Here's some background for you. Since the job market for people with degrees in the Humanities is horrible, I work something like three different jobs--one of which is at a local CC. I've taught at this CC for nearly nine years now. For about the past six years, I've been teaching what once-upon-a-time would have been called a remedial composition class. I teach students who have little-to-no written or verbal skills in English because many of them either never excelled in school or were raised elsewhere outside of an English speaking country.
For a few years, I obediently followed the college's canned, but hugely outdated, curriculum--a curriculum that didn't seem to teach these students any permanent skills. Finally, about four years back, I realized that this population had absolutely no familiarity with computer technology at all. Forget about writing. Many of my students could barely turn on a computer, let alone determine how to select Times New Roman as a font, let alone construct cohesive sentences and paragraphs.
Therefore, I entirely chucked the curriculum I was instructed to teach--because I eventually realized that I was not going to get fired (I don't even know if I would care if I did get fired)--and turned the class into a kind-of computer skills/research skills/writing workshop thing. I get the students oriented in Blackboard (because that's all that I can use); I get them in the library; I keep them in a writing lab for, like, the entire semester. I teach word processing skills; I teach them how to construct research plans; I teach them writing and revision strategies. Basically, after selecting a topic for their final papers, we spend the entire semester workshopping it, marching it through different research exercises, refining it, revising it, etc. We do this intensely, and sure enough, they learn how to do what they need to do in order to produce work--which is miles ahead of where many of them start.
However, along the way, I have shrunk the required amount of pages that they need to produce for their final papers. Though they probably produce somewhere in the range of 25-30 pages of writing throughout the course, I keep their final papers in the 7-10 page range. I do this because I realized some time back that it was much more manageable for me to help students detect logical gaps, unsubstantiated claims, lack of cohesion, etc. over a shorter span of pages. Also, my classes are capped--by the state--at 30 students, so I had to cut something down at some point.
And this is why I feel like I'm a failure--like no matter what I do, I can never do enough, and that my students never seem to learn what they seem like they need to learn in order to be successful. After an entire semester's worth of work--of painstaking research, of drafting annotated bibliographies and research proposals and paper drafts and citation exercises, of writing workshops and conferences and peer revision activities, of endless hours in a computer lab--I am receiving questions like this:
Do our papers need to be 7 full pages?
Do our Works Cited pages count as one of the 7 pages we need to write?Even though I've fielded questions like this for my entire career--and I know that I'll face them for years in the future--I'm dumbfounded. How can seven double-spaced pages of writing, most of which was produced in class, under my guidance, be an insurmountable amount of writing? What have I done wrong?
One answer to the latter question is that I simply forgot to reiterate, over and over again, that yes, everyone's papers needed to be at least seven pages in length and that the WC page doesn't count as a page, etc., etc., etc.
Beyond that, I can only surmise that I just no longer have the strength to fight some of these battles--and that, frankly, a large part of me has no interest in fighting them any longer.
Perhaps that's my biggest failure of all.
You are not a failure. Freshman comp courses are notoriously difficult to teach because we get almost no majors, few students who actually like to write, and many who think either they can't write or they won't have to write much at all when they get that job paying three times what a TT proffie makes. Freshman Comp I is the class nobody wants at Large Urban Community College. It's the ultimate weed-out class and will kill your productivity numbers like no other unless you have no ethics whatsoever. People who will pass Snidely Student out of developmental because "he was so nice and came every day" even though he couldn't write his way out of a paper bag will take pause about letting him skate through FCI.
ReplyDeleteYour work schedule sounds very similar to what my department requires. And yes, the students bitch and moan about how much work it is. If I'm lucky, 60-65% of them make it through. I tell them repeatedly that the only way to learn to write is to do it, so we have to practice, establish the writing process, and find a way to use it that works for them. Too many of them think the writing process is "write my draft on a piece of paper and then type it." They are incensed by having to pre-write, draft, peer edit, have a tutoring conference, and rewrite. It's all "busy work."
The only way I've been able to reach some of them is to have them look at the complete package so they can see they actually improved. Unfortunately, that works only if they do all the steps and take the advice they get along the way. One of my compflakes actually put on my student evaluation that I was mean and didn't care about learning because I commented he was failing the course due to not following the stages, so he needed to commit to coming to class prepared and make the time to attend the tutoring conferences.
I'm seeing more and more burnout among English proffies from the time right before tenure to about 5 years after. I really do think between students and admins, things are getting worse.
I've done a little of the look-at-the-whole-package-and-tell-me-what-you've-learned exercise. It works for some students. As always, though, those students tend to be the ones who are already engaged anyway.
DeleteDr. Nothaughty, here's a story for you. When I started out as a freshman, I seemed to have a talent for snowflakiness. I slept in every single one of my classes - even the ones at 12pm - and skipped later ones in favor of lunch. I took so long on my Basketweaving tests (because I didn't study) that my professor and I would sit alone for two hours, for he didn't have the heart to take it away from me and I thought staring at the paper would conjure answers. I had no interest in college, yet I was there because society expects everyone to go right after high school and I set out to make everyone involved miserable. I slept through the final exam and yet my professors rescheduled it for me, mostly because of a few tears.
