A Sticky Situation

This isn't as much a blog as it is a prompt. I received an email from a student, who I haven't seen in over a month-and-a-half, asking me if there was any way he could get a passing grade in the class. I have posted his email and my reply below. I'd like to know your thoughts on my response and how you might have done things. Although I'm confident that I handled the problem in a professional manner, I'm not sure that I made the right decision.

STUDENT E-MAIL

Casey,

I know I am missing two big assignments and have had bad attendance. I would like to apologize for this, I have had a family thing happening over the course of the semester and have been in St. Louis a lot over the semester. I really need the credit hours provided by this class however and am asking if there is any way that I would be able to finish the class with a passing grade at the end this semester. I know I should have been emailing you but it seems like I haven't had any time. I return to springfield on wednsday. Thank you for your patience and I am anxious for your response.

Thanks

MY RESPONSE

First of all, I am sorry to hear that you are having personal problems; sometimes life just doesn't want to cooperate with classes, and I'm not going to pretend that I haven't experienced the same thing. However, you have missed 3 assignments(350 points) because one is due on Thursday, and at this point there is simply no way for you to make a passing grade in the class. I haven't seen or heard from you since the beginning of March, and although I understand that you're having issues in St. Louis, I must adhere to the English Department guidelines. Had you communicated with me this semester, we might have been able to work something out as the semester progressed, but we only have three weeks left and it's just too late. You must get a C in ENG 110 in order to get credit for it, so your best option is going to be to just drop the course and take an "I" so that it doesn't affect your GPA.

I'm sorry it has to be this way, but I cannot allow you to have missed nearly the entire semester and still, in good conscience, give you a C in the class. It just isn't fair to the rest of the class--especially since they have been attending and participating all semester. It only takes 5 minutes to send an email, and the fact that you did not communicate with me adds to my decision. I'm sorry that this isn't the answer you are looking for, but I must do what is best for the other students as well as what is best for the department's integrity.

Best Regards

I anticipate a wealth of commentary and insight from my wonderful fellow-GAs!

The Case of the Missing Drafts

I'm not going to even pretend here because this type of scenario has happened to me more than once. It seems that no matter how much you threaten, remind, or deduct points from students, some of them still don't understand that they need the multiple drafts. I generally just take points off if all of the components are not there--especially if the student missed the workshop and doesn't have that particular draft. I take 5 points off for not having a peer-edited draft and 10 points off for not having the draft with my comments. Thus, if they turn in the final draft by itself, they automatically have an 85 before I even start taking off points for other things. Perhaps I should be more strict with point deductions, but I've found that most times these lonely final drafts end up with Cs or Ds, which could have been prevented had the student turned in all of the materials. I also make sure to note on the draft how many points I deducted and for what; this way they can visualize how detrimental not having all of the drafts can be to their grades.

As far as not turning in the reflective essay, I would certainly go as far as to fail the paper. If an exterior assignment was given to be turned in along with the paper, then not having that assignment causes the paper to be incomplete. I would just fail the paper or give the student another class period to get it to me (with deductions for lateness, of course).

I've never been as extreme as to fail or not accept papers that don't have all of the component drafts. I feel that docking points is enough, and if they can't learn their lesson after a few assignments, then it's just apparent that they don't care. I make it a point to verbally remind students the class period before a final draft is due that they must bring all initial drafts and workshop sheets; I've also sent out email reminders on occasion. Alas, it seems that I can never get ALL of them to comply. If they can't get the hint from all of the points they're losing, then nothing will get them to do it. I don't feel that failing the paper or not accepting the assignment is the right answer, but perhaps I need to go to more extreme measures and see if they work.

A Book Suggestion for All GAs

I have a suggestion for a book that should be required reading not only for all teachers in all disciplines, but especially for incoming GAs at Missouri State University. It could be used either during training for first-year GAs, during ENG 603, or both. It is a text that spans the entire teaching profession and would act as an effective and concise guide for all novice instructors. In fact, it is required reading in ENG 670 (Teaching Technical Writing).

The book is Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers by Wilbert J. McKeachie, and it is currently in its twelfth edition, which should give you some idea as to its notoriety. McKeachie is an esteemed Professor of Psychology and former Director for the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan, where he has taught since 1949. In this tiny book (roughly the size of a trade paperback), McKeachie addresses nearly every facet of teaching and pays special attention to new instructors. The book has 26 brief chapters which cover everything from the first day of class to grading methods, ethics, and classroom diversity. I've included a brief list below of some of the content discussed in the text.

