A Horse Named Hans, a Boy Named Shawn: The Herr von Osten Theory of Response to Writing

Hunt, Russell A. (1989) A Horse Named Hans, a Boy Named Shawn: The Herr von Osten Theory of Response to Writing. In C. Anson (Ed.), Writing and Response: Theory, Practice, and Research (pp. 84-104). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

This chapter prefaces the concept of "whole language" pedagogy with a fascinating story about the development of literacy in a young boy named Shawn.

The author discusses the relevancy of the pedagogical practice in helping students develop meaningful writing and refinement skills. He points out, "We don't learn language by having our errors pointed out and corrected; we learn as a by-product of using language in order to do things we care about doing." (86-87)

The author then discusses a horse trained to calculate as a means of illuminating the power of social-linguistic cues. This further serves to illustrate his point that writing must occur holistically, if it is to have any meaning whatsoever. Additionally, Hunt admonishes teachers to be aware of the non-verbal ways that we respond to student writing, and how we can assist students in developing as language learners

Hunt concludes with some implications for the classroom, including helping to foster a comfortable classroom where students feel safe to take risks, share with wide audiences, and create meaning with one another. Above all, he writes, "The teacher's job becomes one of finding and creating occasions and situations in which writing and reading can serve real, instrumental purposes for students." He suggests the replacement of evaluation with writing for response to writing and use of it, and as I am currently facing (with dread) a stack of 25 papers-to-grade, I am liking this idea very much.

Also, I heart the following quotation, which was reflecting on how it was to review student writing (which was developing, and which many would have seen as grotesque examples):

"The teachers there didn't treat errors either as sins to be corrected or as something cute to be chuckled over; they treated them as evidence of principled, strategic thinking on Shawn's part, and as a promise that Shawn could continue his constructive, rational, active learning on the principles of written communication. They treated them, in other words, as hypotheses in the process of being tested." 86