Lessons from On Essays: Literature's Most Misunderstood Form

Lessons like this make me wish I were a more linear thinker.  But, I'm not.

To prepare for reading, I printed the essay for students and drew boxes around 42 words that I thought might be problematic and might impede comprehension.  I asked students to write definitions for those words in the margins of the essay.  There was some protest as students wanted to type them or write them on a separate sheet of paper.  I insisted for this time that they stick to the margin plan so that the definitions would be readily accessible to aid comprehension.  I believe that the vocab list is more functional when it is directly connected to the reading. Also, I believe that there are times in this age of technology when we bypass a valuable step of the learning process and that is the one that involves the brain to hand aspect.  Handwriting. I'll not digress about that at this time.  But I do have a rationale for making them try it this way.  If they try it, and don't like it ....next time maybe they do it their way and we see if it works better.  What I want to avoid is the copy and paste situation.

After students read the essay, they are to make a list of the author's assertions.  The piece is an essay about essays and I want kids to read it closely to glean from it the author's claims.  This is tricky as it becomes difficult to discern what the author's ideas are and what he has simply synthesized from others.  The piece is an analysis of the discourse that already exists about the nature of an essay, its history, where we've perverted it in public education and the paradoxical nature of the form.  The piece was written by Michael Depp and first appeared in an issue of Poets and Writers.  Depp's piece illustrates form reflecting meaning as he describes the essay as a meandering, an exploration, am exercise of sense making which is exactly what he does in his piece. In retrospect, I asked students to write the author's assertions in complete sentences....it may have been better to ask for big ideas.  Although there is some value in looking at how much of the actual piece is what the author believes and not what he is simply presenting from other writers.


The piece is also an excellent example of synthesis.  Depp incorporates the thinking of 8 different author's in his dialectic and illustrates a number of ways in which students might smoothly blend quoted material into their own essays.  He also illustrates this idea that the College Board and Higher Academia is so fond of which is to have the sources in discourse with one another.  So, students will be tracing the synthesis path and noting the blending techniques for future emulation.

So, maybe we get out the highlighters and we highlight the ideas of others and then we highlight what seems to be the author's own ideas or at least conclusions he has reached as a result of his exploration.

The next step will be the "Pithy Quotations" activity which requires students to choose one quotation that they feel is at the very heart of the entire piece. .  They write it out big and present an argument for their quotation of choice.  What is it about this quotation that makes you think it is the very heart of the piece.  Then we hang them all over the room and they serve as reminders for real essay writing, not fake 5 paragraph, I-know-exactly-what -this-is going to say before I even write anything down kind of essay.  Which is fake.

After that, I introduce the rhetorical precis which is pages of explanation.  But the rationale behind writing them is about analysis.  It is a highly structured form that requires close reading and precise composition.  And that's just good stuff.  So, that's where I am.

Excuse me, I need to go spend the next 4 hours at the duplo.

A New Year: Expectations and Euchre.

This year, more than ever before, it is going to be important for me to clearly define my expectations for students.  This is the first year that I have not had a summer reading assignment and, while this enabled me to have a much needed break after a challenging year, it creates problems for students who may be unaware of what they have signed up for.  The required reading of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer made it clear that kids who take AP Lang will be required to work at a level that is rigorous and preserves the integrity of the title, "Advanced Placement," by the College Board.   The test over the text on the first day of class left no uncertainty about the level of mastery required to achieve an "A" grade in AP Lang. Well, this summer, there will be none of that.  And so, how can I provide students with that kind of understanding?

I've tossed around many ideas.  Maybe I model an essay that introduces myself and states my expectations.  Something beyond the five paragraph format.  Maybe after kids read that essay, I ask them to write their own telling me what their expectations are for me as their teacher, for the course content and for themselves as students.  It could also be a means for them to communicate anything else they want me to know about themselves.  I've always said that one of the advantages of teaching writing is that I get to know students immediately as they are much more inclined to share who they are through writing rather than through direct conversation.  The essay would also provide an opportunity for students to think through some goal setting.  I'd like to know why they took AP Lang. I'd like to know why almost half of the junior class took AP Lang. 

The essay would also give me a chance to look at the skills they have upon entering my classroom and it would allow me the opportunity to ask them to set some goals.

Maybe I give an entire AP Test during the first four days of class to establish baseline data and to let kids know what they are in for.

Maybe I have them write an essay and do the test.  Oh, wait.  There's eachieve and something I am supposed to be doing everyday for the first two weeks of class.  And I don't even know what that is yet.

But then, there's always the "getting to know you" stuff.  Which I have never been comfortable with.  It isn't that I don't want to get to know my students.  As I stated earlier, I feel fortunate that I get to know them so quickly through their writing.  I've just never been much good at playing the name game or cutesie games that involve a ball or getting up and walking around the room and interviewing people.  I hate doing that stuff as an adult and I hate the inauthenticity of trying to force kids to do something I hate doing.  Not to mention that it's meaningless.

Then there is euchre.  Who doesn't love euchre?  Euchre is real life.  Who doesn't need to know how to play euchre?  Last year during ACT time when I was trying to fill up the remnants of a school day that had been slashed apart by different tests, I threw my hands up in the air, borrowed several decks of cards from Elbert Yeh and decided to have a euchre day.  Don't get me wrong, I struggled with my conscience.  It felt like fifty shades of wrong.  But I did it anyway and here's what happened:

First, I polled the class and asked for the people who knew how to play euchre.  By some miraculaous educational miracle, it turned out that only about six kids knew how.  So, at that point, my game day free for all turned into an instructional day after all.  However, instead of me doing all the talking, each kid who knew how to play was assigned three others to teach. Remember, this was in March.  Maybe April.  And Matt Zacker had yet to speak an entire sentence aloud in my class.  But, he knew how to play euchre.  And he had a job to do.  And his classmates, at least three of them, got to know him really well that day.

Other things I noticed?  Kids who were entirely comfortable in an English classroom were suddenly struggling for understanding. And you and I know, that where there is struggle, there is growth.  I was able to act as facilitator and move from group to group getting to know kids on a level and in a context that seemed more authentic than I had ever experienced in a "getting to know you" situation before. And it makes sense.  Anyone who has been to college knows that life long relationships are created at the euchre table.  I began to reevaluate my "game day." But I still feel guilty. I feel guilty when I don't do funsy "getting to know you" stuff and I feel guilty when I do.  So, I don't know what to say about that.

I think I have a plan for the week.  It may need to change after I attend the eachieve meeting tomorrow.

On Tuesday, I am going to cram in as much of the eachieve learning as I can.  After all, we are AP, we should be able to pick up that stuff quickly.  And then, euchre. I am also going to send home the above mentioned essay with kids with a deadline for their own essay on Friday at the beginning of the hour.

On Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday, I am going to administer a practice AP Test to establish baseline data and to give kids an idea of what they are facing this year.  Additionally, that essay they are writing for me about themselves will give me an idea of where they are as writers in a genre with which they are comfortable at the very beginning of the year.