So Long and Thanks For All the Fish!

So, I don't know if anyone will even read this blog again, but I wanted to write a post and tell you all thanks for all your help and ideas and support. This has been a crazy year--for all of us--and I'm positive I wouldn't have survived if I hadn't had you guys (Dr. Rogers included!) to fall back on for questions and comeraderie and commiseration! Thanks again!! And good luck Tamar--we'll miss you next year!

Now that I am wise and all-knowing... :)

I'm probably going to sound like I'm just echoing what the rest of you have said, but I agree with so much of what you've written.

I wish I had been less timid and apologetic at the beginning of the semester. This is always the case with new situations--I want to glide in and do everything confidently and smoothly, but I usually start out shaking in my shoes. I was sure they would see through me and know what a fraud I was, but they didn't! (Or at least if they did, they never called my bluff).

I also wish I had agonized less about grading those first few reading responses--I pulled a couple of all-nighters to get them done because I was trying to be so thorough. It was a learning experience, though, so in a way I don't regret the time spent.

I also wish I had known better how to guide class discussion in a way that made them think more critically about the reading material. I definitely got better at that as the class went on.

I wish I had known how many I would "lose"--like you guys, I was shocked at how many people just stopped coming to class, or stopped turning things in, or didn't take advantage of opportunities to make things up. Somehow I thought they would all pull it together in the end.

I wish I could go back and teach some things more thoroughly, and not stress so much about others.

Finally, I wish I had known that some people were actually *enjoying* the class--I felt that they were all muttering under their breath about things I was asking them to do, but many of them actually appreciated learning the things they did. I had one student come talk to me in the Writing Center yesterday and tell me this was his second time taking 1010, and that this time around he learned all the things he wished he had learned the first time. Another student gave me a hug and told me she appreciated the time I had spent with her outside of class, and that she felt like now she knew how to write this type of paper, where at the beginning of the class she didn't have a clue. These students really made my day (especially after a 7-hour shift of craziness and stress in the Writing Center!).

I Wish I Had Known Everything

I wish I had known everything I know now! One of the most confusing experiences at the beginning of the semester was not knowing what I was teaching and why. I did not have the readings done. I did not have the benefit of discussing the readings. I did not know why I was reading and discussing with my students. Maybe I'm a little slow, but the first few weeks I wondered how what we were doing in class would translate into composition.

Of course, I know now that we were reading so the students would have topics to write about. I also know we were discussing to help the students make connections and to think critically about texts. I also know that the classroom interaction was important for them to be able to get comfortable, with me and each other. Now that I have a semester behind me, I have the benefit of seeing how all of the parts of the class fit together as a whole. If I had known that a few months ago, I would have been more confident and less confused!

I also wish I had known how hard it would be to say goodbye to all of my students. When we first met, I was terrified of them and they were terrified of me. Now, we are old friends and I find that the end of the semester is going to be bittersweet. Of course, we all want a break, but the possibility of never seeing any of these kids again breaks my heart.

It has been eye-opening to realize that some of my students do not care. I assumed, even a few weeks ago, that if I cared enough about them and their attendance and their progress that they would then show up for class prepared. I still have a few who come to class to see what is going on, and when it doesn't suit them, they "sneak" out when they think I'm not looking. I wish I had known that their behavior is normal and unchangeable. However, if I had known, I might not have tried so hard with them. Maybe it is a good thing to have high expecations and hopes for students so we can always be willing to help them succeed. I hope my realization that some of the students will hang themselves no matter what does not make me too cynical when it comes to giving everybody a chance to succeed.

A Wish List

I totally agree with Tamar. You can't force students to do anything. (Let's force them to drink--they're containers, right?) I had the hardest time understanding that they didn't really care about their grades like I do, and didn't worry about attending class every day. It baffled me when they didn't take advantage of the extra credit or the re-write options that would have saved some of them.

I wish I had known "they are not me" before I ever walked into the classroom. It would have saved me a lot of stress and frustration on the first assignment. I thought their grades would hit them like an atomic bomb; they barely blinked.

I wish I had known that I couldn't save them all. (I honestly tried!)

I wish I had known better than to give them an inch. They certainly have an instinct for that sort of thing.

I wish I had known that Word 07 has an automatic works cited building function--I wouldn't have wasted an entire day constructing one by hand in class. (It was fun, though).

I wish I had known who owned that nasty water bottle I almost put my lips on.

I wish I had been confident enough to walk in there and "own it" every single day. Sometimes I stumbled, staggered, or choked on my gum. There were days when I felt apologetic. Now I know better.

I wish I'd had a ready plan for how to direct them toward each assignment.

I wish I had known how to operate the overhead, screen, and computer with grace and effortless finesse.

Better luck next time. What an experience! I've loved it, and will really miss these students. (Hey, with half of them failing, I might see one or two again, right?) I have a whole list of things I will do differently next time around. We survived! Here's to a fabulous--and confident--second semester of teaching. Wooo!

You Can't Make Them Drink

I know we were told over and over that the students are not like us and that you can lead them to water but you can't make them drink, but I didn't really understand what that meant until now. I'm not sure how you help teachers to understand that concept, but I wish I could have understood my students a little bit better. I kept wondering if my teaching was the problem, or if I had a bad crop of students, but neither of those things seem to be the case. Finally, at the end of the class, just today I really felt like we were connecting. It's too bad it was my last class and there wasn't much left to say. Even though it was the last day I was still shocked. One of my students who I was sure would show up today and turn in his paper didn't turn it in. I have two students who are close to passing but for some reason just didn't do the last paper. It makes me sad, and still shocks me. I'm not sure I will ever get over their lack of caring.

These are the things I will do differently next time in no particular order:

-Smile more. It was a rough semester and there were tired days. I need to learn how to fake through the tired.
-Steal from Emily and connect with my students through the things they enjoy
-Don't let them get to me. It's their choice not to show up and not to do the work.
-Find some more visual/teaching aids that go along with the essays we read. I didn't do a lot of images with Cinderella or advertising and I think it would make it more interesting for those units
-The class was a lot of discussion which worked sometimes. I would like to see if there are pieces where I could lecture a little and pull in resources from the outside that might spark their interest
-Give them due dates for reading responses. I'm not sure the lack of structure worked in their favor. I can't decide if it hindered them and they forgot about the reading responses or if they would have still failed to turn them in if there were due dates.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure more will pop up when I prep for this class next time. Here's for the first semester of teaching being completed (except for the pile of essays to grade). Woohoo!

Wrapping It All Up

What do you know now that you wish you'd known then?

Don't Tour Guides Get Paid A Lot More?

Okay, first I think Cheyney's story about the library sure tops mine! I only wish I could have experienced such an amazing weekend!

Second, I think that there can be some pretty naive LDS people here who don't realize that not everything will work out happily ever after even if you think it will because you followed all the rules. But in fairness to people in Utah I lived in some communities where LDS people thought that as well and they weren't surrounded by Mormons everywhere. I think people want to believe in something and they become so entrenched that they can't see something else might be okay or something else might be good.

And that leads me to agree with everyone that we have to be tour guides in some way. We don't want to force someone to believe in what we do, and I certainly don't want my students to feel like they have to write something I will agree with for them to get an A. But if we never push them or make them think in a different way how are they going to realize that a single, depressed mother is something that happens with marriage? It's out there and if you never think about it does that make it any less real?

I don't know how to be a tour guide, but I do like Cheyney's idea that you can argue for topics and against topics in an effort to get your students to see both sides. If you make them argue against you there might be an "ah ha" moment when they actually think outside their own demographic. Who knows what you will unleash then?

Even if my teachers were pushing their own agenda I'm glad they made me see another side, and I hope I can do that for some of my students even if it means I'm not helping them find "their one true word" or that I'm being too authoritarian.

Essays

Hi all. I gave Cheyney copies of the 3 essays I'm giving to my students, but I thought I'd share them here with you.

John Taylor Gatto, "Against School" (Harper's, PDF)

Atul Gawande, "Hellhole" (New Yorker, web)

"Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond?" (Atlantic Monthly, web)

Agenda Pushing is Futile

Of course we all have agendas. Fox News does. Oprah does. My mom certainly does. I know I do, even though I try not to. I catch myself forcing my agenda everyday, whether that is for my daughter to love reading, my husband to put his dirty socks in the laundry hamper (not the floor), or my neighbors to agree with me that our mayor stinks because she pushes an agenda I don't agree with. I know I do this, but I really don't want to do this. I want to be free from agenda pushing. I really got sick of it all when I was an undergraduate and my entire family fell apart because of agenda pushing. (Well, my family fell apart long before that, but it all came to an ugly head then.) I consciously decided then to stop judging people (still working on that) and to just let people live their lives. It is much too stressful to try to control others' thoughts, feelings, and actions. It is futile.

So, that's why I figure my students will figure things out for themselves. And, that is why I don't like agendas. But, we all have them. I have definitely pursued a feminist perspective in my class, as did Whitby, with the marriage readings. Many of my students had the same ideas yours did: that they would get married (in the temple) and live happily ever after. Well, I knew this wasn't true (see family crisis above) so I tried to help my students to see the point of view the authors' were taking. The authors were realistic about marriage and family and having children. I like realism. Apparently, however, my students have a few more years of life before they will agree with me. I'm okay with that. I did not get upset or try to push them further. I just gave them my perspective and reaction to the texts and moved on.

