My Juniors' essays were turned in two weeks ago, and, in that time, they have been the bane of my existence. I try not to spend this much time usually on essays, but, for this first one, I tried to put as much as possible into them. I numbered all grammatical errors, and they'll be going back and finding their errors and explaining why they are errors. I made a huge amount of comments. Each took a good 15-30 minutes, depending on the quality. Most were very low quality. The class average was 40/75, with the high score being a 65 (a "B") and low scores falling into the teens. Yes, some of them are that bad.
They'll get there, but we'll struggle through it until then. Today was not a pleasant day for them, I'm sure - a long speech, explaining that it is not my goal ever to cut down students, but that these were poor efforts for the most part, that they had to get to a certain point by the end of the year, and this was the first stop on that journey. The problems range the entire gamut - one girl makes 75 grammatical errors in an essay, while another has flawless grammar but plays it too safe to say anything interesting. One kid makes broad sweeping generalizations in thesis statements and topic sentences, while another says interesting things but pays no attention to the devices or literary features that create the effects about which he is writing.
I met with several students after school about it. There were tears. I suspect some of them have never done badly on an essay before.
*****
I'm starting to grow resentful of the second job again. Whenever I'm overworked for a bit, this occurs. I've been there three nights a week all school year, even a couple of four-nighters, and that's on top of my two graduate courses. And after tonight's menu meeting (where at least we were fed the new items from the menu), I've swent four of the last five nights there. I'm just tiring of not having any weekends, ever. My debts are stating to dwindle, though, and I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. There is nearly zero chance I'll still be waiting tables at this time next year.
This weekend, I am flying out of town, so that's a weekend off. Even though I'll be traveling (a lot, and not necessarily fun travel), it will at least give me some time away from the restaurant, which I need.
Truth Hurts
-
Russell Brand, now embarking on his “Messiah Complex” tour, has been
officially and completely forgiven for Arthur. He’s 100% redeemed and then
some. Plus ...
1 hour ago
2 comments:
Just wanted to say that I've enjoyed your blog, and I wish I had a Language Arts teacher like you in school. I struggled for years not knowing how to write a worthwhile paper. In 12th grade I finally realized that all they wanted was a 5 paragraph fill-in-the-blank form essay.
I wish they'd assigned us a few more books of essays to read in high school English class -- we did read James Baldwin's "Fire Next Time," which I've read probably 15 more times since 9th grade. I suspect the department felt most essays weren't worthy of serious study next to the novel, the poem, and the play. I would have loved just a little Emerson, Thoreau, even some Joan Didion, maybe (thank God for philosophy class, though, where I got my essay fix.)
On the writing side, the majority of essays we wrote were of the "we have MAs, not MFAs, and you shall, too" kind, and not nearly as much of the "in case you might want to actually write an essay for anybody outside of academia" kind.
As far as your students go, does your school use Strunk and White or Zinsser at all? My own view is that the technical problems are easier to clean up than "personality" ones like playing it safe. You might have to break out Natalie Goldberg for that case. Otherwise, keep plugging along. You'll all get to that promised land of tight, well-reasoned theses and strong support paragraphs.
Post a Comment