This post has a strong connection to my previous post. Durring my most ideological meditations about the impacts this class could have on one of my students, my thoughts turn more often towards thinking rather than writing. I want my students to leave my classroom with strong skills for critical thinking. As I said in my previous post, critical thinking starts when students begin to view the world as more than just the world that is right in front of their noses. This changed vision leads to more thinking…which leads to more questions being asked…which leads to, somewhere down the road, critical thinking .

I believe, and hope, one of the most powerful impacts of a course like our English 101 course is that students learn how to think critically about their world. Even though the course is given the title of “first-year writing”, I believe that students could learn to be writers by learning to be critical thinkers first. In our 513 class we have repeatedly discussed the fact that there is no true “writing in general”. That genre does not exist. Because of that, this class will ultimately fail if we try to teach to fit the type of writing that every individual student needs to succeed in college and life. This class can avoid that failure, and in my opinion succeed, if we focus on teaching our students how to critically think, question and analyze. When they leave our courses knowing how to critically think, analyze, and question, they then have the skill set that will enable them to critically write no matter what discipline.

That is why my Death Minutes exists. It is an activity done every class. The questions are not yes or no. Furthermore, I refuse to accept responses that are not developed. No one-sentence replies. Pick and pry. Dig. Students know that shallow answers are followed up with clarifying questions from me. If that is the only area of my class where students are putting in effort, then I know there will be some positive impact from ENG 101.