The Writing Experiment: The Results

Before I go into the results of this experiment, I would like to apologize for not writing as often as I intended. I found myself looking for excuses to not write everyday and this scared me. I don’t want to fall into a well of excuses and not be writing. It is my career choice after all. Please forgive me and thanks for continuing to stop by and read. Okay, enough of that, and on to the results.

  To review, the students were complaining about the prompt that had been assigned and so I suggested we write a prompt as a class. This excited the students and it forced them to have the reading complete in order to participate in the discussion.

I first provided them with the original prompt assigned for the reading. Then as a class we discussed what the goals were for this prompt. What major issues should the paper discuss if using this prompt, issues like ethics, social concerns, and government control (just as an example). We then took the original prompt, the goals for writing the papers, and created another prompt that encompassed the same goals. The prompt that students ended up writing was very close to the departmental prompt, but they claimed they understood it better.

Finally, they had to actually write the paper. I will admit I was quite concerned with what the outcome would be. I was so concerned I allowed the students to choose from either prompt. While the papers would undeniably be very similar as far as the big picture, letting the students decide allowed them to feel in control.

So what happened? Well, the papers were great! I was so pleasantly surprised. In the past, using the prompt style of teaching writing I found that students end up writing about the same general topics; inevitably topics discussed in class. This time, however, I read about so many different topics. I am so sure this is because in writing the prompt themselves the students were able to think of topics that they were excited about. Instead of reading 40 some odd papers about abortion and illegal immigration, I was reading about different cultures, fascinating ethical issues, technologies, and so many other unique topics. I was thrilled.

While I’ll be teaching again this summer and next fall, I will not be using the department’s reading choices and prompts, instead, I’m choosing to write my own prompts, and decide on whatever readings I please. I still think I will allow the students to attempt writing the prompt again. This will not only provide them with a better understanding of the reading but it will also provide me with more prompts to use in the future.

I would love to hear some feedback on what you think about this experiment and if you teachers out there have done anything similar.

The Writing Experiment: Part Two

So we did it. We wrote our own prompt as a class.  The new promopt was almost identical to the one the department had written, but because they wrote it they felt confident about the assignement. Here’s how I did it:

First, I had them look at the old prompt and establish goals for the paper. For instance, I had them decide as a class what broad topics they would discuss for the paper like morals/ethics, regulations, gov’t and so on. The simple I question I asked them to have them think about these goals was, “what major points are you going to have when writing this paper?” And so, they rattled off the basics.

Then I had them think about the goals and we applied them when writing the second prompt. I had them put these basics into a prompt which to my surprise (I sadly wasn’t expecting this experiment to do as well as it did) they wrote a really thoughtful and insightful prompt both they and I were pleased with.

Though some of the students did not understand what the prompt (either one) was asking so what we did then was decide as a class what we would be looking for in a paper using this prompt. This was the best part of the experiment because it forced them to think about the readings and what they wanted to write about. We listed all of these things on the board and all I could see was light-bulbs going off. In fact, I even had students tell me, “Miss, this is the best way you’ve ever explained a prompt.” That for me was enough to do it again.

Well, this happened last Tuesday and since then they’ve had to outline their papers and come up with some kind of argument. While I think it was sucessful the true test will be when I read their papers. I’ll keep you all posted.

 

p.s. My apologies for the irregular posts. I’m trying, but it is that time in the semester where it’s like 10 pgs due here 20 pgs due there, read a 400 pg novel and so it’s all a bit stressful. Not to mention I’ll be grading papers come Tuesday. You all know how that goes. Thanks for stopping by and please leave comments and suggestions. I’m curious what you all think about this experiment and how you think I could improve it.