In an effort to keep my blood pressure down when May rolls around, it is now stated policy in the researched argument essay assignment sheet that "failure to attend peer review with a 4-page rough draft results in failure of the project." This might seem like a stiff penalty, but hear me out: I reserve the right to spend my time and energy on students who have done the work as assigned. I will spend 100% of my energy and effort on the 80% who follow directions and do the work. Having a draft for peer review is part of the assignment (as of right now, it's an automatic 10% off the grade if a student skips). I'm starting to think of it like my fellow science teachers do their classes: Peer review is the equivalent of a lab. Don't show up for lab, fail the assignment.
However, this policy is not going to save me this semester, so I am probably going to get a number of piss-poor excuses that I will open, scan, and likely assign an F (probably for plagiarism, since the students who are missing are also the students who are missing when I go over PIE paragraphs and citations and MLA format and the Style Manual and NoodleTools) (or because they still, after 14 weeks, do not get how to write an argumentative research paper despite a PowerPoint, a handout, a professional sample MLA format argumentative research paper, a student sample MLA argumentative research paper from the previous semester, and a personal, 1-on-1 conference with me to explain that no, you can't write a paper on how AI will have us end up like The Matrix, because it does not meet the criteria that the paper be grounded in solid evidence).
I assigned this paper a month ago. It is scaffolded: topic proposal due first (a week before Thanksgiving); then 15 source annotated bibliography; then 4 page rough draft for peer review. And some of them just won't follow the goddamned directions, but they'll still try to turn something in that will probably make my head explode.
Which leads me to my Early Thirsty:
Q: As we head into the final weeks of the semester/quarter/whatever, what policies have you had to add or change recently due to the epic fuckwittery you are constantly having to address? Has it helped?
I keep checking assignments to see if I remembered to include a specific requirement for a bibliography at each tea-partying stage of each elaborately scaffolded assignment, thinking I must have forgotten. The thing is, I did. They're just not there, and I'm left wondering whether I should (a) fail the assignments, (b) go through the hassle of insisting that they resubmit with a bibliography, or (c) just throw up my hands and give them the grade the paper would have gotten with the bibliography they submitted with another stage. So far, I'm going with (b), but my blood pressure, too, is rising.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I'm sure this will reveal my ignorance of popular culture (and/or the fact that my glasses prescription needs updating), but I'd swear I see Emily Dickinson reflected in that dude's shades.
DeleteI'd knock it a letter grade for not including a bibliography.
DeleteIf it's a paper assignment, it's quite possible that the printer ran out of paper and the student didn't realize it at the time. (Actually happened to me once as an undergrad.)
Electronic assignment ... no mercy. Follow the directions so I know it's your assignment and not SparkNotes/bought off the Internet.
How effective is the peer review, and is it graded? When I have that many students blow off an assignment, I ask myself this question. Sometimes I then realize that perhaps either (1) it's not effective; (2) it's not perceived as being effective, and is therefore being ignored. If it turns out to be #1 (not effective), I find an alternative for the next semester. If it turns out to be #2 (perception), then I work on that and beef up policy.
ReplyDeleteMy attempts with peer review are mixed. It works really well if I've set them up (taught them) how to do effective peer reviews. If I haven't, or if I don't provide guided questions/guided specific things to note and ways in which to review, they tend to do a cursory spell check and write "good" at the top.
I have a policy that if students don't show up for other students' presentations, their own presentation grade is docked by 30%. That sounds harsh to them, but this is based on finding that students showed up only if they were being graded.
PS: my change in policy has helped.
DeleteI teach them how to do peer review, and I provided them with a sheet that guides them through it--they give the sheet to the original writer.
DeleteMy problem is that they don't perceive it is as being part of what they need to do (write for an audience) even though I spent the entire semester talking to them, reminding them about the audience--that unless it's a personal diary entry, someone else is going to read it, and they need to write with that in mind.
