Building Blocks
Through my years as an educator I have worked in high school classrooms with small and large groups of freshmen and seniors, in the college environment with freshmen, as well as one on one with under-prepared college students. Today I’d like to focus on my experience with under-prepared students and the building blocks to success.
There are many reasons as to why my students are under-prepared. Many of them come from poorly funded high schools, have had inadequate teachers, been passed along, have learning disabilities, have poor reading skills, do not have academic goals or standards set by parents or guardians, are first generation colleges students or are ESL students. Often times, there is a combination of reasons.
Each student and their weaknesses are different, but all of them struggle to write and suffer from a lack of skills in all academic areas. Our concentration is not on MLA formatting, while we do discuss plagiarism and practice all that is needed to avoid it (parenthetical citations, quote transitioning, works cited page, etc.) we mainly concentrate on the basics: grammar, punctuation, brainstorming, organization. All of my students are expected (as they should be) to write a college level paper; unfortunately, many of them were never required to write a middle school or high school level paper. This jump in expectations and ability can be devastating to students who already feel as if they do not belong in a college setting.
It is here where we begin building with blocks. The student’s success does not come from how technically sound my writing knowledge is, (Ack! Ended in a preposition), instead the importance lays heavily on whether or not I can get their trust and build their confidence through the teacher/student relationship. All under-prepared students walk into my office knowing they do not have the skills needed to be a successful college student; unfortunately, they all also believe that they aren’t smart enough to develop those skills. They are embarrassed, don’t want help, and oftentimes have a very bad attitude towards me and the academic demands of their programs.
Every student I work with is talented in some area of their life: athletics, music, art, dance, etc. As educators, we know that being able to use the confidence students have in one area to fuel confidence in a weaker area, will be the turning point for the student’s ability to open themselves to writing development. So, how do we do this? The answer….
I have no clue. I would give anything to know this answer, to give a student confidence, to motivate a student’s desire to learn and take pride in their work. If I knew that, I wouldn’t write this blog, I’d write a book and go on an international speaking tour and make millions of dollars. But, I’m writing a blog piece, so take this with a grain of salt. (Insert smiley face here). Every student is different and part of the joy of teaching is figuring out how each student’s puzzle fits together. Here are some techniques I have used; they are by no means new ideas, brilliant ideas or eye openers. In fact, I have no doubt that I am preaching to the choir. Ready choir? Let’s sing:
1. Listen to them. Ask an open-ended question, hell, ask lots of open-ended questions and then zip-it. Ask a hard question, right off the bat. “What are your goals in life?” “What do you fear the most?” “For what would you risk your life?” Then, when they give you a short answer, keep your mouth shut, smile, and silently make them uncomfortable. They’ll talk, no one likes silence. Then as they open, be open with your experiences. Show them trust and support, but most of all, listen. Everyone talks to people today; no one listens anymore, especially to youth. More often than not, they’ll find it refreshing.
2. Ask them to free write. No time limit. Then build off it.
3. Listen to them.
4. Have them bring in magazines of interest: ESPN, Gaming, etc. Read an article together and show/discuss the organization, main points, transitions, sentence structure, etc. Most students who struggle with writing also struggle with reading, this is a great way to strengthen both skills.
5. Listen to them.
6. Use online resources to help in brainstorming, concept mapping, outlining. Even though I’m old fashion and think pen to paper is the best route, students, especially underprepared students, are more comfortable using technology.
7. Listen to them.
8. Use writing prompts that will lead into descriptive, argumentative, and persuasive responses. Work through them to teach the nuances between styles.
9. Listen to them.
10. Use Point A to Point B technique. Write a sentence or two to begin a story and then write a sentence or two to end the story; the student must then connect the dots. (Great for teaching descriptive/creative writing).
11. Have the student read his/her final draft out loud. They will be uncomfortable, but this is a simple way for them to hear their mistakes. It’s great for auditory learners.
12. Give them a paragraph to read and then have them write a one sentence statement to explain the purpose/topic of the paragraph. (I believe we would all recognize this as a thesis statement). If they can’t get it to one sentence, have them write three and then take those three sentences and turn it into two and then two into one.
I think I may have forgotten one tip, listen to them. The great thing about writing and about teaching writing is that there are billions of different tasks and techniques to use. There are many solutions to building writing foundations and skills, but the aspects all of those strategies have in common is: patience as an instructor, building a trusting relationship, listening without judging or “talking to”, tying the lessons to topics of interest, positively discussing mistakes and exaggerating the excitement over achievements. If a student is not confident that they have the ability, they’ll never give themselves the opportunity to succeed. As educators we have the ability to provide the building blocks for the academic success for which every student deserves the chance to achieve.
~April Thompson