In addition to encompassing a wide range of teaching topics, McKeachie treats each topic concisely and provides examples from his and his colleagues' own experiences. It is an easy book to just sit down and read cover-to-cover, but it is also effective as a reference for specific issues one might have in the classroom (the "problem" student, effective lectures, cheating, etc.). I would highly recommend that every current GA take a look at Teaching Tips, and that the university should consider making it required reading for all incoming GAs in the future.

Topics Included (brief version):

• Course preparation and meeting a class for the first time
• Active learning and facilitating discussion
• Grading and testing
• Student psychology and cultural diversity
• Teaching with technology (A Cadle fave! :)
• Role of the teacher
• Ethics and the vitality and growth of the teacher

McKeachie, Wilbert J. Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. 12th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Writing What We Teach

The Writing What We Teach assignment seemed beneficial both to myself and to my students. Through my composing the textual analysis assignment with them, the students were able to visualize the techniques discussed in class and see them put to practical use. As I learned last semester, the students seem to struggle most with this particular paper, so I think it helped them feel more comfortable and confident with their own writing.

I chose to use a piece that wasn't from The Presence of Others, so that students would not be able to model my own paper. However, I feel that by seeing my use of introduction, thesis statement, and topic sentences, they were able to better understand how to put these concepts to use; the subject didn't matter--it was the method of execution that they needed to see. This ended up producing far stronger papers than I received last semester, and it also helped me to explore what I like to see in a good textual analysis.

Conversations Going Nowhere

I just want to take a bit of time to reflect on the idea of collaboration and workshopping in the composition classroom. We are all aware of that wonderful social-constructionist pedagogy, where learning and writing are seen as a social construct; the creation of a small culture of shared ideas and artifacts with shared meanings. In this pedagogy, the teacher assumes the role of "facilitator" rather than "instructor." While I wholeheartedly agree that the teacher should never assume a sole role as "ruler" or "instructor," I'm not sure that collaboration, in most cases I have seen, is really as effective as social constructionists seem to think.


I'll begin with a brief discussion of Kenneth Bruffee's "Collaborative Learning and the 'Conversation of Mankind.'" In this article, Bruffee suggests that we should encourage students to "harness the powerful educational force of peer influence that had been—and largely still is—ignored and hence wasted by traditional forms of education" (418). Bruffee asserts that students' conversations during collaborative learning often lead them to a means of developing a much broader framework for the subject or assignment. In addition, they are able to "talk through" any issues they are having with their writing, either with content or with mechanics.


Although I agree with Bruffee on his assumption that collaboration usually leads to better writing, I'm not sure that a peer-to-peer (P2P) collaboration is the most effective means. Especially as freshman, our students most likely have not developed the means of effectively constructing and evaluating their own writing (hence, our job as their guides on the road to good writing). With this in mind, how can we expect that they will be able to truly help each other?


I harp on my students constantly about their ineffective workshop methods--talking about the weekend, chatting about other classes, or remaining in complete silence. They are given a handout with specific questions to address about their peers' papers, but all I can get them to do is fill out the sheets and hand them over. Much as I try, I cannot get them to engage each other in genuine conversations about the assignment or subject. Nearly all of my students thusfar have agreed that peer workshopping is useless to them; they prefer my comments on their drafts, which are often in the form of questions, suggestions, or guidance. These notations are my form of collaboration with these students.


I think that collaboration should remain at the student-teacher level or the student-tutor level in freshman composition courses. Workshopping can be invaluable to upper-level and graduate students because of their mutual experience, but when inexperienced freshmen get together to critique each other's work, little of value often comes of it. Writing Center sessions can be a great way for students to collaborate, but I think that at least one participant must have some grasp of what's going on--otherwise how can anything develop?

Bruffee, Kenneth. "Collaborative Learning and the 'Conversation of Mankind'." Cross-Talk in Comp Theory. Ed. Victor Villanueva. 2nd ed. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2003.

Draft Commentary: It's a Real Bummer!

I often find myself spending way too much time evaluating initial drafts (at least it seems like it). I spend an average of 15-20 minutes per paper making adjustments, comments, and asking questions. This means I spend between 5 and 6 hours on one set of student drafts. My students always gasp when they see all of the blue scribbles on their drafts, but then it also seems that they appreciate the guidance. I don't mind spending that much time critiquing drafts, but I am now beginning to wonder if it is even worth it.

Although they seem grateful for the assistance, I usually find that they do not make the majority of the changes or answer many of the questions I pose in the initial draft stage. Why should I use so much time trying to guide them to more specific and coherent writing when the majority of them don't take the initiative to make the changes?

