to teach as I see fit, as long as it meets basic requirements and course objectives, but my online classes are created by the department. Change is allowed, but only minor change. "C" is where I teach only Freshman English and only on campus. Again, I have freedom in my classes, other than a few basic requirements.

The most positive aspect of Elbow's teacherless writing is that it demystifies writing. Students are terrified of writing. No matter what level I'm working with, the majority of my students get nervous the minute a paper is assigned. Questions start flying - what should it be about? How much research? How many pages? All this, even before they know the full assignment. They automatically fall into panic mode, trying to get down notes and figure out just how much time and effort they'll have to put forth. When I began giving students time to freewrite in my Freshman English classes at "A" and "C", I discovered that this panic fell away. Instead, I'd assign their broad topic (Explanatory, Personal, etc.), and they would grab a fresh sheet of paper and a pen. They would write for ten to fifteen minutes. After time was up, I'd wander from desk to desk, talking to the students. Most of them were ready to rush home and start writing. Their heads were bursting with ideas, and they were excited about working with them. They had already fought their way through the initial fear of writing - the beginning (or in some cases, the end) of their papers were almost written!

When I would engage my students in peer review - something that I began using in all levels, from Developmental through Sophomore English - they again became animated and excited. Being able to find problems and fix them without teacher intervention (or, at least, without the teacher functioning as a teacher, but only functioning as another reviewer), gave them confidence. They were motivated to make the paper better because they were proud of what they were doing. They were communicating, and they were doing it "by themselves."

There are, however, two negative aspects that I've discovered. The most important occurs in my Developmental level classes and is that many students do not have the basic writing skills that they need in order to be successful writers. If a student does not know grammar or spelling (and their peers don't normally know, either), then there is nothing in this theory to address this. It assumes that all students are at a certain level, and that they will be successful with this method in place. While the students may improve their ability to write and convey thoughts, if they are never able to learn grammar or learn to spell, I have to consider that a failure of the system as part of the requirement for passing the Developmental class is a state regulated standardized test. Without the knowledge of basic grammar and spelling, students will fail.

The other problem is one that was not an issue when Elbow wrote his book - distance education utilizing computers and the Internet. As a teacher who handles several on-line classes a semester, the problems with student participation and retention make teacherless teaching near impossible. With the number of students who drop out or just don't do their work, it's difficult to make peer pairing work - students decide to not do work one week, and it's too late once it is clear to the peer partners that the student is missing.. This makes peer review difficult at best and unattainable at worst.

Even with these negatives, however, I am still convinced that there is a basic, overall need for Elbow's methods in my teaching. To that end, I've created a basic, six step plan to use in teaching. The first step is freewriting. A lot of freewriting. Eventually, the student will figure out what they want to say. Step two is to figure out whatever it is that the student wants to say. Once the student has found it, or thinks he or she has, it's time for step three - saying it. Using all of the student's completed freewriting and any necessary research, the student will create a rough draft. Step four is self-editing. The student can look over what has been written and determine what, if any, changes need to be made to be clear. The fifth step is peer review, when the students will get to share their work and get feedback. The sixth and final step is rewriting. This is when students can determine which changes and "fixes" to apply and apply them. After this step, the student will have a finished paper.

As the teacher, I will be participating in all these steps, but only as a facilitator and reviewer, not as a teacher. Yes, I will have to give the initial instructions and basic lectures, but that should not detract from the purpose of the teacherless class. Admittedly, this will not work at all levels and at all schools where I teach. In some classes, I will not be able to affect any change to the class because I'm not allowed to. At some levels, I will still need to do memorization and teacher correction because the purpose of the class is not just to learn to write, but also to pass a state mandated test. In the first case, I will have to make suggestions to the department and discuss retention rates in order to encourage a move to less enforced methods. In the second case, I will have to find a balance that keeps the students interested and motivated but allow them to learn enough to pass the test.

Peter Elbow's theories, once considered "Romantic" and "a flash in the pan" have outgrown their criticism and stand on their own as valid, rhetorical theory. While there will always be dissenters, I believe that as more people attempt to use his methods, more people will be impressed and convinced that this method of teacherless teaching will help more than hurt. From my own personal experience, both as a teacher and a student, I have found that peer review and freewriting increase students' interest, enjoyment, and motivation in class, three things that are necessary to help a student improve.

As a sample, I have included part of my own freewriting for this paper below:

Okay, so I have no idea how to approach this. I have three basic ideas I need to work through, and I guess somehow they will become a cohesive paper. Somehow. That's the problem - how do I make it cohesive? I wan tto talk about how the theory works in reality, how I've used it, what I thought about it, even before reading ghim and knowing it was a theory, and what I'd heard about it, not knowing that it was about it - Jennifer's teaching thingy that she had to write that I helped her with and how that is directly connected.

Elbow had some good ideas, even though some people seemed to pick at him and his htories, but sometimes those pickings are really valid, and I want to keep them in mind. At the same time, I want to keep in mind what it is that makes students want to write, and what I've seen when teaching. I don't know how all that will fit into those two topics,and I'm not sure how I'm going to do anything with that. But all put together, I know what I want to say, and that's important, even though Ican't formulate a formal thesis like I force my students to. Is that good or bad? There was also that train of thought/theory that says that you shouldn't form a thesis ahead of time, because if you do, you may feel committed to it, and what if it changes? I don't think mine will change because I've thought of it for a while before actually committing this to paper, but maybe I'm wrong and as I write I'll realize the errors of my wa.y It could happen.

Works Cited

Boyd, Richard. "Writing Without Teachers, Writing Against the Past." Writing With Elbow. Ed. Pat Belanoff, Marcia Dickson, Sheryl Fontaine, amp; Charles Moran. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2002. 7-20.

Brazil, James M. amp; Koch, Carl. Strategies for Teaching the Composition Process. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1978.

Cassity, Kathleen J. "Re-Imagining 'Frontier' Pedagogy: Inside Peter Elbow's Composition Classroom." Writing With Elbow. Ed. Pat Belanoff, Marcia Dickson, Sheryl Fontaine, amp; Charles Moran. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2002. 133-143.

Elbow, Peter. Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

---. Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. 2nd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

---. Writing Without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Fu, Danling. "My Trouble Is My English": Asian Students and the American Dream. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1995.

Gardiner, Ellen. "Peter Elbow's Rhetoric of Reading." Rhetoric Review. Spring, 1995. JSTOR.

Hassler, Donald M. "On Peter Elbow's 'A Method for Teaching Writing'." College English. Apr., 1969. JSTOR.

Holt, Maria. "The Value of Written Peer Criticism." College Composition and Communication. Oct., 1992. JSTOR.

Knoblauch, C.H. amp; Brannon, Lil. "Pedagogy for the Bamboozled." Writing With Elbow. Ed. Pat Belanoff, Marcia Dickson, Sheryl Fontaine, amp; Charles Moran. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2002. 65-83.

Mersand, Joseph. The English Teacher: Basic Traditions and Successful Innovations. Port Washington: National University Publications, 1977.

Papoulis, Irene. "Pleasure, Politics, Fear, and the Field of Composition: Elbow's Influence on My Theorizing and Teaching." Writing With Elbow. Ed. Pat Belanoff, Marcia Dickson, Sheryl Fontaine, amp; Charles Moran. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2002. 159-171.

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. 30th Anniversary Ed. New York: Collins, 2020.