Thinking English

Mutual Expectations

Classrooms, like many intricate relationships, are built around expectations. Naturally, you have expectations for me regarding how I will interact with you, how I will teach, what will be taught, etc. In return, I have expectations for you pertaining to how you will apply yourself in my class, how you will interact with me and so on.

In an effort to take some of the guessing out of our relationship, here are my expectations for you as student in my class. In addition, here also is what you can expect from me as a student in my class. Although both you and I are fallible, I trust that knowing what to expect from each other will be of great assistance in creating the desired reality.

What You Can Expect from Me

• You can expect me not to degrade your writing either orally or in writing.
• You can expect me to help you with your writing, but not to write it for you or to develop your ideas.
• You can expect me to respect you as a writer no matter how good or how bad you think your writing is.
• You can expect me to take everything you write seriously and to enjoy reading your writing.
• You can expect constructive feedback on papers that I return to you.
• You can expect me to create a safe environment for you to write in and to share your writing.
• You can expect me to respect any thoughts, feelings and/or emotions that are shared in your writing because I know writing is very personal.
• You can expect me to keep your writing confidential unless I ask your permission to share it. (Except for times when I am legally bound to discuss what you have written with a parent, administrator or counselor.)
• You can expect me not to determine your grade based on whether you applied my opinions to the writing of your paper. Your writing grades will be determined based on your ability to complete papers as instructed and on how your writing improves throughout the course.
• You can expect that reading is as important in this class as writing.
• You can expect respect from me in all things and on all occasions.
• You can expect that I will treat all students the same regardless of gender, age, appearance, social class, sexual orientation and religious beliefs.
• You can expect that multiculturalism will be supported in my classroom and that intolerance will not be acceptable.

What I Expect From You

• I expect you to use the Writing Process.
• I expect you to spend time and effort both in writing your paper and improving your drafts.
• I expect you to enjoy your writing and to creatively write your papers in a way that you think best addresses the paper topic.
• I expect you to respect the writing of your fellow students.
• I expect you to thoughtfully help other students to revise and edit their papers.
• I expect your writing to improve throughout the course of the year.
• I expect you to carefully read everything that I assign to you.
• I expect you to actively participate in class discussions
• I expect you to take charge of your education.
• I expect you to turn all assignments in on time.
• I expect you to be willing to try new things and to test out new ideas.
• I expect you to respect your classmates and the ideas they express in class.
• I expect you to treat me with respect at all times.
• I expect you to be open-minded and fair to help create a classroom community based on mutual acceptance.