My next example is a little off topic, but I am wondering if you, as LDS feminist women and as a transplant to Utah and therefore an observer of LDS culture, would find yourselves as frustrated as I was in this situation. I attended a neighborhood book club a few years ago (yes, trouble already). When I suggested a book, which had a single mother suffering from depression and therefore neglecting her kids in it, the women were in an uproar. They all criticized the character heavily and vowed that nobody ever acted like that and if they did act that way, they had no excuse or reason for doing so. They promoted this perfect ideal of wife and mother, one that always held it together, even when their husband left for another woman (or man!). They absolutely could not empathize with the character nor could they understand her. They did not want to. So, have any of you run into this very naive attitude toward life among LDS people? I just wondered at that book club how many of them would change their feelings in a few years once their husbands left, or they suffered from depression, or their children "strayed." What do you think?

Maybe I was trying to push my agenda and I'm just sore that it didn't take!

End of Semester--Bring on the Phonebook

No--you never can escape agenda as it's everywhere. Even my grandmother has an agenda. BUT my agenda can be to complicate the agendas of everyone else by throwing opposing viewpoints into the mix and giving my students opportunities to adopt stances they would never otherwise consider, even if it is only for five minutes. If they come away with an awareness of agenda, of author manipulation, they're going to be able to think critically about the information around them. So, yes--I'm still sticking with the tour guide approach.

Having said that, choosing the essays that they'll be reading for the final was somewhat problematic for this tour guide. I don't know about all of you, but this is the first time I've even worried about my own ideology being glaringly apparent. I've been sifting through the articles again today, trying to decide which ones reveal too much of my own ideology or maybe those that make me want to scream. (I really don't want to read 20 essays on something that makes me crazy, although I found a great New Yorker article on credit card companies that would be crazy fun.)

And speaking of crazy fun...I spent all day at the library yesterday with the intent of writing my bib essay. Hah. I set up camp on the second floor in the back corner where nobody would find me, but the crazies were out in force and I, apparently, attract them. (Does this sound familiar, Tamar?) An old man sat across from me at 12 p.m., fell asleep, and snored with his mouth aimed at the ceiling for THREE HOURS. I don't think he has any tonsils left. Then there was the boy who answered his phone and carried on an hour-long shouted conversation about lawn aeration and proper lawn equipment--all the while pacing back and forth through the periodicals. I looked up once to see a girl crawling through the shelves with a clipboard, watching me. It was one of my students who hasn't come to class for three weeks--she works in the library, and was practicing evasive maneuvers. I caught her anyway. By far my favorite, though, was the pair of boys who came late in the afternoon and sat right around the corner. One described for the other--in graphic detail--the surgery he'd just had to remove the tissue growth on his eye. It was disgusting, and I was a captive audience. By the end of the day I was praying for someone to come read a phone book out loud, slowly and with emphasis. Oh, yeah. And I decided at 7 p.m. my topic is not going to work after all. It's back to the drawing board...and back to the library.

Tour Guiding

I have to say that I like this idea of the "tour guide," but at some point we have to make decisions about what we're teaching, don't we? And don't those decisions reveal some kind of agenda (political?  social?  cultural?)?  Doesn't our textbook reveal its politics at almost every turn--marriage is not "traditional" and never has been; obedience to authority is problematic; consumerism is troublesome.  Can this even be avoided, considering that even the alternative--to use no text and only focus on student writing--turns out to be embedded in a hopelessly Romantic notion of the author/individual?

Pushing v. Presenting--The Tour Guide Approach

I do think there's a difference between pushing an ideology and presenting one as an alternative viewpoint. Like Whitby I am grateful for the subtle pushing I've had from a number of professors. They have taught me to consider viewpoints I may never have otherwise. But, on the other hand, I have had moments where I've been sitting in a classroom wishing to be anywhere else on the planet while a professor has pushed an ideology as the "only intelligent perspective." Oh, please. I'm great at silent argumentation, and usually get a kick out of contradiction. Sometimes the argumentation helps cement or redefine my own beliefs, and can therefore be considered a value added. At other times it's offensive and needs to be challenged.

I'm an older student (aged--as you know) with life experience and a certain level of stubbornness, yet standing up against someone in authority is still a frightening proposition. Three years ago I disagreed VERY strongly with a professor and walked out of a communications course here at WSU--never to return. Would I have dared do that as a young freshman student? No way. Therein lies the problem: pushing an ideology on the students in a 1010 comp class would be for the most part brutally easy. I've been surprised at how readily they grasp at what they think you want them to believe or say. I've tried really hard to hide my own ideologies this semester--asking them to argue another perspective--any perspective-- frequently during our class discussions. Sometimes I explain that I'm playing devil's advocate--other times I leave them guessing. Like Emily, I don't believe that it is our job to push ideologies. Let's just act as tour guides and let them figure life out on their own. If they can understand that life is full of complicated issues that are worth writing about they'll be better prepared to face the rest of their college career.

From an instructor's perspective, I realize that, to some degree, I am trying to push a certain ideology in class. It's certainly not a religious or political agenda--I'm too conflicted politically to even have an agenda--but I do want my students to look outside their traditionally held beliefs, opinions, and ideas. I think we all do, don't we? Because many of these students come from a fairly conservative background, maybe I do want them to develop a more liberal way of thinking. As a woman, I was certainly appalled by some of the perspectives many of them have on marriage, women, and mothers, and I know I consciously pushed their conversations in a direction that challenged them to think in a different way about their notions of gender roles. Also, as I read their reading responses and in-class writing, I recognize and comment on writing that takes a fresh perspective on an issue. So does this mean I have an agenda?

Throughout my schooling, I have had instructors who subtly and not-so-subtly tried to push one agenda or another on the class, and I actually appreciate the ways that these teachers challenged my thinking. Even if I didn't agree with them, I was challenged to defend my own opinions, and usually gained a better perspective on an issue as a result. My 1010 professor was also my professor for a classical lit class I took the same semester, and she seemed determined to shock these naive Mormon kids into reconsidering many of their basic assumptions. It was the best thing she could have done for me--as an English major, her class made all the difference in the world for how I read and analyzed literature. As far back as sixth grade, having a social studies teacher who had a strong feminist perspective

Is It Really Brainwashing?

First, I agree with Emily. Teachers who favor students to the point of allowing those students to get away with shorter assignments and less work are abusing their authority. Every student should be held to the same standard. A student should not have to agree with a teacher to get a good grade.

But is Hairston really saying that because teachers push their political agendas the students who disagree get a bad grade? Is there an argument that a student must agree with a professor to get a good grade? Just because a professor is teaching a course where he or she pushes an ideology of socialism, or feudalism does not mean that the teacher will punish the students for disagreeing. And won't a class where a different viewpoint is taught open up a students' eyes? Students may or may not learn different viewpoints as they grow up. Isn't our job to help them see some of these viewpoints because isn't going to school part of the growing up process? If they don't learn it in class where else are they going to learn it?

I don't think English instructors should teach classes on social justice, poverty, or policitcal science. They don't have the degrees in that, and if they do then they should apply to teach those courses. I do think that teachers can be a good influence on student views. Teachers can use some of the assigned readings to help students see different viewpoints. This does not mean that the teacher has to push a political ideology, but a teacher is allowed an opinion and I think it does the students good to see some of that opinion and why it has been formed. The classroom should still be an open forum where students feel comfortable sharing their opinions, but shouldn't those opinions be challenged? How will students grow if their viewpoints are never challenged?

Hairston states we should focus on the students' own writing and I disagree with that. Too many students would write about their own experiences without ever exploring something new. We need assigned readings, but not all on the same topic. The readings should be on a variety of topics that will get the students to explore different ideas and realize there are different viewpoints. If the instructor has an opinion, that's great. Just don't give a bad grade because the student disagrees with your opinion.

Brainwashing is Wrong

I think pushing ideology is wrong. After today's reading, I feel even more strongly that it is wrong to use a freshman composition course as a way to brainwash young college kids into thinking the same way that you do. I especially disliked David Bleich, who said that his students' religion is "one of the chief obstacles to their enlightenment" (700). I can admit that my exception to this stems from the fact that I am religious, but I also found his explanation of this statement to be pompous and arrogant. He overestimates his own importance in the world and in the history of the world. He wants his ideology to compete with the students' religions that have existed for hundreds or thousands of years. It is as if he believes what he has to say is more important than what anybody else thinks, feels, or believes. This is a ridiculous notion!

A professor who spends all of his time trying to "convert" his students will miss the entire point of teaching writing. The students should learn to write, regardless of the subject. They should also be taught in an environment that is fair. A teacher who is more concerned about having everybody agree with him will not be fair when it comes to grades or even how the students are treated in the classroom. I have heard of some adjunct faculty here at Weber favoring students that have taken their classes before or students that "worship" them. This may or may not be okay, but it turns out to be bad for everybody if it leads to students who do not agree or "worship" being marginalized and forgotten. In one story, I heard that the instructor lowered the expectations or length of assignments because her favorite student(s) did not finish the work or make as much of an effort as other students. This is wrong. Grades should not be based on whether or not the student is liked by the professor (although this is hard to overcome sometimes). Grades, performance, and learning should be based on the grasp of the subject matter. All students should be held to the same standards. Students who are liked by the professor should not have to do less work than the others, nor should they set the pace for the class.

