I Don't Know How to Do This
Okay, I have been teaching first year writing classes for over 20 years. I thought I had a handle on it. But recently, and especially during the last week of grading papers, I have found myself questioning, “Just what does it mean to teach writing—not to those who want to be writers—but to those who have been told over and over again that they cannot write—to those who have become accustomed to circled words and indecipherable scrawls in their margins What is it they really need?”
Today, I asked students to rewrite paragraphs. I handed out a wonderful example of a student paragraph in rough draft form. Next, I showed them how, with transitions and recurring images/thoughts/metaphors—with careful editing and attention to detail—they could transform a choppy, confusing paragraph into one that flowed and connected.
“Okay,” I said. “Now it’s your turn. Choose one of your paragraphs and work on it. Remember, every sentence must change. In some cases, you may need to take away or add words. You may need to develop more evidence to support a general statement.”
They nodded. They understood.
As I circulated the room, I watched them struggle. I sat down and stared at computer screens with them. And what had seemed simple in my example became oh so not simple in practice. To take a sentence, already formed, and cut words out of it? Take it out completely and start over?
“Just play,” I tell them. “These are skills that will help you in so many circumstances.” But I see the faults in that logic. They need the connection. They need to see it matter now.
Otherwise, why change it? It all seems so artificial—assignments, exercises, revisions. But words on a page should not be artificial. In my world, they are everything. I cannot make sense of this conflict.
Comments
Yes! I agree that many students (especially in required writing classes) just go for the “flat completing of the assignment.” But when students leave a sentence on the page that may not be a sentence at all or include misplaced phrases or misused words or inconsistent pronouns—does it matter? Should it matter? It’s one thing to point out those errors in usage—another thing to see students actually change their ways—to actually re-tool sentences so that they effectively communicate. Students write all the time, you know—text messaging, instant messaging. They listen to songs, and those lyrics were actually constructed. So writing and reading do matter. But when it comes to a class, a piece of paper, and an assignment—well…there is something wrong with this picture, and I am not passing out blame. I’m just tired of spinning my wheels.
Jan May 12, 10:23 am
It is frustrating. And there’s nothing more rewarding than witnessing a former “doesn’t matter” type find that spark that changes all that. I think a lot of it stems from the way people live. Oh, sure there have always been students who were satisfied with just getting by, but it seems to me that more people, young people especially, are thinking mostly about what will benefit them in the future, what they see themselves doing, etc. Writing takes time…many don’t want to invest it. Lucky for us. :)
Anita May 13, 06:54 pm
Anita,
On your schoolmarm blog you write that your high school students are “jaded, insensitive, and impossible to surprise.” I am struck lately by that sense of indifference—that lack of surprise. I believe so much in the imagination as a transformative process, and I used to be able to get my students excited about that. I worry that their sense of wonder and surprise is diminishing. Perhaps the old adage, “too much left to the imagination” is now “too much left to reality.”
Jan May 15, 09:02 am
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I struggle with this same question every day, but have not been able to articulate the way that you have, Jan. I think that it has to matter to the writer, to feel right. For most students, it doesn’t matter. They are satisfied with getting the words down, flat, words on paper, completing the assignment. They are not fed by language, they don’t revel in it, it doesn’t feed their souls, it doesn’t. They read, they write and that’s enough. For them. I wish it were as easy for me.
Anita May 11, 06:46 am