Other students' responses help students gauge whether they are expressing themselves clearly. Discussing how one's thesis is related to one's personal response illustrates to students how personal response and bias must be recognized before one can contribute to historical analysis. Small group discussions also alleviate student fears about speaking in larger groups by familiarizing the student with the rest of the students in class. Every week, students write in class a paragraph related to each of the assigned primary and secondary texts. Many of the in-class writings deal with the issue of the medieval author and audience, and what author, audience, and text reveal about the culture and environment of that time.
Students discuss what they wrote in pairs, small and large groups.
The instructor collects all the paragraphs and returns them with extensive comments. These writing exercises are sometimes incorporated into the process of writing short papers. The in-class paragraphs give students the opportunity to work on writing skills and get feedback from the instructor on a weekly basis. The instructor begins the semester by assigning several of personal-response paragraphs, then points out the aspect of the audience to whom the paragraphs are written. In-class writings help students get started on their essays, build their writing skills, and contribute to class discussion.