ReplyDeleteFast forward four years later, I graduated magna cum laude and am taking the GREs to get a PhD two months from now. You know why? My professors. How many times do you think they've seen crying students beg for retakes in their office? How many times must they've seen right through the excuses and the sobs and found students who just didn't care? Yet they rescheduled my test. And I was so moved by that. So ashamed of who I was and what I'd done. I talked to them, saw how much they loved what they taught, and wanted some of that passion for myself.
Dr. Nothaughty, I am pursuing a Dr. in front of my own name. To my hopeful little mind, earning that right is success enough. But to be honest, you are changing their lives, these students who seem to care little. You may not realize it, THEY may not realize it, but you are. And maybe they look at you and change their lives around as I have. You don't know. My professors don't know, I transferred around sophomore year.
I realize this is a battle, a seemingly never-ending, constant, exhausting battle. And I am selfish enough to ask you to soldier on. And grateful enough to thank you for what you are doing and facing, every day, because you, and people like you, changed my life.
Thanks for this gracious reply, BallisticNoter. I wish you well in your academic endeavors.
DeleteIn all likelihood, I will soldier on. However, I'm not entirely exaggerating when I say that I am thinking about soldiering on to different battles. I think I've fought these particular ones for a little too long now.
One of the best moments in my teaching was when a student thanked me for the F she justly deserved. She saw that she had screwed up, and learned that actions have consequences. I had her later in other classes, and she did just fine.
DeleteBallistic, I know it would mean a great deal to those earlier profs if you would send each a note to let them know you've broken the grip of flakemania. I realize that with doctoral studies your time is precious, but one short note a day until each has been written would mean so much, and would let them know their efforts weren't for naught.
ReplyDeleteOh man. Part of the reason I transferred was because I couldn't face them anymore. I changed my major and everything...I thought they'd find solace in thinking I'd dropped off the face of the earth. Are you sure?
DeleteFuckin' A. Do it. They would really appreciate it.
DeleteWhat introvert.prof said. I'd bet money on it. I'm married to a prof and it always means a great deal to her when a former student tells her he/she appreciates her holding them to standards, not letting them slide, etc. Or just that she had gotten through to them.
DeleteIt will let your former instructors know that they didn't pour their effort down a dark abyss. They're not doing it for the money, and a "thank you" would mean almost as much as a raise.
I don't get a lot of such notes, but the ones I get are treasured. "I always thought that you were just being a hard-ass, but when I transferred to Xyz University I found that I was much better prepared than the other students who hadn't been pushed as hard."
DeleteDo it, BallisticNoter! I just had one from a particularly irritating student, thanking me specifically for being a hard-ass and the program for teaching him so much he needed to know - not details and facts, but how to learn and how to write. That just so made my day!
DeleteYes, you are singing my song. And I too am weary (so very weary) of singing it. I read GreatLakes Greta's haikus with something akin to grief, that *this* is what we are reduced to--that because we actually do still care (though we may not want to), it becomes increasingly painful to just do our jobs.
ReplyDeleteI started teaching in 1995. I took a brief hiatus (2001-2002) because I was also working a 55-hour a week "real" job (that paid real money). When I lost that job in the downturn, I went back to teaching. And now, 10 years later (and tenured for 2 years), I am looking to get out. The pay is abysmal, and I am tired of having to gird myself to face the compflakes.
@Nick and BurntChrome: Keep up the good fight. The students who pass your comp courses next take my general-ed science-for-non-majors course. It's very easy for me to spot students who have taken comp from instructors with standards, as opposed to coelenterates who pass anything that walks through the door. It makes a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to encourage the math instructors who teach the entry-level courses too. Since my university started requiring the entry-level math course as a prerequisite for my general-ed science course, I've had almost no students who couldn't solve this equation:
1/3 + 1/4 = ?
It used to be that about 1/4 to 1/3 of them couldn't.
I agree that teaching these courses can be exhausting, especially emotionally, and apparently such a thankless task. It's particularly disheartening to get students with skills below what I could do in third grade, such as Pierre Peabrain from the post on August 4. Even when you get students who can't learn at all, they need to know that college isn't for them, the sooner the better for everyone, especially them. I wouldn't at all blame you for wanting to do something else, at least for now. Still, what you have done does matter, and it definitely does help.
"as opposed to coelenterates who pass anything"
DeleteTechnically (Nitpick alert) I don't think it's anatomically possible for coelenterates can pass anything.
I stand in awe of those with the fortitude to teach, and therefore have to read, English comp.
ReplyDeleteI would surely put my eyes out with a red pen within a week.
Do our papers need to be 7 full pages?
ReplyDeleteDo our Works Cited pages count as one of the 7 pages we need to write?
I have a difficult time squeezing just five pages out of my lit survey classes. (One five page paper for the whole term, that's it.) And this is not a community college.
