So much curriculum writing this summer, right? Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave me much time for my actual fun, fiction writing. Fortunately, I am one of those strange people who loves writing curriculum. Good thing I’m in the education profession, right? After my first son was born, writing middle school language arts curriculum was my part-time, work-from-home job.
I had taken three full semesters off from the community college where I teach to deal with some health issues. (Public Service Announcement: Lyme disease is real and unpleasant. Always check for ticks after you spend time in a wooded area.) This upcoming semester I will be teaching EN101, online, as a seven-week course.
Teaching at a community college is equal parts difficult and rewarding. It’s rewarding to offer classes to the general community, those that aren’t necessarily college-bound, those that didn’t graduate with a high (or even decent) GPA.Those that can count the number of positive memories or academic success stories from high school on one hand. But that’s also the reason it can be difficult; often my students are juggling many other things outside my classroom. Jobs (some of them full-time). Families. Low income lives that have them in affordable housing many miles outside of town with cars that barely run and sometimes don’t start at all. In the seated classroom, regular attendance is difficult. Even with an online class, consistently meeting the demands of weekly deadlines can just be too much. It is typical in my EN101 classes to begin the semester with 25 students…and end up with 17 at the end of the semester.
Now I’ve been challenged to take my typical 15 week class and smush it down into a mere 7 weeks. And it’s not as easy as simply doubling up the workload. Writing is a process, takes time, has necessary steps. In my previous EN101 classes, the research essay took 4-5 weeks. And I needed every one of those steps, those individual deadlines to walk them through the process: choosing a topic, evaluating sources, creating a thesis, performing research, crafting a rough draft, working through revision, submitting a final draft. Currently I’m scratching my head at how that entire process can be condensed to 2-3 weeks.
In my 25 years of teaching, I have come to understand writing as a process so much more than simply a product. But grades and report cards and state standards and limited time force writing as a product to take precedence. I have fought it as much as I can in my own collegiate classroom, but in only seven weeks, I’m not sure how much space there is for any process at all. I fear my semester will be one of writing a draft, offering a quick revision and submitting a final draft.
That brings me back to the current moment: attempting to plan a 7-week EN101 course which is meaningful and engaging and doesn’t overwhelm my community college students to the point where most of them find they have no choice but to drop out.
Wish me luck.