Tag: Students

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Unpacking The Student’s Prayer

Every semester, I start each class by having my students say aloud the following prayer:

O Creator of all things, true source of light and wisdom, origin of all being, graciously let a ray of your light penetrate the darkness of our understanding. Take from us the double darkness in which we have been born, an obscurity of sin and ignorance. Give us a keen understanding, a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally. Grant us the talent of being exact in our explanations and the ability to express ourselves with thoroughness and charm. Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in the completion. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Every semester I find new truth in it. This is what I’ve been telling students about the prayer yesterday and today as the spring semester begins…

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The Best Class

On the first day of my Brit Lit I survey, I typically give my students the following writing prompt:

08.24 Best Class

The answers are remarkable. First, hardly anyone ever chooses something that applies to their major. Second, they always mention the teacher. Third, there’s a pattern of rewriting the script: they take a class they don’t think they will like and end up loving it.

Some of those classes include:

  • A college survey of the Old Testament
  • A high school course on children’s literature
  • An AP Us History course
  • A management/leadership course
  • A high school physics course
  • A senior AP Calculus course
  • A freshman writing-about-literature course

Here’s my takeaway. A Brit Lit course can make a difference in these students’ lives, even if they never take another English class.

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The Most Important Work I Did Yesterday

Yesterday, I taught Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in my British lit survey and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in my Shakespeare survey. I worked out a two-sided page outline for each class that included performances, class discussions, writing exercises, and engagement with secondary sources. This was not even close to the most important work I did yesterday. Continue reading “The Most Important Work I Did Yesterday”