Shoulda...

It drives me nuts when, in the process of teaching a class, I think, "Oh, yes, it would be a good idea to tell them X," and then I promptly forget. It happened today, of course: I meant to go over the "examples" of the kinds of notes I want. I did that at least briefly on Tuesday, but I meant to revisit it today--and didn't. And a lot of students are still--and understandably--confused. Paul and I talked about it at some length today. This is not a typical "genre" of assignment for the students: it's highly idiosyncratic to me, and it requires an approach students probably never encountered before. I do tell them that I understand there will be a learning curve: they need to give notes a whirl--probably a couple of times--before they start to get the hang of them, but this time I have loaded them with as many ways of demonstrating and explaining what they need to do as I can come up with--short of workshopping note writing with them in small groups (which might do the trick, or might not).

Still, despite that small stick with which I can beat myself, I think things went relatively well today. On the good news side, everyone who is currently registered was there. And in talking about SF as a genre, some great stuff was coming up--mostly from the Bright Brit, who obviously reads widely and has watched a lot of films (including, delightfully enough, Young Frankenstein, which actually added some interesting depth to today's discussion). I had stuff scrawled all over the board, which is always a good sign--especially when the majority of it comes from them (with a few caveats or expansions by me).

One particularly useful moment came when I asked students what they think of when they think of SF. One student said "aliens," which is absolutely true. I could reference the bar scenes in the Star Wars movies (which most students in the class have seen), and we talked a bit about that--but then I said, "So, when we just see the word 'alien,' we think some weird creature--but what if I put the word 'illegal' in front of it?" A lot of them looked a little like I'd just poked them with a cattle prod. No one wanted to say anything, but the Bright Brit said, "immigration." Yes. So, that gives us a thematic thread to probe. If we consider "aliens" as not human, what is being implied about how we see immigrants? (I didn't get into the idea of situations in which we are the aliens--as is true in I think all the stories in Le Guin's Hainish matrix--but we'll get there when we get to Left Hand of Darkness.)

On a completely different front, I was absolutely stunned to see a student from last semester on my roster--and in class today. He started to catch on a little to the whole idea of needing to think toward the end of the semester, but his notes were so paltry that he never got passing marks on them--and then he completely missed submitting the second essay, at which time I told him he could not pass the class. He never withdrew, so he got an F--which is almost certainly why he's taking the class: at NCC, the grade for a second attempt at a class replaces the grade for the first attempt when we calculate the GPA. He could take another lit course--but retaking this one means the F will be replaced with whatever he gets this semester. I am not sanguine it will be anything other than an F again, but maybe he can pull off a D--or surprise the hell out of me and get a C. Who knows.

I don't remember if I mentioned, but a student who was in one of my 102 classes a long time ago is also in the class. I don't recall what happened: I think she withdrew because she was taking the class over to try for a better grade--but I don't remember who gave her the C that is on her academic record. Could have been me. I'm too lazy to dig out her card and figure it out.

There's also a student in the class who is newly registered; I don't know much about him yet, but my first impression is that he is one of those very sweet, very earnest--and very undereducated--young people who can delight me by suddenly catching fire or break my heart by trying with all they possess only to fall short. I'm concerned that he missed the first day--and I'm concerned that he keeps talking about "topics" and "articles" (this is a literature class...)--but I like that he clearly wants to do well.

Oh, and before I forget: I want to record something that happened in Advisement yesterday, which I forgot to report. A student sat down in my cubicle and--in all seriousness--asked, "So, on that degree evaluation thing: those courses that are called requirements. Do I have to take them?" Um, yes: that's what the word requirement means. He didn't understand that he can take electives--those can be anything at all that he wants--but if he wants to get a degree, yes: there are requirements. There can be multiple classes that fulfill a requirement, but still: required. Then he asked--again in all seriousness--if he needed to take a prerequisite before he signs up for something. Um, yes: that word prerequisite? What was maddening about the whole thing was that he seemed relatively bright; my hunch is that he just didn't like the fact that college wasn't a big party at which he can do whatever the hell he wants. (Which he can, actually--unless he wants a degree.)

So, that's what we deal with: students who need to be told, in no uncertain terms that words such as "requirement," "deadline," and "limit" all have real meaning. Go figure.