Email of the Week #4
Email of the Week #4
From: Super Rad Parent
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:15 PM
To: Ms. B.
Subject: Writing well for other teachers
Dear Ms. B.,
My son took two whole years of Writing Foundations. This year he is taking an upper level course that requires a summary/report every two weeks. When I asked how his outline and drafts were coming along, he told me he didn’t need to do them for this teacher. I was shocked that he believed that I had paid for your classes just so he could write well only for you! How do I help him to see that he really took your class to learn to write well for everyone else?
Signed,
A Perplexed Progenitor
________________________________________
Dear Parental Unit,
Do not worry. Your student’s new teacher will drive this lesson home soon enough. The grade that he receives on this paper will say it all. The truth is that a paper that equals a Best Draft in my class will earn only a C or lower in any subject-oriented course. The Revised Drafts and beyond are the ones that will receive the A and B grades. When teachers of other disciplines assign writing projects, they are fully expecting to see the most perfect product that a student can produce, not one of the first two or three drafts that my students hand in.
Writing Foundations is called Writing Foundations because we are working on the FOUNDATIONS (outlines and drafts) of good writing. Only after a student becomes adept at and automatically uses outlines, drafts, and stylistic techniques will s/he be able to earn good grades on essays or reports in other classes.
Tell your son that if he earns good grades on his papers in other classes, he can rejoice that he will never have to take a boot camp-ish writing class like mine again. However, whether or not he aces the tests, if he receives poor grades on his papers in literature, history, or science class, he will automatically be assigned to a remedial writing class like Freshman Comp. It’s true! I can guarantee that the teacher of that writing class will not trade stickers for chocolate or wear hamburger buns on her ears! Even worse, the teacher’s name will probably be Professor Fuddy Duddy!
So relax, Perplexed One. If your student misses the boat on this first assignment, the big red C- (or worse) will wake him up. He will quickly learn to use the foundational skills he practiced in my classes to avoid any more unpleasant surprises or required consequences!
Sincerely,
Ms. B.