I've taught at 2 different junior colleges near my family's home and I don't make enough to live on my own. I'm 28 and feel 15 at times, except I no longer have my own room - it was converted. I sleep on a nice bed in the basement. My dad and I built a makeshift bathroom and I have my own door out into the back yard. Living the dream.
My first year writing students are execrable. Here's an example from last term, the results of which I'll cover at the end:
I tell them to write an analytic essay about a text by an author named Meredith Jones. It's an essay we read and discuss in their textbook. All of my examples are from Jones. I say, among other basic guidelines, that students must quote Jones, show why she is right or wrong, and analyze if Jones' argument is successful or not.
49 students turned in that paper. 10 wrote about the wrong text. The most succinct answer I got - beyond shrugs - was, "I thought we could write whatever we wanted."
15 students didn't follow simple instructions like putting their name on the paper, stapling it, using MLA Style for documentation (which we covered in 2 back to back classes right prior to the Jones essay; we even did examples on the LMS and in class using Jones as the model).
Jones' essay is about hunger in America. She gives specific examples of poverty throughout the country with examples and stats about how families do or do not qualify for benefits through the state or federal governments. The instructions are specifically NOT to write about poverty or hunger. Every example thesis I provided makes it clear that writers are supposed to evaluate the argument Jones makes. Is Jones' essay convincing or not? Is it successful and why. Does it fail and why. Those are the only options. I even showed them a solid B sample paper from one of my best students last semester on the same assignment. Still, about 10 students simply didn't reference Jones in any way except to say that she wrote an essay on the topic. The rest of their essays were often just their own opinions of hunger and poverty. (One was called: "Get a Job. Don't be Hungry.")
Despite having been told that the first person is not allowed under any circumstances. I tell them that this assignment is all about evaluating how persuasive Jones essay is, how successful. Does she help uninformed readers understand that this is an issue worth being concerned about. And then at least 10 writers simply wrote first person accounts of how their family (or a cousin's, or a friend's) was impacted by poverty or hunger. None of these mention Jones at all.
There were a lot of Fs and a come-to-Jesus speech the next week where I cancelled our last essay giving them a chance to rewrite this one, using all of the previous instructions and guidelines - along with new example and info and two more sample essays that did the job well.
Two days ago my chair called me in for a review. She had my grades and my student evaluations. The evaluations were okay, maybe a bit low in textbook usage and fair grading, but positive in most categories.
But the grades. I failed 40% of the students in those classes. It was "unacceptable." What did I have to say in response.
And then I told her the above story.
We sat there for a while and she asked me to bring to her all of my student papers from this semester, two sets so far, all of my grades, etc. "You must be doing something wrong if your students aren't getting it."
As I left she set me up with the departmental administrator for remediation registration. I am to sign up for mid-May lessons on teaching with other instructors who were "failing."
I told my only good friend among the part-timers the story. She said, "Pass them, Adam. It all happened to me. I found out that all the department wants is a higher percentage of passes."
Q: Do you think I've done things right so far? In your own - much more experienced view - does it sound like I'm requiring too much of my students? Is remediation of part-timers normal? Does it help? Would you willingly go? Is it a precursor to non-renewal of my semester-by-semester contract?
In order:
ReplyDeleteYES.
NO.
Not where I work. I don't know. No. Probably.
I am in charge of 4 adjunct faculty in my campus department. I can't imagine doing anything like this to any of them, no matter what their fail rate is.
FWIW, my drop/failure/withdrawal rate has been hovering around 30% for the past several years, including the ones before I got tenured. Nobody has ever said anything at all to me about it.
Your working conditions are not something I could have ever tolerated, and I spent 10 years as an adjunct before landing a TT position. In all those years, I worked a second job to be able to afford to live, and sadly things have not improved at all for most adjuncts.
I hope things get better for you.
I agree with Burnt Chrome. This is a tough situation. Speaking from my own experience, it just isn't possible to fight grade inflation ENTIRELY.
ReplyDeleteMy standards, as compared to colleagues, are relatively strict. Students certainly perceive things that way. My evaluations have reflected the fact that I do not tolerate missed assignments, missed classes (beyond what is allowed and stated in my syllabus). But that said, my perception of my grading is that I'm easier than I would like to be. Grade inflation is rampant, and so, I try to maintain standards and rigor in my classes, but admittedly, I end up being more tolerant than is my want. This has been both before and and after tenure.
One advantage I and my adjuncts have had is that our classes are small, so students who are having difficulty are given every chance to right their performance and then some. It sounds like you are giving students every opportunity as well. The only thing I might add to the mix is to remind them of your office hours, if you haven't done this already.
I have never heard of remediation for instructors... though my university has a department that offers workshops on various aspects of teaching.
The only thing I might suggest to you is to provide the students a checklist. What I have done is to have the class create a checklist together in-class, and then the final list is posted on the LMS. Perhaps if students have to check off items, then they would be more "aware" of them, even if it is a kind of forced awareness.
In my early days of adjuncting, I taught 7 classes at different institutions each week. My day job was freelance work. I did manage to have my own apartment and pay my bills, but as you might imagine, it was not an easy road.
