Monday, February 18, 2008
Teaching Scenario #1
You've just collected 60 2-3 page essays from two sections of your college prep juniors, and you now have the task of providing them with feedback so they can revise. You are also the junior class sponsor, Homecoming is in five days, and you are responsible for supervising the juniors for the next four evenings as they build their class float for the parade. To top it all off, your kids have been sick and they're wanting your attention when you get home from work. What do you do? How do you respond and then return these essays in a reasonable amount of time (what even is considered "reasonable"?).
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2 comments:
Well...regarding the essays, I would put myself in my students' shoes: they are not going to want to revise them when they have a thousand other things going on in their minds. Homecoming is nuts, and generally high up on the importance list of a high-school junior. Thus, even if you made the revisions due before Homecoming, they wouldn't be the best caliber of work that the students could do. Therefore, I believe that it is better to assign the due date after the dance/football game/week is over. However, if you did indeed get the chance to grade them before, hand them back to them and go over the essays in class, just to keep it in their minds.
On grading them...my step-mother is a seventh grade literature teacher. She assigns an essay once every three weeks or so. Whenever she gets them in, she hoists the kids off on my grandma for the evening. This happens regularly. However, if this is not an option, I would use the technique of "If you leave Mommy alone until she's done, we can go to Chuckie Cheese for dinner". Bribing at its best. There, you can spend time with your kids and they will be overly oozing with happiness at the thought of everyone's favorite mouse. If this isn't an option either, you could also wait until they go to bed to tackle the essays. This is awful for the person who gets off of work and just wants to go to bed. However, work is work, and it's got to get done.
An interesting scenario. I think it all boils down to setting your priorities in order. The very lest that you can do for your students is to tell them honestly how long you think it will take to get their papers back. Since this is a draft stage, it should be done in an appropriate amount of time especially if you have already set up deadlines for them to follow. Since these are older students you should treat them as adults. Explaining things can be very helpful. However, you should not put off the paper too long because they are expecting something from you. In regards to the Homecoming part of the scenario. Most students minds even in a junior college prep class will be on the upcoming dance. But explaining things to your students should help just do not leave it for too long because it is not fair to your students.
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