When she began teaching, one instructor thought everything had to come from her. It took a couple of years before she understood that what students themselves bring to the experience is instrumental--even vital--in helping them connect with what happens in the classroom. In their freshman composition journals, students produced writing based on modes such as narration, description, comparison/contrast, persuasion, process, and the like. They struggled to make what they wanted to say fit the modes, and the instructor watched them subvert their ideas in deference to the form. Students obviously had stories to tell, their own stories, so the instructor put her blinders on, went with story, and tried a course called "The Story of My Life." The course was based on the reading and writing of autobiography--a way to validate the variety of personal stories in journals and essays. And the modes? Allow the students to stick to the ideas. Now the personal, family, and life knowledge flows from the students connecting to the classroom and the reading and writing of the course. The goal is for them to learn that their own stories are important, that identifying themselves and their experiences with the literature will make it theirs. (CR)