Rhiannon Goad's blog

ProTip: Always Assign “Shitty First Drafts”

Rhiannon Goad — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 18:46:33 +0000

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Rhiannon Goad

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If you’ve had the pleasure to read it then you probably teach it.

Our sister site, the DWRL Lesson Plans Library, is full of all kinds of gems. But my most successful lesson plan is too simple for me to post over there. Directions: (1) assign Anne Lamott’s "Shitty First Drafts" from from Bird by Bird, (2) watch your students as they start to think about writing as process rather than product, and (3) prepare yourself for “this-is-why-I-do-this” feels.

Lamott's short essay discusses overcoming insecurities through revision, failure as a means to success. It’s funny account of perfectionism, an honest reflection on process.

After assigning this essay, you’ll immediately see an improvement in your students' writing. Over the upcoming months, you’ll start to see a real change in how some students approach writing altogether.

I’ve lost count of how many times students remarked, often weeks after I initially assigned it, that “Shitty First Drafts” totally changed the way perceive the task of writing or that it helped them imagine themselves as writers. Recently, I had a former student tell me that reading "Shitty First Drafts" helpd him deal with some pretty serious anxiety when it came to writing essays.

Not convinced? Conider these two passages:

Students always point out this one: “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much. We do not think that she has a rich inner life or that God likes her or can even stand her.” #amen

My personal favorite: “The whole thing would be so long and incoherent and hideous that for the rest of the day I'd obsess about getting creamed by a car before I could write a decent second draft. I'd worry that people would read what I'd written and believe that the accident had really been a suicide, that I had panicked because my talent was waning and my mind was shot.” #same

Try it. Let me know how it works out for you.

Creating a Safe(r) Classroom for Trans* Students

Rhiannon Goad — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 17:16:08 +0000

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Rhiannon Goad

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Students With a Mission: NASA Puts the 'Can Do' Project in Orbit. National Geographic Magazine, August 1994, Vol.186, Issue 2.

“The bottom line is that legal names ‘out’ folks who are trans* all the time.”

I believe that most of us here at the DWRL want to create safes space for trans* students. Unfortunately, creating a safe classroom isn’t always the most intuitive practice--especially when it’s so easy to stay blissfully ignorant about cisgender privilege. Personally, I’ve never intended to make trans* students uncomfortable. Still, as I think back to my experiences as a TA and AI, I can’t help but notice things I could have done better. Regardless of intention, that’s not cool. One of the things I could have done better? Roll call.

For a lot of us, having our legal first-name broadcast to the world is nbd, if not mildly obnoxious. However, for some, legal names are linked to exposure and potential violence. Especially for a trans* student whose preferred name isn’t their legal name. There’s no way for a student to use their “preferred name” through the UT system. So what you see on your roster is a legal name, not a preferred name. This makes the common practice of reading out your roster and asking students to tell you their preferred name a risky practice. Especially for a student whose legal name connotes a different gender than their preferred name. As Shane O. Whalley, Education coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Center puts it, “The bottom line is that legal names ‘out’ folks who are trans* all the time.”

As instructors, coupling a student in our classroom with their first name via their UT student records is mandatory. It’s how we report grades, failure reports, look up contact information, and a bunch of other important stuff. What’s a well-meaning educator to do?

First: It’s a good practice to assume that you have trans* students at any and all the time. Likewise, it’s a good practice to treat all students with dignity and respect. This means not playing the role of gender detective, but rather approaching the issue of names in a careful and thoughtful way all the time.

Second: Never post your official UT rooster for all students to see. Don’t call out names. Likewise, don’t push students to tell you if the University has them using a different first name in earshot of other students.

Finally: Have a better strategy. Consider using a sign-in sheet that asks for student’s for their information in a discrete way (remember to ask for both name and UT ID so you can keep your administrative records in order.) Last semester, I used an online survey to gather students information, where students introduced themselves in class and completed a Google Survey outside of class. Everyone responded. My survey asked students their major and email alongside their preferred name and gender pronoun. If you go this route, make sure that the settings secure so that only you can see students’ responses (duh.)

Striving to make the classroom safe for trans* students doesn't end with roll call, but changing up how we address students is a good place to start. Balancing this stuff isn’t easy but, and I hope we’re all on the same page with this, there’s no other option. To help us out, there’s loads of other good resources from the Gender and Sexuality Center.

How to use Google Docs for Assignment Submission and Organization

Rhiannon Goad — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 20:03:17 +0000

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Rhiannon Goad

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Google Doodle, First Day of School 2011 - Estonia, Poland, Russia

Despite my best efforts, I’m a sloppy person with an extremely limited capacity for not losing things. Fortunately, Google Docs provides an easy way for me to organize students’ assignments. Below I outline how to use Google Docs for assignment submission.

Directions for you

1. Using Google Drive, create a Google form for assignment submission. You can set up one submission form for the entire semester or send out a different form for each assignment. Personally, I use the same survey for all assignments because… laziness. You do you.

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2. From here you can paste an embedded link to your fancy pants webpage or send via email.

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Responses generate in a spreadsheet. Here, that spreadsheet is named “assignments for fall 2013.”

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3. Open your spreadsheet and marvel at the beauty of it all. To view a student’s work, click on the link. You could even create a column to track grading. Guys, spreadsheets: truly truly truly outrageous.

Directions for them

1. Students must use a Gmail or UT email account. Since the university requires all students to have an official UT email account, this should not be a problem. Using a Google account, students must create or upload their assignments using Google drive.

Rhiannon Goad's blog

ProTip: Always Assign “Shitty First Drafts”

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Creating a Safe(r) Classroom for Trans* Students

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How to use Google Docs for Assignment Submission and Organization

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