Week Two

Loyal blog reader, Sharon, let me have it yesterday for not keeping up with my posts, so I’ll try to keep up from now on.

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My students had to select a piece of writing that they considered good. We talked initially how “I like it” or “it means this to me” are not worthy reasons for making something good. I love 80s rock and much of it is very meaningful to me. But I will never be foolish enough to argue that it’s ‘good’ music. I stressed this repeatedly to the students. I hope to get them thinking about what makes good writing to improve their own writing and to get them thinking critically for their research paper. Here is a quote from a paper I read yesterday that I just love. The student selected a portion of “Romeo and Juliet.” Here is the line - “I love the words he chooses, where he puts them, and how it all seems to flow together.” We can work with that. In fact, I think that’s how I’m going to start class.

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Teaching writing is my favorite because I get a window into different worlds. Sometimes you don’t like what you see - a student whose mother stays up all night playing “Guitar Hero” instead of being a mother, a student who writes that his American Dream is to be able to raise a family the way he wishes he would have been raised, a grandfather dying - but all of it is powerful. Sometimes what you see is trivial - getting ready for tonight’s game, worrying about college, dreading going to work. And then it hits you - in life, nothing is trivial. And that’s the cool thing about catching these short glimpses of others’ worlds.

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What a fourth our class, College Comp. On Friday and over the weekend as I was reading their essays, I marked on several “read.” I knew full well when Monday rolled around and I asked them to read, no one would volunteer. Even when called upon, they would relent. So I decided to try this. Prior to class I made of list of the students whose papers I marked to read. Then as I returned their work, I explained what I had done in order to get some students to read. Each paper had a specific element I wanted us to talk about.

One paper was a description of the hockey arena, yet it was very detached. The writer sounded like he was creating an architectural design. I wanted to see if students would notice this. Moreover, I wanted to see if the writer was even aware of his decision. He wasn’t. Most of the class picked up on the distant or calm tone. Then I asked, “How would his paper be different if he chose to describe the arena right before a playoff game against our arch rivals.” That got them thinking.

Another paper - a description of a student’s hunting land - was not only detached, he never even used a first person pronoun, but it every sentence was crafted in this order - adjective + noun + verb + phrase. Examples - “the winding snake river crawls through the woods,” “the ancient oaks stand silent over the woods,” “the brown squirrels scurry to gather food for the winter,” “the distant chug of a John Deere hums from a distant field.” Again, I wanted to know if the writer was conscious of this. He was not. Here was a moment to talk about sentence structure and how it impacts the reader. I have a create example from the final hunt scene in Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” for them to listen to later to drive this point home.

A third paper was a description of a young girl’s trip into the basement - and conquering her fears of what might be down there. We listened to this because it was just too good. The kids giggled and all could relate to the fear of venturing down into the dark and groping for that light switch, casting their eyes to the shadows, hoping they’re empty, and then taking the steps back up two and three at a time. But we noticed that she never mentioned why she had to venture into the basements. Was it to conquer her fear? Was it on a dare? Was it to retrieve something for her parents? Was it because her brother was trying to scare here?

A final paper was on the first snow fall of the year and how this students - as a young girl - ventured out to make her annual first snow angel. Her mastery of details and sensory details was a joy for us to listen to.

What a way to spend the block.

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Life is certainly good when your favorite football teams pulls out a nail-biter on Monday Night Football. All day I had students and players popping into my room telling me their predications. One student had even painted me a personalized decoration with my team’s logo to encase my classroom clock. So was I ever relieved when a defensive lineman picked off a pass in the end zone to seal the victory. Now I have my Bengals tie already to go today.