Monday, 9/2
There was no class today. It was magnificent, if a bit early to miss a day of school. We will be reading David Foster Wallace's Commencement address, "This is Water." I'm excited to hear their feedback and observations! Hopefully, someone will speak.
Also, don't think I mentioned before that I asked them to do a writing exercise, Connecting Your Values to a Story, where they had to write about an experience(s) that lead them to have a specific value. That's due today. It has been enlightening to watch my phone beep minutely with Canvas notifications as 12:00am draws ever closer...
Wednesday, 9/4
I received a lot of funky and mismatched feedback on Connecting Your Values to a Story exercise. I think it's because they've never been asked to write a story about themselves. Teaching the elements of story has been really fun, and I think they've enjoyed it. But when it came to writing about themselves, many of my students were stumped.
I have to admit, I'm feeling the same way in my Creative Nonfiction class. Many of the people who I am really close to know that I have a hierarchy of favorite subjects; along with writing, my dogs, and fashion, my own self is pretty high on the list. I had thought it would be easy to write about myself, but as I approached the actual task of writing my memories and experiences, I found it really difficult. Of course, I experienced both the same and the opposite problem my students were facing: the blank mind and frozen fingers, as well as the too-wordy, too-much-information-in-one-sitting, this-doesn't-really-affect-this-story syndrome.
Anyway, it's helped me be more understanding as they express their struggles to me. I am hoping to help them overcome it by simply demanding more writing. We'll see if it works.
Friday, 9/6
Today was peer review. If I thought they finished discussions about readings too quickly, I should have anticipated the sitting-around-on-their-phones-"but-we're-finished" echoing around our classroom. It was unbelievably frustrating that they were willing to call their peer-review finished after a simple read-through and evaluation of grammar/mechanics. I am finding it really difficult to expand their definition of peer-review. (Note from Future Me: Girl, you have no idea how hard it is to expand their definition of analysis/evaluation.)
Their content with such simple effort is absolutely infuriating. I don't understand how they expect to become better writers when they are not willing to both help each other and help themselves by putting their skills to practice. It makes me want to scream!
Some of my students (Aka, Gaurav and Melany) have given complaints that they are not receiving critical feedback. They are, in my opinion, more advanced than the others, or at least more advanced than those who they sit next to and, therefore, end up switching papers with for peer-review.
It's hard to offer my own time to give more detailed criticism and feedback because I don't have that kind of time. It makes me feel like I'm failing my students a little bit, but I think I just need to remember that I'm new at this and, as long as I am trying, I can only get better.
There was no class today. It was magnificent, if a bit early to miss a day of school. We will be reading David Foster Wallace's Commencement address, "This is Water." I'm excited to hear their feedback and observations! Hopefully, someone will speak.
Also, don't think I mentioned before that I asked them to do a writing exercise, Connecting Your Values to a Story, where they had to write about an experience(s) that lead them to have a specific value. That's due today. It has been enlightening to watch my phone beep minutely with Canvas notifications as 12:00am draws ever closer...
Wednesday, 9/4
I have to admit, I'm feeling the same way in my Creative Nonfiction class. Many of the people who I am really close to know that I have a hierarchy of favorite subjects; along with writing, my dogs, and fashion, my own self is pretty high on the list. I had thought it would be easy to write about myself, but as I approached the actual task of writing my memories and experiences, I found it really difficult. Of course, I experienced both the same and the opposite problem my students were facing: the blank mind and frozen fingers, as well as the too-wordy, too-much-information-in-one-sitting, this-doesn't-really-affect-this-story syndrome.
Anyway, it's helped me be more understanding as they express their struggles to me. I am hoping to help them overcome it by simply demanding more writing. We'll see if it works.
Friday, 9/6
Today was peer review. If I thought they finished discussions about readings too quickly, I should have anticipated the sitting-around-on-their-phones-"but-we're-finished" echoing around our classroom. It was unbelievably frustrating that they were willing to call their peer-review finished after a simple read-through and evaluation of grammar/mechanics. I am finding it really difficult to expand their definition of peer-review. (Note from Future Me: Girl, you have no idea how hard it is to expand their definition of analysis/evaluation.)
Their content with such simple effort is absolutely infuriating. I don't understand how they expect to become better writers when they are not willing to both help each other and help themselves by putting their skills to practice. It makes me want to scream!
Some of my students (Aka, Gaurav and Melany) have given complaints that they are not receiving critical feedback. They are, in my opinion, more advanced than the others, or at least more advanced than those who they sit next to and, therefore, end up switching papers with for peer-review.
It's hard to offer my own time to give more detailed criticism and feedback because I don't have that kind of time. It makes me feel like I'm failing my students a little bit, but I think I just need to remember that I'm new at this and, as long as I am trying, I can only get better.
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