The first essay's due in a week, and students were supposed to read two chapters that (1) provided techniques for finding topics and (2) explained the features of the first essay.
Logical class-start activity: freewriting about possible topics for the first essay since freewriting was one of the techniques discussed in (1). How did this activity turn out, you ask?
Freewriting often leads us to what we didn't know we thought, often reveals more than we had in our brains. Freewriting can cause unveiling and revealing.
For example, fully a quarter of the students wrote that they had not read the chapters. Another quarter revealed as much by exploring topics wholly unsuited to what was explained in (2). Another quarter started excellent drafts, coming to some bright insights and fascinating possibilities. The final quarter couldn't do the assignment: one even wrote "I don't know what to write" over and over, almost 200 times in 15 minutes, after writing, "I'm not creative. Even my psychiatrist says I'm not creative."
Now I know too much.
If need (or needs) be?
2 days ago
