The weather has been so wonderful these days that I have taken my students outside of the classroom as often as I could. I never did that before, not with my previous students here, and not in Utah either, I don't know why. I guess the idea of having my students scattered around and having to scream to be heard, as well as the idea of teaching in front of strangers out there, always scared me. It is a question of control but really, I should have tried this earlier, because it is going well and I think the students enjoy it--and I sure do! When the students are doing peer reviewing of drafts, for example, or group work, there's really no need to stay in a dark classroom. So far, the only "problems" I've encountered with teaching outside is that I meet friends and chat with them, and so do my students with some of their friends, occasionally, and I have lost a few students a couple of times, when they decide not to stick to the group and want to work alone. This is fine with me, but maybe I'll address this in class one day, just to make sure that they keep an eye on our group in case I have something to say or want to check on what they are doing.
So yesterday, after discussing the next project (organization, types of article they can use, etc.), I put people in pairs and asked them to read each other's articles, find their main points, and discuss with their partner how they could compare and contrast these main points in a paper. They did that outside, and I think it went well. As usual, they didn't do exactly what I thought they would do, but I heard them talk about interesting issues and good ideas on how to write their papers, so it was not a waste. Reading each other's articles allowed them to see what else is out there, to ask questions as to where and how they had found these articles, to see their differences in length, complexity, validity, etc. I had carefully placed the students in pairs that I knew would be help them get a picture (from their partner's comments) that they had not been able to see so far (and it also helped them get to know people that they hadn't necessarily talked to before). Allowing my students to work in a more relaxed environment and in smaller groups is also a nice way to integrate our new student better.
Talking about our new student, Rizwan, this week has been rough! First, he didn't show up on Monday and I thought that he might have been sick or something. Being me, I knew that if he had a valid excuse, I wouldn't kick him out of my class even though he had signed a paper saying that he wouldn't miss class ever or else would accept an F. So, I was expecting to hear from him on Monday but didn't hear anything, and on Tuesday he was still not in class, so I thought that he had probably just given up, that the workload was too much for him, and that he had found a way to not need this class. The other thing that made me think this way is that he was still not registered as a student in my class on my roster. On Wednesday, we didn't have class, and finally on Thursday morning, I got an MSN message from him saying that he had been sick on Monday and then had been too scared of me to come to class on Tuesday because he had signed this paper. Too scared of ME? Do I really come across as such a mean person? I told him that I needed to think about what I would do with him and that he could come to class until I had made up my mind. We later talked in my office and I, of course, forgave him and allowed to stay in our class. He did look terrible and I think is going through a very hard time, so I just couldn't let him down. He mentioned CAPS, the counseling office, and I strongly encouraged him to seek help there because I wonder how he is handling all the stress and worries he must be going through by having started to go to his classes in the middle of the semester. I do feel bad for him and I am definitely the kind of person who gives second, or even third, chances to people, because I believe two things: first, that what goes around comes around, and helping people has never hurt anyone, and second, that I am where I am today because I have been given second or even sometimes third chances. The problem, though, is that I have a tendency to give way too many second chances to people, and they sometimes end up stabbing me in the back or letting me down anyway. This is exactly what happened with Dan last year and with Wael last semester. In the end, I still believe that it is their choice to do something good with their second chance, but at least I have done all I could do for them and shouldn't feel guilty if they mess up anyway (easier said than done, though). So, our new student is back with us AND is on my roster now. My dear officemate Mark told me that I should give an Incomplete grade to this student, which would allow him to stress less about this class, concentrate on the others for now, and then finish his English assignments later, during the summer. Rizwan and I talked again after class yesterday and I told him that I would agree to give him an I instead of an F if he came to class every day, took good notes and did his best, then finished and polished the assignments later, and turned them in at the end of the summer. I hope that he will choose this option, because it would alleviate a lot of stress from both of us!
Well, other things that we have done this week: I introduced the concept of ethos, pathos, and logos, and it was a lot of fun, a lot more than what I had predicted. I decided to have a little activity with a few students, and it ended up being a big activity with the whole class! I put the students in groups of 3 or 4 and told them that they had to elect a speaker in their group and then write a speech for that speaker, who was in fact trying to become the president of our country, using only one of the three types of appeal. I know that they ended up working on their speech during our day off on Wednesday, and on Thursday, all groups had a very well written speech and sometimes even some extras (music, banners, introductions about the speaker, etc.). I laughed so much, while listening to their speeches, that I had tears in my eyes! I just can't believe that they would take a little exercise and make it into this big, fun, and very well thought assignment. At the end, we all voted and elected our new president, Opas, who will be able to choose the movie for next week's movie night.
Other things that we did this week: I explained to my students why I took points off for grammar and spelling mistakes. While I was reading and grading their summaries, I thought that I was being unfair for taking so many points of for grammar, punctuation, and spelling, but then I remembered that article I read last semester about different kinds of mistakes and the way teachers reacted to them. I explained this to my students: different mistakes have a different effect on the reader. If they are typical mistakes that native speakers of English make too, they are fine (like punctuation, if I was instead of if I were, etc.). However, typically "foreign" mistakes were often seen as very serious, especially by young teachers and teachers in the engineering and math departments. The most accepting teachers are older teachers in liberal arts and humanities departments. So we went over a few types of mistakes (tenses, word order, articles, etc.) and discussed if these mistakes were "serious" or not and why. I really hate to have to take points off for such things, but I strongly believe that making mistakes gives a bad image, and the students have enough resources to avoid making those mistakes. I also feel that sometimes, the students allow themselves to make those mistakes because they are in a section with only international students and so they believe that I should be more accepting. I remember my own First-year Composition class, though, which I took in a regular section and on my first semester in the US, and every time I had to write something for this class, I asked all my friends to go over my papers and correct my mistakes over and over because I didn't find it acceptable to make more mistakes than the native speakers. After having taught native speakers myself, I see that in the end, I might have ended up with fewer mistakes than the other students, but I didn't know that at the time and am glad, because my grammar and spelling got much better that semester (not perfect though, I know)!
This week, we also talked about different ways to organize a comparison/contrast paper (side-by-side pattern or back-and-forth pattern), and on the computers, we learned how to find and use good keywords that are also used by the Library of Congress, how to understand the numbers of the references so we can find the articles or book in the library, and finally how to use the library's databases. This is a complex process, since there are so many libraries, and it is difficult to understand that although you might find a great reference in a database, you might not find it in the Purdue library. I think that now, most students have understood how this works, but I will still spend some time working on that next week and especially on how to choose adequate keywords and use them efficiently. On a last note, we didn't have class on Wednesday at all, which is quite unusual since normally, I'd meet with at least some students every day for conferences and such, and not seeing anyone on Wednesday made me realize how used to the five-days-a-week pattern I am now, and how much not seeing my students for one day made me miss them! Teaching gives me energy, and even when things in my life are not working so well, forcing myself to "look" happy when I teach actually ends up making me feel happy too. My students are just wonderful!
Two last small points: it seems like the feedback blog just doesn't want to work. The students won't write anything meaningful on it, even when I threaten them or give them time to write in class. I don't know if that's because they have nothing to complain about or because they're too scared to write something negative. Too bad. The other thing is that last Thursday, on our movie night, we watched Oh Brother Where Art Thou and it has been a success beyond my expectations! Several students have watched it again since or borrowed my copy of it, and now they are citing the lyrics and singing the songs! Well, that is indeed a very good movie and I am glad my students loved it in spite of the difficult language and accent of the actors.
