I teach English courses to my juniors and seniors. Every August, as I meet new students, I see guards in their posture and demeanor, wary of me. Many have heard of positive results from my teaching; others seem fearful or daunted by the process. Pre-Covid, at social gatherings and meeting new people, when I describe myself as an English teacher, I hear successful adults mostly report a poor opinion of their writing skills. I frequently hear stories wishing for a teacher who taught them how to write.
What about the writing process is so frightening? Jonathan Swift defines and simplifies good writing for all, simply "Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style." Most agree when a word or phrase is well-written. It resonates. It sounds as we thought it should. It describes, with precision and poise, the idea formed in our minds but unable to articulate. We recognize authenticity and respond with, "Yes. That's it."
Helping students get to that result is my calling. I wish the writing process actually followed a regimented process. I wish I could create the one-size-fits-most method, monetize it, and supplement my teacher's salary! Dozens of textbook writers have tried to document steps to guide learners. Why haven't these methods worked? The steps remove all personal and emotional from the process. Learners are people, full of emotions and needs and fears and insecurities and motivations and desires. Learners are people who need and want to find a person of trust, a safe person, to be vulnerable with. Learners are people who express responses best through facial expressions, posture, barely audible sounds, emotions - laughter and tears, and hand gestures. Learners need people they can see and build trust eye-to-eye, in close proximity with one another, and they need time. The process of building trust is rarely quick. Sometimes, students come to my classes eager, having had a trusted sibling or close friend offer assurance of success. Most of the time, I have the responsibility - and privilege - of building a trust relationship with the student bit by bit, day by day, until the student sees a positive result from my advice.
Teaching in a hybrid model during the 2020-2021 year proved the most challenging of my career. The demands of a dual-focus classroom meant no group, those in person or online, could get the fullest trust-building necessary. And in a school year of so many unknowns, trying to see the facial nuances needed for trust-building became too hard for many. For some, they adapted quickly and effectively to vocal tones, eye smiles, eyebrow signals, but for most of us, we are still adapting to understand new interpersonal skills required by masking. Currently, my students are in person unless allowed hybrid because of mandatory quarantine, and we are masked for the foreseeable future. My role is to build trust with them quickly and help all adjust to recognizing my vocal cues in laughter, positive tones, questioning, delight. These 16 and 17 and 18-year-olds are learning how to read people's faces, temperament, and intentions through new pathways, and so far are doing well adapting.
So, since August 7th, the day I met the first group of new students, I've focused my primary objectives on trust-building. I've shared personal stories, shown pictures, hung art on classroom walls gifted by former students, asked questions about their sports and hobbies, offered compliments on shoes, jewelry, hairstyles, and shirts. I've taken time to hear why they are tired or overwhelmed or frustrated. I've prayed for them, in my heart and in their presence. I've mostly listened. Especially when we take a break in the middle of our 90-minute block classes to walk outside, step away from studies, unmask, and enjoy the beauty of hot North Carolina August. I use every moment of our August classes to build trust so as we begin writing our first essays together, many will understand my true motives: to help them grow as individuals.
Whether I help in English 12 classes or AP Englishes or with college admission essays, all students want to learn how to take ideas and impressions and articulate well so others can benefit and understand. The great artists interpret what our minds perceive. Van Gogh's Sunflowers captures yellows and golds and moments of beauty we see when in a field of sunflowers, and he freezes that moment to allow us time to relive fleeting moments of wonder. Writing needs to be the same way. Students come to me with a myriad of experiences and influences, all serving to develop their own voice. My role is to guide them toward trusting that voice and improving that voice and creating the most precise representation of that voice possible.
So, standing near a student in the classroom or sitting on opposite sides of a table or looking at a shared document, I ask questions and look at the way the student responds. I become a thesaurus, interpreting and directing toward the concept students try to vocalize. I discourage the use of the 'delete' key on their Macs and require a lot of handwritten drafting, always with pens to prevent loss of ideas. I encourage students to postpone editing and correcting while trying to get the first words out. And I discourage them from trying to phrase the entire sentence in their heads before committing words to the page or document. I need to train them to trust themselves as much as I need them to be trained to trust me. I give them great writers to read so they can see words and patterns become ideas. I give them baby steps that have no stakes before beginning to assess their writing with numbers and letters in my grade book.
Not all of my students will testify they emerge from my classes as better writers. So many variables contribute to that declaration. Rather than hearing former students are 'better writers' or 'successful in college,' I'd rather hear students emerge confident and willing and no longer intimidated. I'd rather they meet an English teacher at a social gathering in the future and report to him or her thankful for a teacher who demystified the process by building their confidence. That's my long-term goal- helping build confident people, content in who they were created to be, and comfortable contributing to their families, communities, and in their careers.
But for now, I'll get back to reviewing the first drafts of senior essays and will work to keep my comments focused on trust-building exercises and will be thankful this dusty blog showed up on my screen today.
