Pygmalion From The Start

If you are semi-read, or work in the education field, you have probably heard of the Pygmalion Effect, or the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. If you have not, it is basically what the latter title suggests. If I assume my students will not get a concept, chances are pretty good that they will recognize this doubt in my teaching the lesson, and in turn, they will not get the concept. I expected them not to, so why should they try?

Recently I found out my student teaching placements; both are near-by districts, and both are urban settings. This is good. I want to get a job in The City come next fall, and this as close as it gets. The first district is more local than the other, and some of the individuals I work with at my job beeping groceries have graduated from that district. We have discussed my student teaching briefly, and some customers have heard where I was going. Most customers have a comment, and they all lie along the same idea - I will need help. I have received comments like "God bless you" or "Good luck with that one. You're going to need it." No one has offered me a positive response like "Oh, that will be a good experience."

It also goes beyond the customers in the local area. In talking to individuals who have never set foot in this district, or even the town, I have heard them begin to demean the students and the district. Where does this bias come from? Is it because it is an urban district? Is it that it is a seemingly troubled city? Why this unfounded bias?

I am not suggesting that these kids are angels, nor am I suggesting that they are devils, but this is the only response I receive from customers - from the public. Perhaps maybe this has something to do with the possible negative attitudes of students in these schools? Maybe a fight breaks out once upon a time, and suddenly there is talk with in the community at how the school is going down hill, and it's expected that more fights, and more issues come to light, and it happens.

Maybe I am giving the district too much credit without actually stepping foot in the building, but regardless, we must remember that when we have low expectations, and it becomes publicly known that our expectations are low, the results will be low.

Last Class

Today marked the last class of the class for whom I was TA'ing, and the source of stories found in this blog. Do not fear, for next semester I will be student teaching, and continuing work on my Graduate Assistantship, so undoubtedly I will have more to share.

Anyway, today's class was spent going over the final exam students will be writing a week from today, and I led the discussion. For the final, students are required to use two texts, one an article from Harper's that I mentioned earlier, and the other being an outside source which the students have found perusing the New York Times, or one of the texts assigned through out the year. Students will begin by summarizing one of the arguments presented by Crister (Harper's), and then proceed to have a conversation between the two pieces and their own opinions. It was my task today to help students get a grasp on the Crister article.

The article was a bit lengthy, and Crister presented a few different arguments, all of course supporting his main idea. I began by asking students to offer up what they deemed his major argument to be, and as it was more-or-less spelled out for them in the sub-title, they nailed it pretty good. We then moved on to discuss his other arguments. Most students seemed occupied with viewing the article through an animal rights lens, and so I attempted to gear the discussion in that manner.

In the end it seemed students understood what was going on in the article, and I was allowed to present a diagram of ethics that I stole from Roderick Frazier's The Rights of Nature. Undoubtedly, ethics professors would probably find fault or dispute the diagram, but none-the-less I find it to be an interesting one that makes students think about their world and - in the end - hopefully make them better humans. A lofty task no doubt, but I truly feel the diagram helps.

The diagram, as you may be able to see from my notes, looks almost like a cross sectional view of a tree that is ever expanding through time. At the center of the circle is the Magna Carta which limited the powers of the King. As time progressed, these powers became more limited, and rights became more distributed through the populace; gradually moving down through the classes. I forget the details between the Magna Carta (1215), and the Bill of Rights (1791). As society progressed, rights were given out further to include African-Americans, women, people of color, and it is here that the diagram was applied to animals. The outer circles began to include animals, mainly mammals, those that are larger in size and are somewhat resemblant of human kind. We then progress to include all mammals, and then to the other Animal Kingdoms, and so on until possibly one day we include the entire Universe as having basic rights of existence not to be impeded upon by human behaviour. These circles concerning non-humans are dotted as there is still progress to be made, but the ideas exist, and there are actions towards giving rights to these bodies - PETA, ALF. There is really no knowing how far or in depth these rights may expand. Currently our scientific paradigms tell us animals do not think or communicate in such a way as to place them on level with human kind, but as paradigms are constantly changing - after all it was not so long ago that the bumps on your head told of your intelligence - we cannot say just how far these rights will one day extend.

As a side. If you note in my diagram I had wrote "Black Men" then scribbled out "Black" and wrote "A.A." This was not a slip of the racist sort, for at the time when Black people gained rights it was mostly in recognition of African American men. However, according to my most recent knowledge, using the term "African American" to describe Black people is racist as it assumes that all Black people are from Africa.

