The Basic Writers Among Us

I've been putting off writing this post for awhile now, almost two weeks, and I wonder, why? Probably because I am so busy dealing with the basic-writer reality that I don't have as much time to sit down and write about that reality (though I am obliged to do as much).

And perhaps it is because I am conflicted about who basic writers are. Our class discussion certainly proved that "basic" is relative. It was good of Jake and John to remind us that Harvard, as well as IUPUI, as well as nearly other higher education institution, has a group they consider basic writers (even if they do not term them such). Can these writers possibly be the same? I sincerely doubt it--a Harvard (or other prestigious-league college) basic writer might be the same as my IUPUI "average-level" writer--might even be more skilled than some of them. What makes someone "basic" in a situation depends on the level of skill desired from them ultimately. So this whole game of terming "basics" is a grand game of relativism.

The relativism continues at IUPUI, in part because students self-place into their first-year writing course. As one student reminded me this semester when we were discussing social class, people tend to opt for the middle so they don't stand out or think too much or too little of themselves. I think that's a really astute observation, and I'd like to extend its application to IUPUI writing placement. Students don't want to call attention to themselves, so they opt for the middle, "regular guy" choice--W131. And they can pretty well hide in the middle, until it's time to turn in any kind of writing to the instructor and suddenly, the jig is up.

"Hey, you're a basic writer!"

Not that I would ever say that. Not that I could. The realization is essentially only for me, and now I'm scrambling to figure out how to cope with the new reality that half of my class is struggling with writing.

And that's what I'd like to avoid. I scramble, now, because I'm new to teaching and I've never before had to cope with the discovery of an unanticipated, altered reality (at least not in the context of a writing class I'm teaching).

So what can a teacher do? I'm considering developing a survey or some kind of assessment tool to help me understand where my students are at before I even begin the semester. This would be for the first day. Yes, asking for a writing sample is good (this is what I was instructed to do as a new W131 teacher), but it's limited. I'd like to know more about the students' backgrounds--what have they been taught? what do they like to write? what do they hate to write? what are their working definitions of different (often misunderstood) terms like "revision"? etc etc. I'm still thinking about this, but something has to be done up front to discover more quickly where students are, so I can more effectively cope with it.

The next question becomes, what happens when you have 24 kids, some just barely making sense on the page and some ready to move up to the more advanced considerations of writing?

(I acknowledge that this post is a "well, duh" for some of the veteran teachers. It's not for me, not because I wasn't cognizant that this mixed-level reality wasn't possible, but because it's actually, finally, happening to me and I really do need to make decisions about how to cope. That is all.)