I've also had to recently start defining what five FULL pages means by holding up pieces of paper in front of the class. Many felt that writing four pages and a few lines of a fifth counted as five pages. In fact, sometimes I get people who write three pages, a few lines of a fourth, and then count their WC page as the fifth.
I actually believe our students (or mine, anyway) are smarter than they come across--they've just learned along the way to play dumb--to quibble with definitions and to exploit gaps in the syllabus. "You said five pages, but you never specified that those had to be five full pages... how was I supposed to know what five pages meant?" "You said I couldn't text in class, but you said nothing about tweeting ..." "You said we had to bring the book to class, but you didn't say we had to have it open..." Perhaps they really are this stupid. Or perhaps they've been micromanaged their entire lives to the point that they don't know how to make executive decisions. But I actually think it's more a subtle form of manipulation, one they've been rewarded for.
Try requiring a word count. That cuts through the font-size, margin-size, partial-page bullshit.
DeleteMy assignment sheets are VERY clear on what constitutes a page for credit, as in "6-8 pages typed, DS, normal margins and 12-point font. Minimum 6 FULL pages to be eligible for full credit for assignment. Less than 6 FULL pages results in serious deductions at instructor's discretion."
DeleteI also tell them that I've been teaching for 17 years and I know when they're trying to cheat the margins/spacing, and students who do so risk failing the paper because, well, *they're cheating*. "When in doubt, use the default setting in your word processing program."
Word count doesn't work for me because I calculate visually, how much is on the page--and I can't sit there and count each line to make sure the little darlings have given me what I need. And because I can tell the difference between 12 and 14 point font, they're really not going to be able to cheat that, either.
Over the years, I've found that most of my students would rather just take the automatic grade deduction than risk my wrath by trying to cheat. Maybe because I tell the story of a student I flunked on a 200-point final exam take-home for triple-spacing and 14-point font.
And before anyone crawls up my nose about that, she also failed because she didn't answer the questions correctly or completely. Her answers were Ds at best and I docked points for cheating margins and font size --and she was warned ahead of time what the penalties were, just like the rest of class.
Random question from someone who has never taken a writing course in his science doing life.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you guys keep talking about a number of pages? Why don't you give your students a word count range instead? Wouldn't that stop a lot of the bullshit about double spacing, half pages counting as full pages, that sort of thing?
Great minds run in the same channels. I require a word count, not a page count, but that's partly because I also require electronic submission.
DeleteSorry, I didn't scroll down before I posted my previous comment.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteForgot to add something above...
DeleteSounds simple because it is...
except most undergrads don't know how to do a word count. Or just quibble over what counts as a word.
Same issue. Your simple solution really isn't a solution.
Also, the double-spacing is about reading (and grading) format. All of it matters, and it's not just arbitrary. It's necessary... For my sanity and my optic health.
Not terribly tough to show them how to do a word count. Jing is free, and you can do a 30-second screen capture video.
DeleteI require double-spacing in electronic submissions for the same reasons you do: reading and grading. Single-spacing is harder to read and doesn't leave enough room for comments.
Showing them is easy.
DeleteGetting them to do it is not.
And they lie like rugs. Often to themselves first. "But I am sure it counted up to 1500 words!!!!!!"
Plus, as BurntChrome mentioned, counting pages is easier for us. And a properly formatted page (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font) is about 250 words (give or take about 10). Easy-peasy... for we who grade and also those who write. It's only not easy for the cheaters, the lazy, or the ignorant.
I actually do require that my students type their word count at the end of their essays.
DeleteHowever, unless you're collecting papers electronically, exact word count can be hard to verify. And students know this. And therefore they lie.
Also, as with page number, they tend to count their WC page as part of their word count.
I wouldn't require a word count if I didn't also require electronic submission. If I took essays on paper, I'd have a page count requirement.
DeleteI know they count their WC page, but I don't. And I tell 'em so, in advance and in their paper critiques.
@GoneGrad: I actually believe our students (or mine, anyway) are smarter than they come across--they've just learned along the way to play dumb--to quibble with definitions and to exploit gaps in the syllabus. . . .perhaps they've been micromanaged their entire lives to the point that they don't know how to make executive decisions.
ReplyDeleteI think you may have something here.
"...they've just learned along the way to play dumb--to quibble with definitions and to exploit gaps in the syllabus..."
DeleteThat's precisely it. This is why my syllabus is 5 single-spaced pages, and has been tweaked and added to every semester for the last 10 years--to address the gaps/weaknesses that I refuse to have to deal with more than once.
Another question: Do you ever get the problem of people writing too much? As in, in a report on a subject that should be x pages pages long, and they turn in x^7 pages, because they just write everything they can think of that might have any connection to the topic? I am seeing a LOT of lab reports from undergraduates that have this problem. Seriously, a lab report on an experiment where they bounce a ball and they calculate a coefficient of restitution and they hand in 10k words.
ReplyDeleteNobody's watching this anymore, but I caught this question and have a solution: you trash them for introducing irrelevant information. "Discussion," by which I mean analysis of the experiment and how it relates to other course concepts, is half the grade, and throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see if it sticks would draw a very low grade for that.
Delete