I. Do a joint brainstorming session on "successful student"; do not give gender/ethnicity--keep it as neutral as possible.
Students invariably paint the portrait of a white male nerd, and suggest he is from middle or upper class.
II. Ask them where this image comes from? Point out the "punishment" our culture suggests "successful" students receive--unpopular, boring lives, objects of fun.
III. Have them fill in the gaps--what's missing from this portrait of success? What about family, work, friends, etc.
IV. Help them redefine "success." Ask what G.P.A. is necessary for transfer, what G.P.A. do they need to make them competitive for transfer, do extracurricular activities help?
V. Have them do individual lists of their strong subjects; have them list the areas they are weak in. What sources of help are available on campus? in the classroom?
VI. Have them list the different aspects of their lives--work/family/social activities/academic--and fill in time allotted per day, per week. Have them prioritize and determine what is necessary for balance.
READING/WRITING/CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS
Reading: I teach "So Tsi-Fai" by Sophronia Liu, an essay about a young boy in China who is older than the other students, has family responsibilities, is rebellious toward the teacher and blows his last chance to qualify for further education. As a result, he kills himself. We do role-playing and a mock trial; doing this exercise first makes students more careful about the way they judge the roles of his teacher, his peer, his parents, and himself and more careful about solutions and alternatives.
Writing: I ask students to do journal entries on the insiders/outsiders in high school; what qualities define each group? and I ask them to predict how each group would perform in college? Classroom: This exercise helps me to stress the students' individual responsibility for his/her learning and the necessity for students to break out of the high school vision. But to help them make this transition, I build in deadlines for each project and make sure each student has individual responsibility--a journal assignment; a group work assignment; pre-writing due dates, draft due dates; writing workshops that depend upon participation of all class members. More importantly, introducing this subject early on allows me to have frank, private discussions with students who miss these sequential steps, allows me to talk about time management and ask them what's stopping them from completing things, what their past experience in meeting deadlines has been, etc.
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