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Author Topic: Words and Grammar and Stuff  (Read 126303 times)

oneaprilday

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #850 on: March 11, 2013, 12:06:09 PM »
This is nothing new - this is my life - it's what I signed up for - but I'm feeling particularly weary as the quarter nears its end, so I will indulge in a little whimpering.

I'll be receiving about 80 student essays this week (instead of the usual weekly 40 or so), half on Monday, half on Wednesday, and they'll all need to be read/responded to by next Monday morning, so it'll be a rough Thursday-Monday. 80 essays at 4-6 pages each = about 400 pages of mediocre to bad writing that I can't just skim. I have to pay attention every word and then respond in some useful, thorough way so that the student writer will learn something about writing, about thinking, about analysis, about communication.

A typical sample from a student's essay this quarter:

"As an artist you must not be bias, and dig deeper to understand the piece that you are engaging with rather than pass judgment. Art can deceive us in many ways and sometimes is meant to. A persons art work should always be taken into account, all the aspects that make it unique, including the amount of time spent on the piece itself. The spectrum of art, and how far it goes for those that are interested in its endless limits, can only be told through expression."

Also,

"Art is a part of everyone's lives as we know it, and sometimes we don't."

The rest of the essay is more of the same.


The English instructors I know talk about the piles of student essays as soul-destroying - that can be true - but they make me feel insane, too; I begin to wonder, is it me? am I just not able to read and understand what I read anymore? What's happening? Help!

Is it worth it? I do wonder sometimes. David Guterson (Snow Falling on Cedars) was here in town a couple of weeks ago, and a friend of mine went to hear him speak; when asked if he ever thought of teaching again, he said, he'd thought of it, but in the end, just couldn't go back to facing those repeating piles of 100 student essays again.

Yeah, exactly.

But then, I can't help caring about my students - it's a pile of mostly poorly written essays, but each essay represents one person, full of hopes and dreams, and I can't be dismissive.  And I have those students, every quarter, who tell me how thankful they are that I took the time to read and respond to what they write, to help them on in their careers as students, as they've put it.  And then, I think, it's all worth it. 

Is it worth it?

I'm not sure I'll ever be absolutely sure.

Bondo

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #851 on: March 11, 2013, 02:31:30 PM »
Sounds like you have some future lawyers in your class (judging by what I have to read every night at work). :D

Sandy

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #852 on: March 11, 2013, 03:08:44 PM »
I could hardly make it through that sample OAD. I think of the housework you were talking to BlueVoid about, that day in day out, never ending, always replicating responsibility. They're much of a muchness. You're building lives, whether it's through your academic mentoring or through your home you're constantly re-creating.

I admire you a great deal for all of your dedication. :)

AAAutin

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #853 on: March 11, 2013, 03:24:46 PM »
Is it worth it?

If you've come to the point where you're privately posting your students' work for ridicule, perhaps your heart's just not in it anymore.

don s.

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #854 on: March 11, 2013, 04:14:54 PM »
Is it worth it?

If you've come to the point where you're privately posting your students' work for ridicule, perhaps your heart's just not in it anymore.

NOT THAT WE DON'T APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY TO RIDICULE.
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AAAutin

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #855 on: March 11, 2013, 04:30:09 PM »
NOT THAT WE DON'T APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITY TO RIDICULE.

I'm just sore because that was my essay. (ART IS PART OF EVERYONE'S LIVES! AND SOMETIMES WE DON'T KNOW IT!)

saltine

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #856 on: March 11, 2013, 04:36:33 PM »
Is it worth it?

If you've come to the point where you're privately posting your students' work for ridicule, perhaps your heart's just not in it anymore.

Too harsh, AAA.  OAD is not ridiculing the essays.  She's giving an example of what's she is dealing with for those of us readers who have not seen a student essay.  It's difficult to imagine the degree of awful some student writing is, especially around here where everyone is a very good writer and beyond that clever, clear, and concise in their posts.  Student writing is many degrees below the level of what we produce here.

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smirnoff

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #857 on: March 11, 2013, 06:12:37 PM »
A typical sample from a student's essay this quarter:

"As an artist you must not be bias, and dig deeper to understand the piece that you are engaging with rather than pass judgment. Art can deceive us in many ways and sometimes is meant to. A persons art work should always be taken into account, all the aspects that make it unique, including the amount of time spent on the piece itself. The spectrum of art, and how far it goes for those that are interested in its endless limits, can only be told through expression."

Perhaps try reading it more dramatically. :)

oneaprilday

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #858 on: March 11, 2013, 06:21:02 PM »
Sounds like you have some future lawyers in your class (judging by what I have to read every night at work). :D
Ha, yes, maybe so. :)


I could hardly make it through that sample OAD. I think of the housework you were talking to BlueVoid about, that day in day out, never ending, always replicating responsibility. They're much of a muchness. You're building lives, whether it's through your academic mentoring or through your home you're constantly re-creating.

I admire you a great deal for all of your dedication. :)
Thanks for the encouragement, Sandy. I do hope that I am building lives - I do certainly feel invested, in my children, of course, but in my students, personally.  (That's why the plagiarism I dealt with earlier in the quarter felt like such a slap in the face; I give time and intellectual and emotional energy to every single thing my students write, and when they give me something that obviously isn't theirs, it's just very disheartening.)


Is it worth it?
If you've come to the point where you're privately posting your students' work for ridicule, perhaps your heart's just not in it anymore.
Too harsh, AAA.  OAD is not ridiculing the essays.  She's giving an example of what's she is dealing with for those of us readers who have not seen a student essay.  It's difficult to imagine the degree of awful some student writing is, especially around here where everyone is a very good writer and beyond that clever, clear, and concise in their posts.  Student writing is many degrees below the level of what we produce here.
As saltine understood, AAA, I honestly did not intend that to be an example of the ridiculous, and I'm very sorry if it seemed that way.  I suppose this is a place I feel I can vent a little, but perhaps I shouldn't.  I do take that student seriously (if I didn't, my job would be a heckuva lot easier), and if you'd like me to show you the feedback I gave to that particular writer for that essay, I'd be happy to; perhaps it'd make you feel better to see what I do give back to my students.  As saltine says, the sample was intended to demonstrate the kind of writing I work to translate every week; the syntax and diction are just very problematic. This particular student is intelligent and well-spoken in class; he has interesting ideas about art. That little sample, too, reflects some of the things we've been talking about in class, so on one level, it is encouraging; he is clearly working to interact with the class ideas - to say something back in conversation in writing about those ideas. But I still have to try to figure out exactly what he's saying - and then figure how to respond in a way that will help him.

oneaprilday

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Re: Words and Grammar and Stuff
« Reply #859 on: March 11, 2013, 06:22:15 PM »