Things That Work:
Pre-Writing
Getting Started: The Communal Essay
This exercise may not produce a very good essay, but it's a lot of
fun, and it does send students to the text. On the class day following
the discussion of an assignment, split the class into several groups of
two or three students. Assign each group the task of writing one paragraph
of a communal paper. The first group writes the introduction, the last
the conclusion, and those in between address elements of the essay assignment
as best they can. Each group has the responsibility of working closely
with the assignment texts, and each must find quotes or passages from
the texts to advance their conversations and arguments. At the halfway
point of the class, have students read the paragraphs as if they form
a whole paper. The results are often hilarious! Spend the rest of the
class making revisions to this communal draft - either in groups or as
a class.
-- Brian Roberts
Journals
Journals are excellent for class discussion, argument, working with quotations,
and presenting new texts. The important thing is that students have a
free space to write initial responses, questions, areas of confusion.
To give them a sense of freedom, I ask them to write by hand. I give no
length requirement, and I never remark on mechanics. Initially, journals
help students locate confusing passages. It's important to ask them to
quote passages otherwise vague comments like "I didn't understand
the whole essay" arise. If journals can help students locate the
specific areas that confuse them, then we have something to work on. I
also ask students to write out immediate responses in journals so that
I can point out to them what responses they can usefully follow further
and which ones are based on misreading. Point out to them that their good
ideas can wind up in their papers. Basic students especially have trouble
discriminating which ideas are useful and which are not. Early in the
semester, I do this discrimination for them, but later I asked them to
do it themselves. Also, later in the semester, I ask them to point to
two confusing passages in the reading, write at least four questions about
these passages, and then raise possible answers (as many as possible)
to their own questions.
--Martin Springer
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