I know that several of the GAs make little-to-no comments on their students' initial drafts, but I think that might not be the right solution to my problem. We certainly do our students a disservice by not giving them feedback--otherwise, how can we expect them to improve or understand the grade they are assigned? But it is endlessly frustrating when I spend so much time commenting on drafts, only to be disappointed with lazy revisions that contain many of the same mistakes. I've tried stressing to them the importance writing as a process, and that my and their peers' critiques are meant to assist them in refining their own work. It just seems like they aren't listening, or just don't care. How can we get them to take the initiative to actually make these changes and address the questions posed?

What We Need is a Strunk Revolution!

This is my official protest against many composition theorists who argue that the instructor should place less focus (sometimes none) on mechanics and more focus on issues with content and organization. While I believe that content is the most important of the two, many of these theorists suggest that mechanics should play little-to-no part in the evaluation of a piece of student writing. Many of the professors I've had at this university do nothing to correct punctuation, misspellings, or errors in usage--I know that these teachers are focusing on content, but they don't seem to mind gross errors in mechanics.

I want to argue that there is a very important place in the teaching of composition for helping students to hone and master mechanical rules and skills. Just as a student can have perfect grammar and still say nothing, another student can come up with a most-profound piece of writing, riddled with obvious errors in usage and grammar, and be looked at as partially uneducated. How is the informed reader to trust anything that this writer has to say? Mastering punctuation, especially elementary symbols such as the comma and semicolon, is, to me, one of the most telling features of a skilled writer. For us to abandon this notion and focus 90 percent of our efforts toward content, how can we expect the students to come out better writers, overall? Sure, they will be able to organize their thoughts clearly and produce a well thought out analysis, but if there is no firm grammatical structure or style governing this writing, then they will likely be immediately classified as a non-credible source.

Elementary rules of usage are the first thing that employers notice when evaluating the cover letter and resume of a potential employee. If this employee's college English class made no effort toward emphasizing grammar and style, then the employer can expect to find errors in the mechanics of the writing. I don't intend to argue here that mechanics should be given equal opportunity with content, but I think there is certainly a place for more emphasis on the former in the classroom. Maybe my perspective is skewed because I come from a professional writing background, but I think that learning these rules of mechanics is very practical for student writers and should be at least touched upon in every college composition class--especially freshman composition.

So go! Tell your students about commas, semicolons, and em dashes! Spread joyfully the news of subject-pronoun agreement and verb tense consistency! Announce the sheer wonder and stark reality of misplaced modifiers and sentence fragments! Don't allow these theorists to desensitize you into thinking that grammar isn't important--for it certainly is!

Complexity Theory and Teaching

While doing some research for a different class, I stumbled across an article that I think might be beneficial for GAs to read. The title is "Complexity, Class Dynamics, and Distance Education" and it was written by Kate Kiefer of Colorado State University. It appeared in volume 23 of the journal Computers and Composition.

In this article, Kiefer demonstrates how complexity theory--the idea that all systems are not only comprised of nonlinear, interacting parts, but are also adaptive in the sense that they can change from within or as a result of outside influences--can be directly connected to teaching. The definition certainly reminds me of the "process over product" concept in writing. Although this theory is often applied to scientific or philosophical practices, Kiefer makes a strong case for its influence on the writing classroom. She states that writing classes develop their own distinctive personalities, and that we cannot describe what the "system" will look like because the classes change each semester.

Through the lens of complexity theory we see how students make choices about their own behavior and how they also react to the emerging pattern of interactions in the larger group. Thus, we can see how classrooms demonstrate key characteristics of complex, adaptive systems (130).

Kiefer then uses this idea to argue that distance learning classes might not be as effective as physical classrooms because of this lack of face-to-face relationships, social bonds, and attitudes. I don't think it's necessary to go into distance learning here, but it did, however, play a major role in this article.

The reason that I think this article is important is because of Kiefer's simple, yet elegant approach to classroom dynamics. She provides numerous first-hand examples of her conclusions and also a small research study she conducted on an online distance learning course. Her insights into how both teachers and students create a classroom dynamic demonstrate the importance of this dynamic in considering teaching methods, assignments, and communication with our students. I obviously don't have the space to discuss the article in great detail, but I think she brings up some very nice points about how essential a classroom dynamic is to the success of our students. Check it out!

Kiefer, Kate. "Complexity, Class Dynamics, and Distance Learning." Computers and Composition 23 (2006): 125-38.

