It didn't work. Students dropped at a higher rate than normal. Even my best students struggled. With a week to go, nobody was anywhere near an A. Then I gave an extra credit project just before the final, and people were so shell shocked they didn't even do well on it.
Q: My question is, what did you try this past semester that didn't work for you? What are you going to do about it in the future?
I added a desperately long book to the middle of my reading list, and when we got way behind, we rushed through it. I ruined the middle third of my semester for everyone because I didn't think carefully about how much time it would take to read, digest, talk about, and write about.
ReplyDeleteDarla, I did something similar, and I was also left feeling annoyed with myself, even though the students who actually did read the book said they enjoyed it immensely and were glad I had assigned it.
ReplyDeleteI dutifully followed the recommendations of the General Ed Committee and added a 4-part, scaffolded assignment designed to teach a portable skill and improve writing, and it's been kind of a disaster. If a student hands a paper in late, they can't do the rest of the scaffolding -- which didn't stop a great number of them, who are now sitting on Fs.
ReplyDeleteI did collaborative quizzes, so I could ask more process based questions that might be a touch too complex for one student alone.
ReplyDeleteTurned out that non-vocab "how does this work anyway" type questions required them to think, which was new to them, and giving them a partner just made it so they had an ally against me.
I think I'll keep it, just advertise them a bit better so the first one is not so much of a shock.
Last term, I assigned a number of small weekly readings (as I always do) to complement lecture and other course materials. I keep hitting a wall, though, as students only do half the reading (or they do all of it in such a terrible skimming way that nothing is retained).
ReplyDeleteSo this term, I began assigning a weekly paragraph, outline, list, essay outline, etc, which students prepared before class. I collected this sheet, gave them all 10 points. It functioned as a tie between attendance and participation, worth 20% of their overall grade, and ended up conveying writing, research, and analytical skills.
I'm pretty pleased with it -- a sort of "ticket to class" assignment. It has made my discussions go so much better and my essays and exams are better than they've been in years.
Of course, this could just be a fluke, a crop of extra good students....
What did I do wrong? Anticipated getting a little research done, because I had such a light teaching load.
ReplyDeleteA colleague left, I got her course (no extra pay etc.), I have had a horribly over-crowded semester.
GRUMPY!
What did you try/didn't work:
ReplyDelete- I doubled the number of drafts and workshops sessions for their final essay (...this seemed to work at first, but considering that the final quality is lower than normal, it didn't in the end.)
- I doubled the number of supervised library research sessions for their final essay (...see first comment.)
- I tried to get past the comments from an unpleasant mid-semester meeting with my chair during which I was told that I can't treat 18 year olds as adults, and that I have to treat them "the way they expect to be treated" (what the flock does that even mean???). But I couldn't. Get past it.
What are you going to do about it?
- I'm done. The vacant stares. The smirking silence when I expect participation. The student doing B- work who told me she thinks she has an A. The student who disappeared (failing) after midterm and showed up for the final, with no prayer of passing. The inability to follow simple directions. The whining. The expectation that I'm telepathic. The moronic slop that passes as herculean effort. The lying to my face, repeatedly. The low pay. The decreasing respect and acknowledgement, coupled with continually increasing expectations about what I have to do for them. And all the rest.
There's a 99% chance that I am hanging up the teaching as of the week after next. Home Depot here I come!
I decided to nix random reading quizzes in favor of more "open" writing assignments (they could choose when to do them). Never again. Wrong wrong wrong. Randomly given quizzes are pretty much the only thing that will motivate students to do the reading.
ReplyDeleteOn previous sets of evaluations, I got complaints about quizzes: "This isn't high school!" I understood where they were coming from--after all, few of my college professors gave quizzes (they required short papers instead). But this term, my students proved that they couldn't handle freedom. Without the specter of a quiz looming over them, they don't do the reading.
What did you try/didn't work:
ReplyDelete- I asked for a raise. They said, "Yeah, right."
- I contacted other adjuncts about maybe all asking for a raise or at least communicating with each other about our university and our conditions. They didn't even respond. Crickets.
What are you going to do about it?
- Continue working plan B and get out of this job within a year.