Many English teachers weave a college essay component into their senior curriculum. But if you require students to submit a completed college essay, one that you review and return with commentary and maybe even a grade, a percentage of your students are going to treat it like just another homework assignment. I know, because students tell me all the time that they wrote a college essay in their English class the night before it was due. Those students waste a valuable opportunity, and you have to review their essays that might not ever see their college applications. Here are two alternatives:
1. Instead of giving them an assignment, make them an offer. Tell them you’d be happy to review their college essay and to give them feedback, but they have to submit it to you by a specified date. It’s mostly semantics, but it makes a difference. Now it’s not a homework assignment—its’ an above-and-beyond offer to help them apply to college. Sure, some will still complete their essays the night before, but at least their hearts will be in it. The students who submit their essays to you will be doing it because they really want your feedback.
Or…
2. If you prefer to require students to submit an essay, invite each student to pick one 500-600 word (that’s the typical word-limit for long essays) essay prompt from a college of their choice. They have to submit it to you by the due date, and the essay must contain both the prompt and the word limit at the top of the page. Now the exercise is real. They get to pick the college. They get to pick the essay. And they know that this essay is the very same one they will eventually be submitting with their application. I’ve found that students take this much more seriously when the deadlines are approaching. They’ll appreciate and benefit from the feedback even more. And you’ll get more (well-deserved) credit from parents for being there when the student really needed help.
If you’d like more ideas, check out my essay curriculum, Story Finders: How Counselors and Teachers Can Help Students Write Better College Essays (Without Helping Too Much).