My semester ended a week ago today and I’m almost in full summer-mode (as in, I think I have already forgotten half of my students’ names). Though in many ways I’m always glad when the semester ends, my feelings are usually more mixed. I usually feel, along with gladness and relief, a sort of void, like I have some unfinished business I’ll never be able to get to. But this semester, because of my relatively smaller class sizes, I feel mostly just satisfied. This is because I had time to work closely with all my students on their final revisions (lots of times I’ll feel like I want another week or two before letting the semester go), had no students go MIA, and also had three students that had failed the course previously (one with me as instructor) pass this time with good grades. So it’s on the summer.
What are my plans? Well, my first order of business is to revise our composition class again. We have used the John Warner book “The Writer’s Practice” the last two years but we are moving on from that. Even though it did not work as a solution to the problem (the problem being the unending quest to make this the best class possible), I’m glad we used and I plan to incorporate some of the ideas from that book going forward. But I want to get back to a version of the class closer to what I was teaching before these last two years and I want each instructor to choose a theme to focus on and have students write a variety of different assignments revolving around that theme. I believe this will give the students a more meaningful experience as they’ll be able to think and write more deeply about a topic and make more interesting connections. They will also be building momentum towards the research paper throughout the semester (which wasn’t the case with the assignment sequence built into the Warner book). At our end of the semester meetings and get-togethers, a number of my colleagues expressed dissatisfaction with their composition classes (for a variety of reasons but mostly related to a lack of engagement on the part of the students) and I hope the new version of it will help both them and their students. I’ll share more details on the assignment sequence when it is ready for public consumption.
In addition to that, I am hoping to spend a lot of time revising a novel (one last try for this one! (I think)), doing some yard work, spending time with my wife and kids, going for some bike rides and long runs and lake swims, et cetera, et cetera, all the things I love about summer (and about being a teacher).
So though I’m not really in a reflective mood, to provide some sense of closure, I will leave you with some of the reflective writing my students did at the end of the semester, which seems to indicate their experiences in composition class were valuable.
“Throughout the course of this semester, I greatly improved my writing process through outlines and revisions, strengthened my own voice and descriptive writing through various assignments, learned to correctly cite in MLA format during my research paper, and worked to stay concise keeping the reader engaged as I focused on the main idea that was driving my argument.” (This student did a great job revising his research paper, improving his grade from 78 to 94 and earned an A in the class.)
“I am still not the biggest fan of writing papers, but at least I am better at it and the process goes a lot smoother. With every paper that was assigned, I have learned how to manage my time, organize my topics, and be as specific and clear as possible. After finishing Introduction to Writing, I have improved at writing well-developed thesis statements, including personal details in my papers, staying on topic, organizing the subtopics in my papers, and incorporating the practice of revision in my writing.” (This student also earned an A and is now an expert at writing thesis statements.)
“Before this semester, the idea of revising a paper felt pointless. I didn’t believe in a ‘rough draft,’ only a final draft. I thought this way because as I was “word vomiting” onto my paper, I didn’t want to take the time to reread my work and make revisions. I saved so much time planning my papers and this new time gave me the opportunity to look back and examine my work. I ended up enjoying the process of rereading my work and finding different ways to present the same information. It’s almost like a puzzle.” (This was one of my students who had failed the course previously. She did great engaging in the revision process, adding lots of details and information as she revised.)
“The process of writing forces us to stop and think about what we are doing. It helps us to understand and reflect upon our life and the decisions we have made to get to this point in our lives.” (Great observation!)
“Writing is not like other skills. It is one that has no end. Writing is always progressing, and writers learn along with it….There is always room for improvement.” (I agree!)
“A fool thinks he is the best at something, but a wise person understands and knows how little he really knows. If you know very little about a subject and only see the surface of what it is, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking things are simple. Only after people see how it truly works do they begin to understand the complexities required to do something well and to be good at it.” (Though he doesn’t expressly mention writing here, I assure you that is what this student was talking about.)
If you to read more about my teaching, check out my other blog posts or my new book Teaching The Way: Using the Principles of The Art of War to Teach Composition: https://amzn.to/3mwbz3y
Thanks for reading!
Teaching The Way 