Because it is all too easy to (accidentally) make assumptions about what first-year students know about language, in 2019-2020 my lit and comp type courses will begin with a segment on language, before moving on to sentences, paragraphs, and essays.

Our exploration of language will start by jumping into a story, to help us identify the 8 parts of speech. These parts of speech are the building blocks of — a) every sentence we think, speak, and write; b) the stories we read and watch; c) the way we describe how stories impact us; and d) the critical thinking we do about stories and their impacts.

The day 1 prep sheet story is the film Hidden Figures. Maybe we need to help students visualize the ways that language moves through stories like Hidden Figures?