The subject matter is writing, not politics. I like how we have used essays and social issues to read about and write about in our classes. However, I draw the line at expecting my students to agree with everything they read. I also do not think we should choose the reading based off of what we want our students to "learn" about the world. They will eventually learn in their own time and at their own pace. Although college is a place that can introduce different world views to students, they should not be held to the standard of robotic followers in order to succeed. They will eventually form their own opinions and even understand such ideology more fully when they are older and have reasons to care about politics.

So, I don't agree with brainwashing students. I enjoyed Hairston's essay, and agree with all of it except the assumption that students come to class with experience to write about. I like our reading assignments and discussions. However, I plan to continue walking the fine line between writing about the issues and actually forcing my students to adhere to them. That is not my job.

Pushing Ideology

What do you all think about this issue of pushing ideolology in the classroom?

Drafting Prompts

A few ideas for this week's drafting.

1) What is the issue/topic you've chosen to write about?

2) What kinds of debates are there about this issue?  Why?

3) Who is interested in this issue?  Be as specific as you can.

4) What is the history of this issue? How long has it been around?  

5) What has been written about this issue?  What do these people say?

6) Can the people who are commenting on this issue be placed into any kinds of camps/groups/teams?  What are they?

7) Why is this issue complicated?  Why hasn't it been solved yet?

Form? I Don't Know.

Wow. I have no idea what to write about content and form and teaching it. I don't think I have taught it this semester overtly. I think most of what they have gotten of form has come from reading the essays, and I guess they are only picking that up if they are smart enough to realize that is the point of the essays and if they know how to model writing.

We have talked about thesis statements being at the end of the opening paragraph and how each succeeding paragraph should somehow point back to that thesis. I have pretty much ignored topic sentences. I am just happy if they have a thesis and if the body of the paper remotely ties back into it. Those who did it well got better grades than those who didn't.

I guess I am revealing my naivete and stupidity here. I really don't know a lot about form other than the 5-paragraph essay that can and should be expanded into many more paragraphs.

As to content, that has pretty much been decided for the students with the essays we have read. I am excited to see what they come up with for this last essay. I know they have been itching to pick their own topic, and they seem pretty happy with the freedom to do so. However, I'm sure some of them will come on Tuesday without having yet picked the blog or letter to editor and will therefore having nothing to do in class because they will have no content. What should I do if this happens? I plan to have them start writing with their chosen topic in hand, but if they come unprepared, what do I do? I'm not mean enough to throw them out, but I can't sit them in the back corner and tell them to research when they won't have access to a computer. Any suggestions?

RR Anonymous

I never thought I'd say this, but I love the reading responses. (OK--not when I'm writing them, only when someone else is.) They have been a great way to teach both form and content, all without the students really realizing it. In writing a summary, the students are looking for the author's main point and replicating the form of the writing by touching on the most important points in chronological fashion. In the evaluation section they are looking at what is effective in both form and content--how the author is manipulating them as a reader. The comparison section gives them another opportunity to look at what the author is saying, and how it compares to other essays we have read. The sections differ from one another, teaching the students about purpose, and hey, even rhetorical strategy. Love it.

One of my favorite teaching moments of the semester occurred the day I passed out the requirements for essay #2. Randy complained that he didn't think the assignment was relevant to anything we had been doing, so I asked him what he'd written about in his evaluation section the previous week. It was like the light went on for the whole class (or at least 3/4 of them--the others were asleep). WOOOO! We can do this, people! We've already been doing it! I guess it is that whole "wax on/wax off" thing, eh?

As for the third essay, I've been asking them every day for different organizational plans. Someone volunteers a topic and thesis, or gets it dragged out of them, and then we map it out on the board. Not in great detail, but just general possibilities for examples, possible sources, or possible roadblocks. They seem pretty calm at this point, so I hope this is a sign of confidence and not just complete surrender.

Now if someone would just organize my bib essay for me--and decide on a topic for my thesis--life will be great.

I think It's Ridiculous We're Talking About Ketchup

I have tried teaching form in a number of ways mainly because I think form is the most important point to get to stick. First, in their reading responses I got wrist cramps writing that they need to move from summary to connections to evaluation. I explained what that meant. Then I moved to their essays and we talked about how to write a thesis. What does a thesis consist of, what does it tell the reader and how does it act like a map sentence. Then we talked about conclusions. One day in class a girl asked me "what did you mean when you said my conclusion sounds like a laundry list." I tried to explain she should sum up what her paper talks about in one or two sentences rather than sentence after sentence explaining her topic sentences. "But how do you sum up your paper if you don't list what you talked about?" In desperation I grabbed my jump drive, found an old paper and showed them a conclusion. Granted they didn't know the entire context of my paper, but I explained which parts were summation of the paper topics and which were wrapping up thoughts. That seemed to shut them up.

One day we spent almost half the class talking about transition sentences. One of my students was having a hard time writing transition sentences for her paper and she asked how to do it. So I grabbed examples from the class (I collected their papers) and wrote sentences on the board. We came up with a list of words that they could use to help transition between paragraphs. You know, those transition words that you feel guilty using, but sometimes have to because you can't find anything else to say? We talked about what to put at the end of the paragraph and how to move into the beginning of the next paragraph. I saw her try some of what we talked about in her essay so at least someone listened.

Lately, I've been trying to model. Today we talked about the Ketchup article. I had them find the thesis again and we looked at the conclusion and the different examples Gladwell used throughout the essay to complicate his idea. One of my students snorted when I asked what Gladwell does to complicate his idea. I asked him, "Why are you scoffing?" and he responded, "I think it's ridiculous we're talking about ketchup." I explained to him that we're not talking about ketchup, we're talking about how Gladwell writes and why he writes the way he does. He stopped scoffing, but I don't know if he really got it.

I've been trying really hard to get them to use some of the tools the writers we've read in class use, but I'm not sure they've made that connection yet. I could ask them if they get it, but they'd probably just stare at me as usual.

Yeah, good luck with that...

I just realized I didn't really answer the question on my last blog post, so I'll try to stick to the topic this time...

Because a couple of my students confessed to not knowing how to start on the last essay, I spent part of one class trying to teach form, helping them construct their essays from the ground up. We talked about some of the essential elements of their essays--the big things that I was looking for, like their thesis, transitions, main points--and where those things would fit in that particular essay. I even passed around packs of mini-sticky notes (thanks, Dr. Rogers) and asked them to write their thesis, main ideas, and conclusion on them and work with a partner to arrange them in a satisfactory way.

Main problem: most of my students weren't prepared to do this (they were either sleeping or comatose during the previous class when I asked them to bring their thesis and four or five main ideas to the next class). Still, I was hopeful--I was sure that organization would be so much better this time around. No such luck. In fact, I had so many essays that had really nice, correctly placed thesis statements, but then proceeded (for the next four pages) to summarize in detail the text they were supposed to be analyzing for persuasive language, that I was nearly in tears. I'm still hoping that something stuck, though--and that it just took some time to sink in. I'm counting on that, along with two weeks of fabulous workshopping, to make these final essays fabulous. (Positive thinking, right?)

So can form be taught? Like Emily, I've always just done it without thinking about it, so maybe I'm the wrong person to try to teach it. And so far, my success in teaching it has been minimal. I think, like grammar, form is something that needs to be taught in the context of the essays they're writing, and maybe I need to put together a really great day of workshopping to focus on it. Wish me luck.

Content? Form?

How have you worked to teach both?  Have you run into any problems?  

Trying to Teach Grammar and Punctuation

I have found that they need a lot of help with almost everything. We have covered a lot of comma rules, none of which they remember or use properly. This frustrates me, but I have felt better to know that it takes a lot of repetition and different kinds of presentations on the same rules for them to stick. It is also comforting to know that some academics think that teaching grammar is pointless. It kind of backs me up!

I'm not sure that much of what they struggle with has been strictly "grammar." A lot of it is punctuation. I can also guarantee that none of my students ever found themselves crowned "Spelling Champion" in any grade of middle school or junior high. They mess up phrases like "awful lot," instead saying "offal lot." They also frequently confuse "there" and "their."

We have gone over the infamous comma splice more than any other problem. I have to confess that I expect them to know what I mean when I say "comma splice" or mark "cs" on their reading responses. However, I still have students asking me what it is or why I marked it. One of the best students in my class had problems with it in his last essay. I told him to get help at the Writing Center in my note to him. Being the good student he is, he approached me after class and asked for a mini lesson on comma splices. His words were, "Can you explain to me what a comma splice is again so I can fix it?" He honestly wanted to learn, so that made me feel better despite the fact that I had already given at least twelve mini comma splice lessons over the course of the semester.

