What, you mean I was right all along?

This morning's classes left me wondering whether I ought to laugh, cry, or run screaming from the room, but I've calmed down enough to do a little reflecting on reflections.

For their final low-stakes writing assignment of the semester, I asked my freshman writing students to reflect on what they've learned about writing this semester, how their writing process has changed, and what they still need to know. Several students didn't turn in these reflection papers, consistent with their behavior throughout the semester, but those who did the brief assignment had all kinds of interesting things to say, from "No one ever told me how to evaluate sources before" to "this class helped me write better lab reports." (We don't do anything about lab reports. Not sure how that happened.)

The comment that showed up more often than any other concerned the regular writing assignments students have to do for my class. They write five formal essays (one in class under time pressure, the rest out of class with drafts), but they also complete frequent low-stakes writing assignments that aren't graded but accumulate points toward their homework score. On the first day of class I point out that they'll be writing, on average, about 1000 words each week for my class, which makes them gasp or roll their eyes or gripe about "busywork," but I also promise them that all that exercise will improve their writing not just in my class but in others. 

They never believe me--not at first. Today, though, I read their end-of-the-semester reflections and saw, over and over again, the same story: "I thought I would hate doing all that writing but then I started to enjoy it and it definitely made me a better writer." More than one even said something like this: "I hated writing before I took this class and I still hate it but I'm better at it."

I hate to say "I told you so," but I wish I could get these students to pass the word to my next freshman writing class!