Tickle-me-Kerouac

First revelation about writing assignments: it takes a long time. Perhaps almost as long as actually answering the assignment.

Anyway, I think that I have a good idea. It’s basically an exploratory essay with a narrative bent. Sorry, but I’m a narrative type of guy. I pity the kids who have the bad luck to draw my class, but I’m going to at least try and tickle their story-telling parts.

Inspiration for my assignment, as part of my road trip theme:
“The best teacher is experience and not through someone's distorted point of view.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Of course, Kerouac is no prophet and we’ll certainly be moving from ‘experience’ toward analyzing and synthesizing the works and experiences of others. But I like the idea of writing as a journey, as our class as a journey, life as a journey. Somewhat meta.

Plus, kids like talking about themselves. Hell, I like talking about myself. It’s probably when I’m at my happiest.

Hardest part of writing this assignment: the grading part. I’m dissatisfied with mine. I think my students could be frustrated by its vagueness. But I feel like I lack the experience and the perspective of a larger grading system to be more explicit about the expectations for grading.

It’s all so hard. Let’s just all get A’s and eat Froot Loops.