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.

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.