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ladyslvr at 02:22pm on 13/11/2003
ladyslvr at 02:22pm on 13/11/2003I'm supposed to be grading paper #3. I have only 20 students (19 really because of the phantom student), so you'd think it would be that difficult to get the papers graded. Right. Paper #3 was supposed to be a Compare & Contrast. The students made no bones about dumb they thought this particular assignment was, and now they're punishing me for going through with it.
The papers are terrible. I've read 9 so far. Five of them had to go on the re-read stack, as in I have to re-read them again later in hopes that a little distance will enable me to form an opinion that won't get me fired. Of the remaining four, one wasn't bad. A little unfocused, but I don't expect too much from the second draft. The other three were really weak. It was hard to find something good to say.
I collected the assignment last Friday. My personal policy is to return everything by the next class period. I've so not lived up to that with this paper. I still have 11 to go, and two of them made up the evening's entertainment the other night between DH and my mother, which frightens me.
I'm supposed to be grading papers, so instead I spent a long time on the phone with my cousin; I'm paying veeeerrrry close attention to the stock market in case there's any activity that I should be aware of; and I made myself a birthday cake. Perhaps I'll go work on Show 'n Tell--my Angel episode guide is a little outdated.
This is parent-teacher night at DH's school, so he won't be home until very late. There'll be plenty of time to get the papers finished, yes?
The papers are terrible. I've read 9 so far. Five of them had to go on the re-read stack, as in I have to re-read them again later in hopes that a little distance will enable me to form an opinion that won't get me fired. Of the remaining four, one wasn't bad. A little unfocused, but I don't expect too much from the second draft. The other three were really weak. It was hard to find something good to say.
I collected the assignment last Friday. My personal policy is to return everything by the next class period. I've so not lived up to that with this paper. I still have 11 to go, and two of them made up the evening's entertainment the other night between DH and my mother, which frightens me.
I'm supposed to be grading papers, so instead I spent a long time on the phone with my cousin; I'm paying veeeerrrry close attention to the stock market in case there's any activity that I should be aware of; and I made myself a birthday cake. Perhaps I'll go work on Show 'n Tell--my Angel episode guide is a little outdated.
This is parent-teacher night at DH's school, so he won't be home until very late. There'll be plenty of time to get the papers finished, yes?
pensive
Never underestimate the power of stupidity
Never underestimate the power that bad writing has over your ability to slog through it. I used to bribe myself with diner at a quiet restaurant which wouldn't mind me taking up a table for a few hours. I found writing notes on stickies and addressing simple mechanics as a way to cope.
When I was grading non-composition papers it was easier. I devoted 1/2 the points to style issues and 1/2 to content issues, which kept me goal oriented while marking papers.
I hated grading frosh comp papers, and I'll never teach THAT class again for as long as I shall live. You are better equipted to give instruction in that matter. Hopefully.
Hang in there.
Re: Never underestimate the power of stupidity
The strange thing is, the first two papers were easy to get through. The second one was really enjoyable. But this one--it's like they were writing as badly as possible on purpose.
The stock market didn't affect me too much today; I got the synopsis for "Just Rewards" (Angel ep #5.2) finished; and I got four more papers graded and one more added to the re-read pile. There's no way I'll have them all done for tomorrow. This means that tomorrow's lesson plan is a ream out over the quality of this paper.
Mostly, I think the problem is that the students are too compartmentalized. They think that because this is a Compare & Contrast paper that it can't be anything else. One student even asked why she couldn't just make a bulleted list. Why they think this is beyond me, since all of the C&C essays we read in class fell into other categories .. and THAT WAS POINTED OUT REPEATEDLY TO THEM.
What were you teaching that wasn't composition? I thought you only taught comp for a year?
Re: Never underestimate the power of stupidity
Ah yes the ol' "let's not take everything we learned so far and apply it to this new problem, let's just concentrate on this one new skill" mentality. It's worse for me to deal with because I got over that in AP English and I expect my students to be able to do the same. I know it's unreasonable for me to expect intellectual maturity out of college students but ...
Re: Never underestimate the power of stupidity
We've been doing a lot of 5-minute writes (aka: write as much as you can in 5 minutes; we're aiming for word-count, not quality). And, ya know, every single one of those 5-minute writes has been really, really good. Better than their supposedly edited, polished works by far. Some few of them have been so good that I want to shanghai the student and make them type up the write and mail it in someplace to get published.