No More Grading

As the semester is wrapping up, my responsibilities to this English 101 class are wrapping up as well. This past Wednesday (I know I am behind, but my Internet has been spotty at best) I had prepared for the last of our group conferences with the students. I was only supposed to have two groups, but a last minute meeting and a cancellation from The Professor required me to do the latter of her meetings. The first two of my meetings went as planned. We talked about the drafts; the direction they were going, and how to get them back on track or keep them moving in the proper direction. Unfortunately, the third group is the most difficult group, and this is not simply because they are at the end of the day.

The group consists of some decent students, but the thing is, they are quiet. Eerily quiet. This makes for any discussion difficult. They do not like to answer questions that I ask, and giving their individual opinions is unheard of. Instead of a group discussion, I am forced to pose questions and prod them gently with a heavy club to illicit an answer.

It is frustrating trying to lead a group discussion when the only one who really wants to talk or seems interested is yourself. Not only is it rough because you are seeming to have conversation by yourself, but it is also difficult as you begin to feel unappreciated. I am led to believe that their silence is a display of their uninterestedness, and in turn their lack of concern for the material and their papers. While it may be that some students feel this way, I am sure that not all quiet students simply do not care. As a teacher, it is important that we keep this last thought in our head and not allow ourselves to get down on our craft for it will only hinder our ability to teach.

To The Farmers Market

The Troy Waterfront Farmers Market is one of the finest farmers markets I have ever seen, and the first time I had gone was last weekend. This is November. It was inside and it still had at least thirty vendors peddling vegetables, meat, fruit, dairy products, yarn, soaps, breads, wines, and who knows what else I missed. It is held in the Uncle Sam Atrium on Third and Fourth Streets in Troy, New York, and it is a fabulous experience that you should participate in should you get the chance. It meets every Saturday from 10 to 2.

It may seem odd that I bring this Farmers Market up when it seems like it has little to do with TA'ing or teaching English. Well, it is not odd. It does have a purpose. One of the state ELA standards is concerned with students ability to read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction. Another states that, "students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding."

In class today, we talked about an "extra credit" project as well as the final exam. The extra credit project will revolve around the Farmers Market. Students are being asked to attend in one of two groups, the first attending at 11 with The Professor, the other attending at 1 with myself. We are asking students to talk to the farmers and even other patrons. Yes, it is college, but the state standards are still something of importance, and we are covering them with out even trying. On top of this, we are encouraging a college community to integrate with the local community. As this was not a goal of my undergraduate university of study (that I spoke to the former Dean of Students about) - St. Lawrence University - it is something that I feel is deeply important to fostering a higher-learning community.

In regards to the final exam, students will be writing an essay concerning the article from Harper's that I found and shared with The Professor the other day, and another author - probably one we read previously in class. I helped create the final with out even intending to do so. Hooray for collaboration of a sort.

Jude in the Classroom

The other day I posted a list of books that I need for this class that I am undertaking independently. I have some further information about that, but I'll get to it later.

This past vacation I spent a good deal of time reading Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Now I am not done with the book; in fact, I am probably a good quarter of the way done, but I am beginning to really like what Hardy has to say. In the first part the main character - Jude - decided to study on his own and become a scholar; unfortunately, his plans were way-laid by a woman. It was not that he had fallen in love with the woman of mention and decided to marry her, but she wanted to become betrothed and in turn lied to our hero Jude and told him she was pregnant. Jude, being an honourable young man, married for the pregnancy as it was the proper thing to do; however, in the end, it turned out she consciously lied.

Students are not usually big into reading, so it is important that we find novels that fit state guidelines, but at the same time, have qualities that interest them. While Jude the Obscure may be a bit of a difficult text for high schoolers, I think some of the males may take to it as this image of a woman lying about pregnancy, or in fact, becoming pregnant, in order to keep a man from leaving is something they may have seen in their lives.

With that said, I will get back to the first few lines I spewed forth. My list has begun to dwindle. I ordered Jude the Obscure, and The Professor gave me Waugh's The Loved One. Also, I would like to make a special mention of thanks to my friend the Semi-Gleaner who gave me a copy of Forster's A Passage to India which he acquired illegally in Italy. (The publishers of this edition noted on the front cover that it is illegal to re-sell the text anywhere but the United States.) On top of all these texts seemingly falling into my lap, I have the Sixth Edition of Norton's English Literature, which has both Wilde's, and Beckett's works in it.