The possessive apostrophe is also a problem. We have only had one "formal" talk about this. They seemed to understand, but when I present this stuff to them as a group and ask questions, only the smart ones answer. So, I think I get a false sense of their grasp of the concept. I think, "Wow. They know all the answers. I'm a good and FAST teacher." The truth is, only a few of them are getting it and speaking up. The rest are sitting there hoping they will catch on, thinking about their upcoming weekends, or sleeping.

Curse of the Commas...

Having graded two rounds of essays, I've developed a nice long list of grammar pet peeves that never really bothered me before; now, as I'm reading student writing, I get this nervous twitch whenever pronouns disagree, or when I run into a run-on. Now I know why high school English teachers always look and act a little...well, off.

Seriously, I do start to get frustrated as I grade, because many of the problems are issues we have covered again and again in class, and I have to remind myself that two or three (...or ten...) brief discussions on sentence fragments in class aren't going to entirely eradicate fragments from their writing. Honestly, though, fragments and the which/that, who/whom issues don't bother me as much as problems like shifts in tense and shifts in tone, because those seem to be more difficult to fix and possibly signify a bigger underlying problem (especially tone). Comma issues drive me nuts, if only because I get serious wrist cramps and waste large quantities of ink trying to mark them all. I need to get in the habit of finding patterns in comma errors and then being satisfied with just marking a couple....but I can't help myself...I just...have to...put...commas...in!!! Aaaarghh!

But, again, the sentence-level errors just don't bug me in the same way that problems with organization, ideas, tone, etc. do--essays with more global issues take so much longer to grade because it is harder for me to identify, and then explain to the student, what the real issue is. This gets frustrating when I'm only halfway through a huge stack of papers and it's already 2 in the morning. Here's hoping I get better--and faster--at it. And in the meantime, I'm going to keep marking those commas.

Perfoaming Grammar

My students love fragments. Really. Drives me nuts. After the first paper, I selected a few "excerpts" to put on the overhead. No names, just a paragraph here and there to illustrate the point. We worked through them as a class, first finding the offending fragments and then attaching them to previous sentences, or adding to them to make them complete. While listening in during workshopping for the second paper, I heard a number of students pointing out fragments--so at least a few of them understand the point.

Other than that, I haven't really done any formal class grammar lessons. I've saved that for the individual papers for the most part. I usually pick out the patterns of error, and if more than a couple of students are having the same issue, we'll talk about it as a class. A number of times students have stayed after class to ask about a grammar issue--sometimes from another class--and we've had a good discussion. One student brought his paper from another class because he didn't understand what "passive voice" meant. We started a discussion with a few other students, and then a few more from the next class (Dr. Schwiebert's literature class) joined in. All we needed was the pizza.

I will say this: I think English 1010 has been detrimental to my own grammar skills as I've misspelled two words on the board this week. The students loved that. Good grief. But, hey--if Weber State University can misspell the words on permanent signs (Perfoming Arts), I should be given some slack, right?

Passive Voice and Other Obstacles

At the beginning of the semester I did not have any great plans to teach grammar principles. Then I decided to steal a bit from Emily and maybe talk about one grammar principle a day. Small doses, like vitamins. I began with passive voice and it was so horrifying that I haven't given them a grammar principle since. Instead I've tried to address things as I see them in papers and as we workshop, and I mark them in their papers with the hope that they will recognize what they are doing wrong and correct it. The marking strategy has only worked slightly. Sometimes the mistake gets corrected and sometimes I just keep seeing it. I try not to get discouraged, but when you mark the same thing on a person's paper over and over again it gets frustrating.

Some of the writing principles we've discussed in class are less about grammar and more about organization. We've talked about wordiness in their papers. On their first essays we put papers up on the overhead and worked through sentences. We pointed out where things got wordy, we eliminated unecessary words, and we made sure the idea was clear. I've talked about punctuation a little. I tell them to avoid colons and semi-colons, just because they do not usually use them right. During one workshop day we talked about how to start sentences. One student asked if she could start sentences with "and" or "but" and I told her no because it leads to sentence fragments. We then had a small conversation about sentence fragments.

Just recently we spent quite a bit of time working on finding the thesis and topic sentence. I wanted to prove a point so I asked my students to find the thesis in one of the articles we read. They all pointed out sentences at the end of the article, so I had to direct them back to the beginning. They had no idea where the thesis was. Then I asked them to find the topic sentence in one of the paragraphs and all of them guessed sentences from the middle of the paragraph to the end of the paragraph. Not one of them thought to look at the beginning. I had to spend a little bit of time addressing the purpose of a topic sentence and where it is supposed to go. I plan on spending some time working through that when we begin workshopping.

I think the next time I teach this class I want to steal from my fellow students. I like the idea of using my students' own papers as examples on the overhead of bad grammar, or even as examples of good grammar. I think that will help them recognize what they are doing wrong.

Grammar

What kinds of grammar issues have you found yourself needing to teach?

Grades, Life, and Near Death

I still only have 13 essays. Hmph. The excuses, I've noticed, tend to fall into one of three categories: 1. computer/printer catastrophes; 2. romance/marriage catastrophes; or 3. health/wellness catastrophes. I'm not thoroughly jaded because I still believe most of them.

The 13 papers I graded improved drastically from the first. Only two had length problems, and another two had some citation mishaps. Other than that, they did a really good job. They've come a long way from "it only takes love and communication." They were cracking me up in class today when they started a long discussion on the manipulative nature of fairy tales, advertising, and first dates. One student said, "All these essays have just ruined Cinderella for me. Thanks a lot." Another said she needed to go outside and scream for awhile. Ha! That's the most life they've shown since returning from the break.

Speaking of life, I almost died today.

I was chewing gum--accidentally, as I never chew gum while teaching. I started to say something, inhaled the gum, couldn't breathe. Crouching down, I stuck my head in the computer cabinet so I could expire without witnesses. As I did so, my eyes locked on a nasty, old water bottle that's been on the desk since week two. No telling who it belongs to--either Dr. Schwiebert or Dr. Allred, the other teachers using room 403--a student, or maybe the janitor. Who knows? Desperate times... I reached up for the bottle, imagining all sorts of horror. When you're dying you'll drink germ, moss, and saliva-ridden water, no problem. Just then, the gum came unstuck. This all took about 5 seconds, tops. I popped back up in time to re-join the conversation before it stalled, and my students didn't even know how close I came to taking The Drink.

I threw that water bottle away after class. I'll bring my own on Monday. :)

I Am Proud of My Students

My students' essays also improved. I gave out some As, meaning those few would not need to rewrite. I also gave out mostly Bs, and only a few Cs. Surprisingly, the C students from last time were not the same C students this time. Those who did that on the first essay worked hard and improved, some of them dramatically. Some of the others slacked off. I get the feeling they thought they could either get away with it or they were too tired to care at the time it was due. I hope those students rewrite because they are some of the ones who I know can do better with a little effort.

I have one student who only shows up to class when she likes the topic. So, she came all during the Blink discussion because she had a lot to say and she enjoyed the book. However, she never comes on workshopping days and I have not seen her since Spring Break. Her essay lacked the depth that the others' had from class discussions. She also made one or two vague references to rhetorical appeals and logical fallacies, but she could not name any specifically nor did she apply them to her text. However, her writing is very smooth and organized. She did a good job of analyzing the text despite her lack of appropriate terms. She brought out points that were not discussed in class. I found myself ambivalent about giving her a low B. She deserved it, but at the same time I wanted to punish her for not showing up to parts of the class that the others did. Maybe that low B was punishment enough, but I just don't know how to feel about this student, her writing, and her behavior.

Another student of mine went from a low C on the first essay to a low A on this one. He improved drastically. I felt so proud when reading his work. I want him to succeed because he honestly tries. He comes to class every day, he turns in every assignment, and he contributes to discussions. His first essay was a disaster, but this one rocked. As I write this, I realize that it may have to do with the topic. He enjoyed Blink so much that he went a step further and read Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear, a book referenced in Blink. His interest in the topic may have led him to spend more time and thought on the essay and therefore produce a better paper.

I am proud of my students and the improvements they are making. Now, if only I could get them to return to class after Spring Break!

I have to Say I Rejoiced

My students' essays were much better this time. That may have been because only the top half of my students turned in their essays, so I only got the best, but even still that top half improved. I still did not give out many A's, but the amount of B's I gave out was significant compared to last time. I kept getting more and more excited as each essay I read honestly tried to answer the question, AND cited their quotations correctly. By the time I finished I actually felt a little rewarded. Maybe I did teach them something, even if it is just to introduce a quote.

I don't think I compliment my class very often. I seem to focus on the negative a lot. Probably because my class tends to gravitate towards the negative. But today I gave them a little compliment about how good their essays were. I didn't puff up their heads or anything, but I just told them all did a great job introducing their quotes and that the essays were better overall. They all looked pleased with themselves. I think I should try to add a little more positive into my classroom. I'm not saying I need to tell them all they're special and can do no wrong, but sometimes I forget to let them know when they've worked hard and it's turned out well. I just get frustrated with their lack of response and their inability to turn anything in, it kind of crowds out the good.

