hallawayjoe

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hallawayjoe
Andyland

2002-10-15 10:07 PM
You can't always get what you want

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Mood:
and you can't always think of new things to say

So,

sitting up late on a Tuesday night. Still gotta plan and organize for my classes tomorrow. Re-reading Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which I read when I was 18 or so. Funny, but now I am teaching composition just like the narrator did.

I speak little good english. Or write it. My goal is not perfection or conformity nor pure content. I like the idea that students have to play the game. Play by the rules. Come to class, do the work, and you pass. But if you cut class... whether it be 4 times or 6 times or 8 times... you pay the price.

My students have 6 absences of their own. But sure enough, some will have exceeded that already. Chances are, most of them are missing other classes as well. Even if not, even if they are missing just mine, still there are the rules. I don't like being up at 8:30.... I'd rather teach at 8 at night... and miss my poetry readings. But I get there because it is a job. And when I was a student, I got to the 8:30 class when I had to because it was required.

You do things even if they seem unfair or unpleasant. I am far more lenient of a grader than many composition teachers. My students averaged in the B category on their first papers. Not C which is average... I don't use a bell curve. Nor do I give all A's. I am not going to delude students into thinking they are better than they are. Often... they think that if they correct five errors, that'd be the difference between a B- and an A. Wrong. An A is Excellent by my standards. I don't go by numbers because that is too arbitrary. It doesn't evaluate writing. Numbers evaluate math. I may switch to a detailed rubric later just for experimenting, but in the past, I have noticed no difference in students' understanding of writing by how I grade. They tend to look at the letter grade, the result as it pertains to their ego, their scholarship, their impending report to their parents or to their friends. They equate a A average with future wealth. As if, getting an A by me will guarantee future riches somewhere down the line.

Many students go to college with this notion that the grade is important, but the content of the course isn't.

Then it becomes a matter of learning the system. If you are annoying enough, you can attack your professor and intimidate them into giving them a better grade than you deserve. I have a better way around this. I allow my students to revise for a better grade. They have the textbooks and the style manuals to guide them in their writing. If they want a better grade, they can do the work. For the ones who miss class left and right... well. I can't do anything for them. They need to either evaluate their ability to get to class early in the morning. I am there.

I am in my office three hours a week without fail. I will sit with a student for an hour or two explaining things about their paper and how they can improve. Most won't take advantage. They may try and question the grade directly after class, but they don't see the flaws in their own writing.

Or they don't see why they are merely good and not excellent.

Well. I am done rambling for now.

Hey... tell Bush... if he had any guts... he'd declare war on Russia and China.

Now that's a war I'd watch on TV.

Imagine all the vodka and chinese food ads.

We Americans need more space and China and Russia have plenty of it.

Plus, why drink Vodka and eat Chinese food when they should be drinking Red White and Blue Beer, and eating greasy Big Macs.

Iraq, Love it or Bomb it.

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