Thanksgiving Drafts

The students third rough draft is coming up; it's due the Monday after Thanksgiving Break. The due date was supposed to be the Monday before break, but things got pushed back and the students had some work to do over break. Initially, there was some groaning, but I stepped in and told them I had work due on the actual Day of Thanks. Yes, it is an online class and we are at will to get our work done, but none-the-less, there were things due on Thanksgiving.

The students really have three choices for their essays - I will not explain them here. I will, however, go over the main ideas. As this is a sort of environmentally based unit, topics focus on environmental ideas - global warming, war's impact on the environment, animal rights, the food industry, etc. I have made my contributions to the intellectual information that was expelled towards the students, but upon returning to my apartment on that sunny Monday afternoon before Thanksgiving Break, I found something else that would help the students.

I opened my door to find my that my mailbox had sprung open and spewed forth my mail onto the concrete sill-way between my screen and wooden doors. Apparently, my mail box can not hold magazines too well, and there on the floor was the December issue of Harper's. In this month's issue is an article regarding animal rights, and the white mouse that has become so loved in science laboratories all over the world. It raised some interesting points, and it could have been of use to the students, not only for it's content, but also because it was current. I read the article, made sure it was relevant, and e-mailed The Professor who then e-mailed the rest of class. Exciting, eh?

Buy Me Books

I have confidence that most English majors, or English teachers find solace in libraries and bookstores. More so bookstores than libraries, as the bookstore allows for ownership. They allow the buyer to purchase a ticket to a world unknown.

There's two types of book stores - chain bookstores, and private bookstores. In the private bookstores there is a quiet resemblant of the silence in a library. A silence allowing the books to do the talking. The calling out to a new audience delicately tip toeing through lengths of shelves that need a ladder to reach the top. A book gives us direct insight to the author's mind; an intimate relationship unattainable any other way, and a bookstore is full of hundreds of these relationships waiting to bloom.

Unfortuatnely, as a college student, new or used books are too expensive and instead we must turn to websites like Amazon.com. It is no bookstore, but it suffices. The other day I mentioned that I spoke with The Professor about the class I will be taking with her. We ended up putting a tentative book list together. It is as follows (they're all links):

Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
Oscar Wilde - "The Importance of Being Earnest"
Samuel Beckett - Endgame
E.M. Forster - A Passage to India
Evelyn Waugh - The Loved One
W.Somerset Maugham - The Moon and Sixpence
John Fowles - The Magus
Laurence Sterne - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Zadie Smith - White Teeth

It's British Lit, and while I've read the classics - "The Rape of the Lock", Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein - but I'm looking forward to reading some more current stuff, and some other classics.

If you have money and don't know what to do with it, buy me the cheapest books on this list.

Because Writing Is Just Not Enough

On Wednesday and Thursday nights I devoted myself to a cause: writing fifteen pages. Fifteen pages isn't really all that much; I've written more, but this paper was of a different style. I am used to writing creatively for fifteen pages, or analyzing a text for fifteen pages, but this paper I was not ready for. It was a literature review, and there is something about writing a document that is almost entirely referenced that makes me feel incredibly less accomplished than if I had written fifteen pages of my ideas.

I finished the paper Thursday night, and was ready to spend Friday relaxing watching television letting my brain turn to mush. That was not what I ended up doing. I met with The Professor Friday afternoon to discuss a class that I will be taking with her independently, and as the discussion wound down we decided to go get some coffee and grade the students' third reflection paper. We each had ten, and she finished a bit before me, but had other work to do so I wasn't left alone. It took me three hours or so to grade them. This may seem like a long time to grade ten papers of two pages in length - and it probably is - but I'm getting better. Earlier in the semester it would have taken me much longer, and this time I did it in one sitting.

The students' papers were still riddled with errors that we've discussed in class - run-ons, citations, possessives, etc. - but the grades were higher, and it is evident that the students writing has improved from the beginning of the semester. On top of this, at the beginning I was apprehensive about grading, but this is changing. I'm not the most assertive person in respect to judging people, and I'm not always so sure if I'm grading too hard, or not hard enough, but The Professor read two papers that I also read, and we both gave them the same grades within a plus or minus.

