The first story told in Chapter 1 really resonated with me. The previous school that I taught at had a high number of nontraditional students. As an instructor I tried not to make any assumptions about my students until I had gotten to know them better, but it never failed that the first day of class I would catch myself looking at this student or that student and think, "You're going to give me problems, aren't you?" I noticed after awhile that I was often times thinking that about one of my nontraditional students because I assumed that since they had been out of school for so long that they would be the ones most resistant to learning. And I was so wrong. More often than not, my nontraditional students were the ones that tried the hardest and really wanted to learn.
The discussion of the use of narrative also resonated with me. In all of the classes that I've taught I always had my students write some type of personal narrative. Sometimes I've questioned whether this type of writing is actually helpful to the students and more than once I've contemplated scrapping the assignment so I could teach them more "important" genres of writing. However, at the end of the year I get at least one student who tells me that they were really glad I had assigned a narrative paper. I realized that it gives students a less threatening form in which they can develop their writing and, for the most part, they enjoy having a time where they get to relate some part of their story to others.
I think we all tend to have this base level judgement without any negative intentions. In our social situations, we base all qualities of conversation and comfortability on the reactions and actions. This leads us to judging the situation and character of people before we put ourselves in an uncomfortable spot. We've gotten used to this quick judgement as a society, so it's hard not to judge in these situations. I don't think that is the problem, though. I think the problem would be sticking to those judgements and not attempting to get to know the students further. So, being wrong is okay. Being right is okay. But not giving people a chance after our hasty judgements is not.
ReplyDeleteI think the personal narrative is a great way to help you learn about and understand your students. Not only that, but as you point out, it helps them develop their own writing in a way that is personal and not as threatening as a rhetorical analysis of something they don't really care about.
Good point. I always felt guilty when I was at a school that showed me pictures of the students on the role. It was good to get to know their names, but sometimes they looked so unhappy to be there in the picture, I immediately wondered how they would be in my class.
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