The Next Masterclass Begins This Coming Monday

Yesterday morning, I worked yet again with the English department from Chicago that I have mentioned previously. We looked at a few diagnostic pieces of writing from their juniors. These were pieces of writing that students wrote prior to their teachers starting my Masterclass.

Here’s some of the compositional tendencies we noted:

·        Introductory paragraphs of up to 28 sentences long (without a thesis)

·        Introductory paragraphs of 14 sentences long with the thesis repeated three times

·        One sentence introductory paragraphs

·        Five sentence body paragraphs with very little to no textual support or analysis

·        Plot heavy paragraphs that read like Cliff Note summations

·        Wayward and convoluted lines of reasoning

·        Circuitous reasoning that got stuck in the mud of the generative phase of development

I’m sure that this is par for the course for many of you when you finally build up the courage to sit down to grade a heaping stack of essays.

Our students are all over the place in their writing.

But it doesn’t need to be this way, especially given what we know about templates and heuristics.

Students need scaffolds and perimeters, clear models and exemplars that allow them to flourish and mature as writers. Further, they need for us to position ourselves at the center of the classroom as the expert writers. We are the Bob Ross’s of composition in that we “paint” with our students as they work their way through each essay. Using workable and simple templates, we help support our student writers until they’ve attained full fluency.

My friends from Chicago are offering a summer institute to interested students. Within this model, they are experimenting with my methods and techniques. What they are beginning to see is the demystification of the writing process – three simple templates that can be used across the expository modes every single time to produce some wonderful writing. Students get the big “IT” of composition when we can simplify the process and make something that is messy and organic and knotty accessible and comprehensive. That’s the beauty of the syllogistic method and the declarative and inverted thesis.

As I mentioned yesterday, we are offering our next Masterclass from July 12^th – 16^th. We will begin each day at 11 a.m. EST on Zoom and go until noon for the duration of the course. 

If you’d like to learn more about the ins and outs of the Masterclass, please reach out. You can also browse my webpage at www.teachinghow2write.com.

Happy teaching and happy writing!

Kristian