My students turned in their very first paper last week. As a teacher, it was easy to forget about the anxiousness that inevitably comes when a student turns in an essay. I was shocked at my students' questioning when I collected the essays: "Miss Morreim, do you think you'll get those done by tomorrow?" They weren't asking out of annoyance or impatience; their raised eyebrows and wide eyes betrayed them. They were worried about what I would think.
This raises a couple of questions for me. One, what is their experience with grades? Is it simply: if the teacher likes them enough, they will receive an "A" for that essay? Second, do they believe writing to be that subjective? They were relieved as I reminded them about the rubric; it shows them clearly what they'll be graded on and what constitutes an A, B, and so on. I also reminded them that I would not dock them points for something that I hadn't taught them yet - to which one student replied, "Thank you!"
The biggest question is this: how can I show my students that what really matters in the grand scheme of life is if they're proud of what they've written? What I wanted to ask them was, "Well, what do YOU think about it? Are you proud of it? Does this reflect who you are?" I want my kids to write things they'd be proud to hang on their refrigerator. I want them to write in a way that makes them not worry about what the teacher thinks. I want them to write about what they love, to write about things passionately, to write with purpose and with a desire to get better at the craft; and maybe, just maybe, along the way, to find a piece of themselves they didn't know existed.