I hear you. It's a problem all around for unskilled writers because their audience is essentially a 'ghost' audience that they don't really have in mind yet. Perhaps they need a more concrete audience (i.e. another section of a class, or an academic journal that you've familiarized them with; or even the textbook, if it's appropriate). That would solve part of the problem (asking their peers to justify why the piece they are reading would fit in with the readings from the text; quality, subject matter, tone, etc.).
DeleteThe other problem is that many may not be prepared for peer feedback (psychologically, or otherwise, in that they haven't done the draft). I save peer feedback for last (even after they've conferenced with me). It's just ANOTHER form of seeking feedback and I show several ways to do that. I've also tried doing it online on our LMS and students have liked that. They have a range of times and dates by which they need to have participated online, and that saves having to devote class time to it, too.
I can see how changing the policy would satisfy you, but is that the best for their learning process? I'd ask myself how important the process of receiving peer feedback is from that particular class (as opposed to getting feedback elsewhere). Is it worth an F on their overall grade if they choose not to participate in one part of the process of writing? If they can produce a final product that is stellar without having participated in that step, should that be held against them? If they could have benefited from that step, their paper will likely reflect that, as well, as will your grade for it.
I also see that my example of coming to observe others' presentations isn't really relevant since writing is a different ballgame (ick, a sports metaphor), but as a last resort, if all else fails, raising the grade and sticking to that actually does work. It's not necessarily the first step I'd choose though.
When I was an undergrad, I was in a class that had a very well designed peer review. The papers were due to the peer reviewers and the professor electronically by a certain date and time. All peer reviews had to bring a draft of the reviewed papers with marks and a one page letter with suggestions for the person being reviewed. At the review session (overseen by either the TA or the prof), we had to show the marked draft to the TA/prof to prove we'd read through it. We also had to turn in the peer review letter to the prof electronically in advance. You could also only go up one letter grade from your rough draft's grade, which gave us all an incentive to do at least a B's job for the rough draft.
DeleteEven though it was the best designed peer review I had done as a student, I absolutely hated it because I "earned" an A- on the rough draft and was required to do peer review. I am almost certain it was because the professor and TA knew I worked at the Writing Lab and wanted me to tutor my group. Seriously, I changed five words and got 98/100 on the final. My peers did not have much to add other than catching the five typographical errors.
"All peer reviews had to bring a draft of the reviewed papers with marks and a one page letter with suggestions for the person being reviewed." Please change "All peer reviews" to "All peer reviewers," because I cannot type well.
DeleteI haven't added any policies in the past couple of years--I think I've mostly perfected the ones I have. That is, students are responsible for making sure that their essays are properly submitted on Blackboard, and if they don't want to receive a heavy penalty for turning in a paper late, I must have a doctor's excuse or a notice from student services.
ReplyDeleteThey sign a contract saying they understand and have read the syllabus and will comply with it at the beginning of the semester, so the last-minute sturm and drang is minimized.
That said, I think failing them for not attending peer review is a bit draconian. I would impose a penalty of one full grade on their final paper, but failing them entirely seems excessive.
Although my opinion on that might have something to do with my belief in the total uselessness of peer review, at least in colleges with more open admissions policies.
Why is it useless at open admissions institutions? (Mine is open admissions, and my department has argued strongly in favor of peer review. Discussions have been spirited, in fact...) I'm curious.
DeleteI think casting it as a lab activity might help. And what I'm trying to do is minimize the amount of last-minute, just-written shite that I get because they *don't* do a draft for peer review.
The current penalty is a letter grade, and it's not having any effect. Between my two sections today, I had 9/43 not show up. Of those 9 at least 6 will still try to turn something in (I think).
I'm wonder whether, if the current fairly strong penalty is not having any effect, a stronger one will do any good, or whether you'll just end spending more time weighing after-the-fact excuses. It's possible that the penalty is too weak to work, but it's also possible that what you have is evidence that grade penalties don't work very well in this class (because the students just aren't paying attention, because other parts of their lives are causing them even more stress than the prospect of failing or doing badly in a class, and/or for some other reason). If the latter (grade penalties don't work very well with this group), you run the risk of getting into a sort of arms race, with ever-stronger penalties and ever more desperate after-the-fact arguments/excuses. That sort of scenario rarely ends well.
