Inspired by the smell of hockey pucks

Wow, I thought my assignment today was a dud because everyone was shy and unresponsive when I did the participatory write on the board parts of class. But actually their writing from today was the best ever!

I had them do a short "describe something with each sense" exercise (lifted from JM's teaching materials) and then I talked a bit more, extracting examples from them. (Which were good examples of color, mood, analogy/metaphor.) I talked about mood and style and emotional content of a piece and how it can be persuasive and get the reader to feel what you want them to feel. Then a 10 minute exercise to describe a place. We had a break, I talked a bit more & then sprung it on them to describe the same place but with an opposite mood. So, there were a lot of blank and terrified stares during this process but they all wrote like crazy. A lot of the people who were very stuck on other writing assignments went nuts with this one and waxed poetic about sports. I didn't know that sports were so ... sensual. I guess it makes sense. Wow. Why isn't there more sports poetry? "Touch: the strong hold of the keeper when she approaches the ball - the soft cotton of our jersey - the roughness of the field" That's so beautiful!

And a lot of emotional and very sweet stuff. I think that's why no one wanted to volunteer their sentences. Because they were all about hugging their moms or how much they love their little sisters and how they always think sadly of their grandmas when they eat some specific food or how the rain on the sidewalk makes them moody but happy at the same time. RAD.

I feel proud that I'm getting so much work out of them! It's kind of amazing that I'm just like "Okay, now do this!" and they do it. We are doing a ton of in-class writing, because I want them to disinhibit and warm up quite a lot right at the beginning.

I have moments of despairing a little that I can do this and stick with it and do a good job but now I'm buoyed up. Tonight I have to also grade their long papers and so for the first time must write "D" or maybe even "F". 8-( and that will be really hard for me to do and quite depressing. I will try my hardest to pep talk them into believing it is not failure but is just pointing out where they're GOING to do better... they are all making an effort and have a good start.

The textbooks sort of blow. They're okay, but I wish they were shorter.

(update: no... it's too much... i can't possibly get the papers back to them by Wednesday! omg!)

***
To do
right now: hot tub, then sleep early
tomorrow:
- sxsw panel descrip short & long
- talk w odin (chat?)
- groceries (no probably not, must wait till wed. after teaching)
- class outline (overview of assignment suggestion, brainstorm in groups, walk around to help,
- respond on wiki list
- fiddle some more with filters, add more lists
- must go to stanf. library for that one poem for 5 fing. review (oops, forgot)
- to work by 10
- to sf and work more out of cafe
- date (yay!)

Technorati Tags: composition, teaching

Comments

[kevin]

http://www.footieslash.com/

[JM]

Hey! We did the same thing today (description/senses) although at the end of the class and I'm totally going to steal what you did re: sharing and working on things in the next class...mostly because they weren't so good. People are afraid of description. Don't know why. Must be that whole imagination thing. I get a lot of "The green grass was really green."

Yeah.

On grading: do NOT turn the essays around in one day/by the next class. You'll kill yourself, and then they'll come to expect of you and their other profs. Unless you have an _extra_ 12 hours in the next two days, in which case you had better share your secret. :)

I get to grade my students' first narrative essays today. Lots of death and sickness and rage and stuff. It's always difficult to temper the crying and the correcting (since I'm sensitive and all). Like [cry] [cry] comma splice comma splice fragment [cry] [cry] so sorry about your grandfather but here's a run-on... Yeah, ok, I'm not that heartless with the correcting when it comes to things like that -- mostly just summarize issues at the end. But DAMN are there some tragic events in the daily lives of these folks.

[badgerbag]

Wow - yes - I *have* cried at the things many people wrote. Including when the write about good stuff.