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Language Arts

Playing Toss With Textbooks

by Lois Greene Stone

‘‘Writing Suggestions for...’’ appear after each textbook reading selection that I must assign. It’s easier to insist English Composition textbook topics be used. But ‘easier’ isn’t tapping into either students’ creative processes or their emotional reactions.

When I was in school, I wanted to respond to textbook readings based on my personality and experiences. Teachers, however, wanted conformity. I knew, once I became a teacher, that I’d discover my students as they actually learned about themselves via their reactions with written words. I believed then as I do now that ‘‘writing suggestions’’ assigned in mandatory books didn’t allow for any individual revelation or expression.

I decided assigned readings were only for classroom discussion, yet I adhered to required curriculum, like process analysis and narration. I offered such topics: (1) stalling your car’s engine in traffic (2) racing from shower to answer phone (3) getting a bicycle flat tire two miles from home (3) making a date, then answering a phone call from the person you really wanted to go out with that same night (4) having your name in local newspaper, but it’s misspelled (5) swinging and missing the ball with baseball bat, or golf club, or tennis racquet. Sometimes I’d list 20 possibilities.

Reflection, for example, took on a fresh form with my essay questions such as (1) how does it feel to realize that you’ll never grow any taller (2) how did you feel when called names and then someone sang the ‘‘sticks and stones’’ ditty which you knew wasn’t true (3) is Happy Birthday a happy day?

The only no-choice theme I ever gave was for each to write an essay titled ‘‘winners make ordinary people feel uncomfortable’’. Unused to a single topic, the students realized this was a powerful phrase, and a lot of self-searching had to take place. I asked my students to think about why pretty, talented, and intelligent girls are often disliked, or why a brainy guy who also plays the old-man’s game of golf is made fun of as an athlete. With some hesitation at first, many found they actually wanted to explore and to discuss this phrase.

In addition to writing essays on unusual subjects, we studied Mark Twain’s "Two Ways of Seeing a River". I asked my students if they thought his essay was only a comparison/contrast piece. I explained that Twain’s writing in the first-person is familiar as our conversations, letters, diaries are done that way. The ‘‘I was there’’ adds credibility to an essay, whereas the third-person viewpoint gives a reader a detached perspective, yet a greater range.

My students were then required to select a topic from one of my long choices, write half a page, in the first-person as a funny incident, then take the same incident and write it as humiliating, or frustrating, or even frightening. I asked them to do the same in the third-person. The instant reader-identification was noticed when the "I" rather than "he/she" was used.

‘‘Writing suggestions’’ don’t allow individuals to realize their lives have many views. Instead, offer unusual yet universal essay questions. Tap into your students’ creative processes and look forward to reading their works.

Lois Greene Stone, writer and poet, has been syndicated worldwide. Poetry and personal essays have been included in hard & softcover book anthologies. Collections of her personal items/ photos/ memorabilia are in major museums including twelve different divisions of The Smithsonian.