Ira Shor's Empowering Education

Is it better to have for a teacher to who challenge their students to do work on their own , or is better for a teacher to spoon feed their students? The chapter from Empowering Education is written from the perspective of Ira Shor, a college professor who teaches a basic writing class in Manhattan. Shor’s point of view is to challenge students to think and be creative on their own and to find their inner voice. The students, being placed in a basic writing class, are defeated even before they start. These students have a little confidence in their ability to write after having failed the writing exam. Unlike his students, the author was very nervous and excited on the first day. On the first day, his students were unenthusiastic. Shor states,

Shor’s students in their opinion that writing is hard. I understand that many of the students may feel that the writing exam is unfair. Being a high school student, I have had my fair share of standardized testing, including writing. Personally, writing is a harder skill for me and requires an immense amount time and focus. Like the students in Mr. Shor’s class, I agree that it is unfair that students only get fifty minutes to write a response to a prompt they may not be able to relate to. When talking about his students, Shor states that “They said that students should have as long as they need to write the best essay they could”. This quotation expresses the students’ need for extra time on the writing exam. Fortunately, I have been granted accommodations for extended time. I cannot imagine having to compose an essay that one has to write within fifty minutes with no preparation. Writing this assignment itself probably took me more time than that! Having extra time helps me tremendously to gather my thoughts and compose an essay without being rushed. Writing is a process that cannot be spoon-fed to students. It has to be learned. When talking about his students, Shor states that “ They were waiting for me to do education to them.” This quotation is saying that Shors students were expecting to be told what to do and what to write. The students did not put forth effort to motivate themselves or to think for themselves to become

Shor had his students do such as, reading their writings out loud to catch grammatical errors. When talking about his students Shor states, “By reading aloud slowly and carefully, they can become better editors of their written work, noticing and correcting small errors usually left for a teacher to find”.This is an activity that I continue to use for all my essays and short writings. I am also a big fan of another activity that Mr.Shor had the students participate in:group discussions before they write. Group discussions are a great way to share and gain information before