Today in my 1101 class, the lesson did not go so well. They were bored. How can I spice up thesis statements and an overview of the writing process? Maybe I don't talk about it at all...it will show up in the course after all. Maybe I just needed more than five hours of sleep to convey excitement about narrowing a topic and devising a controlling idea.
Maybe the students were as tired. Many didn't seem to enjoy the Anne Lamott excerpts about shitty first drafts, a piece usually guaranteed to induce quite a few chuckles. Hmmm...hopefully just an off day.
Regardless, I've noted for next time: more group work/hands-on activities for teaching narrowing and thesis statements.
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7 years ago
2 comments:
Professor Cobb here at Bemidji State uses the Lamott excerpts you mention in her classes. I enjoyed them, of course, but I admit they didn't influence my writing style too much. I still revise as I write, then again afterwards, but rarely can I bear to move on when the previous sentence just doesn't get across what I want it to.
The thing that got me interested in rough first drafts were the potential stories that seem to appear out of nowhere when Cobb forced us to write a page in ten minutes! I think that's the closest I come to using first drafts in the way Lamott suggests.
Here's hoping your kids find some more enthusiasm!
Yea. I can appreciate that they may not write that way, but rarely do students not even crack a smile at some of her descriptions! :)
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