What answer do you want?

I had a particularly frustrating conversation with a student today.  She was very upset because I was "not being clear on what I wanted."  She had "no idea what the heck" I wanted.  So we went through and looked at her assignments.  She wrote that Zinczenco argued that we should all take responsibility for our own health, just like Zinczenco did when he joined the military and got in shape.  She wrote that Warner's main point was that we need to stand up to big government just like Sarah Palin and Glen Beck were doing.  She wrote that Obama's main point was that the NAACP has a rich history and needs to continue to work for a better future.  She was missing the main point, but she thought I was simply being unclear about what I wanted.  "If you wanted me to say that Zinczenco's argues that people are victims of the fast-food industry, why didn't you tell me that is what you wanted?"  "If you wanted me to say that Warner argues for a cultural change, why didn't you say that?"  I felt like a math teacher being asked, "if the answer to the problem is seven, why didn't you tell us that seven was the answer you wanted us to get?" Any help? We talked for about forty five minutes, going through each of her assignments, but in the end she was feeling better, but I was actually more frustrated than ever.

As to Dr. Roger's question, I think the students are transitioning well.  Their connections sections are getting more detailed.  I think we could start to explore grouping the articles in different ways.  Most of the students still write their connections by comparing the current article to each of the other articles in the order we read them.  Maybe we could do an outline or practice review.

So far I am having them brainstorm in their in-class writing about how they would order their articles.  We tried to draw a scale on board with personal responsibility on one end and government involvement on the other.  The scale didn't work well, and we soon abandoned it for more of a spider plot.  I was really happy that they saw that a single line wouldn't work.