Commenting

What kinds of instructor comments on your writing are the most valuable to you? How will this influence how you comment on your students' writing?

99 Problems but a Thesis ain't one.

I have been struggling with many things in my classes, but finding the thesis hasn't been a problem that I've noticed too much. I'm having more struggle to get them to stop using quotes and to start using the authors name for each idea that the author writes about.

It is slowly getting better, but I have a few students in each class that are not listening when I say that they need to write that the author states these ideas on pretty much every sentence in the summary or else it is their reaction and opinion of the article and not a summary. I've started getting harsher in my grading for these things that we've discussed numerous times already. I'm steeling myself for how much of that I'm going to deal with on the first literature review.

The other issue that is still happening more that I expect is direct quotation from the text. I've explained that a quote can be used to support your point, but since they are not making their own point, then quotes are unneeded and take up too much space in a short summary.

My experiment to show the class an example of a summary that had some problems so that we could correct it in class met with mixed results. I chose a summary that had too much wrong with it, so they didn't even know where to start. Some students, the better ones, got quite a lot out of that experiment, but the ones who needed the help didn't.

Tues. I'm having them each write a 50-75 word summary and we are going to review them as a class for pretty much the whole class period so that they get feedback from their peers rather than just me.

Problems!

So I encountered an unexpected frustration last week when my students seemingly lost the ability to see the larger point of the essays we were reading. They could understand the constituent parts and summarize them accurately, but when I asked them to find the thesis, they all came up with a different quote. What kinds of problems have you experienced thus far? How have you dealt with them?

First Week

The first week was a little nerve wracking about the anxieties I listed before, but now I feel much better about the relationship with the classes.

I see what you said about them struggling to write a summary. I read through the pre-tests and most of them have the general idea of the article, but there are many instances where they take a point out of context and try to make it say something very different than what it actually says.

I am curious to look at future readings to see if they cover this or if I should just do something soon on my own, but I feel like they could use help in how to read an article. How to figure out what the thesis is and what the most important points are feels like a struggle for them. I know that doing the summaries and getting feedback from me will help, but I would like to have something to show them how and I haven't figured out yet what that will be.

Anxieties

I have a bit of anxiety about impostor syndrome. I know that I can write well, and my experiences in the writing center have shown me that I can help others to write well, but now that I'm responsible for not just giving feedback and suggestions but also grading assignments, I have a little anxiety about that.

I have some worry each day that I won't be able to get a discussion going well enough to fill the time and that I'll be left with 20 mins. and nothing to do, but so far that has not been a problem. In fact, I've been watching the clock to make sure we don't go over.

Overall, my biggest concern is making sure I take time to do all of the things I need to get done. Balancing my class work for Masters classes and lesson planning and grading against helping my wife take care of the baby will require a lot of work. Thankfully, she is understanding when I say that I have to go read for a few hours.

First week

The first week was great. We've had some good discussions already and, so far, the students have been engaged and enthusiastic. I've enjoyed it and have finished each class excited for the next. Three quick thoughts:

• My biggest question right now is how to steer the discussion towards the most productive end. Based on the first week, getting them to share thoughts and say what they're thinking doesn't appear to be an issue. The issue will be how do I best capitalize on the discussion and assist them in thinking more critically about the readings without doing all the thinking for them. I know there is an art to this and it takes a good deal of practice. I'm hoping I can develop a better feel for it now rather than later. 
• I can see what Dr. Rogers meant when he told us "you're not as funny as you think." A couple of times I've felt like I'm on a sitcom like Seinfeld and there's a laugh track. It goes off whether what I said was funny or not (so I suppose it's more like when Bob Saget hosted America's Funniest Home Videos).
• Grading. Wow. I decided to grade all 48 in-class writings the day they were turned in. It wasn't easy. I'm going to have to learn to be more efficient.

First Week?

How was the first week? Did it meet your expectations? How are the classes? Any concerns? Any delightful things you didn't expect?

Getting Started

Right now I'm anxious about the logistics--getting everything correct on the syllabus, printing out the student lists, making sure I even know where to show up tomorrow, that kind of thing. But beneath that is the anxiety of facing twenty four college students and being their teacher. I used to think once I'd taught or presented enough that I'd no longer be nervous, but now I realize that's not true. I'll get nervous no matter what. That's part of the experience, I guess.

The key for me is to go in knowing what we'll be talking about. Preparation, in other words. When I've gotten in trouble in the past (giving a business presentation, teaching a church lesson, even teaching a grammar workshop at the WC) has been when I try and wing it. My goal is to never have to wing it this semester.

Before writing this I browsed through some of the other posts, primarily the "What did you learn this semester?" ones just below. I'm really glad we have that. It answered a number of issues I've already been wondering about, the two biggest being "Remember that they're NOT you" and not trying to save them all.

I'm the "I'm going to save them all!" guy. I don't want to be that guy. It leads to burnout. I'm going to go into this with the old addage "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it" firmly in mind.

Having said that, I'm excited. Bring it on.

Here We Go!

Once again, you'll be blogging for me. Here's your first prompt: what are your anxieties about teaching this semester?