Quintana Narrative Essay Assignment Sheet

The first major assignment for my 2100 class is a narrative essay. The majority of my students are non-native speakers and have expressed great anxiety over composing a formal essay, so I wanted to provide them with a somewhat relaxed first assignment that would allow them to be creative and to write about a topic they are already well-acquainted with: themselves. My hope is that this assignment will foster their writing fluency, so to speak, and better prepare them for later assignments that involve more rigorous research and writing. Additionally, many of my students have been extremely reluctant to participate in class discussion, and it is my hope that in composing their narrative essay, these students will feel more confident in themselves as writers and therefore more comfortable speaking in class.
As for discussion topics, I am interested in presenting on “Students’ Right to Their Own Language (and Identities).” However, given the primacy that this issue has held in my class so far, I would also be interested in presenting on active student participation in the classroom.