Please know I sympathize with you. Try to take encouragement from the students you do reach, and the improvements they make. Of course, try to reach everyone and be encouraging and offer what help you can. You might need to relax your standards a little, but hopefully you can find a middle ground.
I agree with Burnt Chrome. This is a tough situation. Speaking from my own experience, it just isn't possible to fight grade inflation ENTIRELY.
ReplyDeleteMy standards, as compared to colleagues, are relatively strict. Students certainly perceive things that way. My evaluations have reflected the fact that I do not tolerate missed assignments, missed classes (beyond what is allowed and stated in my syllabus). But that said, my perception of my grading is that I'm easier than I would like to be. Grade inflation is rampant, and so, I try to maintain standards and rigor in my classes, but admittedly, I end up being more tolerant than is my want. This has been both before and and after tenure.
One advantage I and my adjuncts have had is that our classes are small, so students who are having difficulty are given every chance to right their performance and then some. It sounds like you are giving students every opportunity as well. The only thing I might add to the mix is to remind them of your office hours, if you haven't done this already.
I have never heard of remediation for instructors... though my university has a department that offers workshops on various aspects of teaching.
The only thing I might suggest to you is to provide the students a checklist. What I have done is to have the class create a checklist together in-class, and then the final list is posted on the LMS. Perhaps if students have to check off items, then they would be more "aware" of them, even if it is a kind of forced awareness.
In my early days of adjuncting, I taught 7 classes at different institutions each week. My day job was freelance work. I did manage to have my own apartment and pay my bills, but as you might imagine, it was not an easy road.
Please know I sympathize with you. Try to take encouragement from the students you do reach, and the improvements they make. Of course, try to reach everyone and be encouraging and offer what help you can. You might need to relax your standards a little, but hopefully you can find a middle ground.
I've never been in a situation like that and it certainly sounds like your department head is blaming you for your students' inability to follow directions.
ReplyDeleteHowever ...
You're new to teaching and you may not have lots of teaching experience as a grad student (and your teaching wasn't English). This is no failing on your part, just the way it is. They should have given you and all new faculty (not just part-time) the training before you started teaching, not after they think you've messed up.
Maybe the training will help. You'll likely learn more about the goals of your school, which is helpful for calibrating your expectations of your students. You'll meet other faculty in the same situation as you. You and they might be able to help each other.
As others have said, you're in a tough situation but I would view the teacher training as a positive step. If they wanted to get rid of you, they would without wasting their time with remediation.
These comments are nicely stated under the assumption that the remediation is actually intended as teaching instruction. And it could be. The other possibility is that this "remediation" is cover for explaining the department's system for maintaining their numbers (whatever numbers they feel must be maintained even at the cost of standards). Worst case, they'll be holding the remediation in Room 101 as they want instructors to believe in their program.
DeleteAdam, you could ask his more experienced friend which, or you could just resign yourself to going. And you have my hopes that this is really about teaching. Good luck.
from Adam:
ReplyDeleteI truly appreciate the feedback so far. I was turned on to your page from a friend who's a pretty active commenter here. I've slowly made my way through most of the archives and can't tell you how helpful they are. I know it's designed to be a humor site and snark-fest, but one each page I learn something valuable about a profession in which I still hope to work full time one day.
Thank you!
Adam, I don't know if what this blog was designed to be and what it is are fully overlapping sets. But I do know that it is extremely helpful on many levels, not the least of which is the valuable advice generously given.
DeleteLike you, upon discovering this site, I worked my way through the archives, which have been immensely useful. I haven't found the "all rainbows and unicorns, all the time" sites to be helpful because their denizens do not seem to be experiencing what I am. That could be because their world really is that charmed, or they're just blind to the grittier aspects; perhaps the kool-aid made them that way. Whatever the reason, I can't trust their "solutions" to work in my apparently vastly different situation.
The people here, they "get" it, and that means there's some hope they get me, too.
It sounds like you have a mix of not getting it, where improved teaching strategies could help, and sheer fecklessness, where it wouldn't (see: "15 students didn't follow simple instructions.") My first thought was that analyzing someone's argument is a complex skill that you might need to model exhaustively and provide them broken down steps. That said, I am not an experienced teacher.
ReplyDeleteI just want to comment on how what you're doing is not snark or student-shaming, but describing a problem and asking for help, with the ultimate goal of helping your students. Good thing we have a space for this.
See, I can analyze arguments. (I even staple!)
I am an experienced teacher (even taught remedial comp for seven semesters, for my sins), and I concur with this: analyzing someone else's argument is a hell of a complex skill, and most first-year students are going to screw it up dramatically the first, second, and third times they try it. Some will never master it. (Dare I say it, I think people may have to be above a certain threshold of general intelligence to be able to go that meta.) This doesn't mean we shouldn't teach it (I did, even in remedial comp, even knowing that most of the students would never get it right), but it may be necessary to adjust your expectations, reward the ones who get it even a little bit right with a C, and balance out the more challenging assignments like this one with a few feel-good assignments that most of them definitely CAN master. Or else, if you've got the time and patience (I never did), mark the hell out of that first failed attempt but allow them to rewrite for a higher grade.
