Intro
Overcoming Obstacles to Classroom Community
A dialogue (in order of presentation) from Alice Robertson, Hallie Lemon, Christy Wherley, and Therese Trotochaud, all colleagues at Western Illinois University
Hypertext constructed by Bruce Leland
In exploring ways community affected the teaching of composition for the Conference on College Composition and Communication, we created this dialogue on the ways we overcame obstacles to community in our changing classroom environments. Alice, Director of Writing; Hallie, experienced composition teacher; Christy, new instructor; and Therese, experienced instructor studying communication apprehension in her Ph.D. research, found the ideas in our experiences interrelated. Differences of race, ethnicity, life experience, and student personality often build obstacles to the productive writing environment necessary for students to trust and learn from one another. This dialogue explores some common classroom situations and demonstrates that electronic environments can help overcome these obstacles.
