The beginning of the semester has a sense of excitement to it. There is a newness to the fall semester, a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen. This isn’t just the beginning of a semester, but the start of a new academic year. And for our first-year college writing students this is the beginning of their college careers. They are excited to begin and I am too. I’m excited to get underway.
But there also seems to be an awkwardness to the beginning of the semester. I would say that my first couple of classes were fine. The students were there, with their notebooks, ready to go. But there were some uncomfortable silences as well. I did a lot of talking those first few days—more than I usually like to do in a writing class. I talked about the rhetorical situation, the importance of revision, and about how writing leads to discovery. I talked a lot about the things we were going to do over the course of the semester. And my students sat listening to me talk more than I’m sure they would have liked. I’m really not that dynamic of a speaker. On both of our parts there was a lot of hesitation. When I said “Any questions?” I could see them wondering if they really should ask what was confusing or unclear. When I asked a question I could see some of them hesitate before raising their hands, unsure if what they had to say would be the “right” answer. I found myself also hesitating, unsure how far to push them, unsure how long to let the silences go.
But this is okay. With newness there also comes awkwardness. The students and I are getting to know one another. As students new to academic life, they are unsure how to be in a classroom with a teacher they don’t know, with classmates they don’t know. They are figuring out who I am, what my expectations are, if I really mean what I say about the importance of taking risks.
I’m also getting to know them, trying to figure out how long it will take them to do peer review, how long they need to do a freewrite, what knowledge and interests they are bringing into the classroom. I’m trying to figure out if they will be a quiet class or a talkative class, how long will it take them to do any given exercise and activity.
It takes time to get to know one another.
This weekend I read through the first drafts of their first papers. I was looking forward to reading these drafts because I knew through their writing I would begin to get to know each of the students in my class a bit better. And I wasn’t disappointed. Through their writing I began to see them as individual writers with fascinating things to say. As I wrote my responses to their drafts, I found myself hoping they would know that I truly am interested in what they have to say and want to help them progress as writers.
But as I was sitting at my desk this weekend reading through these first drafts, I realized something else. These drafts are the real start of the semester. Telling students how to write is not the same as putting them in motion. And now that we are engaged in the process of generating writing, drafting, responding, and revising the awkwardness of the first couple of weeks is fading away.