DeleteOf course, Cynic's example above suggests that sometimes penalties do work. But showing up to class for someone else's presentation is a bit different from showing up to a peer workshop with a draft (which, well, requires one to write a draft). Have you tried encouraging/allowing them to come even if they don't have a draft, on the theory that they'll learn something, and perhaps get unstuck, by critiquing others' papers? I do that, but mostly with virtual workshops, and have had mixed results. At the very least, stating the policy gives me the chance to argue that peer workshops are designed not only to provide each other with an audience beyond the instructor, but also to give them a chance to practice their revising skills on a draft that's easier to distance themselves from their own. When they return to their own, I argue, they'll be able to see it with more objective eyes. I get at least a few nods of agreement/comprehension when I say this (usually when going over the syllabus at the beginning of the semester); whether the idea sticks, or they feel it works in practice as well as in theory, I don't know.
DeleteOur school is an open admission one and, while it is frustrating to have students of differing levels in a class (i.e. a few whose peers are so poor in thinking and writing that they do more harm than good in the review process), it still helps to show them the availability of it as an option. I stress the importance of finding someone they trust and whose opinion they value to offer opinions and then reiterate that that may not be what they find in their peers, but that at least we'll try it out in class so they can see what it's like to offer others help and to receive that help.
DeleteIf nothing, it shows the weaker students what they need to achieve to raise their levels to that of the stronger ones.
I think it's useless because most of the students are not capable of helping each other in a truly useful way. They can't criticize their own work properly, and they can't do it with anyone else's either. In a place where all the students are top-notch, obviously those students might be good at it. But most of mine can't write their way out of a paper bag. Basically, they're not qualified to judge the work of their peers. If it's group work on a lit class, for example, most of them won't have read, and the one smart person will end up doing all the work. There are much, much better ways to spend class time, especially if the professor in question is completely uninvolved with the group work, and just sits at the front of the room until the time's up.
DeleteBasically, the only time I have students do group work is when I'm very sick, but don't want to cancel class. So I drag myself in and give them group work, the best of which can be said that it is better than nothing at all.
Thanks for the feedback--it's very useful for me to get perspective on this.
DeleteI teach mathematics, so I don't have issues with essays. I do have an issue with snowflakes who do little to no work all semester and then are "sick" for the final exam and "sick" for the deferred exam. This has resulted in extra work for me. Ie introduced a (pretty standard) policy that states, "Any student who obtains a failing grade during the term (i.e. pre-final exam) will automatically get an F in the course. Any student that fails the final exam will automatically get an F in the course." Now I don't usually enforce this in borderline cases where students are weak but still obviously making an effort, but it has protected me from the snowflakes that play games and waste my time.
ReplyDeleteSick for the final exam? I'm shocked, but don't worry - I wasn't going to grade it anyway!
The good people of CM helped me change a rubric a while back because, silly me, I didn't think it necessary to actually include a "totally ignored all standards = 0 points" column.
ReplyDeleteThat was a different program though. My current program handed me a university-wide rubric. Making my way through the end-of-quarter pile, I saw trouble on the horizon -- including the possibility of a student failing the Master's thesis -- so I inquired of my department chair. I was initially quite pleased when I was told to "Follow the rubric and let the chips fall where they may."
My satisfaction was short-lived because as I plodded through the grading, I discovered that this university did CM one better ... they created a rubric that essentially prevents a student from failing. Only one category actually deals with course content. So even if a student knows fuck nothing about the discipline, they can still earn an 80%. The other categories are all about form, style, structure, and process. So, unless you are ignorant AND illiterate, it is theoretically possible to pass through this program literally knowing nothing about the discipline.
My change in policy? I no longer wait until after 4 PM to start self-medicating.
WTF? Do you teach at the University of Phoenix or something?
DeleteNope, avoided them like the plague.
