Four Quick Essay Tips to Get to Know Your Students

By Quanisha Charles

As educators of English language learners, the need to learn more about students, ways in which to support their academic endeavors, and how to make their educational experience memorable, is always a top priority. The concept of getting to know students is often discussed as an orientation strategy or icebreaker tactic to employ at the beginning of the semester or during the first week of classes. This sort of mindset can lead to students feeling unsupported by their teacher or that their teacher just does not understand them or their situation(s). This does not have to be the case because getting to know students is an ongoing endeavor. Below comprises four essay tips first-year writing teachers of adults and advanced learners can employ to get to know more about their students and enhance their literacy skills.

Narrative Essay
1. What’s This: Narratives are a great way for students to demonstrate creative thinking and effective written communication. Narratives are also an excellent way to share one’s lived experience because it illustrates a point and captures readers’ interest about an event or a series of events, such as how it relates to one’s literacy journey, cultural background, religious beliefs, racial identity, and so forth. At some point in life, there will be a need to make a point, clarify an idea, support an argument, or capture the audience’s attention, and a narrative can allow that to happen academically.
2. Try This: In 2-3 pages, ask students to write a narrative that tells a meaningful story about a cultural community to which they belong. Explain that their story should present actions, details, and events that build toward a climax. Provide example prompts for students, e.g., Write a narrative regarding one of your most memorable celebrations of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Encourage students to use their heritage language and provide translation for a broader audience. Have students conclude their essay by illustrating how the conflict of the narrative was resolved along with any new revelations or realizations.
3. Remember This: Challenge students to define unfamiliar terms that are unknown or not commonly spoken in the English language. Reflect on this writing practice by having students discuss challenges when translating from their heritage language to the English language. Help students transform their essay into a visual presentation, e.g., PowerPoint, for greater clarity. Increase visual literacy by asking students to bring to class an artifact pertinent to the narrative.
Compare and Contrast Essay
1. What’s This: Like the narrative, the compare and contrast paper allow for students to demonstrate creativity and writing efficacy, but it also taps into students’ perspective on how they view their home culture vs. school culture, the U.S. vs. their home country, the English language vs. their heritage language, or any topics students would like to further discover.
2. Try This: In 2-3 pages, ask students to write a compare and contrast essay that examines both similarities and differences about English language education in their home country vs. the U.S. Explain that their readership comprises individuals who deeply want to understand the benefits of learning the English language in their home country. Request library instruction at your institution and practice research-based tasks that help students locate and annotate at least four sources (2 focused on U.S. education and 2 focused on their home country education system). Encourage students to find missing information within the sources and attempt to bridge the gap by highlighting ways in which the education system can be more effective for English language learners.
3. Remember This: Suggest that students begin their essay with a personal anecdote to demonstrate their connection to developing English literacy. Doing so provides insight for a greater analysis from personal experiences rather than historical accounts. While historical accounts increase credibility, having students see their journey and literacy development across contexts enables a more authentic approach to learning. If time permits, help students transform their essay into a visual presentation, e.g., PowerPoint, for greater clarity and insight of English language learning across contexts. Challenge students to highlight or further elaborate on changes they would like to see improved within both educational systems for a greater learning impact.
Process Analysis Essay
1. What’s This: The process analysis enables students to demonstrate their expertise by teaching their readers how to do or be something representative and significant to their culture. This essay helps students think more logically (and critically) about ways to showcase things of interest to them and/or others. Students also carefully consider something that they commonly do within their cultural context that they can teach someone else.
2. Try This: In 2-3 pages, ask students to explain how something works or is done in their home culture. Ensure that students choose a topic that they are skillfully familiar with or knowledgeable about to ensure a step-by-step guide for readers. Students must also anticipate complications with their process and offer solutions. Provide example prompts, e.g., How to cook kimchi chamchi bokkeumbap (fried rice mixed with spicy cabbage, tuna, and vegetables). This essay really gives readers an insight on a students’ lifestyle, hobbies, and even transferable skill sets that may be conducive to literacy development both inside and outside of the classroom.
3. Remember This: Recommend that students contextualize the essay by first sharing an outline of what they plan to write about and its significance. If students struggle with finding significance in their process, then it is probably not something they are skilled in or really care about. Also, create classroom practices for whole class assessments wherein students can ask questions about the process, seek clarity of terminology, significance in background information, and more. Guided peer reviews and the inclusion of imagery to incorporate into the essay are highly encouraged.
Argumentative Essay
1. What’s This: Argumentative essays promote critical thinking, problem-solving skills, inductive and/or deductive reasoning, an awareness of current affairs in the students’ home country, and more. Argumentative essays can be flexible, and classroom tasks can center debate engagements, book clubs, research endeavors, and institutional change. Argumentative essays present an opportunity for students to share their concerns in a college-wide forum to inform and persuade about problems, advocate for support, and grow strategies that work towards solving problems both in their home community and within the U.S.
2. Try this: In 2-3 pages, ask students to identify a problem or issue that they currently experience as an international student or an issue that is happening in their cultural community requiring a resolution. Students are to identify causes, effects, and solutions to the problem, and then highlight consequences for overlooking their proposed solutions. Students are to clearly explain how their problems are impacting their lived experiences personally, professionally, and academically. Suggest students interview other students (both domestic and international) to first determine whether there is a pattern of this problem or if this issue is an easy fix. Encourage students to use sources to research the problem and prospective solutions on a larger scale and to do a cost-benefit analysis for critical examination of their proposed solutions.
3. Remember This: Argumentative essays may require practicing of tasks and definition of terms, e.g., what are problem-solving skills? How to assess critical thinking? Consider scaffolding the essay into sections and introducing rhetorical analyses that consider points of persuasion. Review concepts like inductive and deductive reasoning and incorporate role-play scenarios for students to practice.