In the end, grading papers was probably better than wasting away on the couch with radiation shooting at me from the wall. And, believe it or not, it was relaxing. By the way, that isn't a picture of me.

Group/Individual Help

The Professor was better today. She handed the classes Final Paper Number Two back to them with comments and marks - lots of marks. Most of the marks were typical proofreading marks, but she introduced two new marks that she wanted students to work with. The marks were placed along the left margin of particular lines - a check if the Professor found a particular point to be exceptionally strong, and a dash if the Professor found some sort of error - usually grammatical.

Students were to look over their papers and notice the checks and dashes. They then got in groups of two and attempted to figure out why the dashes were in place. While this was going on, the Professor and I milled about making sure groups were on task as well as making sure that students were correcting and finding the proper issues denoted by the dashes. Inevitably, some students had more marks than others. Some students found themselves attempting to fix every other line of their paper, while others found themselves searching for dashes to correct.

The most common mistakes I saw surrounded the inclusion of quotes. Many students failed to properly introduce a quote and ended up with redundant statements that needed to be fixed. Others simply dropped the quote in the paper with out any sort of introduction, or synthesis of the quote. The Professor and I have discussed these issues before, and some of the students are getting it; others are not. Another huge problem with quotes was citation. Now, I am no APA pro. I spent most of my college days using Chicago, or MLA, and consequently I do not know the finer points of APA by heart. However, I do know how to properly cite a quote. I have a general rule, and it may not always be correct, but it is ninety-five percent of the time. If you can't figure out what to include in your parenthesis look at your works cited. What belongs in the parenthesis is probably the first thing you see in the citation for that article. One thing I saw a lot of, and I'm not incredibly sure where students learned it or why they are doing it, but they have been inserting complete url's as a citation. Not okay.

Another big problem that seemed to be found in over half the papers was students using the forbidden comma splice, or using incomplete sentences - sentence fragments. Apparently my lesson on the comma splice didn't strike the hearts of all of them.

Plagiarism Vs. Paraphrasing

I awoke this morning in my apartment and thought I was sleeping in a tent. I have no insulation in my ceiling, or my walls. It was cold. It was ten o'clock when my phone rang with The Professor on the other end explaining to me her battle with a sinus infection, and asking me to take the class on today. Her requests were simple:

1.) Go over plagiarism and paraphrasing. Apparently some of the students had difficulty paraphrasing in their final draft of paper number two. Instead of paraphrasing, they changed a few words and subsequently plagiarized. In the world of literature, plagiarism is not a more-or-less topic, you either have plagiarized, or you have not.

2.) Students were to hand in their third reflection piece today, and I was to go over their paraphrasing in those papers with them.

They were not heavy tasks for me to accomplish, and I feel I got them done appropriately. I began by getting students to give the class their definitions of paraphrasing and many of them explained that paraphrasing is simply not using a piece of text word for word. I sort of cringed at this. Unfortunately, I think this is what we teach students. More often then not, students think plagiarism is using an exact copy of part of a text; they don't seem to grasp the fact that in order to really paraphrase, they need to put the entire quote in their own words.

I put a quote on the board from the Funk article that students read for class the previous class and had them attempt to paraphrase it. The students that opted to share their paraphrasing had completed the task correctly, but I'm not sure of the students that didn't opt to share. The ones that share clearly have a grasp as they have the confidence to share with the class.

I then decided to explain to them how to go about paraphrasing. It is not the quickest technique, but it pretty much guarantees you won't exactly plagiarize. When we look at a quote, we need to glean the facts from it. If we can figure out the bare-bones facts that we are interested in we can do away with the quote and the language the author used. We then take these facts and put them into our own words, and make the connection using our own language. At this point, you should have a statement that doesn't mirror that of the original quote, but still contains the main ideas. Of course we need to reread the original quote and make sure ours is not the same, and even more importantly, we need to remember to cite. The ideas are not ours and therefore need a citation.

I also had the class exchange papers and read through them looking for paraphrasing/plagiarism as well as other grammar issues we had discussed in class - run-ons, comma splices, in-text citations, and comma usage. While this may not be full bore peer-editing, it is a beginning, and will eventually allow students to edit their own work more efficiently.