Speaking of which, I have a student who did not show up much the first half of the term but is now showing up every day. That would be great, except she's only turned in her first essay and nothing else. I'm not sure what to do. I've given them all midterm grades/status reports but she doesn't seem to care. Sometimes I get scared about turning in final grades because I worry about the emails I might get from students like her. Oh well, I guess they have to learn at some point that they need to be responsible for their own actions.

Grading?

Unlike the rest of you, who I'm sure graded furiously all throughout the break, I'm only now sitting down to plow through my essays, and I have to say that 3/4 of them have significantly improved.  Their work with the language of the quotations is generally excellent.  Their use of quotation is excellent.  Their prose has gotten markedly better.

With that said, a couple of students who don't come to class all that much performed--what's the expression?--poorly.

How are yours?

Oh, I had such high hopes...

SO...I've fallen a little behind on blog posts. I was so certain I would spend spring break catching up on everything and gearing up for the big push to the end of the semester, but instead of chugging Coke and plodding through the entire stack of essays in one go, I ended up chugging Pepto and washing sheets all week (thanks, gastroenteritis).

However, I did get through enough essays to get a feel for what they're struggling with this time. Yes, they're having trouble making the page limit, but I was pretty clear after the last round that a paper not making length would not get a full grade, so at least they know what they're in for. The main issue with the essays is that many of them fail to take that final step of saying what the author is trying to achieve with the manipulative language. They give a lot of examples of manipulative language, and they do a good job of analyzing the different kinds, but they just don't seem to look at the bigger picture of WHY and to what purpose. They also seem to have a hard time distinguishing between looking critically at something a person has written and actually criticizing the writing or personally attacking the author. I always hated it when professors wrote "So What?" at the end of papers, but I think I may go get a sticker printed up (and while I'm at it, I'll get another one that reads, "Introduce your quotes!").

As for the TBA day, I handed out a half-sheet of paper with their mid-term grades, as well as what I was missing from each of them. I ended up answering questions about those for about twenty minutes or so, and then I let them go (although I did tell them if they wanted to stick around and workshop for the last thirty minutes, they could, and then they could go print up their revisions and get them to me before I left the Writing Center at noon. Nobody took me up on the offer, which tells me they were too sick of their papers to deal with them anymore).

Overall, the papers have been of a better quality--especially in the organization department--than the first round, which is encouraging. Let's hope the rest follow suit.

Patho, Eggo, Legos--grading appeals

Bring on the chocolate and caffeine--it's time to grade papers again. Woooo!

I was worried. When my class started today, I had four students in attendance. They looked like they'd been up all night typing. I tried to think positively, as in: "Well, with only four papers to grade, I'll be able to get to the laundry after all" and "Maybe the students are practicing Gladwell's 'thinking without thinking' and are blinking out a paper at the last minute." One can always be hopeful. I ended up gathering in eleven papers, with two more promised via e-mail by midnight. Hmmm.

So, I'd have to say the biggest problem with this essay will be the handing it in part. I met with each of my students, gave them the mid-semester lecture on their missing assignments and attendance, acted as babysitter and cheerleader. They're suffering from burnout. Charles e-mailed to say he was too sick to bring his essay. From the sound of things, I thought he was on his deathbed. He did look rather pale when I ran into him on the stairs after class. He was stammering, even. I think at that moment he was wishing for death. Ha. I suspect he's just sick of English 1010. But--he'll send the paper by midnight.

Thankfully, length is not as much of a problem as it was last go round. So far only 2/11 are suffering from length issues, and they're not that far from five pages. I've only glanced through them quickly, and I haven't seen any citation problems. One girl is giving examples of "legos" and "patho"--which brings to mind visions of toys and serial killers. I think these papers are far more entertaining than the last batch already.

My grading process has already changed--I'm not nervous at all. I'm not putting them in any sort of order in advance, I'm just going to plow through. I'll order them loosely as I go, and will put grades on after I've gone through all of them. The students responded well to the comments, and most rewrote last time, so I'll do the same this time. I'm definitely NOT eating as much chocolate this time, as I can't afford new clothes when I grow out of these. I'm not going to spend an entire evening agonizing over grades, and I'm not spending an hour on each paper. I have a life, really. I don't want to turn into a Patho.

Two Posts in One

Today I am probably going to let my students out early, but I have decided to go over the "Five Ways of Interpreting a Text" with them. I liked Peters's questions, and I think my students could benefit from them. So, that's what we are going to do today, unless they all seem like zombies. Then, I may just let them go. They wouldn't take any of it in anyway, right?

I am honestly not sure what problems they are having with this essay because I have not seen it yet. I do know that on our workshopping day many of them did not have 5 pages, but it also was not due, so I figure they will fix that before they turn it in today. (Knock on wood.) They have heard me threaten them enough with lowered grades if they do not meet the page requirement, but who knows if that translated into their brains or if they care.

I know that when we spoke about examples of manipulation from Blink, they had trouble differentiating between the author's manipulations and the characters in the stories being manipulated. We talked about this as well, so I hope nobody is still holding onto that false notion. If they have used this to write their papers, they will be getting comments from me about it and possibly a chance to rewrite.

In grading these papers, I probably won't change much. I felt like I developed a good "groove" for grading the last time. It took me a few papers to find it, but it worked. I felt as if my sense for what was an A, B, or C paper came quite naturally after reading a few of them. I am going to stick with this. I may actually be a little more tough on them because it is their second essay. They should have learned something by now, right? I may be less lenient on the lack of a thesis statement, comma splices, or citations that are inadequately formatted.

My mind may change after I actually spend some of Spring Break grading. I do hope to try to be fair and consistent. Is that possible?

It's Always the Length

I have not collected the essays, but as I walked around and talked to my students and looked at drafts it seems their biggest problem will be the length. They couldn't make four pages last time and most of them are already complaining that they won't make five. I had to have a pep talk with one of my students who only made two and half pages last time. I told him to just try and take it in small chunks. Take a paragraph and talk about a fallacy. Tell me what the fallacy is and then give me examples of the fallacy. How did this manipulate him? He seemed somewhat encouraged.

I think the other problem will be either talking about too many fallacies/rhetorical appeals or not talking about enough. Some students have chosen three rhetorical fallacies so that they can create their perfect five paragraph essay, so we'll see how that goes. At the same time three might be a perfect number to discuss in a paper this length. I have one student who may only focus on one rhetorical appeal. This may work out great. I hope so. I have other students who are worried about putting all of the fallacies into their papers, and if they try to do that the paper will get overwhelmed. In one of the drafts I saw, the student discussed a few fallacies in depth and then ended the last paragraph of the body with, "Gladwell uses other fallacies such as non sequitor, either/or reasoning, etc." (yes I am being lazy with my etc.) I guess he felt it necessary to mention the fallacies but he didn't feel he had enough space to discuss them.

Honestly, I'm holding out high hopes for this essay. I think they might get this one a little better. In the last one they didn't understand how to make connections. I think they at least understand they are being manipulated and how the author is doing it. Now if they can just explain that clearly...

This time I'm going to try and set aside a chunk of time so I can just do them all at once. That way when I'm finished I won't have completely forgotten what I read two weeks prior when I started the whole mess. Even if the chunk of time is over three days I think that will be better than last time. I might also try putting them in A, B, C, piles as I go rather than wait until the end. See how I feel right after I finish reading and then go back and re-evaluate if I need to.

Here's to a fun weekend and a spring break full of grading!

Prompt

Two questions:

1) What kinds of problems are your students having with this essay?

2) How are you going to change your grading process this time around?

A Day Off? Nah.

I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with my students. I'd love to haul them all down to the computer lab to write a reading response, but doubt that will happen. Wouldn't that be ruthless? Ha! I've got to live up to my new nickname.

I like the idea of a DQ day-- it would probably only work with my students if they got to write the questions in class. I know I won't get much out of them because the paper is due that day. That would be an interesting discussion, though.

I thought I might use it as a day to meet with each of them individually to let them know what assignments they are missing, etc. If they've handed everything in to date, they're free to go.

Maybe we'll just eat pizza.

I Hadn't Planned...

...on a prompt, but Tamar's sounds good to me.

To be honest, I had thought that I would just let them have the day off, but I like the idea of a DQ day. However, I wouldn't allow them to do as many as they want to. I'd only allow them to come in with three or four.

There are lots of options, and whatever you all want to do will likely be fine.

Oh, and Robert Redford was on my plane to Albuquerque. Seriously.

No Post This Week?

I don't know if there will be a prompt, but I had a question I wanted to pose to everyone. What are you doing for your TBA day? I know we might talk about this in class, but I just wanted to start brainstorming.

I was thinking about having a discussion question day. Most of my students have not done any, or have done one or two and the semester is winding down. I had a couple of them ask me about them and how to get them done before the semseter ends. So I thought that day could be used where everyone could come with as many questions as they want from our reading. I'll call on them and they will get credit for as many as we get to. That way some of my students who have already asked a bunch can finish off that requirement that day, and others who don't have any questions can get some under their belts to catch up. I think I will collect them when I call on them that way they won't turn in six, but they only asked two.

What do you guys think? I'm somewhat concerned about it working since my class sometimes refuses to discuss and instead just stares. But it might be a way to help my students out.

