Different Facets

Broz's article about graphic responses to literature resonated on a meaningful level with me. It's funny, though, because I'm actually pretty confident in my own writing abilities. However, I know plenty of my friends are not. Because I'm an English major, I'm normally the go to guy for my friends when they have issues figuring out how to do essays and research papers, though I absolutely abhor the latter of the two. Regardless, it upsets me to see all of these people so doubtful about their own prowess at writing to the point that they actually sabotage themselves before they even begin. My girlfriend and my best friend both know, down to their core, that they're bad writers, and feel as though they'll never get better at it. I find that a huge shame, because, and I've shown them several times, they are only making minor errors that could be rectified quite easily. Unfortunately, they're just stuck in the mindset that that's as good as they can do, and hate writing because of it. However, they both absolutely excel at more creative elements, being able to ace any sort of project or assignment that is sort of outside the box.

This is where I feel Broz's ideas come into play. Too often have I seen teachers use the five paragraph essay for any and everything they're going to assess. Even my senior project in high school, which was a project based on our vocation, was graded more on the paper than on the actual project itself. I had a friend who literally took scrap from a junkyard and built a working car engine from scratch, only to barely pass with a D because his paper wasn't "up to par". Man, I was furious for him, but he was already in the mindset that that's as good as he deserved. I remember feeling bad for him and thinking, what could I have done to help him? Well, I may not have been able to help him, but I hope that I can learn from my, and others, experiences and be able to use different types of medias to assess my students. Broz's example of the young man and his drawings on the deer skin is exactly what I'm getting at. Some students are not good test takers, some aren't the most creative, and some aren't, or at least think they are not, good writers. I feel like it's necessary to attempt to cater, at least somewhat, to these students, to let them know that, just because they aren't "up to par" in certain regards, they aren't irredeemable outcasts.