Saturday, May. 29, 2004
Teaching writing, posted at 9:48 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com This has been a strange year of teaching. In many ways, it's been a disappointment. I've been working too much to be as effective a teacher as I want to be. Waiting tables at night makes it pretty hard to grade papers turned in that day, for example. I'm often exhausted. Also, the A/B schedule has kicked my ass and sucks for the students, so that's been a disappointment. However, I've learned new ways to teach things this year, most effectively in how I craft writing assignments.Before, I gave my share of dull writing assignments, like, "Analyze the characterization used by Steinbeck in Of Mice and Men," stuff like that. There are some positive points to that, but the essays were as boring to read as they were to write. As the year progressed, my essays became more thematically linked essays. I have these key questions that I start a unit with, and the students basically answer these questions using two or more texts as foundation.
For example, in the current "Moral Responsibility" unit, the key questions were:
1. How does a person maintain dignity and responsibility in an unjust society?
2. What obligations do people have to their communities and families, and how can a person fulfill them without sacrificing individuality?
3. Why is it important for a person to move forward on one's own terms?
The texts were Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying, Anne Tyler's "With All Flags Flying," Toni Cade Bambera's "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," Dr. Martin Luther King's "Three Ways of Meeting Oppression," Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle," Claude McKay's "If We Must Die," and Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise."
What students must do is answer one of the key questions in a text-to-world thesis, but one that is informed by the texts. For example, "It is important for a person to move forward on one's own terms because people cannot control much of what the world throws at them, but they can control how they respond to it." Then, at least two texts are used to explain the thesis, as well as real world examples to satisfy the "text to self" part of the MSD*E rubric.
I'm very happy with how this has progressed. It really requires some critical thinking to come up with a claim based upon the literature read, and I get to read a lot of different types of essays. With the texts chosen and the questions raised, there are almost endless combinations of what students can write about, and I have been getting very insightful essays from them.
This year has been my "slump" year as a teacher, but if I can still gain this (as well as other stuff - my first teaching of Romeo and Juliet, my experimenting with seating arrangements) bit of teaching reflection into my career, then everything will be alright.