What are you guys thinking of doing?

Workshopping Prompts

I thought this would be a quicker way to distribute the workshopping prompts. Here's what I plan on asking my students. Feel free to modify to suit your needs.

1) What is the text you've chosen about?

2) What does the text you've chosen want you to think/feel/believe when you have finished it?

3) Find 3 examples of individual words that the author uses to manipulate the reader so that the desired effect is achieved. Explain how those words do what you claim they do.

4) Find 2 examples of sentences that the author uses to manipulate the reader so that the desired effect is achieved. Explain how those sentences do what you claim they do.

5) Find 3 examples of images or ideas or examples that the author uses to manipulate the reader so that the desired effect is achieved. Explain how those images/ideas/examples do what you claim they do.

They Would Know

Late last night I realized that I did not post last week. My excuse is that I had a cold and felt sick and delirious the entire week. So, I'm posting now.

I learned from grading that they do not listen to what I have been telling them in class and they do not read the marks I make on their reading responses. If they listened in class, they would know where to put the period after a citation. They would know the difference between book titles and essay titles and how to format them. They would know how to use an introductory comma. They would know that the essay should be four pages long. They would know that the essay was not supposed to be a compare and contrast essay.

If they looked at the marks I made on their reading responses, they would know all of the above. They would know that they should not use contractions. They would know all about comma splices. They would know that I hate the word "very" because it means nothing. They would know that extra spaces between each paragraph are unacceptable ways of trying to fudge the page length.

In writing the same essay, I learned how hard the assignment actually was and how much I did not want to write it. I put if off for days. I whined about it to my husband. He finally took our daughter outside to play in the snow for two hours and said it was my time to write the essay. So, I did. I found myself making connections between my essays that I was not sure were there. I found myself making conclusions and assumptions that I could only sort of support with the text. I wanted to write from memory instead of rereading the essays. I found myself in my students' shoes. This helped me to understand what they had just gone through and to be a little more generous in my grading. Most of all, I felt empathy. I think this is important for any relationship.

Amazed, Proud, Disappointed, and Defended

I am amazed that I have students who will get up in the middle of class and walk out for no apparent reason. I guess when there is no reading response due (I ask for them at the end) or when they feel the discussion is not enlightening enough for them, they just leave. I think three or four of them left on Thursday, so I told everybody else to get out some paper and we wrote for credit. Maybe that was mean of me, but I just couldn't believe that students would leave without warning or apologies. I guess this is another instance of: "They are not you!"

I am somewhat proud of how many of my students turned in revised essays. Ten of them did this, and they did improve their writing. I hope that they feel they learned something from it, because that was the point of me allowing them to do so. A few of them were probably hoping for an A, but really did not improve too much so they received 5 point or so grade increases, but most of them did an excellent job and earned much better grades. This was especially the case for my student who went to the writing center and was told to compare and contrast in her first draft of the essay.

I am disappointed that one of my students did not revise. He is an older man and a refugee from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I really wanted to see him turn in a better essay and have the opportunity to revise, but he told me that he just did not have time. This saddened me, but I guess the choice is ultimately up to him. We did, however, connect over piano. He is apparently taking lessons at Weber for the first time in his life. We talked for a few minutes after class about classical piano and his desires and goals in music.

I am surprised at how much the students actually like me. I know, this sounds conceited, but it is funny how they defend me or greet me so kindly outside of class. When we talked about the car salesman Bob Golomb who treated every customer the same and therefore made more sales, we started sharing stories of times when we had been misjudged by salespeople. I told them about how I visited an Ivory Homes subdivision when my husband and I were building our house. The salesman there told me that I was too young and did not have enough money to afford to build there. I just laughed this experience off and left, knowing that I was already building a house somewhere else and that I had only been there for decorating ideas. Anyway, the students were shocked and appalled. One of them said that I should have printed out my bank statements and gone back to show the man, and others said that I should've told him off. It was funny to see how defensive they were of this silly experience. I felt as if they liked me enough to show this defense and I also felt it showed how young and stupid they are (and how I used to be).

I am really enjoying my students. Yes, they miss class, turn in assignments late, leave without warning, roll their eyes, fall asleep, make smart remarks, and try to get away with B.S., but overall they are an enjoyable group. I am happy to know them, and I feel a strong desire to help them succeed.

English 1010--Shock and Awe

Students can be frustrating, I'll give you that. Amen to both Tamar and Emily. I have three students who have never handed anything in, yet still attend class regularly. Two of the three are very involved in class discussion; another does his best to hide behind the girl in front of him. I've talked to these students, given them opportunities to make up work, offered examples, and still nothing. It blows my mind. They smile at me and offer great excuses, such as: "I lost my syllabus and just don't know what to read." (Blink. Hello.) Or: "I'm practicing disobedience." Oh, please. Points for cleverness.

I find the level of "grade apathy" amazing. I agonized over the grades I handed out last week (you all know--you got to hear me whine), but they took them without a blink. Two of the girls seemed perfectly happy with their Cs. The girl with the lowest score in the class was fine with it. Giddy, even. She told me after class that she has never read a book in her life and gets by on her "thinking power." Hmmmm. Here's one for you, sister: You're not passing the class. I'm pretty expensive entertainment.

Don't get me wrong--students do amaze and astonish me in positive ways, too. I made it through the reading responses in 30 minutes tonight--they did a wonderful job at summary, evaluation, and comparison. Students that were struggling to make the two pages are now writing well beyond. I wanted to jump up and cheer. I got essay #1 rewrites from 2/3 of the Collective Brain, and they worked their tails off. I couldn't believe the difference. They did everything I asked them to do. (They told me after class that they'd had three hours of sleep because they were working on papers until 4 a.m. This from the girls who had never stayed up past midnight until signing up for my class. Now THAT'S astonishing.)

Like Emily I am amazed at where the discussion sometimes leads us--they find arguments and parallels that I overlooked. Also, they are not as shy about disagreeing with each other as they were when we first started. Today, one of my discussion groups presented a majority opinion and a minority opinion because they just couldn't agree. It was great. Sometimes I'm shocked to find that they are the teachers and I'm doing most of the learning.

And speaking of broad generalizations.....

Just received a late essay and thought you might all enjoy the opening sentences of the introduction:

"There have been many pieces written throughout history on the broad subject of parenting. This overwhelming load have ranged from how to and how not, to why children do what they do."


Aaaaaaah!!!! Help.....

Ups and Downs

With my Wednesday morning class, and the first essays, fresh in my mind, I have to say that I get most frustrated with my students when 1) they act apathetic and start falling asleep (although I must admit there's a bit of entertainment value when the girl in the center starts dropping off with her head tilted back, or when the kid in front suddenly sits up with drool running down his chin...), and 2) when they don't follow instructions on assignments. I think these things frustrate me because they both make me feel inadequate as a teacher: if they are falling asleep or not caring about the subject matter, it's because I'm not challenging them to think enough or I'm not giving them interesting enough things to do (although I keep telling myself it's because the class is at 8 in the morning). If they haven't followed instructions, I feel like it's because I didn't explain things well enough.

But my teaching experience hasn't been entirely about frustration. I do get amazed from time to time as well, like when someone makes a really insightful and lucid comment in class, or when they start taking the conversation in a direction that I hadn't even considered and I can just let it go. I was also amazed on Friday when I read their in-class responses, and most of them didn't just repeat back to me the comments I had made--they generally came up with ideas that weren't even brought up in the discussion. I was so excited and learned a lot from reading those responses.

I was also amazed and excited by a couple of the essays I graded, and was glad (and grateful) to give two of them very solid As. It was my reward for all the work I had done on the others to be able to sit back, read, and enjoy--they weren't perfect, of course, but it was a nice break for my orange pen :)

It's Hard to Be Around Stupid People

No, I don't think my students are stupid. I just thought it was a catchy title.

There are things my students do that amaze me. I have a student who comes to class, does not talk much, but does the in-class writing and works in the groups, but refuses to turn in anything. No essay, no reading responses, no discussion questions. Nothing. I can tell he's reading. At least some of it, and I talked to him about it, and he seemed to want to do better. But still nothing. I don't understand. If you are going to pay for a class why not pass it? It seems like a waste of money to come there and read the stuff but not pass. Why would you want to take the class again??? I have another student who has turned in an essay, and asks discussion questions. She's doing well on the things she does do, but if she doesn't turn in her reading responses she may not pass the class. Once again why would you pay for something you just have to do again, when you could have passed the first time?

I've already told you this, but my students don't believe passive voice is bad. That just amazed me. I think they just decided I was making it up. The one student who really disagreed with me uses it ALL OVER her papers. Maybe I should just mark her down for every time she uses it.

I am amazed at my students who think that if they don't show up every Thursday they can still pass the class. I now have a consistent group of kids who miss every Thursday. I have not decided how to approach that yet, but I have told everyone if they miss more than four classes their grade drops. These kids are not doing the work anyway so they probably will not pass, but it just amazes me that they think they can be there half the time and get full credit.

It amazes me that I told them to re-write some of their reading responses and they never did. Why woud you just ignore that?