Feel the Presence

I think I might be one of the only GAs that finds The Presence of Others to be immensely helpful in teaching freshman composition. Unlike other rhetorics and readers, this anthology has comprehensive sections on critical reading and writing. It works very well with the Hacker manual in discussions about prewriting, drafting, critical reading, thesis statements, and arguments. I thought that the articles pre-chosen for us last semester were awful for the most part, but there are some very nice readings that I'm having my students look at this semester.

I personally find the science section of the book a great resource for articles with strong arguments. "Cuddling Up to Cyborg Babies" and "Biotech Century" are two of my favorites, and my students last semester enjoyed breaking these articles down for the textual analysis and position paper assignments. Other great articles (I think) from this book are the selections by Pinker, Sedaris, Ivins, Hurston, Dubus, and Atwood. I think the editors did a great job of collecting articles that have an immediate effect on our world and culture, although many of my colleagues disagree with me there.

I honestly don't think there is any book that is better than The Presence of Others--every anthology of essays or writing is hit and miss. I have looked over a few, including 50 Essays, Identities, and Making Sense. Although I discovered several articles that I will be using this semester, I found that many of the pieces included in these books were also included in The Presence of Others. So I would have to rally against bashing this book--I think there is a lot of value in it for freshmen.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

I received my first round of final drafts this afternoon, and I would be lying if I said I was happy with the outcome. Three of the students only had final drafts, two of them were absent, and one attended the class but did not turn in a paper. I told the students with only final drafts that they could turn in the rest of their materials to my mailbox; I told one of the absent students, who was sick, that he could turn it in Thursday. I feel that by being so lenient on these students, I am projecting a message that tells them I am very forgiving, although it was explicitly stated in the syllabus and course schedule what was required of them. I even reminded them during several classes about the materials that they needed to have with their final drafts (initial draft and peer workshop sheets). Yet, over a quarter of the class did not meet the guidelines.

How far must we go as teachers in order to satisfy the needs of our students without being looked at as either a stickler for due dates or a laid back instructor who will let you slide on aspects of the assignment? I feel that each extreme is an inappropriate method of teaching, but I cannot seem to find a cozy place in the middle. I can only do so much without holding their hands, right? Where are the lines drawn between too strict and too lenient? And how do we, as teachers, work inside those lines in order to provide a steady, effective classroom environment?

I know that last semester I was far too flexible with my students as far as due dates. I was accepting almost anything from the students as an excuse and felt that if I asked for any sort of documentation for the absence, they would view me as a middle or high school teacher. I don't want to go that route again, but I also do not want to be so strict about policies that my students fear or despise me. How do we build a relationship in which the student recognizes his or her role by meeting due dates and assignment guidelines?

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover

I usually try to avoid cliché expressions, but I think this is the best way to describe the experience with my class this week. When I walked in on the first day, I was totally mortified at the make-up of the classroom—crossed arms, rolling eyes, loud sighs, and testosterone (16 of 20 students are male) filled the room as I tried to explain the syllabus and my expectations for the course. I even had a student fall asleep in the back of the room! I went around explaining to all of my colleagues how my class was straight out of the film, Dangerous Minds, where Michelle Pfeiffer teaches inner city kids how to become better students. I was certainly not ready to go back the next time, but I was met with a pleasant surprise upon my return.

I entered my class for the second session only to be astonished by this same group of students seated in a large circle, books and notebooks on their desks, prepared to participate in class. The discussion was fantastic, and the students took the lead for the majority of the period. Their insight and reflections on the readings were truly astounding, and they made connections in the discussion that I had never even thought of. I was so relieved at their participation that I immediately called one of my colleagues to express my joy.

If that wasn’t enough, I had them do a brief freewrite on their passions in life. I initially expected musings on sports, music, and family—the three “cop-out” answers for that question. I soon discovered that not one student had a passion for the same thing, and most of their subjects were surprising: biotechnology, humanities, Irish dance, rap, equestrian studies, and even lacrosse were all mentioned as passions. What a diverse group of minds; I will certainly think twice before I judge a class on the first day.

Introduction

As a graduate student and university class instructor, I carry the advantage of observing the successful techniques used to create an effective learning environment, and luckily my observation now comes from both sides of the desk. Not only do I know which qualities I look for in a good instructor (as I was taught by such a diverse faculty as an undergraduate), but I also understand what is important in a good group of students.

I hope that this blog will serve as a place for me to reflect on my experiences and ideology in the field of teaching composition, as well as spark conversations between fellow teachers and students about what makes a good writing classroom.

Casey White
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Department of English
Missouri State University