Belief Pusher-Man

When I first told you a bit about myself, I failed to mention that I was an Environmental Studies - English Major. You may be wondering what exactly that is, and I will give you this brief answer. Environmental Literature. You can figure the rest out from there if you care so much. Anyway, the third unit of the class I'm TA'ing recently began and the readings, and ideas are ones close to my heart.

Recently the students read an article from Harper's by McKenzie Funk. They read a piece from Aldo Leopold - one of my favorites - and for Monday they will be reading a piece from Leslie Marmon Silko. All of these pieces are of interest to myself, and so when the students ask questions, or look to me for answers it's extremely difficult for me to give a clear unbiased answer. I find myself interjecting my own agenda about global warming or animal rights. I take into account all the texts I've read concerning environmental ethics. While it is a teachers job to encourage students to think - this may be accomplished by throwing your passion into what you do - it is important not to be so one sided as to not see the other. If we do not acknowledge or teach both sides of a point we are doing nothing but brainwashing. Yes, it would be nice if all of our students decided to believe in our individual system of beliefs, but believing requires understanding all sides and choosing the one best suited for you.

In reflection, I guess I shouldn't have said that the US Government doesn't care or acknowledge global warming because when the Arctic is substantially melted in fifteen to twenty years, the US will expand it's control of natural resources, and will be the proud new owners of over half a trillion dollars of petroleum. Oops.

Jobby Jobs

I will have a job next year, and not one beeping groceries. A real job where I teach secondary level students in English Language Arts. If I don't, then I might just have to go back to Asia. Perhaps Taiwan this time.

Hopefully, this real job of mine will be in the City. Yes, New York City. Today at work, I was beeping some news papers, and I noticed the New York Post was running an article on NYC schools, and the new "report card" that the city put out on schools. There was also an article in the New York Times. At first it sounds fine and dandy, but like much of the school ranking going on with No Child Left Behind (NCLB), it leaves some margin for error. A large margin.

One of my main concerns with these reports is that there is substantial weight put on student improvement. NCLB tests at particular grade levels every year, and measures improvement on these scores. Two different groups of students are being tested. The tests done in NYC were given to the same group of students as they progressed through the school. So if the fourth graders were given a test, they were also given a test in fifth grade and this progress was measured. Progress is good, but one of the problems we see with both of these ranking systems is that the schools on top don't get that fair shake they so deserve. If a student gets a ninety-five this year, I'm going to go ahead and wager they won't do so well next year. If a student gets a sixty-five this year, chances are with a little intervention they'll do better next year. So even if your sixty-five student improved ten points, they wouldn't be doing as well as your ninety-five student that declined ten points, but the school with the improvement gets a better ranking. Consequently, I'm not really sure how much we can glean from these types of reports.

Anyway, if you're interested, the website to see the "report cards" on the 1,224 city schools that got ranked it's here:

NYC School Progress Reports

The link takes you to a page where the results are in a downloadable xls file.

Gleaning

The other day, the Professor was out and I had to begin students in on the third unit by showing them the video The Gleaners and I. An interesting video I suppose, but way too long. Whoever edited this video needs to go back to school and re-learn how to edit. While I was showing it, the projector got too hot and shut off. I was sitting at my desk, enjoying the video while perusing the crowd of students making sure no one was using this as nap time when the video cut out. I had no idea how long I would have to wait for it to properly cool off, I did not have anything really for the students to do, and I knew I could not just let them go. I got up to the front of the class, and about half of them looked at me with those tilted faces and coy smiles assuming I was going to let them go. I was not.

I began to talk about the video. Gleaning. It was something - in this video - of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Poor people would go into farm fields after they had been picked over by the machines and pick up any left over product they could possibly eat. Some of the students found this to be slightly awkward. The whole idea of picking up left-over food and using it as your own. I went further into gleaning, and spoke about the individuals that wander around markets after their culmination and pluck any left-over food from the ground.

This last idea really irked some students. They found it "disgusting". However, a few of the students looked on in silence with a look on their face that explained to me that while maybe they were not forced to scrounge food out of the trash to survive as children, they know what it is to not have.

As I continued talking about gleaning I realized that this gleaning of food was foreign to the students and they needed something real life, so I began coming up with examples. The first example I used was my grandparents. My grandparents go to Florida every winter and like most grandparents mine are cheap. A good deal is a good deal and should be taken. I think Florida caters to this. Anyway, for five dollars - or so I have been told - you can get a five gallon bucket and go through a tomato field that the machines have already been through and pick up any tomatoes still there. God bless capitalism, eh? Pay for something that would otherwise rot and go to waste.