But there is one shining moment. (I guess there are a few more, but I think I will conclude on this.) I have a student who does not talk much and her in-class writing was not that impressive and her reading responses were okay, but she wrote her essay and it amazed me. Things could be better; they can always be better. But she did everything I asked and nailed her argument. That amazed me. I thought I would not have any A's. Thank goodness for the silver lining.

Well?

I thought our discussion tonight of the things that frustrate/amaze/astonish you about your student?

I Just Finished!!!

Okay, so I just finished grading. I came down to Vegas and what do I do? Grade papers for the first few hours I am here. Don't worry the purpose of the trip was not vacation, but to visit my grandma and she doesn't mind. She knows what it's like to be behind in grading. Plus there are no huge plans to visit the strip.

But to the point. I learned a bit from grading this time. First, I need to get faster. By the end though I was doing about one every ten minutes or fewer. So that was exciting. There were a few that still took more time because their prose killed me, but I made the last four in under an hour. Woohoo! Second I need to grade them closer together because when I got done I wasn't sure where to start with their grades! I put them in piles but I had to reread to figure out which piles to put them in. I couldn't remember how good or bad some of them were. Third I have to stop feeling sympathetic. There were about four or five that would have been a middle or low B but that I dropped down to C's because they didn't make the page length. Their arguments were pretty good, but they didn't start connecting until the last page so they didn't make the length and their paper wasn't quite there. It discouraged me and I had a hard time figuring out what to do with some of the papers. I was still a little concerned about the final numbers I put on there, because Dr. R said he gives few C's but I had a least six or seven C's. I think that's mainly because four of those didn't make the page length.

The emulation essay was tricky. Like the others I had a hard time not writing like my students. I felt like I had copied from them. Plus I spent forever trying to write on something they didn't write on so I wouldn't be confused by their arguments. I was stressed out about writing it because I kept worrying about the argument and did it do what I wanted to do? Did I fulfill the assignment? Then I worried about passive voice and sentence construction and my citations and everything. It was stressful. I am almost as scared as my students to get my paper back. That is if they even care. I've only had one student ask about them so far. Maybe I can keep them forever and they won't notice.... it's a thought.

Dream or Nightmare?

OK, admission--I still haven't finished grading all the papers. They never end. As I was picking up the reading responses today I began to get a bit depressed. Do I actually have to grade these, too? Thomas saw the look on my face and said, "Boy! We sure do a lot of writing in this class!" Yes, we do.

Even though I'm not finished (and probably won't be until week 16) I've learned a few things. First, grading is never ending, and if I want to survive this experience to teach another semester I'm going to have to speed things up. I know I can't change the world, and they're probably not reading the novels I'm writing in the margins, but it's hard not to try. Sigh. Maybe I should photocopy all my comments and self-publish. Throw in a sparkly vampire or two. Reveal at the end it's all a dream, and I'm still working in the WC.

OK, maybe not.

Grading makes me feel like a failure, because I see all the things that I've not explained thoroughly enough pop up in the writing. Then again, all the things I've explained to death pop up in the writing. Do I really matter? Reading these papers makes me feel old--I want to sit down with my students and rip apart some platitudes. I start to question things I thought I knew about writing. Can I even write a complete sentence anymore? Oh, and I try not to play favorites, but that certainly is an issue. I know who is working hard and who started their essay on Sunday night at 11:53. Thank heaven for those few that answered the assignment...

Speaking of which--I hated writing it. I was ready to start protesting alongside Taylor (my complainer). I found myself writing sentences that belonged in their papers. It was like a warped case of plagiarism; I was writing the sentences but they seemed oh-so-familiar. I really don't know if I made any sort of sense at all. I wrote a couple of lovely summaries--that much I know. I should have just written a large PV at the top of the paper to alert Dr. Rogers that I chose to write in passive voice. Here's hoping he doesn't grade angry.

Me First! Me First!!

I think this is the first time I've ever been the first to post. Savoring the moment....

Okay. The main thing that I've learned from grading these papers is that no, most of them don't read the comments we write in the margins, or the long, helpful explanations at the end, and yes, many of them try to get away with doing as little as possible. BUT...(the silver lining)...there are a few who really put forth a good effort, and the rest do seem to be improving (it's kind of imperceptible, like watching grass grow, but it's there...I think).

Also, because of grading papers, I've become a lot more critical of and insecure about my own writing. While writing my emulation essay, I kept second-guessing myself on my word choice, etc., and thinking, "Aaaaghh! I'm sounding like my 1010 students!" Yes, I think my writing is gradually going downhill as a result of tutoring and teaching. *sigh*.

The best thing about writing the emulation essay was that, for probably the first time in my life, spent more time on pre-writing than on actually writing. My usual method for writing papers is to gather all my sources around me and sit at a computer with a 2-liter Coke (diet, of course) and a head full of ideas and just battle the blinking cursor. It's a terrible method, but it's worked for me so far. But I decided to try writing the way I had advised my students to write--I began by drafting answers to the questions I had asked them, then wrote my intro and thesis according to the guidelines I had given them and then organized my ideas with sticky notes...yes, sticky notes, Dr. Rogers. It actually worked great, and the writing part took less time, though I can't guarantee that my writing was actually better (see last paragraph).

So, over the past week or so, I've become a little more cynical about teaching and about student writing, but I'm determined to prepare them better to write their next essay. And...I've discovered a new, less self-destructive way to write papers. It just might add a couple of years to my life.

Well?

Two questions this week:

1) What did you learn from the process of grading all those essays?

2) What did you learn from writing the same assignment your students did?

Don't Grade Angry, DON'T GRADE ANGRY!!

I've had to remind myself of Dr. Rogers' advice a number of times over the past few days. And it's not my screaming kids, my psychotic cat, or the piles of laundry I've neglected while grading these essays. It's the fact that the problems I'm finding are the same problems I've been marking over and over again on their reading responses.

I echo Cheyney's sentiment: "Introduce the #@$@#& quotes!!!!" (maybe my outbursts are a little more profane than Cheyney's). But, yes, we've discussed it repeatedly in class, I've written encouraging but insistent notes in the margins of their responses, and we covered it in workshopping. And the drive-by quotings still pepper the papers.

The other problem that is driving me insane and also making it difficult for me to grade is that many of them simply didn't do the assignment the way it was assigned. They're evaluating the essays, writing personal narratives on marriage, giving opinions on Bartels' wife--just not doing what I asked them to do. If it looks like they're actually *trying* to show where one essay is incomplete and how the other fills in the gaps, I'm more likely to go easy on them, but in some of the essays, it looks like they just threw their hands in the air and said, "This assignment sucks, so I'm gonna do whatever I want."

Then, of course, I have the three that are three pages, in 18 point Helvetica, and are nearly incomprehensible. I think I'm going to go ahead and ask them to rewrite. Two of them are students who really try hard, are in class *most* of the time, and really care about their grades, so I'm pretty sure they'll do a rewrite. As for the third, welll...we'll see.

Grading Rant, and Something to Be Happy About

Like Cheyney I received another essay late as well, and it came with a bit of manipulation. This is from my student who said, "I think the topic is stupid, so I didn't write on it." But he turned in two pages two days late and said, "it's not very good so go easy on me." What does that mean? Trying to soften me up? Well I've got news, it's not nearly long enough, and it's two days late. You're already starting at a below passing grade. I don't do well with subtle forms of manipulation.

I started reading the essays and so far my biggest complaint is the one I was most worried about: generalizations and cliches. I've read a lot of "marriage is about communication" already and I'm not even that far into them. Plus one of the essays argued how Bartels was a better husband than Edelman a wife because Bartels cooked food and put up with his "horrible wife." That's a quote from the paper. Oh, and the student called Edelman "the queen of misunderstanding." I wanted to write a comment like, "I think you're misunderstanding what these essays together can tell you about marriage." Instead I told him to avoid using such charged language.

But I do have something to be excited about. I got some reading responses on Thursday (less than I should have of course) and they are finally doing what I want them to!!!!! I read one and I just wanted to put happy faces all over it! I was so excited. He did not even digress into "I think" or "I believe" once, which must have been really hard for him. I think he might deserve a gold star.

So at least I started off my weekend grading with a little bit of brightness.

"A Grading Rant" (101).

I received one more essay via e-mail today, which means I'm only missing essays from a handful of students rather than half the class. Not bad, eh? I haven't asked for any excuses, but they've offered them readily enough. My favorite: "Every time I sit down to send my essay, I forget how to spell your name." Ha. So this is my first rant: How can I even begin to grade a paper I don't have? Enlighten me.

I feel your pain, Emily. The first read-through was a painful experience, as I kept slapping my hand on my forehead. I realized pretty quickly that I haven't taught them much--and definitely haven't covered citations thoroughly enough (I thought five times ought to do). A few are grasping the concept, so I guess the key is constant repetition. Incidentally, a member of the Collective Brain wrote a beautiful paper, and when I start to get frustrated, I look at her intro to make myself happy again. Woooo! Go, Brain! You did it, girl!

My personal pet peeve--and major rant--is about drive-by quotations.

INTRODUCE YOUR QUOTES, PEOPLE!

