OK, let us start with some positive comments for a start. Monday, I did not teach because I was in Michigan cleaning my sister's house and cooking for her because she was sick. Before leaving, on Friday night, I had written an email to my students telling them that we wouldn't meet on Friday and that they had to do their review of a paper about Japan electronically instead of on paper and send it to me by class time on Monday. The good news is, most students did read their messages and did do their homework on time! In fact, more than expected! The funny thing is that only two students did not read their email or do the assignment and it was my two Korean students. And on Tuesday, surprisingly, they were all ready with their first draft of the second project!
Tuesday was really an interesting day. I had them bring three copies of their second draft, and they had to get in small groups with 2-3 classmates. First they had to read the whole paper once and then go back and present it to their classmates, explaining where they had discussed their personal experience, where they had put the research question, etc. The classmates could also make comments, and I had written some ideas of questions to discuss on the board. The comments they gave to each other were interesting, in general and from what I heard, and they asked smart questions. The only problem was, because they were all having the same problems with their paper (lack of conclusion, no specific questions asked, no good link with a personal experience, etc.), it was difficult to see these problems on other people's papers. I am still amazed by the fact that I have posted both the project assignment and the grading criteria online but that much of what I said HAD to be in the papers is still missing! But, this is a positive entry, so... a few days later I asked them what they had thought about this different way to do peer-review, and I got some good feedback. I think that it is great for them to realize that their "audience" does not know what they know, to read about other people's lives, and to see how other people write. The only question that was not addressed and should have been addressed after this activity is: do you need to make all the suggested changes and trust all the comments made by classmates? This is a tricky question... and even as they were giving comments on other people's drafts, I heard and saw some who contradicted argued or contradicted other's comments by saying things such as "don't worry about what other people said, I think your paper is great and you don't need to change anything!" So, great peer-review activity, but I still need to work out the details.
Wednesday and Thursday were conference days, and as usual, those days are frustrating for me, but, on the very positive side, as I am reading the final drafts of project 2 that I just got today, I see that those who came to conference have written a significantly better paper than those who didn't! So, these conferences are NOT a waste of time and I am getting better at giving useful feedback! This gives me hope. However, two out of the three students who struggle the most did not show up again! On Wednesday, I had asked those students who had received 84% or less on project 1 to come to conference, and I knew this should have been four students... but only three came. The good thing is that I had an hour to take care of three students, the ones with the lowest grades in class overall, and that was great! The fourth one "slept through" class. On Thursday, I wanted to see the students who had received a 94% or less on their first project, and had also said that the rest of the students were free to come if they had questions. I knew that I should have seen at least four students, but three showed up, plus a few who did not have to come. The fourth one thought that it was optional for everyone and so didn't come, when HE SHOULD HAVE COME even IF it had been optional because he needs SO MUCH HELP! Ok, let’s stay calm, I have not read his final draft yet, and maybe it will be amazingly good!
Friday, today. Oh, that was a good day! It is the first time that I enforced my new "late=absent" policy and I think they might have gotten the idea by now. When the two students entered the class late, I simply said "you can come to class, because you'll learn a lot today, but I'll still count you as absent." Ouch! I know this is so mean! But honestly, there is nothing else I can do. I have tried it all. And I told them, “this is the way it is, because I am pissed off!” Now, if I start using such language in class, I wonder how I will talk to my students by the end of the semester! So, today, after the little “late crisis” and a 10 minute free-writing exercise (about trees, goodness!), we started discussing about the third project. This project is a review/critique of three articles about their topics. The thing is, though, I am not sure they know how to summarize an article, and so before explaining the “reviewing”: process, I want to go through a short pre-assignment: choose an article discussing your topic and summarize it. This afternoon, I talked to Jessie and noticed that she is doing the same with her students, which makes me happy because then I do not feel like I am torturing my students for nothing. For the learning process, I was looking for a good article to practice on, and Jessie told me that there is a nice article on CNN about the homework load of American students! Good, we will use that! For the review/critique learning activities, I think I will use the movie Gattaca, and we will probably watch it together in class and analyze it together. This part was a great assignment with my 101 class last fall, and I hope it will go well this semester too. Gattaca is really a nicely controversial but great movie. So, after explaining the project 3, I asked them to write a summary of a movie they liked, in 7 minutes, no more, no less. Then, I said “now, write a summary of that same movie in only 1 minute!” And finally, I asked them to write a one-word summary of that movie! I think it proved my point well, and then I put them in small groups and had them write down a lit of ten items they thought should or should not go in a summary. We did not have time to finish the activity, but they wrote their lists on the board and we started going through what they wrote. I have to say that they had more ideas than my 101 students last fall, and we had a very nice discussion to understand what kind of geographical and temporal details should go in a summary. My students were arguing… they were proving their points really well… it was great! I will finish this activity on Monday. It did not take long with my 101 students, but I think it will take more time with these students because they have such different perspectives of life!
Overall then, this week went fast and rather well. I discussed with one of the three students who struggle the most today too, after class, and he told me that he hates writing and that the grades he gets in this class do not make him happy. I was rather strict and direct, and I told him that he had a choice: either come to class but do nothing and get a D, or come to class, try to work and participate, and learn something. I also told him that I was frustrated because I wanted to help him but he would not let me do this by not coming to conferences, by not participating, and by not doing his homework! I said, “ I don’t want to fight with you and I don’t want to make your life miserable. I will also not call you home to tell you what the homework is or to check your emails! It is YOUR choice, your decision, and if you make the decision to learn as much as you can, you can count on me to help you as much as I can!” Today, I also got their final drafts of project 2. Time goes fast! I think that the grades of those who did not come to conference will not be good, but that those who did come will see a nice improvement in their grades. I hope it will motivate them and show them that they ARE becoming better writers.
