Striking a balance

The beginning of the semester is incredibly important, as it sets the tone for the rest of the semester.

The first thing that has to occur is showing your students that the class has value. This makes them willing to work and more patient with the educational process. The way I do this in Writing for the Workplace and Technical Communication is beginning with a lesson about email. Many students use it poorly or too informally. Interestingly, as texting has replaced email for informal communication, student awareness of email as professional communication has increased, so it's possible I will need to change tactics.

In a writing class, the second task is to establish community. The students will be providing feedback to one another and working in project groups, so it's vital that they get to know each other. I accomplish this through group work such as asking composition or literature students to share their favorite quote from the text with one another.

Neither of these projects is complex or mentally demanding, and there lies the danger. If too much time is spent on them, students may start to think they don't have to work.

As I was talking to my Workplace Writing students today, I noticed that none of them had their book out. Few even had their computers open. That had to change. When I put them into groups, I gave them a task requiring the book, and for once I didn't project the book onto the classroom's screen. I'm always urging students to be self-directed, which means I had better stop babying them!

I titled this post "striking a balance" because a successful educational environment must be comfortable but not TOO comfortable.