While these essays are a great way to learn more about students entering first-year writing courses, it is also necessary to provide many student examples, scoring rubrics, guide sheets, and in-class demonstrations to ensure students understand the assignments. For example, the narrative essay, while seemingly easy to do, may be a new genre to some students. Teachers may need to define and explain terms (like dialog and climax), genre expectations and characteristics, strategies for spotting the climax, ways to capture events with characters in dialog, or how to write sequentially in chronological order. One learning tool I have utilized to assist is Quizlet, an online resource to make learning simple and fun. Quizlet makes it easy for students to self-assess their understanding of genre characteristics by learning terminology via flashcards and matching. Students can also self-study outside of the classroom and collaborate with classmates. I hope these four quick essay tips help you to both get to know your students and make writing worthwhile.

Quanisha Charles, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English at North Central College. She teaches international first-year writing seminar and language study courses. In addition to her teaching role, she serves as a first-gen faculty mentor and on the international program committee.


Four Quick Essay Tips to Get to Know Your Students By Quanisha Charles As educators of English language learners, the need to learn more about students, ways in which to support their academic endeavors, and how to make their educational experience memorable, is always a top priority. The concept of getting to know students is often discussed as an orientation strategy or icebreaker tactic to employ at the beginning of the semester or during the first week of classes. This sort of mindset can lead to students feeling unsupported by their teacher or that their teacher just does not understand them or their situation(s). This does not have to be the case because getting to know students is an ongoing endeavor. Below comprises four essay tips first-year writing teachers of adults and advanced learners can employ to get to know more about their students and enhance their literacy skills. Narrative Essay What’s This: Narratives are a great way for students to demonstrate creative thinking and effective written communication. Narratives are also an excellent way to share one’s lived experience because it illustrates a point and captures readers’ interest about an event or a series of events, such as how it relates to one’s literacy journey, cultural background, religious beliefs, racial identity, and so forth. At some point in life, there will be a need to make a point, clarify an idea, support an argument, or capture the audience’s attention, and a narrative can allow that to happen academically. Try This: In 2-3 pages, ask students to write a narrative that tells a meaningful story about a cultural community to which they belong. Explain that their story should present actions, details, and events that build toward a climax. Provide example prompts for students, e.g., Write a narrative regarding one of your most memorable celebrations of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Encourage students to use their heritage language and provide translation for a broader audience. Have students conclude their essay by illustrating how the conflict of the narrative was resolved along with any new revelations or realizations. Remember This: Challenge students to define unfamiliar terms that are unknown or not commonly spoken in the English language. Reflect on this writing practice by having students discuss challenges when translating from their heritage language to the English language. Help students transform their essay into a visual presentation, e.g., PowerPoint, for greater clarity. Increase visual literacy by asking students to bring to class an artifact pertinent to the narrative. Compare and Contrast Essay What’s This: Like the narrative, the compare and contrast paper allow for students to demonstrate creativity and writing efficacy, but it also taps into students’ perspective on how they view their home culture vs. school culture, the U.S. vs. their home country, the English language vs. their heritage language, or any topics students would like to further discover. Try This: In 2-3 pages, ask students to write a compare and contrast essay that examines both similarities and differences about English language education in their home country vs. the U.S. Explain that their readership comprises individuals who deeply want to understand the benefits of learning the English language in their home country. Request library instruction at your institution and practice research-based tasks that help students locate and annotate at least four sources (2 focused on U.S. education and 2 focused on their home country education system). Encourage students to find missing information within the sources and attempt to bridge the gap by highlighting ways in which the education system can be more effective for English language learners. Remember This: Suggest that students begin their essay with a personal anecdote to demonstrate their connection to developing English literacy. Doing so provides insight for a greater analysis from personal experiences rather than historical accounts. While historical accounts increase