Another Hallaluyah Moment

Today, my Tues/Thurs class did its thing again of sitting at the edge of its seat and making germane comments that put everything in a larger context, revealing the shape of the class I had intended all along has been communicated to them. You may remember that I put off having peer review so I could back up and discuss the secondary sources and the difference between exposition and argument and why they were being asked to write this paper anyhow. And it all apparently got through today, as it clearly didn't yesterday, to the MW group. While the other group got something out of the discussion, this group is now following, avidly, and raring to go on to Foucault and the next paper. They are ready, many of them anyhow, for the challenge. This is not to say that lurking at the back of the room there are not silent souls who are sinking rapidly beneath the waves of the semester. That is clear from their homework, or lack thereof. There was one guy, for example, who from the very first day, was so clearly not prepared for this class that I was tempted to tell him to go to some other college and take Writing 1 or its equivalent over again, not for credit, so he would be ready for the next class. Since I know I cannot do that, I warned him he would need extra help to do well in the class, and to sign up for Wr. 180 and possibly a reading class. He signed up for 180, and told me he never asks anyone for help, but just sits there and does his homework. I guess you cannot help someone who doesn't get what you are trying to say. I am pretty direct with him, because I need to be, though I worry about his feelings. If I tiptoe around the issue, he doesn't hear me.