Student Feedback

I don’t want to sound annoying here, but I really love Boice. I think its because I read a chapter by Boice right before I started teaching at the college level for the first time, and I sort of subconsciously adopted a lot of his theories. I strive to be the kind of teacher that all of my non-english friends never had--- to address the needs, the fears, and the shortcomings of those students who “hate” or “aren’t good at” writing. Years of teaching my friends—in a very informal way, reading their papers in college, helping them write statements of purpose, led me to a very hands on, patient, yet silly form of teaching. I’m not afraid to make a fool of myself while teaching, to say ridiculous things to help someone understand a concept.

I’m also not afraid to ask my student(s) what they need. I agree that one can come very attached to one’s teaching--- its your life’s work! And frequently, those who give teaching advice aren’t teachers themselves. But I do love to hear from my fellow colleagues how they make things work. I am more open to taking criticism from my students than other though, I think. I am there for them. Since my class is largely about the process, and about a lot of revision, I am always asking my students what they need/want. Today we revised conclusion. They have a new draft of their paper due next Wednesday, so I asked them what they felt would be most beneficial for this Wednesday’s class: sentence level edits, or editing structure. They voted and picked structure, so that’s what we’ll do. I do this “pick your own adventure” English class method a lot. At first it seemed scary, to deviate from my ‘plan’, but then I realized how much easier it is to each students who want to learn something. If they want to spend a day on structure revisions, then they will be more receptive, they will be easy to work with, rather than resisting something that they ‘don’t thin is necessary’. I should probably get more input at the beginning of the semester though. I think that’s why I liked Shelly’s syllabus, because the students voted on the course content a lot in the beginning.