I’m starting this blog after Week 1 of the Spring 2022 semester. I had notes written down in December for an end-of-semester post but I just didn’t have the energy to write anything, having just completed lots (and lots) of grading, not having started on my holiday shopping, and looking forward to the break (which I enjoyed immensely :).  I plan to incorporate some of the ideas I’d written down then in the future but they seem out of place today—because my thoughts at the end of semester are so different from those at the start. I hope that is true for my students too and you’ll see what I mean when I share some parts of the introductory “letters” they wrote to me on Day 1 of class. 

What I do on Day 1 of Composition classes is take attendance then point out a few key parts of the syllabus–mainly how to contact me, what the overall plan for the semester is, and how their grades will be determined (because though I undervalue grades all the way through the process, I know some students want this information up front).

Then I show my students a short Powerpoint I’ve created which is designed to get them a little (just a little) interested in the class, trying to motivate them with messages like:

• Writing is important because we use words to think
• Writing is the best way to develop these skills and be in control of your life
• Writing is the best way to develop language and creative and critical thinking skills and everyone needs these in just about every part of life.  

I also tell them I know writing is hard, no matter how good one is at it, and talk a little about the processes we’ll engage in throughout the semester.

I don’t make any promises to them, but I tell them my 3 main goals for them are to develop: 

• Their ability to use language to clearly communicate to others,
• Critical and creative thinking skills
• An effective and efficient writing process

All this takes about 20-25 minutes (and it’s stress-free for everyone, including me) and then I tell them I want to learn a little bit about them. When I say this they all become suddenly anxious at the prospect of having to introduce themselves to the class and they brace themselves to mumble through generic introductions. But then I save them when I say, “No need to speak today. This is a writing class so the more I can get you to write, the better, so let’s get started.”  Then I give them a prompt of 7 questions (included below) and the rest of the class time to write to me.

The responses from this semester’s students (highlights of these are also included below) are pretty typical from what I see at the start of every new semester. But it’s always a revelation to see what my new students are thinking on Day 1. Of course, I come into the semester with high hopes and my own thoughts about writing. But I’ve learned that it would be a disservice to my students to assume they are thinking the same ways (they’re not). So even though I could predict their responses with some accuracy, this exercise is valuable to me to remind me where they are starting from. And it’s valuable for them too—to express how they really feel about writing and start to communicate with me, opening up an important dialogue that will develop over the course of the semester.

As you’ll see in the responses, a number of students come in with lots of negative associations with writing (they say it’s hard, they don’t like it, it’s not satisfying). And a lot of them associate writing (which I believe is one of the greatest, most liberating, satisfying activities one can engage in!) with grammar rules and being able to identify parts of speech (which I guess shows the wrong things their “writing” classes have focused on in the past). I’ll have more to say about what we did the second day of the week and more specifics on plans for the semester and how I’m asking them to approach their first assignment and all that but for now I think I’ll just let my students finish this post for me with their words.

If you’re interested in more, check back for updates and also check out my book:  Teaching The Way:  Using the Principles of The Art of War to Teach Composition.

Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3mwbz3y

Thanks for reading!

Day 1 prompt:

Exercise 1:  Answer these questions in an introductory letter to me.

Dear Dr. Nelson……

Q1: What are your goals for this class?

Q2: How do you feel about writing?  Please be honest and if you are not a fan of writing, tell me why.

Q3: What are some good writing/English class experiences you have had. Describe them. What made them good?

Q4: What are some bad writing/English class experiences you have had. Describe them. What made them bad?

Q5: What do you like to read?

Q6: What is the best thing you have ever written?  This could be a paper for class, a short story or poem, a love letter or break-up letter, a prayer or journal entry, etc… (As you can see, writing can be used for many, many purposes.)

Q7: What else should I know about you as a student or writer?

Thanks in advance for answering these questions thoughtfully and thoroughly.  Your responses will help make ENG 104 better for all of us

Excerpts from their responses:

Dear Dr. Nelson….

“I’m not the biggest fan of writing but I don’t entirely hate it either.”

“My goal for this semester is to become a better writer, not only content wise but also preparation wise. A lot of times I tend to get stuck on papers because I am not sure how to start or where to start, so I become discouraged and then shy away from writing activates in generally.”

“I don’t mind writing because I know that in life I am going to have to write at some point. The only thing I don’t like about writing is when I am given an assignment and I do not fully understand what I have to do….I will ask many questions and I hope you won’t get frustrated with me but it is only because I want to get a good grade in your class.”

“I enjoy writing poetry but I have always found it difficult to write essays. I also tend to have no feeling of accomplishment after writing an essay….For some reason I can’t wrap my head around simple things like adjectives and pronouns. Even today I struggle with understanding them.”

“My English class senior year of high school was enjoyable. For the first time in my academic career, I wrote about stuff that I genuinely cared about. My favorite paper in that class was about a conspiracy of my choice. I wrote about why I believe Michael Jackson was murdered by his record label…..The worst experience I’ve had with writing classes was last semester, but it was entirely my fault. I put other people before my schoolwork and my mental health. I rarely turned in any work, and if I did, the work that was submitted was awful and did not reflect on my skills as a writer.”

“I have always struggled with grammar and writing formal papers and I am hoping this class will help me improve those skills….I also need this class to graduate from college so I am here against my will.”

“I had a very bad writing experience during my first year of high school when I had my first paper and I gave it to my mom to review and she told me it was the worst paper she had read. That really struck me hard and just proved to myself that I had a lot of work to do to improve.”

“I currently play soccer and have a job at Costco which makes my free time little to none. I have a hard time balancing all of my work I have to do and I am always stressed and I am learning how to reach out and ask for help.”

“I know it sounds like a lie but I do really love to write. My dad was an English major and my mom is a book fanatic so the love of the English language is something that has been instilled in me for as long as I can remember.”

“I took this class in the Spring of 2021. I think my original professor and I had completely different writing styles and it felt threatening. I decided to drop the class because I couldn’t handle the criticism.”

“I’ve never really been a fan of writing or English classes in general because I like to spend my time more in the science realm, however, I am open to the idea of this class slightly changing my opinion….Writing papers is just not something that interests me because it can be easy for me to become distracted and end up spending much more time on the assignment than needed.”

“Unfortunately, I do not enjoy writing much. I have struggled with grammar and writing throughout my school career….As a writer, I usually want to write things by myself and not ask for help at all, knowing pretty well that I need the help.”

“In the past I’ve had only one English teacher who has made a writing class enjoyable. This teacher helped me to learn how to break down the steps of writing rather than asking us to write an essay or paper as a whole. This teacher constantly helped us review our papers as well as laid out specific instructions of what was expected from students. I have also had a teacher who gave little to no instruction about a writing assignment which resulted in receiving a bad grade due to a misunderstanding of the assignment.”

“I’m still adjusting to people thinking in a different way than I do. I’m not entirely a perfectionist, but I don’t like it when I work on something and someone tells me there’s something wrong with it. I’m not as bad as I was a year ago today, so there has been growth. Sometimes, I might need a reminder that criticism is constructive and for my own good, not something to tear me down.”  

“I have a very strong hate towards reading and writing and I only have one goal for this class. My goal is to pass this class this time and not fail. I failed because I just couldn’t do it anymore and now I really have to try or else I won’t pass or play football anymore or see my friends. I have a negative hate feeling towards writing because it takes so much time, and my brain just can’t handle a lot of writing. It’s actually stressful and gives me a headache.”