Category: Writing

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Dear Teacher: An Introductory Assignment

My last post was full of ice breaker and getting to know you ideas that involved the entire class. Today I wanted to share another idea for getting to know your students, but this one is done individually, and as a homework assignment.

Because I was an English teacher, this assignment worked particularly well for my class, but it can work just as well for any other content area. The assignment was called “Dear Teacher” and was a chance for students to write a letter to me. I gave them suggestions about what they could tell me, but also left it open for them to choose the content of their letter. 

Some of the suggested topics included:

  • Favorite food
  • Favorite subject
  • Favorite music, movie, book, actor/actress, show
  • Family— how many siblings, things they like to do, etc.
  • Friends— who their friends are, what they like to do together, etc.
  • Favorite vacations they’ve been on
  • Things they did over the summer
  • What they’re looking forward to about this new school year
  • Goals they may have
  • Their feelings about reading & writing (or whatever your content area may be)
  • Anything else they felt like telling me

I also required the assignment to be hand written (this gave me a glimpse into their grammar and spelling skills since they weren’t using a computer with spell/grammar check), and required the length to be about 1- 1.5 pages long. I wanted it long enough for them to tell me about themselves, but not so long that I was reading these letters for the rest of my days!

This assignment was always so fun to get back from students. I loved learning about them! Beyond the “getting to know you” objective of the assignment, these letters also gave me insight into their writing style, grammar/spelling skills, handwriting, and personalities. Another thing I really liked about this assignment was that, because I had assured them I wasn’t going to be sharing their letters with other students, it allowed students to be completely honest and open. I had students open up and tell me about difficulties at home, friend struggles, learning struggles, and so on. It let them know right off the bat that I was a safe person who had their best interests in mind. 

The “Dear Teacher” letter was always just a participation grade, which was a great way to start off the year. It was a low-stakes, no pressure assignment to ease them into graded writing that would come later. 

So while this assignment was really quite simple, it accomplished much more than surface level formalities. 

What kind of assignments do you give your students to start the year?

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Painting and The Writing Process

We’re in the process of repainting and redecorating our front living room. It’s been a process. It all started when I bought a rug to liven up the space. Then I decided we needed to paint. I underestimated how much of a to-do it would be to even choose a paint color. I bought two rounds of samples, for a total of eleven different paint colors. I wanted to make sure we had the perfect color, so I painted the samples on two different walls to see how they looked in different lights. For the last two weeks, we have had 22 little strips of paint painted onto our walls, reminding me that we just needed to decide already! 

Thankfully my sister is really good with interior design, and was so kind to offer her opinion and expertise. We finally chose a color over the weekend and headed to the hardware store to buy the paint before we could change our minds. 

The teacher in me is constantly relating things to education— I just can’t help it! As I’ve gone through this painting process, I’ve thought about how similar it is to the writing process. Painting and writing?! They aren’t even close to the same thing! Let me explain:

Picking a paint color is like picking a topic. You gather your ideas and feel them out. You test them and see which one is the right one. You might have to explore several before your figure it out. You might even have to run your ideas by someone else to get a clearer view of what you really want to do. 

Once you’ve nailed down the right color, you go buy the paint and supplies you will need. Once you’ve nailed down the right topic, you start to gather your ideas and your resources. 

Next, you need to do all the prep work: wiping the walls and baseboards down, patching holes and dents in the walls, sanding down the dried putty, taping off the paint area, and putting tarps down. The next step in the writing process is similar. You need to do all the prep work: outlining your ideas, making sense and order of your research, drafting your paper, and so on. This is the stage of the process that is often “ugly” because things are a mess, nothing looks finished or polished, and there are bits and pieces of stuff everywhere. 

Then, you finally get to paint! You get to jazz up the space by adding a fresh coat of paint. You might even have to do a few coats to ensure you’ve done a proper and neat job and covered all the parts of the wall you wanted to. Similarly, drafting your paper into its final stage is exciting. You get to make sense and order of all the mess and ugliness of the prep work stage. You might have to do a draft or two to get it how you want it, but it’s worth it to get it just right.

Finally, you get to peel off the tape and reveal your beautiful, crisp paint lines and freshly updated space. It’s such an exciting moment! You can hardly wait for guests to come by so that you can show them the results of your hard work. Doing one final read-through then submitting your paper is just like that paint tape peeling: you can sit back and admire your masterpiece, giving a sigh of relief as you turn it in. You take pride in your work and can’t wait to show it off to others. 

Doesn’t it all make sense now? Painting and writing really do have similarities! The next time you are writing a paper (or assigning your students to write one), rather than thinking about it as a long, boring process, reframe your thinking and remind yourself (or your students) that you are doing so much more than putting words on paper— you are creating a masterpiece for yourself and others to enjoy!