After the first example, the students still seemed a bit distant and did not seem to care too much. The second example got them. At least it got most of them:

"I have a friend who is unemployed. He lives at home and has no steady source of income. He makes money on the internet, on Ebay. You know those "trash pick-up days" when everyone throws their junk into big piles for the town to come pick up?" I got some nods of agreement but mostly looks of confusion. "Well, my buddy goes around and picks up stuff that is getting thrown out and could be re-sellable, like bicycles, or gym equipment. He makes some decent money this way. It's gleaning."

With this last example the students all seemed to nod in understanding. Whether they understood what I was saying, or they were finally understanding that they were going to sit in their desks and listen to me blabber while the projector cooled down, I am not sure. I continued to ramble on for a bit and somehow - although, I cannot recall now - I got talking about the Irish Potato Famine, and the lesser known Southern Corn Blight of the 1970's, and then the film started back up.

We finished the film today. The Professor was there and the students acted no differently. All incredibly unenthused about the video, and still slightly disturbed by this idea of "urban gleaning" in markets and along street sides. Maybe we should have watched a few episodes of Sanford and Son instead, but the library probably does not have the DVD's in their possession.

Discussing Papers

Most of my free time this weekend was spent preparing for class this morning. I pawed through drafts slowly, writing insightful comments here and there, asking questions meant to provoke thought. I finished last night around one in the morning, and then crashed. Beeping groceries for eight hours and then reading intro level papers can lead to wonderful exhaustion of both the physical and mental state. Nonetheless, I prevailed.

The first time I graded* papers at this level I was a bit insecure - second guessing my comments, questioning whether or not they answered the assignment. I am one who sees a lot of "gray matter," and consequently I will stretch the parameters of an assignment. While this isn't always a bad thing, sometimes it can be a bit problematic. So far it hasn't. This is the fourth time I've graded papers for this class, and I'm finally gaining a sort of comfort writing comments, although I'm still a bit uneasy stamping a grade on a text. Unfortunately, it is something I will probably always have a problem with - this whole idea of a student "earning" an A, or a B all the way down to an F. I can see definitive levels in things, but it's the picking apart, the ranking that is difficult for me to do as I've grown up trying to find worth in everything.

Anyway, back on topic, today I had three groups to discuss papers with, and overall, it went rather well. The first time we had group conferences students were unprepared, not having read each others documents, which ended up having me discuss the person's paper one-on-one while the other group members sat there. This time only one student - that told me - didn't read one paper. The discussions were fruitful, and most students - I feel - walked away with a clear idea of what they needed to do in their drafts.

I realized something about my teaching, and my personality today. I can come off, and I probably am, a bit of a prig. For example, in one of the groups today, it was quite obvious that one of the students didn't prepare. She didn't read the draft, and had brief critiques that where half a page at best compared to everyone else's one-and-a-half page critiques. I asked the group to re-read the introduction and conclusion of a certain paper, and asked whether or not the two were related, and if they were pertinent to the information contained in the body of the text. A pretty standard question. I gave the students a few minutes to look the piece over, and then asked students to answer my question. Through out the entire discussion one of the students was mute. That's fine. That's the way I used to be, and still am in group work. It's not so much that you aren't prepared, but that you are uncomfortable with speaking in a group. I dogged her a bit, and asked her to speak multiple times. She didn't.

I'm stuck. At the college level do we require students to speak? Even if they aren't comfortable with themselves, they need to become comfortable with speaking in groups. The only way to do this is to call on them. They are not fifth graders. They are past scaring. They've already made it to a small private liberal arts school, they must be at least semi-intelligent. These are not difficult questions. Answer them. On the other hand, they are freshman. They are new to this world of college. They are trying to make new friends and become accustomed to being away from home, partying, and balancing school work. Cut them some slack. If they have prepared the work and seem somewhat attentive, let them be. Remember what you were like. The inner-battles you had when you wanted to raise your hand to share, but couldn't convince your muscles to do so. Hopefully, like grading this is something I come to grips with eventually and learn how to handle.


*The reflection essays are graded, while the drafts are given a check if they are four pages or more as four is the requirement. I do not grade the final papers as they carry too much weight to be put on my shoulders. So I guess technically I don't grade drafts. Not with a letter.

