I admire Atwell’s commitment to her students’ learning and her dedication to researching sources that aid her in being the best teacher she can be. In this chapter, she really emphasized “starting over” in terms of continuous findings of the best ideas, theories, or methods of teaching and replacing her current pedagogical ways with these new findings. Because the chapter is very specific and clear, it is difficult to come up with even a few instances that had me questioning in my mind.

I became confused at the section where Atwell discussed her “favorite rationalization” that her students’ struggle in writing was due to their previous teachers’ poor pedagogy. In general, I’ve assumed that when students enter a grade level in which they immediately show that they are not prepared well enough to take on their tasks, their previous teacher is to blame. I may be wrong but the more I thought about it, I’ve concluded that Susan Sowers’ observations opposed this idea. According to Susan’s study, all grade levels present students with the opportunity to write about almost anything and everything through exercises.

At this point, I wondered if this means that Atwell’s rationalization is always wrong, that obvious poorly qualified teachers are not the fault of students’ lack of preparation at the next grade level. I strongly doubt that is true but I’d like to learn from another’s opinion if it differs from mine. That’s all!