New Semester, New Questions

The Spring semester begins and I have another set of lovely students. Blessed as I am, this bunch of students is engaged, asking questions and always open to discussion. With the help of a fellow colleague, I incorporated more activities into the course to further engage the students. My first activity of this semester was very useful. After we introduced ourselves, I made the students break into groups of 4. I then made the first of the four students write a sentence about smoking. Then the second student in the group would elaborate on the first student's sentence. Then the third and fourth do the same until there is a full story.

I asked: What is the purpose of this activity? The students were baffled. In my passionate ranting I went on a tirade about how writing is a collaborative process. That we borrow and extend ideas of others in parallel to our own ideas. That this type of writing is relevant to their very degrees: business majors write case studies based on ideas explored in other relevant case studies, biology students base their research on previous research done in the same topic.

They were entranced. This is a new idea to them. It contrasts with their high school experiences where English is focused on writing well and not content and development of ideas.

I'll keep y'all in the loop about other useful class activities. Hopefully they will all be as successful as this one.