Week 4 reflection

In the next few weeks I am preparing to start my next big writing assignment in class. I am trying to incorporate some of the ideas from the Bean text into the assignment. Starting a new writing intensive unit is always a big of a challenge because students are so resistant to writing in a formal way. Trying to balance the things I am learning in this class with the Common Core State Standards, and the Bi-Laws of my school, which require a certain amount of pages for essays during a school year can be a complex series of challenges in its own way.

This week I ran into a former student at Sac State for the first time. He is the first one to go to college in his family line. We chatted for a bit about the transition from high school to college, but mostly we talked about writing because he said he wished he had taken writing more seriously in high school because there is so much of it at the college level. I am trying to figure out how to make students aware that those who are going to college are going to face writing in more than just English and history class, but until they are actually in college, they never think about, so not only do I need to teach writing better, I need to help them see why learning how to write is important outside of English class. And when I think about that too much, I want to curl up and take a long nap.