Who are Basic Writing Students?

This works:
On the first or second day of class I have my writing students write me a letter with the prompt:

Tell me whatever you think I should know about you?

The answers range from personal passages to simple stories about their education. Pouring over this first piece of writing is one of my favorite parts about the beginning of the semester. Listening to and critiquing students' realities can lead to self-reflection and critical consciousness of differences as an increased sense of agency for students and teachers.

In her article, "Revisiting the Promise of Students' Rights to their own Language: Pedagogical Strategies," Valerie Kinloch proposes that "writing teachers are responsible for what our teaching does to the self-image and the self-esteem of our students"(2).

One of the proposed pieces for developmental writing is to spend time helping students develop their ability to read and write texts. Teaching critical and deep reading skills, which I refer to as micro-reading, is a must in developmental writing. Devoting a class period to proper study skills is also something that I have discovered helps the students teach one another. Students can learn from other students. What helps you to be a successful student? Pose the question and spend the hour having the students teach one another.

Teaching reading and response strategies should be done during the second-third weeks of class. Giving the students a strong foundation to stand on will ensure success, or at least help them realize that their is a common starting point for growth.

I keep coming back to the idea of having students read a non-fiction piece of writing, a book, so that we can discuss what writing looks like. It might be nice to gather in, literally circle in, once a week and discuss writing, which after all, is the discipline that we are trying to teach. If students believe that we care what they think, and what their thoughts and reactions to texts are, then this will surely empower them to believe that they are a meaningful piece of the classroom community. Maybe the deeper question is Who are basic writing teachers?