Thesis Monday

Image Credit: Colorful note papers on a wall

Theme

My blog features my experiences as a writing teacher. Therefore, the theme for this repeatable feature blog post is centered on one of the major activities of writing essays, namely thesis statement and editing it.

This blog post will appear every other Monday because we perform this activity during every paper cycle. In the course of one semester, students write four papers and revise their rough drafts for many times.

Good morning!

The most attractive thing on a Monday morning is the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Somewhat sad thought is that the weekend is over so soon. The next idea about the thesis and editing workshop pulls me back to the real world, and immediately I find myself standing on my feet.

Hello Class, It’s Thesis Day

The early morning classes have a singular problem that the majority of the students are still struggling against their sleep. The first issue is to engage their interest because they all know that today we are going to work on forming a thesis statement and editing it. My experience has informed me that most of them have this preconceived notion that it's difficult. Today, I want to help them overcome this hurdle.

Image Credit: Preparing for a hurdle race

First Step

First, I ask them, "who wants to be a good writer?" I see the majority of them raising their hands, and it is encouraging. Then, I give them this hand out Want to be a Great Writer then don’t Focus on Writing do this Instead. The title in itself is very captivating and I display these two lines from the essay on an overhead.

“Hemingway always wrote in the morning, as soon as the sun rose. Stephen King writes 2,000 words a day, rain or shine.”

The plus point is that most of them are familiar with these authors because sometimes we also visit The American Literary Blog and talk a little about the famous authors.

Colorful Papers

Whenever I do the thesis activity, I take the papers of different colors to class. For instance, yellow, red, green, and blue. These papers add some color and vigor to the dull and grey autumn mornings.

Students write their working thesis statements on those papers and with a piece of tape paste them on the wall. They do not write their names on the paper, and this anonymity makes them comfortable to give their feedback easily and without hesitation.

Art Gallery

When all the students put their papers on the wall, the whole classroom acquires the look of an art gallery. One by one they move around, read each paper critically and write their suggestions on it. This activity gives them a chance to move in the class and shake off their sleepiness. Now everyone is actively participating in the class and helping each other to better their writing.

 

Contemporary research stresses the benefits of hands-on activities to increase learning potential in students. This activity is a form of active learning because students read the thesis statements, analyze them, and give their suggestions for improvement.

After completion of this exercise, I ask each student to bring their paper to me one by one. I read their thesis statements and the comments of their peers, which are also anonymous. After reading them, I discuss the thesis statement with the student and give my suggestion.

Once Upon a Time, Not so Long Ago!

A couple of semesters ago, I did the same activity in class. Students enthusiastically participated in it. After completion of the whole exercise, I asked them to bring me their papers one by one. On the first one, "bravo" was written twice. The next few were "kudos for writing such a strong thesis," "wonderful," "excellent work," and "keep up the good work." There were tons of exclamation marks on every paper. After reading all this, I thought that what kind of active learning is this? Though the correct use of the word “kudos” sort of impressed me.

Fixing the Situation

At that particular day which was not so long ago, after looking at students work I walked to the board and wrote the following bullet points:

1-    Exchange your paper with the student sitting next to you.

2-    Read the thesis statement twice.

3-    Take a blank paper of a different color from the one you are editing and write your feedback.

Notice these points:

1-    Has the student used the words "I argue" at the beginning of the thesis statement to distinguish his/her ideas from the other authors? (Students were working with two sources)

2-    Are the students repeating other authors arguments? If this is the case suggest/discuss how can he/she add their own opinion to the thesis statement.

3-    Point out and help in fixing the grammatical errors.

The final step:

Bring your new paper to me for my suggestions.

Outcome:

Although this whole exercise took two class periods, the outcome was amazing. Students learned how to craft thesis statements and edit them properly.

As Paulo Freire famously said that “we learn from our student as they learn from us.” Similarly, form my experience mentioned above, I learned that before introducing any learning activity in class always give students detailed instructions.

  

It’s Monday!

Today, at the end of class I am happy to notice positive progress in the writings of my students. I am looking forward hopefully to the next Monday when we will do the editing workshop of their rough drafts. I know, in the morning I will again say “oh it is Monday already,” but the very idea of teaching will put a smile on my face.

I would really appreciate it if other teachers suggest and share some activities for thesis statement and editing workshops.