Basic Writing Instructors' Expectations

As a Basic Writing instructor, my initial expectation would be quite elementary: that students know their language. As I have come to understand from this course, such an expectation is already too much--most students in the Basic Writing classroom do not know their language. Understanding that, my first expectation is blown away. Second, I would expect that students who do not know their language (and who are there to learn it better), would be eager to learn! Again, from this course I have learned that such an expectation, that students be willing to learn and grow as writers, is over-shot. Perhaps third I would expect that students' writing abilities improve over the course of the semester; this, too, is expecting too much. Not all students will improve.

If I have learned anything about expectation from this course, it is simply not to expect. Or to expect the unexpected and that Basic Writers will be basic writers.