I am still behind, and currently prepping for a potential hurricane hitting Georgetown. Just an aside – We have issues with offensive sports collectives (nicknames), but we trivialize potentially disastrous weather events. The closest professional sports teams are the Panthers (fine) and the Hurricanes (not fine).
I digress. Let’s hit the lounge.
SENIORITIS – Anxiety Stage
Senioritis is real. After April break, most seniors will do as little work as possible to keep acceptable grades while tapping heavily into the social events that highlight the end of their high school careers. I completely understand, and I was amenable to their condition.
I will revisit this later in the year. What I am discussing today, is the anxiety of the college application process and our role, as educators, in that process.
The start of senioritis.
Recommendation Letters
Although there have been strides to limit these archaic, but necessary, missives, teachers of college-bound juniors are inundated with these requests before summer break and immediately at the start of the school year.
Most colleges want a recommendation from an English teacher, preferably in the student’s junior year. At GHS, we have gone to a full-year mandatory composition course during junior year. That’s right. If you teach three sections of the course, you could potentially have over 60 students asking for college recommendations.
From personal experience, I write original letters. No templates. Each letter took between 45 minutes to an hour, just to draft it. I would then have a colleague review it, and then spend another half an hour trying to figure out how to load it to Naviance for review. Seems like, once again, teachers are doing other people’s work. Early in my career, I wrote 26 letters one fall. My recommendation (see what I did there) is to take on no more than 10.
It is okay to refuse a student, but what is the alternative? I know many of my colleagues write over 10, and burn the midnight oil to do so. This is where the concept of a calling comes into play. Most teachers will go above and beyond for their students, but is this the best use of their time.
I understand the necessity of seeing a student in totality, but how much weight do these letters even hold? Furthermore, even a top school like mine should not be sending 95% of its population to higher education. There is nothing more important than a quality education, but we need to redefine what that means.
Providing other avenues and opportunities would limit the application pool, and offer students, who have misgivings about the cost and practicality of college ,can use the fall to self-reflect and make the most of their final structured year.
High schools are still at the mercy of higher education. The deadlines come sooner and sooner, and the students stress over the entire process. Should I go early decision? Should I go early action? What’s the difference?
What I am saying, is that the process needs to become a bit more balanced. All admissions should be rolling, allowing the students to choose when and if they want to apply. I understand that the college needs to review thousands of applications and establish their incoming class, but this seems to be more business than education, and ironically, it is precluding their accepted candidates from focusing on their education.
Who are You?
Another major part of the “anxiety stage” of senioritis is the completion of the college admission essay. Much like the questions above, students stress out about coming up with an idea and producing an effective college essay.
During the aforementioned English 11 composition course, I spent considerable time teaching my students how to focus their lives into an incident, an impacting idea or experience.
Sadly, many of these students are asked to provide a work of personal expression that reveals who they are outside of their transcript, but few have figured that out.
After a summer break, they are different people, and they will be different people after a full year. The student that applies may be quite different from the one that is accepted, and certainly different when they step onto campus.
Idea Generation
Who?
Like any other writing assignment, treat it like an opportunity. This will also allow your students who don’t plan on attending college to write with purpose and power.
How does one tap into their core values, their essence?
- Journaling. If you provide an opportunity to free-write and journal, not only will the occasions be authentic, it will be a wellspring for ideas that matter to the individual
- Bio-pio. I use a pie graph as a vessel and I ask them to fill it with all of the “roles” they play during an average day (son/daughter, teammate, student, reader, artist). I then ask them to weight them in terms of percentage of time or importance
- I also have them word web called a cluster of influence. They are at the center, and then they link all of the outside resources who have played a role in their development. These do not have to be solely people. They can be events, classroom lessons, movies, etc.
These allow the student to start developing the WHO?
WHAT?
- Have the students create a timeline of major activities in their lives. Have them focus more on recent years, but once again, the idea is to rate the impact. With high schoolers a list will do, but I like the idea of creating a timeline because it can visually produce patterns of importance
- Take 5. This is just a list of questions that create an inventory of experience (Subscribe to get the list)
These allow the student to understand WHAT they have done.
WHY?
- The most important aspect is the why. This will provide the best focus and most relevant information to the admission committee.
- I accomplish the why by having them write an auto biographical loop. Looping is free-writing without pause for 5 minutes. The student then chooses something (a line, a feeling even) from that and writes with that focus for another 5. I use 15-minutes. 3 blurbs, but you can extend it if you want. This drills down to the subconscious, the core.
- I also ask open-ended statements (My happiest day are…; School is). I read them out loud and ask the students to complete them immediately. Once again, this takes away the pretense of getting the “right” or “expected” answer. I provide a hard copy of the prompts after the exercise is completed.
Once they have a list of topics in different categories, the key is to have them look across categories. If there is a person, experience, hobby that crosses all three (who, what, why) then that is a good starting point for an essay.
I hold conferences with all of my students just to discuss the content and form of multiple ideas, then we get to writing.
P’s. Point of Pellucidity
Your vs. You’re
Aside from being a funny comeback from Ross to Rachel during one of their frequent break-ups on Friends, this usage issue is also one of my biggest pet peeves.
Your is a possessive adjective. I am looking forward to your party. I like your dress.
You’re is a contraction of you are. You’re my best friend. You’re struggling with your grammar.
The former example of you’re is the one I saw most often written incorrectly in student writing.
PREVIEW
Next week, I will provide more direction on teaching the college admissions essay
and discuss why introductions are like ice cream cones.
Two more days before a long weekend. Stay strong.
Love and laughter.
P.