October 10, 2012 Dear Christopher, How are you, friend? I assume teaching is still going well?

We will surely need to catch up some time soon because we will have to discuss more on the topic of my freshman advanced writing class with professor Ingram. I have been in this advanced writing class for half of a semester and I have already learned how to think on my own more and how to really inquire into a subject much deeper which allows deeper thought and a better answer of the inquiry. From teaching methods to various assignments, Professor Ingram has taught me various techniques to expand my knowledge of academic writing. In these weeks thus far, we have been working on various assignments to answer the question of what it means to inquire because if one wants to write academically, he or she must learn how to inquire first. To introduce her class to defining inquiry, Professor Ingram had the class all split up into groups of equal numbers which is designed to help each classmate participate more by allowing them to discuss in front of peers instead of a teacher. I think this is a very important step in the students development because often a student will be more likely to ask that one question he or she holds back during a normal full-class discussion. This often leads to another inquiry and deeper into the subject; therefore, promoting more thought and discussion to each individual student and also to create a foundation of critical thinking so that each student may deepen his or her own intellectual growth. I was able to personally experience the intellectual growth from these small group discussions after the first couple of classes because our first discussion topic was to define inquiry. Seeing the huge intellectual

growth just from being proactive and formulating questions, I realized the importance of small group teaching techniques that require each student to take responsibility for ones learning. An assignment that helped me to grow intellectually and that I think you should utilize in your classroom, was Professor Ingrams, Whats It Like To Be You, essay. After completing this essay and accompanying class and group work, I am able to see how this simple assignment is much deeper and thought provoking then I had thought. This simple assignment to write an essay that describes what it is to be you was the initial push that started the snowball-like effect of my intellectual growth. Also after finishing this assignment, it came clear that this assignment was not only an essay to strengthen our writing techniques, but also to help develop each students own foundation of the inquiry process. The inquiry process is the composing of different thoughts and raised questions to examine a topic close enough to form an academic opinion. This process takes more than one step because you really have to test each student to branch out beyond his or her comfort zone. To truly test each student, Professor Ingram allowed us to write about the topic without further instruction. On the due date of the first draft, it was each students responsibility to take control of his or her own intellectual growth because we immediately went into our small group discussions. These discussions started with the instruction to not worry about grammar or sentence structure, but to focus on content and what could be added to clarify. Secondly, each student was required to read aloud his own essay while the other students in the group were required to follow along, make advice, and write comments. This process was extremely

helpful because it requires participation in each group member which again promotes not only ones responsibility to increase his or her learning but also his or her independent inquiry skills. In my opinion, independent inquiry growth is the key factor in intellectual growth and maturity which subsequently leads to growth in academic writing. The entire reason I can give you my recommendation of this teaching-technique is because I have had personal experience of progress in these short months that I have been in Professor Ingrams class. My intelligence has grown exponentially due to the participation that is required by this teaching-technique, and the fact that I cannot complete the minimal amount like I have previously done gives each student no choice but to take control of his or own learning. With directions and help along the way, the group discussions and critical thinking that is required in these intellectual discussion inquiries. Even though I have much more to learn in the academic writing field, the intellectual growth and my maturity to be held responsible for my own learning has increased tremendously with this discussion-based, critical-thinking advanced writing class. I think that you should think about possibly incorporating some of this technique into your English class. We will have to get together again soon and discuss how independent-inquiry growth can and will lead to academic writing growth and overall intellectual growth. Lets plan on meeting up sometime this month, and I will bring a few assignment and some notes about how to lead these types of discussion forums. Hope all is well, James Mitchell