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.

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?

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.

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.

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.