The summer semester is now half over and I have not yet gotten the first papers, though I have (unfortunately) marked up the drafts. They are not good at all, and show that students have not for the most part understood what we have been talking about for three weeks now. They uniformly have not understood essay structure or how to analyze evidence, even though we spent weeks working on these things. I feel like a tape recorder, saying the same things to each student.
Today we watch the film Vertigo and go on to the second assignment, ready or not. I'm just hoping that somewhere between the first and second essay some of what I've been saying kicks in.
Six weeks is an awfully short time for that to happen. My stomach feels terrible every morning when I wake up. This pace is killing me.
2 comments:
Maybe it would help to stop and take a class period to see each student individually in conference about his and her draft.
I have made appointments with students, and shut down class early yesterday to see them. However, the students didn't take advantage of the opportunity. Today, with the paper being due tomorrow, they all wanted to see me at once, and I couldn't see some of them because I didn't have time.
I did discuss papers online with a few of them and read a few late drafts. They looked better than the first ones.
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