8/27

The academic world Lindsey talks about is so stressed to freshman, yet it is so hard to define. Who is to say that college will be harder than high school for some? I think Durst really addresses this point in his essay. He speaks about the different levels that freshman are entering college at both in writing skills and just socially and emotionally. It becomes a struggle when planning a course to make the course both challenging and passable to each student, even though they may be on various writing and reading levels. Durst speaks to different teachers, such as Sherry and Nan, and listens to them as they deal with the struggle to “invite” students to do coursework and to “bully” them into coursework (Durst 74). How far are we as teachers supposed to go in order to make sure students succeed? Do we need to baby-sit them or should they be treated as adults and know the consequences of their decisions if they choose to take a course seriously or not?

The idea of a theme for a course that Zebioski poses is a very good idea. It would seem to give students a path to follow in the course and give them a purpose for the course other than just numerous writing assignments. This theme, however, although good for teaching a course may not be the best approach to how students handle their assignments. In Durst’s article Josh, one of Sherry’s students, writes all of his assignments on one topic that he enjoys. There seems to be a struggle between letting students choose what they want to write and also challenging them to go beyond their comfort zones. Although it is a nice way to ease students into doing research and writing longer papers by allowing them to write and research about what interests them, it may also not allow them to show their full writing potential. Durst’s article really showed the struggle teachers had with not only different levels of learning, but the fact that many freshman want to do as minimal work as possible and still earn an above average grade. He showed that there are different approaches to take with college writing courses, such as submitting rough drafts and having peer review sessions, but even those are not always the right or best answers when dealing with students who would rather attend a party than write a paper.

What can we as teachers do to make students want to write and learn in our classrooms? How can we show them that we are trying to teach them valuable skills they will use for the rest of their college careers and hopefully beyond?