While the students' opinions were ALL over the place, most enjoyed "Beowulf" and the Middle Ages to anything else. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was third. Most hated all of the terms and the poems. (By the way - I reminded the students to NOT put their names on this survey, but as usual, they didn't listen and most did. So I tried to some objectivity, but that didn't work)
As far as rating their knowledge and the class here are some excerpts
Rating their knowledge of the class --
* "7 out of 10. I really don't remember much. The Battle of Hastings was in 1066. That's about all I remember."
"3 out of 10. The information enters my head and exits in a day."
"7. I probably could have studied more."
"8. It could have been a 10 if I would have paid more attention."
"7. Maybe a 5. I didn't read anything after we were supposed to and then I probably forgot it."
Rating the class overall --
* "7 out of 10. Wasn't too boring."
"5 out of 10. I was going to give it a one, but the teacher made it fun."
"10. I thought this class was going to be boring and hard. It was hard, but it wasn't boring."
"8. Overall, it was a fun class, even though I hate reading."
"7. Was kind of fun but a lot of work."
"9. Not great. However it was a lot better than I expected."
Ha. I know this isn't an accurate representation of anything. But it's still amusing to look at. How someone could say they didn't remember much but still rate themselves as a 7 is mind boggling. Then, God forbid, what would a 2 look like? Someone who ends the class comatose?
I guess, all in all, it was a typical high school class in the spring of the year. The seniors had more important things on their minds than analyzing the impact of the Trench Poets on 20th century Britain. But I tried to make it as relevant and interesting as possible. I truly think they enjoyed it. And I truly think I worked them pretty hard. But only a few put in the effort that they should have.
And life goes on.
Now it's time to look at what my College Comp students had to say. For their final theme I had them write an essay in response to this -- "Look back at this past semester. Then write a thorough essay in which you illustrate what you have learned about writing, what advice you would offer to help me improve this class (other than not doing the final research paper, of course), and what advice you would offer future students of College Comp. Be honest. This is not meant to try and suck up. Be sincere in your advice and appraisal of what you have learned. I will not grade on whether or not I LIKE or AGREE with what you advice. I will only grade on the strength of your paper and your writing."
Some excerpts --
"I used to be afraid to write because I knew that grammar was not my strong suit (and still isn't), so all my time was spent making sure everything was grammatically correct. By doing this, all of the fun was sucked out of my writing. I would write using simple sentences, avoiding commas at all costs. I rarely put myself into my writing and my style was nonexistent . . . I learned that style and creativity are what makes a good paper a great paper. The voice of a piece is what makes or breaks it . . . As long as the meaning of the writing is clear, why does it matter if I forgot a comma in the third paragraph?"
"What I have learned about writing in this class is that you need to include yourself in your writings, such as your own personal style, journeys, and opinions. I have also learned that there will always be a comma missing somewhere in my papers, and you need to show what you're trying to say, not just tell it. . . . Some advice I would give to make your class better is to use more examples of students' work so that it will be easier for them to get started. When I would start a theme, it would take me awhile to get going, and I think that it would have been easier for me to start a theme if I had a short example to by. However, don't completely show your future students how to get an A. Make them earn one. Another thing that would have helped me would be to know where to put commas. I always seem to forgot."
Ha. Do I see a pattern emerging? The elusive/dreaded comma, eh?
Here are some excerpts on advice for next year's crop of students -
"My second piece of advice is pretty straightforward: don't whine. Nobody likes a whiner, and you joined this class out of freewill. If you are unprepared for what you're being asked to do, see a counselor, and grab a drop slip. Taking this class is going to save you hundreds of dollars, so complaining about being required to write seven or eight papers is childish and unappreciative. If you would much rather have a full schedule in college and actually pay to take this class next year, be everyone's guest -- just keep your mouth shut."
"Another thing you should do is buy a huge folder because you will get a forest worth of papers. When I say "huge folder," I would recommend that you buy those ones that old people normally have, the ones that spread open into about 12 pocket folders. Believe me, this will come in handy because I end up ripping two folders due to overstuffing."
And as far as improving the class, this was by far the most interesting comment -
"I personally think that you don't implement much consistency when grading papers in class. I believe a few of my lower-graded papers were much better than some of my higher-graded papers and also better than some of my peer's papers that scored higher. This is really my only complaint about the class.'
Now that is interesting. I can certainly understand how he feels that way. Grading is a very subjective thing. No matter how many rubrics we use, that isn't going to change. I'm always going to love a paper with voice and style over a perfect five paragraph theme. Will everyone agree with me? No. But that's fine.
So I need a way to deal with this because no matter how many rubrics I use, the consistency still won't be there (at least in the minds of students). First, I'll have them choose what they think is their strongest piece and then their weakest piece. I'll have them examine each and write up their opinions. Then I think I'm going to develop an essay where they examine two of their own essays (one will be their highest graded essay and the other their lowest) and then analyze why they think the essays were scored that way. That might give us some info on what they perceive as their strong points and what I conceive as their strong points. Because it happens time after time - students will tell me, "I thought I did horribly on this theme, yet it was my highest grade." And why is that? I like good writing. Don't get me wrong. But I need to make my ideas about what makes writing good more evident (of course, that was the first assignment of the semester). But I always reasoned this away to the the idea of kids writing honestly about something and when they do that, it often doesn't seem like work. They often come in with the idea that in order for writing to be good it has to be slaved over. And in some instances that is true, but it is often not true. So I think they don't trust something when it flows right out of them (and I think makes better, more honest writing) as to something they 'slaved' over and ends up being formulaic, wordy drivel.
But what really worries me is that this student was comparing his work to others. I wish there was a way to squash this type of competition in the classroom. We call all write. Get over it. Now write something interesting that is full of voice and style.
Well, the weekend is here and I'm outta here.
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