Gearing up

I've actually been chipping away at semester prep for about a month--more, if one considers the reading of short stories to see if there was anything I wanted to use either to supplement what I did last time I taught the American Short Story class or to replace some readings I'm getting tired of teaching. I hit a couple of interesting snags along the way, including one that induced a mini-temper tantrum, when I realized that what I thought was a small wrinkle in the 102 syllabus was actually one of those knots that, when picked at, unravels the entire thing. I had a petite hissy fit, shoved the paperwork out of sight, put it all in the back of my mind for a week--and when I went back to it, found a solution that at least has a chance of working.

The knot arose consequent to a decision I made having nothing to do with teaching--which has ended up leading to a significant change in my pedagogy. The decision was to send off an abstract for a paper to present at the Western Literature Association, the conference to be held in Montana in October. My paper was accepted, and I'm going--and, because of the way the Jewish holidays fall, giving us a Thursday off the week before the conference, I'm taking a few extra days so I can have some time with my family there prior to the conference.

But that decision meant I'll be missing a week of classes, right when I'd usually be in the first version 1/revision process. I couldn't push the papers earlier: the students need to have read enough to have something to write on. I couldn't push the assignment later without causing a train-wreck with the rest of the semester. So, I'm using a whole new approach to teach students how to move through multiple stages of writing. And I think the new process will mean I do a whole lot less marking.

That, of course, would be heavenly, in terms of my work load--but of course, I'm also nervous about how I can get students to see what they're not doing, what they need to do, and how to start to get there. (And yes, of course, I also want to help them see what they are doing, but in my experience, there's a lot less of that to build on than there are problems for them to recognize and begin to address.)

So, my current frets are two-fold. One: how can I give them at least some guidance and feedback on each step of the process, within the very limited amount of time I've allowed and without losing my marbles? Two: how do I structure the grading?

The latter is a bigger worry right now, because I'm trying to get the syllabi finalized and ready to photocopy, and I need to have that done before I leave town for a brief trip next week. (I leave next Thursday and will get back with one day left before the semester starts--and may I just say, yikes!!!)

Let me try to explain the process as simply as possible: I'm requiring two in-progress "versions" (more complete than a draft) before the final version of each essay. With each version, they'll have a day to work in class with a partner, and they'll have style-guide readings and handouts and rubrics to help them know what to look for as they evaluate their writing and make changes (with luck, improvements). I want to give some very general and brief feedback on the first version, so they'll have my comments to consider, as well as peer review, while they work on the second version. And I am going to insist that both preliminary versions are submitted with the final paper.

As I wrote it up initially, each preliminary version is worth 5% of the total final grade, and the final version is worth an additional 15%, so all three together are 25% of the final grade. But I mostly want to see the first versions to make sure that the process is happening: I'm mostly interested in observing qualitative improvement and substantive change. And I really don't want to spend a lot of time on them. So how do I determine grades for them?

I've felt it's important to actually give grades for the first versions for a few reasons. A) It lets the students know that the assignment is important: they tend to blow off anything they think is "just" homework--or, worse, that they conceive of as "busy-work." B) It gives them something concrete for the effort. If they're doing the assignments the way I hope they will, then the work really should count toward their final grades. C) Certainly from the version I see and respond to, I want them to have a sense of where they stand, gradewise. If something looks like a D (or worse) in the first version, I think the student needs to know--and to know why. Similarly if something looks like it could become an A--or even a B. In my experience, they generally have a terrible sense of the actual quality of their work (even when one takes into account my notorious ferocity as a grader).

The other option that occurred to me would be to give the final version grade for all three portions, assuming the first two demonstrate adherence to the assignment parameters. If something is missing, then I'd reduce the grade for whichever version was lacking something. (If one of the versions is missing entirely, of course, that zero would register.) I know students generally understand and are comfortable with the logic of losing "points"--but I'm not sure how I'd quantify reasons for deductions.

All these possibilities are swirling around in my back brain while I noodle around the office organizing files, trying to figure out what else I need to rework or make sure I have ready. I tried to stop noodling and nail down the 102 syllabus, but I can't until I have this issue figured out--and I don't have the brain to clear it up right now. (It's been a reasonably long day: I got here at 10:30 and worked on adjunct scheduling with Bruce until 3:30, have been in my office since, doing the aforementioned noodling.) So, I'm going to meander on home and hope wildly that by the time I get back in tomorrow morning, the back brain has spat out something that feels like a solution.

However, if any of you are checking this blog in the summer hiatus (hellooo? Anyone out there???)--and if you've got a suggestion, I'd be relieved to hear it.