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.