Tiny Teaching Stories: It's 'bleh' today

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headshot of louise olivier.jpgToday's Tiny Teaching Story is by Louise Olivier, faculty lecturer at Yorkville University.  

 

 

 

 

It's 'bleh' today

I was tidying my desk, waiting for class to begin, when I heard a soft, familiar voice: "Nobody asks me if I'm 'yeh', 'meh,' or 'bleh' anymore. Please ask me." A former student, stopping by, holding out their heart in three simple words. I'd used this check-in as a casual ritual, unaware of its quiet power. In that moment, I realised what felt like a small routine to me had become a lifeline for them. They wanted to be seen, heard – even briefly. I now ask every time. It's no longer a habit. It's a promise of being and belonging.

 

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About the Author
Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed writing programs for more than thirty years, now teaches in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. She has also created three films—Shaped by Writing, Across the Drafts, and Beyond the Red Ink—to bring the voices of student writers into a larger discussion about writing instruction. Nancy Sommers is currently the coauthor of Diana Hacker’s best-selling handbooks: The Bedford Handbook, A Writer’s Reference, Rules for Writers, A Pocket Style Manual, and Writer’s Help (see hackerhandbooks.com). Her newest instructor resource, Responding to Student Writers, offers a model for thinking about response as a dialogue between students and teachers.