DeleteI also find that it helps to tell myself that people need to produce an ENORMOUS amount of bad writing before they can manage any good writing, and even when it feels like I'm accomplishing nothing whatsoever in freshman comp, I'm still helping people get some of the bad writing out of their systems. I have no idea whether this is actually true, but it helps me cope.
Like the others, I also agree with Burnt Chrome. Kate also is right about this being a complex skill that could use "scaffolding" maybe. Plus, many of your students just don't care. That's not your fault.
ReplyDeleteYou absolutely must go to the remediation thingy, with bells on. Smile a sparkly Osmond smile and act like you've sampled the Kool-Aid. It sucks, but you need this job. Been there.
Someone suggested giving students a checklist to foster metacognition about their performance. I've tried that, and most of my students just check all the boxes without reading the list and comparing it with their assignment. The ones who check things carefully are the ones who didn't need the checklist. It has helped (a bit) to have students review each other's work with the checklist, in class, with you directing them how to do it step by step.
If your remediation thingy doesn't cover scaffolding, you might check the campus professional development office for workshops on teaching writing across disciplines. That's how I learned. I was shocked to find out how "developmental" (low-level) are the reading and writing skills of our entering students. Third grade was AVERAGE. Attending such a workshop, at the very least, will give you something to put on your CV when this college boots you.
And I'm sorry about that. You sound like you really care about teaching, and your department should value that!
You're also a good writer yourself. ("Living the dream.") Welcome! Stick around! Write more for us!
There are two things I want to say here. First, the classic old Ben-ism "Don't care more about their education than they do."
ReplyDeleteBut second, some tips. I've taught writing to a wide range of people: community colleges while a grad student, older adult learners and soldiers via online teaching, young people in summer school (like high school and such), and of course our usual 18-22 target.
Sometimes, the culprit is passive learning. Lectures. Reading. The students can conveniently sit in the back, appear to be present, but really be totally checked out. It's their fault, of course, but in this age of "customer service" and "student-centered learning" a smart teacher has to roll with the university requirements and switch up some of the teaching styles.
Instead of reviewing citation, I would give them a worksheet to complete. Have them all choose a topic of their choice and find one book, one article, one website on that topic. Collect the worksheet, grade it, make them fix their mistakes. Annoying, yes, but the fail rate could bump up a little bit.
Next, I would structure the writing assignment differently. Have them write a proposal for their paper -- not a rough draft, but a short 1-2 paragraph proposal explaining what they expect to write. Shouldn't take you more than 2 minutes per paper to "grade" (just see if they are understanding your instructions) before you move on.
Then give the assignment.
For this course, I would suggest creating an online interactive assignment using the blog, wiki, or forum feature on whatever your uni's LMS is. Have them post a paragraph revision, or propose a new thesis, or something like that. Offer it as extra credit -- whatever makes you look like you are student centered and invested in "customer service."
Scott Walker's America. :(
Yet another piece of evidence that I shall file under "why I no longer adjunct".
ReplyDeleteYour dean is an asshat. So sorry.
My first semester teaching college as an adjunct, I was finishing up my MA. An old-school former prof had said to me, "Don't fail more than 1/3 of your class or it'll make you look bad." What? (I used to teach h.s.-- public and private-- and got in plenty of trouble for defending my integrity and eventually lost my first teaching job b/c I refused to comply to what I felt was "wrong". Anyway...)
ReplyDeleteI can't help that they a) don't follow directions (even the EASY directions), b) assume they know it all (we know they don't), c) don't check the syllabus (the e-version OR the printed copies I give out), d) don't ask me directions (see "b"), and even after I repeat myself ad nauseum (much to the chagrin of my family who is sick and tired of hearing my bitching), and e) still do what they want to do and expect me to give them an A (hahahahaha... yeah, not happening).
I'm at a few schools, but my dept chair at one told me to never punish plagiarists (make them redo it until they do it correctly) OR cheaters. My dept chair at my other school was flummoxed when I told him what I have been instructed and nearly fell out of his chair. In no uncertain terms, he told me, you cannot let plagiarists and cheaters go because when they are caught, they'll blame YOU. (No kidding... I get blamed anyway.)
In the end, your integrity and name (professional reputation) are more important than percentages and numbers. You have to do what is right or the crop we're all dealing with will except each and every one of us to let them just float on through.
My response when a student whimpers about how hard the assignment is (and, truthfully, it's a 9th grade level at times), I say, "Welcome to college..."
Sadly, I used to be harder... but the students coming through here are not up to being challenged like the ones I had my first year. Not all, but most are lazy. That small percentage who do try and want to succeed (and gets frustrated b/c things are just a little "too" easy b/c their classmates are just that inept) are not being given a fair chance to work as hard as they want b/c we are pressured to "dumb down" the curriculum to ensure they "feel good" about themselves.
This past week, I was explaining what hard work can do and ended w/ this, "in college, not everyone gets a trophy for trying."
Oh, and someone has to thin the herd, no?
Keep on keeping on... we're with you!