I hope this works...

One of my students in Native American Lit, the one who is working her ass off for the first time ever, was so discouraged getting her paper back today that I knew I needed to talk her off the ledge. We had time at the end of class to go over papers, but she didn't stay; she was feeling like she can't do anything right. In fact, she has good ideas; she just has a hard time getting them on paper, especially in any academic form. After I talked to another student for a while, I came back to the office and called Ms. Worker Bee. She is still pretty discouraged, but I got her to understand what she needs to do in terms of a thesis--and I told her to think of it as if she is explaining her ideas to someone who has read the book but doesn't understand it. I suggested an imagined conversation something like this:
       "The women in Tayo's life who follow the white way are the ones who are harmful to him, and the ones who follow the Native way are the ones that help him."
       "What do you mean?"
      "Well, you know Ts'eh? She follows the Native way..."
      "How do we know that?"
      "Remember when we first meet her, she's wearing the rainbird buttons on her shoes and holding a willow wand?"
      "Yeah, so...?"
      "The willow wand indicates her closeness to the land. Also, it's an old way to look for water, so it comes out of her Native heritage, not white science."
      "OK, but how do we know she helps Tayo?"
      "She catches the cattle for him....."

And so on. At this point, if her paper is riddled with informalities, I don't care: I just want her to get those ideas expressed and clear. She can work on anything else later--like in some other semester, with some other teacher. I simply want her to have a thesis and prove it. Period.

But the phone call with her was good, I think. She's reassured that I care and that I'm here to help, and I'm reassured that she's going to stick with it. Clearly there is a miscommunication going on: she was so sure she'd done what I wanted, when in fact she'd done things I very expressly do not want. No wonder the poor thing felt it's hopeless. But it isn't, and if it kills me, I'm going to prove to her that she can do this. She may not get an A (OK, she won't, unless there is a miracle), but she could certainly get a C+--maybe even a B of some variety, if she can truly pull this off. She has B-quality ideas; it's the writing that's the problem.

That's true for most of them, in fact. However, I was again in the position of letting an A student know that she can pretty much just clean up some superficial stuff in her paper and be done with it. God, it's nice to read A papers! Thoughtful, well-expressed....

Which makes me think, once again, that I probably do need to make clear grading criteria that match the rubric sheets I use. I do provide students with the language from the SUNY Basic Communications learning goals, but it's too dense, and students don't get it. In fact, I wonder if I can rework the rubric sheet so the criteria are right next to the rating: so there's a box for "Exceeding Expectations" and then a few quick bullet points of what that means, and so on.

I come up with ideas like that, and invariably it turns out to either be too much work for me to actually put together--or I put it together and it doesn't work the way I hope it will. There is no magic bullet, Prof. TLP, remember that. No matter what I do, there will be problems--and unhappy students.

Well, I'll do what I can with the ones who are left. I don't think I mentioned, but yesterday, the young man in 102 that I've had to suppress all semester turned up with the second version of his paper--which was due on Monday. The syllabus and assignment sheet very clearly state that it won't be accepted late, and that if it isn't submitted on time, the student will fail the class. But he was brave enough to show up with it. He told me he'd been sick all weekend: maybe, maybe not, but I don't really care. I read the thesis, and it will fly. I told him he'd get partial credit for it and that he can do the final version. He was genuinely relieved and thanked me for allowing him to finish the class. I said, "Are you kidding? There's no way I'd keep you from making it now...."

I will be very interested to see his end-of-semester self-evaluation. All of them, really, but his in particular, along with a few others.

Meanwhile, I know I "should" stay here for a while and get some work done: it's really super early, and next week may very well be hell on a stick, so it would be highly logical to try to crank out more work today (those year-end evaluations, my book orders, something). But I just don't feel like I can stand to do one more thing. So, I'm going to water plants, put my water bottles in my bag, and head home. Please God something will happen between now and next week and I'll remember how to sleep at night again. That would certainly make this final push to the finish a hell of a lot less painful. But even with the current levels of discomfort, one way or another, by end of next week, it will all be over but the shouting--and I hope that's only a figure of speech.

And ... scene.