Paper Piles

I just got done doing some work for another class I am taking and I had a few moments to pause and reflect on what I need to do this weekend while I'm not slaving at the local grocery store. At first it didn't seem like I had a lot to do. My classes where taken care of for the most part. A few things due next week, but nothing too much. Then it hit me. Monday. Ah, Monday. I TA on Monday mid-mornings, and it is this class that I must prep for.

The class is twenty-two students and they are divided into five groups of four or five. They have three unit papers due, and for each of these papers, the students exchange their drafts with the other members of their groups as well as the Professor and I. There is a sheet that was given to everyone with a list of questions meant to help the students read each others drafts critically and come back with some useful tips. The Professor and I act as facilitators, leading the discussion and giveing the students our critique as well as some pointers for the final draft.

As there are five groups and two facilitators, if you will, one of us gets three groups, while the other gets two. Since I'm only the TA, I got two groups the first time, which means I have three groups this time. This weekend on my fifteen minute break from beeping groceries, I will be assessing rough drafts and making notes for fourteen students. It's not too much of a daunting task, just a time consuming one. We kept student response papers that these drafts were meant to partially stem from. With these response papers we will be comparing drafts and the errors that were in both so we have a little bit more of an idea of where particular students are having problems.

Tough Tasks

As a substitute teacher, you often end up being a glorified baby sitter. Teachers seldom want you to teach new material to students, because chances are you'll do it wrong, and then they'll have to spend the next class undoing the damage the substitute did. For the most part I showed video's, administered tests of some sort, or gave out packets of class work. Occasionally I would have to grade the tests I gave, and this is where I had a dilemma. It's one thing to grade a multiple choice test, but grading short answer can be problematic.

In the class I TA, I grade half of the assignments. For the most part they are small assignments - reflection pieces, drafts. I do not grade final drafts. This is fine by me. I'd rather not grade final drafts that carry large weight in regards to students final grades. I don't mind grading papers; it's not an incredibly difficult task. The problem I find is that there is no real rubric to grade papers on. There is an assignment, but not a rubric so I'm left to make my own judgement calls.

Another important piece that I've figured out about grading my third time through, is that I cannot sit down and grade twenty pieces at a time. Potentially I could, but it's not fair to the class. Even when I grade five papers, I find myself being more lenient towards the end of the grading process. I'm not sure if it's because I just want it to be over with and it's easier to give a "B" then to think about it, or if my brain gets tired and I miss mistakes and stop thinking about what I'm reading.

Two things I've learned so far:

1. I need a rubric. I will always have a rubric for assignments I give. Even if it is a basic, one-page assignment, there will be a rubric.
2. I need time to grade. It's important to space out the grading process. Maybe as I progress I'll be able to grade more papers at a time, but for now I need to break it up.

Surprise Run-Ons

With the new unit being taught in class, we've had two guest speakers visit class to talk about their trade and discuss how they got there, and what their jobs mean to them. The first was the Professors father - a school psychologist somewhere in Colorado - and the second was a young female lawyer from a local firm. The lawyer was the most recent of our visitors as she stopped in on Wednesday; however, she was a minute or two late and the Professor wanted to wait for her outside the building. With the Professor gone, I was left in charge of the class with a brief assignment given to me from the Professor as she was walking out the door: teach run-on sentences.

Most individuals have an idea of what a run-on sentence consists of. It is two complete clauses joined together with no punctuation, or in some cases they can be joined with a comma. I know this. I'm an English major and I was a huge comma splicer back in my early days of writing. If you didn't follow that link and read what it had to say, you should. A comma splice is basically the joining of two independent clauses with a comma. There are times that it may be acceptable use, but for the purposes of an English 101 class, we're going to say that the comma splice is illegal.


This should not have been a difficult task for me to complete, but suddenly it became problematic for me. I had no time to prepare, and started trying to think on my feet while at the same time keeping the attention of the class. If you've ever had to think on your feet in front of a room full of people four years your minor, you might know that it can be a bit daunting. I wanted to come up with an example of a run-on sentence that was simple, yet I could not think of anything but the simplest of run-ons. "The dog was hungry it ate the cat." As I neared the end of my sentence, the students I knew from substitute teaching high school classes began giggling. I turned around, and started asking them questions about my sentence. "What's wrong with this sentence? What can we do to make it correct?" Some of them raised their hands; others blurted out answers. They were all correct telling me that it was a run-on of sorts, and it needed some punctuation, like an "and." At this point I broke into the hook of "Conjunction Junction" to which many of the students looked at me rather awkwardly. Never mind the awkwardness, they understood - I think - what I was getting at.