DeleteI'm referring to a different online program, one that allegedly has a GOOD reputation!
But, to be fair, not so long ago, I was silently dismissed from a SLAC I suspect because I was grading students on the basis of their actual performance.
My most sanity saving policy is Late Work Does Not Receive Comments. Cuts down on so much angst and wangst. You have to interpret "no comments" as "no arguing" for best effect.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I began doing this semester, as a result of someone here's advice (maybe you!!!). I love it. It rocks. No comments. Fuck you.
DeleteLOL. They are getting to me a little bit, the whiners.
I do have some great students in the mix too, God bless them.
I added that one to my syllabus this term, too. It hasn't really kicked in yet, but I'm sure the week after the drop-deadline for late work will be much improved for me this time around.
DeleteI just had a student tell me turning in documentation of their emergency to make up an assignment wasn't worth their effort. That pretty much sums up the whole semester. I can't wait for winter break...
ReplyDeleteI decided just this semester to quit accepting late work. No late work at all from now on. FUCK THESE GUYS. What many of them did, with the research essay, was wait till the DAY IT WAS DUE and then come to ask me important questions/flood my office with requests for help finding sources. Fuck them. I used to take 10 points off per class day. No more. Zero if it is late. End of story. And my essays are counted late if they are not there when the class starts, as in, the class starts at 9:30, don't bother bringing an essay to me at 10:15. Nope-----zero. Oh, it'll all be in my syllabus and I'll parade around naked trying to get them to listen when I tell them on the first day. And I will mean it and some of them will have to learn the hard way and right now, I can't wait for next semester.
ReplyDeleteI used to hardline on late work, too, but after a couple borderline cases resulted in a personal request from the chair to allow late submissions, I realized that this would just end up snowballing into one of those policies that enough whining to the right people could render moot. So I set a 50% late penalty on all late work, with the last day of class as the absolute final deadline for submission, complemented by a very strict zero-bonus policy.
DeleteIf, at the last minute, my lazy-ass students do the math, freak out, and want to boost their score, this policy combo leaves them no choice but to complete the given assignments for half credit (and no comments from me). And they'd better not half-ass it -- I always tell them, when they inevitably visit my office to personally request a bonus assignment, that their job is to prove to me, by turning in high quality work THAT WAS ALREADY ASSIGNED, that it would be silly of me to flunk them and make them take the same course (with me) all over again. Surprisingly, that line has worked in some cases, yet many flakes still think I will pity-pass them if they turn in a stack of stream-of-consciousness, off-topic, half-length BS five seconds before the drop-deadline. And man, are they ever wrong.
Not to paint with too broad a brush...but I will anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhen my classes of mostly working adults/non-traditional students, I (and I think they) have decent success with peer review events. The value seems to come later in the course when they have tired of my dozen or so often-repeated pieces of feedback that address 90% of the feedback they need. By then they are ready to hear something else from somebody else.
When I have classes of traditional undergraduates: the peer review events are a complete waste of everybody's time. It's clear --even deep into the semester-- that neither their required 100-level college expository writing class (nor their K-12 writing instruction) has prepared the vast majority of them for the "demands" of a the required "2nd writing-intensive elective course" where I teach. This is not a complaint against those teaching in K-12 or who receive them for their Comp 101 boot camp. This is just my experience with those in their late teens and early 20s who have yet to understand why writing might be --or become-- important to them.
Bottom line: I can comfortably say that 75% of my traditional undergraduates struggle to effectively proof and edit their own work in a substantial way. I'll leave it to others to decide if this is due to lack of effort or lack of ability, but it's not worth my time or theirs to have them try to inflict this on each other.
So I dropped the peer review activities in my classes populated mostly with traditional students. It doesn't diminish their experience, and it improves mine.
If I could guide the feedback process in a face-to-face setting, there might be a different ending here. But for me --and them-- it's not the best use of our time in an online delivery environment.
ONLY 20% don't show up for peer review? Count your blessings.
ReplyDelete