the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

When I arrived at work this morning, I was unsurprised to find a glut of student emails asking to review Essay 1 with them (or in a couple of cases, they asked to “talk about my grade,” which is a slightly different animal). Instead of answering them all immediately, I preempted my planned classes and did the following:

Since there was no joy in Mudville and many would not catch the allusion, I began class by reading them “Casey at the Bat,” a classic poem of Americana. They enjoyed it, of course. :)

Then I segued into the lack of joy and its reasons.

I stood at the board and wrote out the tools I've provided, tools that are available to them, and questions about their study habits, then asked them to say (yes or no) if they'd used/done this. Here are the results:

For Essay 1 (which had an average of 76), did you use any of these tools?

1. Questionnaire/”cheat sheet” I provided to help them write summaries (91%)

2. Sample summary I wrote (86%)

3. Questionnaire/”cheat sheet” I created to help them write a rhetorical analysis (91%)

4. Outline I wrote on the board and published (on Sharepoint) to organize/write Essay 1 (68%)

5. Paragraph summary method I created and modeled (30%)

6. Rereading the essay under consideration at least twice (89%)

7. Writing Center to work on specific skill(s) (2%)

8. Writing Center to review/edit Essay 1 (7%)

9. Extra Instruction (EI) with me to discuss any previous papers in detail (32%)

10. Faithfully reading all assigned homework for comprehension (34%)

11. Prewrite, Write, Rewrite Rewrite Rewrite (use a writing process) (66%)

12. Study feedback provided on past assignments to correct mistakes (89%)

13. Take notes in class regularly (93%)

14. Have someone else proofread their Essay 1 (59%)

The numbers lie a bit, though. Consider Item 12.

I pointed out that when I ask if they “study feedback on past assignments to correct mistakes,” I mean more than simply glance through the paper, seeing what I marked, and thinking, “Oh...I've got it.” What I mean is did they take steps to learn whatever they were dorking up? If I say that they don't use commas properly, how many of them actually took steps to look up rules on comma usage and study them until they understand how to use them? Or go to the Writing Center?

I pointed out that they continued to make the same mistakes consistently, which means to me that they certainly do not study feedback to correct mistakes. After I explained this, the new poll came to 11%, which is pretty much on the money.

The same “number lies,” no doubt, apply to many other rather high numbers on the poll.

We discussed the importance of doing their assigned homework every night, and how I already knew how few bothered with it. I give quizzes, remember? I have a paper trail of them not doing their homework. They seem to think that if something is really important, I'll give it to them in lecture. This isn't how it works, though. All of the concepts I'm testing them on are carefully explained, with copious examples, by professionals in the textbook most of them aren't reading, and I do not go over such details in class. They are still accountable for what I required them to read, though.

I did another push for the Writing Center—a handy place designed to help them with weak areas of their writing, not to proofread essays (much to their surprise). I also explained that if they are in college and haven't learned punctuation or mechanics or grammar yet, it's now on them to amend the problem, and if they don't, it isn't because they can't—it's because they don't care to.

And if they don't care to, my hands are tied, but I'll say this: You wouldn't take college calculus and expect the fact that you never got the hang of fractions to just be overlooked or excused. By the same token, I won't overlook or excuse their lack of mastery of basic writing skills.

They were subdued, of course, but pretty receptive.

Finally, I asked them to write “15” on their paper and write out any suggestions for what I could do better (in the spirit of non-attribution, of course). At least half of them said something like, “You give us all the tools and help; I just didn't use them, so it's my fault.” A couple had some good suggestions:

- The outline was very helpful. Can we get one for Essay 2? Absolutely!

- Please clarify (in addition to the 1-2 page explained assignment sheet, they mean) what you're looking for on each major paper earlier. Ok.

- Please publish the rubric you'll use to grade the paper (so they can use it as a checklist). No problem.

- Can we do a more group-work peer review than we did last time? Sure!

After all of this, we discussed the fact that they no longer learn for the (intrinsic) pleasure of learning and in the hope of being a better-informed contributing citizens; they have learned to “learn” for extrinsic purposes. The system began to break their spirits in kindergarten, when they brought home refrigerator art with a gold star on it. It's the same thing now, only they “learn” to make the grade, to get town liberty, or to just not get beat* by their upperclassmen.

* Not a grammatical error. “Getting beat” means they are forced to PT until they drop—in the name of “training,” of course.

I urged them to seize the day and remember what it was like to learn because learning is exciting. Even when you're learning something you don't care about, it's possible to find a way to enjoy it. If they're smart, this is a skill they'll cultivate because much of their careers won't be spent doing stuff they really want to do. If they learn to find pleasure in anything they do, they'll not only learn more and do better work, but they'll be happier, too.

All in all, I had good classes today. I also have a whole bunch of EI sessions lined up for the next few days, which overjoys me. Nothing can replace the power of one-on-one discussions of papers and ideas for the best cost-benefit analysis on learning.

d