After collecting and typing up the responses to the "Round Robin" writing activity on day #1 of my classes, I discovered that over 75% of students indicated in their responses that learning grammar or improving their grammar was one of the primary learning objectives they had for taking the course. I found this response particularly engaging:
"The reason I am taking this course is to better my knowledge of writing in a mature, grammatically correct manner. I hope for this class to help me express my creative ideas on paper and to be understandable for the leader. I want to learn how to better connect ideas."
I am now the fearless grammar leader.
Carol Morrison
Commander-in-Chief of Grammar
--- On Thu, 8/18/11, Claudia Kiburz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Claudia Kiburz <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: First Day Icebreakers for College English
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, August 18, 2011, 5:39 PM
You can always do a round robin. Each students get a start to a story or essay. Each students writes for a designated time and then passes it along to the person next to him. There is no need to finish a sentence. The next person just reads the essay and continues on. Starters might be:
This semester in this class I expect to learn ...
When I am writing, I always have problems with ...
Some things I want to know about my teacher are ...
The reasons that I am taking this course are ...
Some grammar point I find daunting are ...
Some things which I really value are ...
You can have each student initial their input or you could hand out a variety of colored pens. This depends on your class size. Or you could leave the pieces anonymous. At the end of the year, you could revisit them and see if students can guess who wrote the comments.
From: Carol Morrison <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 4:59 PM
Subject: First Day Icebreakers for College English
The days are flying by as I rapidly approach the first day of class on 8/31, and I am trying to think of a good first day plan for introducing myself and my courses to the students. My final schedule will now be (2) sections of COMP 101 and (1) section of Basic Writing. Aside from handing out the syllabus, and introducing myself to the class, do any of you have some good ideas for day #1? We used to do a diagnostic essay, but the college has done away with that, which I am relieved about for many reasons: mock “grading” or commenting on student writing before class has even commenced and also the idea that this essay will somehow diagnose what illnesses the students’ writing suffers from or what might plague it. Another term that has been used is “writing sample,” which I also find off-putting, maybe because it conjures up the image of a urine sample which will be tested to see if it comes out “clean.” Anyway, I think the first day is
important for many reasons: it is the first impression the students will have of me as their instructor and also can be a deal breaker for some students who will drop after the first day if they don’t like what they experience. Any ideas? I am also presuming at least half of the students will not have purchased texts, so I don't want to dive right into that the first day.
Thanks so much.
Carol Morrison To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"
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To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
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