Know and Tell is a sophisticated, richly knowledgeable, and far-reaching analysis of what it means to teach and learn language, what it means to engage with our subject as thinkers, doers, and social activists in the most profound sense of the word. The book is firmly centered in the English classroom—on teacher practices, student responses, and the subject of English as it unfolds in everyday occurrences—offering a clear vision of what teaching and learning language use is, can, might, and should be.
David Bleich asks hard questions—of himself, his students, his subject, and his colleagues. He reconnects our teaching practices with social needs, with what really matters in our society—namely how we can create selves that stand a chance of surviving school and beyond. His book addresses the teaching of writing from the standpoint of motivation, interest, and purpose of those in classrooms that depend on, need, and study writing. At the same time it shows that the details of language use in classrooms appear in language use in society.
Know and Tell enlarges the subject matter of "writing" from "general writing skills instruction" to language use as a feature of everyday life and as the main path for the announcement of knowledge. Bleich emphasizes that writing exists in living contexts and that even the most formal uses of writing need to be understood as aspects of living social scenes, interests, and groups of people. And in doing so, he also shows how postsecondary writing pedagogy can contribute to wider changes in academic teaching and can promote new levels of interdisciplinary cooperation.