During the workshopping I pointed these out right and left. The students were doing a great job of finding them in each other's papers, and I seriously thought we had the quote concept licked. I'm still finding them, though. It's like they can't help themselves. Oh, yeah, we're going to cover direct quotations again. And again. And again.

Rants

I started grading the essays today. So far, they have been pretty bad. I found myself marking comma splice after comma splice. I also started to wonder if they knew what connecting a text with another meant. I am getting sick of reading summaries that don't tell me anything, that don't argue anything, and that don't connect with a nonexistent thesis.

But, I just pushed forward and read one more. I found an essay that had a thesis, argued for it, connected the texts beautifully, and basically did the assignment correctly. I guess I am reading all of the terrible ones so I can have a purely joyous experience when I get to read one like this. I feel renewed and ready to read more just because of this one good essay. Pathetic? Maybe.

Seven Deadly Sins of Writing

I found this website today. It might be helpful. I think I might incorporate something like a "Grammar Tip of the Day" in my classroom so we can always be reviewing what they are struggling with in their writing. I think 5 minutes on an issue I see or something they have questions about will be worthwhile. Anyway, here's the website for the seven deadly sins of writing!

http://www.hamilton.edu/writing/sins.html

Constructive Criticism

I thought the essays we read about not grading were great ideas, but they could never really work. As a student, if my teacher did not give me a grade, I would be upset. Part of my drive for going to school is to do well and be competitive. I like to feel like I'm accomplishing something and moving forward. It is especially rewarding to receive a lowish grade on a first paper and then to improve throughout the semester and receive a high grade on a final paper. (No, I'm not suggesting that you should grade me this way, Dr. Rogers). My point is that grades help motivate me to want to do better. Maybe this is not true for everybody.

I have always been this way. When I did my first piano competition in third grade, I sucked. I received a horrible rating and found myself embarrassed because I realized that all the other kids could play a lot better than I could. Instead of going home and crying about it and quitting, I was motivated to practice more so I could catch up to the others. I spent an hour a day at the piano and eventually started winning the piano competitions. In this sense, receiving a "bad grade" helped to motivate me to become better. I think the same can be applied to writing.

However, giving somebody a straight grade without constructive criticism would be irresponsible. I think the point in the essays we read was largely this. Teachers need to tell students about their writing and how they can improve it so students will learn more from their teacher's "grade." Getting a C but not knowing why it was received is useless to a student who wants to improve the next time. Giving ways that students can improve, pointing out their strengths, and then giving a grade seems like a better way to evaluate student writing.

Grading Rants

As you grade, you will no doubt become acutely aware of what little things bug the crap out of you. I'd like to see you use this space to talk about what they're doing that bugs you and why.

I'll start:


WHEN I SAY FOUR PAGES, I MEAN ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE FOURTH PAGE, NOT THREE PAGES AND HALFWAY DOWN THE FOURTH. NOT THREE PAGES AND A LITTLE AT THE TOP OF THE FOURTH. NOT THREE PAGES AND ABOUT THREE QUARTERS OF THE WAY DOWN THE FOURTH PAGE.


Three students are simply getting their papers back to them Wednesday--along with an explanation that if they ask me for 4 dollars and I give them $3.50, I haven't given them what they asked for.

Give Me A "G" (for grading)

I found these essays very interesting but largely improbable. You can't tear down a system without replacing it with something else--and neither author had a convincing assertion about what that replacement should be.

Like Tamar, I wasn't a huge fan of the Baumrind essay. I do agree with Baumrind that students will not automatically soar to success without the weight of grading to hold them down. Ha! Take away the grading system--or something like it--and you take away motivation for 99.9% of them. Baumrind suggests a grade based on the amount of work completed by the end of the term, but what quality of work will you be receiving? Will they actually do any of the reading they say they're going to?

One of my undergrad English classes was set up much this way. Our grade consisted of two essays, both handed in the last night of class, combined with the amount of reading we had done. We simply told the professor on the last night of class what we had completed. I've always been obsessive about my grades, yet I did the minimum required for my A. I didn't kill myself off writing the papers, either. It just didn't matter. Sure there was less stress, but I think I was capable of much better work. At the very least I would have liked more guidance.

Another professor graded solely on the length of the essays handed in. To him, more was better. This class drove me insane, especially because I suspected (and still do) that he didn't read the writing at all. I was so tempted to insert random sentences just to test him, but never did. My grade was tied to wordiness, and I learned how to perform.

I liked the Elbow essay much better than Baumrind. Evaluation takes more time, but seems more fair. Writing is a complicated business--it only follows that a single letter grade is too simple to account for all that goes into the process. Written comments can offer guidance and support toward better writing. If only we could ensure that students would read the comments! I'm sure, like me, you can tell which students in your class read what you write on their assignments.

Elbow mentions the need for an evaluation-free zone, or unevaluated assignment. This has a lot of merit. One student in my class was struggling with the in-class writing until I told her I was not grading her on her spelling or grammar skills. I wanted her to grab hold of the ideas we had talked about in class, but she was so worried about spelling she couldn't even complete a sentence. This experience changed the way I respond to in-class writing. If they give me an honest effort, they get credit for the writing. I limit my comments to the positive things that I see happening in their writing. I've noticed they write a lot more now.

Elbow argues that successful writing teachers like their students and their writing. He's on to something here. I do not want to turn into the grouchy teacher that everyone avoids and invents stories about. I do love a good story, though.

Elbow was uncomfortable with the power grading gave him, and I see his point. As a teacher, grading scares me to death. It is so arbitrary--but it does help motivate some students to work harder. There's a fine line between motivation and discouragement. Taylor, my complainer, can whine about the assignment, but he's still going to do it so he doesn't have to take 1010 for a third time (he told me this today). But what about the student who progresses from the "absolute train wreck" to "minor accident" paper? The Collective Brain on my front row are such examples. They are working so hard--and still falling far short of the ideal "A". Do I give them the grade I should and discourage them? Or do I take into account the progression and hard work I've seen? Which is most fair? Grades can never reflect determination, and these girls have it in spades. Grading is the best option for Taylor; evaluation would be best for The Collective Brain. As with most complicated questions, maybe the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

In The World We Live In

I think if I had read these articles a few years ago I might have completely agreed with what they were saying. I have frequently thought grades were a poor system to rank someone because they are not fair, at least not in the academic system. But then I read the articles and I did not like what they had to say.

First, as discussed last night, you cannot eliminate the grading system. So even if you go to Evergreen and you end up with an essay for a transcript you will still be ranked. This is how our graduate school and career system works. When you get into a career your salary becomes your ranking. Once again it's just a number that does not really tell you how you are doing something wrong, or how you can make it better. Could we reform the entire world? Maybe. But I think we would still have a type of ranking system it would just includ more evaluation. We like to know how we are doing in comparison with others. It's our nature and when we get a better grade or a better salary than someone that somehow makes us feel like we are better people.

Second, everyone has a different learning style. Emily or Cheyney mentioned that we need to have motivating factors to get us to do something. For many people those motivating factors come from grades. When you have someone in a position of authority tell you you are not measuring up it can spark some improvement. This may not work for all people, but why can't we accommodate different types of learners? We could keep grades for some people, give others more evaluation, and see who responds to what the best.

Third, these authors may be uncomfortable with authority, but they need to realize that someone has to fill that role. While students are not customers they are paying for something that is important to them. Some, not all, are finding a way to pay for their education and they expect to be paying for someone in a position of authority to give them guidance. Entirely student-led peer reviewing is not going to satisfy the requirement of having someone in a position of authority. Peer reviewing is great, but their peers may think something is great when in reality it's not. For example I had a student peer reviewing another student's paper today. I did not have a chance to read the paper but I know it was probably good because the writer is a strong writer. The reviewer wanted to know if a paragraph had too much opinion but when I looked it over it was a great paragraph that made a claim, used a quote to back up the claim, and then re-stated the claim and the conclusion that should be drawn from the evidence. There was no passive voice, the claims were not unfounded, and the quote was great. The structure worked well, and there was no "I believe" or "I hope" or "I think;" it was all based off the text. But the reviewer did not see that. He thought the paper was wrong and the claim had too much "opinion." I tried to help the reviewer see it as a good paragraph, but this this type of student is my worry. If these students are the evaluators how is anyone ever going to improve? In this example the paper would have become worse with the reviewer's suggestions.

Finally, I think we should try to encourage students to learn, but elminating grading completely may not accomplish this. There should be a good combination of evaluation and ultimately a grade. I will give you one last example. I had many opportunities for peer reviews in my English classes. I got some good feedback and some feedback I disregarded. I had teachers who gave me just a letter grade and little else. I had a teacher that everyone dreaded and avoided, and my first paper was one of my first B's ever. It was devastating. All of my peers had said I was great and my other teachers just gave me A's so I was confused. No one had really evaluated me as Elbow suggets. This professor had given me some comments, but upon further conferencing with her I was able to create that evaluation zone and by the end of the quarter I believe I was a much better writer. Her grade motivated me and the evaluation helped me know what to fix. Not everyone will work this way, but we need to take Elbow (disregard Baumrind because I did not like her) and find what works to help maximize our students' desires to learn and to maximize what they learn from our classes.