Overall, I think it went alright. The students knew what I was talking about, and when they attempted to find run-ons in their peers' papers, for the most part they were able to do it. I feel that I was able to explain run-ons, but I wanted to go further into grammar and explain more about clauses being independent, or dependent and how to make them such. While explaining these things takes little time, I feel they are seldom taught in the English classroom and students are simply expected to know them. If every English teacher took five minutes every other class to explain some grammar concept, I think knowledge of grammar would improve momentously.

Ways to Fix a Run-On:
1. Add a conjunction preceded by a comma.
Ex.) The dog was hungry, and it ate the cat.
2. Add a semi-colon. Although the semi-colon can be tricky and is not recommended by some in early writing, it is a suitable way to fix a run-on. A semi-colon can be used when the two clauses are closely related.
Ex.) The dog was hungry; it ate the cat.
3. Add a period and create two separate clauses.
Ex.) The dog was hungry. It ate the cat.

A Brief Overview

Through out the class we will be using basically two texts and one style guide. The first text is an anthology put together by Diane Durkin and Lisa Gerrard called Seeking Common Cause: Reading and Writing in Action. Now I don't actually own this book as I use copies of the texts to be read provided for me. The second text that we are using is the New York Times. As I am not a student of the class, I don't have to buy this, but it is provided for me which is really quite nice in the grand scheme of things.

The class is broken into three units - the first of which was completed on October first with the submission of the students first "long" paper of six pages. In this unit the students looked at the image of self in regards to the popular media. We looked at images in the New York Times and advertisements in magazines such as People, US Weekly, and others of that sort. We also read pieces that were concerned with plastic surgery and body image. While still in this unit we took a trip to a local art gallery to view artwork that was concerned with women in suburbia. Students also used these images to frame their final paper for the unit.

With the closure of the unit we have moved to the image of self in the work place. We are looking at different jobs and perhaps sexism, or racism in the workplace as the class is all females with a handful of non-white students. We have not really delved into this unit too far yet as the first class and a half was spent watching a documentary on Wal-Mart and how awful the corporation really is. Then Columbus Day struck and we missed class. We began by reading a piece by Mike Rose and students are looking at different types of jobs, and what they mean to the individual.

In the most recent class, students were asked to create a collage based on the themes we have been discussing and their personal feelings. Some students took pictures from magazines, while others took titles or words from the New York Times. Students were then asked to write a response paper for next class, explaining individual pieces of their collages and the overall grand view of them.

Now that I'm caught up - to a degree - I can keep this thing updated when I get back from class.

Catch Up

So it goes like this:

I graduated from St. Lawrence University in 2005. I was pretty sure I wanted to teach, but was one of those college seniors that failed to think about graduate school and a job until spring break -- too late to apply for much. Scared and lost I decided to apply for a job teaching English in South Korea. A month after getting my oh-so-precious piece of paper, I was half-way across the globe trying to teach kindergartners how to speak proper English. Luckily, I had taken some undergraduate education classes so I wasn't completely lost. I had to return to the States pre-maturely -- for a reason I can tell only if you ask -- and decided that teaching was in fact what I wanted to do for sometime of my life, perhaps all. I applied and enrolled in an MAT program at a small private college where I now reside in a leaky apartment.

One of the classes I'm currently taking requires that we keep a blog of our expierences in the classroom. For most people this would be their expierences while completing the state mandated one-hundred hours of observation time, or their internships at local schools. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I completed my observation hours while bumbling through my under-graduate work and won't be embarking on my student teaching until the Spring semester, long after this assignment is due.

I was told that I could update this blog with responses to the assigned reading, and figured this would be what I was doing. Then I realized, I am in a classroom. Earlier this summer I was approached by a professor and encouraged to apply for a graduate assistantship. I did so and am currently a teachers assistant for an English 101 class - hence this wonderfully creative title. No doubt there will be differences between a high school class, and a college class, but the intellectual level that the students are on should be about the same as it is doubtful that the summer between your senior year of high school and freshman year of college is that transforming.

Tally Ho

Just seeing how things look.