Blog Response Week 2

Week #2 Reading Post: Inventing Possibilities By Writing Into the Future and Being A Contribution

The compelling idea that stood out in reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander was the assignment of having students write letters into the future as a requirement for earning an A. This activity takes me to one that I do with my freshman students:

During the final week of school, I ask students to write a letter into the future that they will read as a graduating senior. I suggest that they speak about goals, reflect on the past year, reminisce or a combination of those. I promise not to read them. The Zander activity is similar. Students write to themselves in past tense about their future. But this is where a major break happens.

Whereas, my intentions are for students to set goals to measure themselves and to reflect on past experiences for self-improvement, the Zander method challenges students to see the selves they want to become in the present. Whereas, my students assess themselves for growth and change by reading their letters from three years ago, the Zander method works as a teacher/student assessment to determine which path will exact the growth needed to change now.

This gave me pause to consider that I am expecting my students to singlehandedly invent themselves based on a set of standards, when I should align with them on knocking down the barriers that block the infinite possibilities that are before them. My assignment, then, should occur 10 months earlier with a new intent on students “inventing” themselves based on their future self – validations.

In a few weeks I will be teaching an experimental writing course for incoming freshmen. One of the things that I will try is giving them an “A” and making their initial writing assignments the “A” letter and observations on “Being A Contribution.” One of the things that I most enjoyed about Film Making Principles and Gaming class was the release of pressure I felt. Kathy would assign AAA (Absolute “A” Assignments) and Dr. Dan would just have us play games. Even without the pressure, I ironically dug deeper and challenged myself creatively. I think that this can work for my future students.

2 comments:

Karen Gearns said...

Ishia, You just gave me a new first week activity for my classes. I have two letter writing assignments I do with students. One I assign the first week of school where students tell me about themselves. The second I do the last week of school where students write to incoming freshmen to give them advice on how to be successful in high school. I teach at an alternative high school where all of my students have had some obstacle that brought them to our school. Many of them feel like they have failed because they did not complete their career in a traditional setting. The assignment to write to incoming freshmen is meant to put them in the role of expert where they can help someone from their experiences. This fall I will be adding the letter you described based on what you gleaned from The Art of Possibility. My students will write a letter to themselves in the past about their future. They will talk about what they have accomplished and how they got to those accomplishments. It is interesting that while I read the same four chapters you did, the letter assignment did not jump out at me until I read your blog post. Thanks for helping me see the light.

June 11, 2011 11:49 AM

Taylor Stoker said...

I think that the write a future letter is a good idea as well and it's cool that you have done this before I read about it in this book. I am a very recent graduate from college and in all of my education courses we learned about non traditional grading and the negativity of standardized testing