credibility, having students see their journey and literacy development across contexts enables a more authentic approach to learning. If time permits, help students transform their essay into a visual presentation, e.g., PowerPoint, for greater clarity and insight of English language learning across contexts. Challenge students to highlight or further elaborate on changes they would like to see improved within both educational systems for a greater learning impact. Process Analysis Essay What’s This: The process analysis enables students to demonstrate their expertise by teaching their readers how to do or be something representative and significant to their culture. This essay helps students think more logically (and critically) about ways to showcase things of interest to them and/or others. Students also carefully consider something that they commonly do within their cultural context that they can teach someone else. Try This: In 2-3 pages, ask students to explain how something works or is done in their home culture. Ensure that students choose a topic that they are skillfully familiar with or knowledgeable about to ensure a step-by-step guide for readers. Students must also anticipate complications with their process and offer solutions. Provide example prompts, e.g., How to cook kimchi chamchi bokkeumbap (fried rice mixed with spicy cabbage, tuna, and vegetables). This essay really gives readers an insight on a students’ lifestyle, hobbies, and even transferable skill sets that may be conducive to literacy development both inside and outside of the classroom. Remember This: Recommend that students contextualize the essay by first sharing an outline of what they plan to write about and its significance. If students struggle with finding significance in their process, then it is probably not something they are skilled in or really care about. Also, create classroom practices for whole class assessments wherein students can ask questions about the process, seek clarity of terminology, significance in background information, and more. Guided peer reviews and the inclusion of imagery to incorporate into the essay are highly encouraged. Argumentative Essay What’s This: Argumentative essays promote critical thinking, problem-solving skills, inductive and/or deductive reasoning, an awareness of current affairs in the students’ home country, and more. Argumentative essays can be flexible, and classroom tasks can center debate engagements, book clubs, research endeavors, and institutional change. Argumentative essays present an opportunity for students to share their concerns in a college-wide forum to inform and persuade about problems, advocate for support, and grow strategies that work towards solving problems both in their home community and within the U.S. Try this: In 2-3 pages, ask students to identify a problem or issue that they currently experience as an international student or an issue that is happening in their cultural community requiring a resolution. Students are to identify causes, effects, and solutions to the problem, and then highlight consequences for overlooking their proposed solutions. Students are to clearly explain how their problems are impacting their lived experiences personally, professionally, and academically. Suggest students interview other students (both domestic and international) to first determine whether there is a pattern of this problem or if this issue is an easy fix. Encourage students to use sources to research the problem and prospective solutions on a larger scale and to do a cost-benefit analysis for critical examination of their proposed solutions. Remember This: Argumentative essays may require practicing of tasks and definition of terms, e.g., what are problem-solving skills? How to assess critical thinking? Consider scaffolding the essay into sections and introducing rhetorical analyses that consider points of persuasion. Review concepts like inductive and deductive reasoning and incorporate role-play scenarios for students to practice. While these essays are a great way to learn more about students entering first-year writing courses, it is also necessary to provide many student examples, scoring rubrics, guide sheets, and in-class demonstrations to ensure students understand the assignments. For example, the narrative essay, while seemingly easy to do, may be a new genre to some students. Teachers may need to define and explain terms (like dialog and climax), genre expectations and characteristics, strategies for spotting the climax, ways to capture events with characters in dialog, or how to write sequentially in chronological order. One learning tool I have utilized to assist is Quizlet, an online resource to make learning simple and fun. Quizlet makes it easy for students to self-assess their understanding of genre characteristics by learning terminology via flashcards and matching. Students can also self-study outside of the classroom and collaborate with classmates. I hope these four quick essay tips help you to both get to know your students and make writing worthwhile. Quanisha Charles, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English at North Central College. She teaches international first-year writing seminar and language study courses. In addition to her teaching role, she serves as a first-gen faculty mentor and on the international program committee.
Spring 2024 (2) - Spring 2024