a teaching thought experiment

Here's a neat idea from Robert Coover, which (although presented ironically) gives a neat idea for a classroom situation. The quote is from today's Writer's Almanac --

"Creative-writing workshops have absolutely nothing to do with our nation's literature, though writers sometimes, more or less by chance, turn up in them, looking for an agent or romance or someone to start a new magazine with them. Creative-writing workshops mostly have to do with creating other creative-writing workshops. And this is all right, I suppose, because writing is good for people, or at least not seriously harmful. It teaches them to read, for one thing. We don't need more writers, but we do need more readers. We need creative-reading workshops. Students would still have to write in them, but for nobler ends."

(copyright Robert Coover, no provenance given)

It would be fun to teach critical reading as a cross-discipline with creative writing. I'm sure people do it routinely, but I've never encountered a specific course description to that effect. Assignments like "Read The Red Badge of Courage and write a sequence of two or three sonnets about how Henry Fleming feels before, during, and after experiencing combat."

It would be cool to teach, though not easy to grade. Unless you emulated Professor Einstein and said, "I enjoyed it. Give them all A's."

Joe