So. My online class begins with a unit on setting. I have them read the first chapter in the textbook (LOL!) which thoroughly describes setting and every other damn thing you might want to know about beginning to read lit, and I of course have them read the story itself.
And I post a three page "lecture" on the story. I did not always post my own thoughts on this fairly straightforward story, but seeing as how so many of my students are COMPLETELY unable to think on their own, I made the decision a few years ago to post some ideas and to try to direct their thinking just a little bit (wince).
Today I received the following email from one of my online students. Keep in mind that I have already been in very frequent contact with my online students, letting them know what I expect of them, EXACTLY what it is that they should be doing, and also a separate email about how online learning requires at least SOME independent thinking. So here is the email:
Hello Professor, I am not purposely intending to sound ignorant, but I absolutely do not understand this week's reading "The Flowers." I re-read it three different times and still did not grasp the main point of the article. Therefore, in spite of all my best and most sincere efforts, I was not able to complete this week's assignments on "The Flowers." Please help?
I really am tempted to email her back and tell her that my best advice is for her to kill herself and save society a huge burden of supporting someone so completely incapable of the most BASIC critical thought. I guess I am a bad person all around, right?
>I guess I am a bad person all around, right?
ReplyDeleteThat depends...are you planning to include detail instructions on the best methods of how to go about killing oneself? As well as a list of the necessary equipment she would need and precautions she needs to take so someone does not accidentally save her?
If that is the case, I would be inclined to frown upon it.
Anastasia'a batting 2 for 2.
ReplyDeleteYou go, girl!
I am starting to get VERY worried about all these students who have never done (and thus are completely unprepared to be able now to do) basic textual analysis.
I used to have my students do a basic summary of a text as part of one of their short-paper assignments. OOF...what a mess many of those summaries were. No wonder some profs only do multiple choice tests. Although there they just accuse us of asking "trick" questions. (My elderly mom once asked me, "Aren't tests supposed to be tricky?")
P.S. @ Bella:
ReplyDeleteI just Googled "The Flowers" and found it online. It was beautiful (with a Walkerian surprise at the end!). Thanks for the heads-up.
Sometimes I get these "I can't do it" messages, and I say, "Give it your best shot." Often, the student can do it. I don't put much stock in their self-assessments.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you ask your students to do? Did you direct them to discuss setting as it appears in the story? Did you ask them to discuss setting because it's essential to that piece? Were they told to write whatever they wanted about "The Flowers"?
ReplyDeleteIs the "main point" she mentions a response to something you directed them to do?
It seems to me - from a great distance - that perhaps the misery could be from a misunderstanding about the assignment, not just your student's inability to understand a text. Maybe she doesn't know what to DO with her own writing.
@BabblingBrook -- Thanks for posting the link. What a powerful, evocative piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if I'm a fair judge of students' inability to use language properly, the student in question probably read the work no more than three ("different"?) times -- thus 'RE-reading' it only twice.
But, how could a university student *possibly* not understand what the author is describing? (I mean, when my students claim that the engaging, non-academic history book they have to read is "too confusing," at least I understand that they are probably just too lazy to read the 300-ish page book.)
Heck, if this is for an online course, how could the student not even have made the effort to cheat a little and Google the work and/or author?
I've seen so many students call nonfiction texts "novels" (as in: "In Adam's novel 'The Wealth of Nations' she says...") that I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see this one call an actual work of fiction an "article."
ReplyDeleteI was never an English major, so perhaps that's a block for me, but what was the student supposed to write about? Just the setting? Were you looking for a description of the items in the story that were part of setting? Or were you looking for the main point of the story?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf Bella gives too many details, couldn't that compromise her anonymity?
ReplyDeleteI would think the very fact that a student doesn't understand what to do after reading a textbook chapter, reading a 3-page preamble to the lesson, and then reading the directions for the assignment would be enough for at least a little commiseration. And read the link I posted above. The short story OOZES setting. No matter what Bella is asking for, it shouldn't be too hard based on that reading. (Honestly, I am betting the student never read the story, only the chapter -- or vice-versa.)
Oof, Bella. It is a beautiful story, but it's not what you call subtle. I fear for the student who can't get "the point" with Alice Walker. Keep the child far away from, say, Faulkner.
ReplyDeleteI think we all lose a little bit of our own potential if we don't at least consider that we could improve, and in that regard, I appreciate those who point out that perhaps my poor little snowflake, who I had the urge to suggest should self destruct, might be the victim of a lack of clarity on my part. I am always on the lookout for lack of clarity, actually, since I am accused of it so often.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, I feel really fucking secure about this particular assignment. I ask them to look for physical clues in the setting that point toward what is going to happen next. I spend time explaining about tone, and the way it cues us in to what is going on and then I ask them to explain how Walker sets the tone with physcial cues in the setting and word choice and descriptions, and then changes the tone using the same kind of cues. And then I asked them in a different assignment to talk about the cultural setting, and the way that situates the main character and makes her ephinany that much more meaningful. Walker uses so few words and manages to convey a lot about the cultural setting. And actually, the whole thing is sort of silly, since it is all explained in the book anyhow. Not that any of them actually READ the book.....
I didn't mean to suggest ANYTHING about what the instructor asked; I simply didn't KNOW what the instructor asked.
ReplyDeleteI was not attacking anyone in any way. I teaching English as well, and was honestly wondering if the student simply couldn't get her mind around "Discuss setting in Alice Walker's 'The Flowers,'" or if it was something else entirely. I apologize to anyone who thought I was impugning anyone.
I meant no disrespect at all. I am very sorry.
Hi Bernice! I did not think you were impugning at all. Really. As I said, it is a fair question. My use of the word "fucking" was only a reaction to the fact that my snowflakes ALWAYS tell me I am unclear and unfair. LOL. Not that I think something as open as "discuss setting" would be unfair, personally. But I did give the poor things more to go on than that, since I know what I am facing. Have a great night!
ReplyDeleteAs a math prof who barely escaped sophomore level american lit, I can kind of understand why a student would be confused by this story.
ReplyDelete"Flowers" wasn't an easy read. I had to read the first few paragraphs a several times before I could create enough of a picture in my head to continue reading. Then when Myop got to the scene of the hanging and saw "his naked smile" I immediately thought, "WTF, what is the point of a story about a 10 year old getting raped! And he's gonna hang her with the noose afterward. And all she can think about is the damn rose growing on the ground." So if that's the picture you've got in your head it's difficult to read the subtle details which indicate what Myop is really discovering.
And just as a side rant can I say I'm so tired of symbolism. Why can't people just say what they mean?? *suddenly realizes why Crazy Math Professor is just that*
It's a fairly common theme: stumbling across a corpse. See Raymond Carver's "So Much Water, So Close to Home", Stephen King's The Body, the movie Stand By Me, and the movie River's Edge. The student is just using a whiny "but-I-can't-I-really-can't" ploy instead of making up a bunch of stuff, which really shouldn't be too difficult considering the brevity and directness of the story.
ReplyDeleteCrazyMath, that's so cute. Math is full of symbols, is it not? Even numerals are symbols, no? So think of it as an algebra equation:
ReplyDeletef (i)/n(l) = ?
Where f = flowers expressing i innocence), and
n = noose expressing l (lynching)
Innocence divided by lynching = ________.
Not that I teach literature that way, but I love to translate into other disciplines. Though I suck at math, and I don't know the math-symbol for "expressing."
PS: "He had been a tall man" -- the past tense cues you into the fact that he can't be a rapist waiting for her.