assignment #26 - here ya go - taylor galavotti

heyo! i just want to say thanks for keeping your class a respite from the drudgery that was junior year.  we consistently got off topic but it was for the betterment of our brains i think. being able to think creatively was one of the greatest aspects of your class. i thoroughly enjoyed the freedom you allowed us in our writing and honestly these blog posts that gave me a chance to write about whatever pretty much whenever. i also enjoyed grading essays during class when debate and discussion could be facilitated because we were in a group setting but i don't think spending class time to grade essays in silence was the best use of our time because we weren't making the most of the resource that was most abundant: each other.

reviewing the benchmarks at the beginning of each timed writing was helpful in working towards what AP was looking for but i think the grading of essays slowly became subjective to the reader. as in "if i liked this essay, it gets a 6," or "this essay was boring because it was so thorough so i'm giving it less points." i'm not quite sure how that can be combatted except using the rubric to back up everything you say in class, especially the grading.

apart from that, i found many activities to be helpful in class, especially the socratic seminars and the Writing with Style book. you should definitely continue those into the next year.

at the risk of sounding like a brown-nosing suck up, thank you again. your class was very helpful for me in developing my style and voice outside of the "norm" of rhetorical analysis essay and the creative outlets you provided were greatly appreciated.