Voice Lessons 4

or, "write to learn."

One of the major focus points in our reading this past week has been on ways to include more "low stakes" writing in our classes. I'm a writer, obviously, and have never been all that intimidated by a graded assignment. My students, however, have often suffered at the hands of their teachers, and come to my class in their first year of college with the idea that "writing" is something one does as a product to be evaluated. The most difficult thing for a writing teacher is to get students to loosen up, to be willing to take risks, to treat writing as a process and an act of discovery. Those of us who write a lot probably find that we do some of our best "thinking" while we are writing, for instance in our Moleskines.

So, how do I get my students to treat writing as a way to think, not just to produce something that will be evaluated? Well, give them lots of writing to do that will not be graded. Sure, except for the fact that they need some motivation to start doing that. Which is why one of the things I'm doing next term is having the students write when they first come in the door (in my Shakespeare class) or right before the end of class (in my survey class). In the first case, I'll give them ten minutes to respond to the reading they've done, and we'll have some folks read their material as we start talking about the day's play. In the second case, I'll use a classroom assessment idea that I've read about this week and that I discovered in a book recommended to me by Blakbuzzrd: have the students summarize the day's lesson, and any questions, in a a five minute slot at the end of the class. They'll hand it in as they walk out the door.

I'm really excited about trying this out. The key will be to stick with it.