Peer Mentors

One of the things that helped me get through my MA was having peer mentors. The program I was in didn't have assigned mentors, like the writer of tale 101, but there were two students in the cohort above us that seemed to take on that role themselves. It was really helpful to have people that offered themselves as references for any issues that we were having. The fielded questions that ranged from teaching issues to adjusting to a graduate workload. Even small tips, like "Make sure you mark any emails you send to Dr. So-and-So urgent or she won't read them and you won't get a response," helped us maneuver through this new terrain. There have been students here at Ball State that have done similar things, though I think not having a designated community area from grad students to congregate makes it a little more difficult. All in all, there's a lot of help that grad students get from the department and the faculty, but there tends to be a certain type of information given by peer mentors that is invaluable.

There are no stupid questions?

In my mentor's class on Friday we were discussing causal arguments. As one of the activities for the day my mentor had the students come up with 'Why?' questions. The book we're using had suggested this as a method for choosing a topic for a cause-and-effect paper. The students broke up into small groups to come up with ten different questions and then my mentor wrote some of them on the board. Since it was Friday, everybody was having a little fun with the questions. Why do girls wear Uggs? Why don't people flush the toilet? Why do people have ugly pets? The atmosphere in the classroom was light, if not a little goofy, and there was a lot of laughing. Then my mentor went on to explain the primary research aspect of the paper and asked if anyone had questions. That's when one of the of the students said, "This might be stupid, but can we interview ourselves?" And my mentor, having gotten caught up in the silly atmosphere of the classroom, responded, "That is stupid." Everybody giggled, including the student that asked the question. However, after class my mentor felt horrible for responding that way. The student in question has always had a goofy way about him and he tends to joke the most in class, so it didn't bother him at all, but my mentor still felt bad that she had called him stupid in front of the class. Monday, class went on as usual and it didn't cause any affect on that particular student's participation, but it is probably a good idea to make sure we don't get too caught up in the atmosphere of our students that we might accidentally offend one of them.

Freshman Comp as Disaster Response

Recently, I started reading this article by James Pangborn called "Freshman Composition as Disaster Response." I haven't finished it, so I can't actually say if it's all that great, but the content is pretty interesting. In the article he compares the way Freshman deal with writing assignments to how people deal with disasters. One of the main messages, that I've read so far, was that the effects created by the way students deal with their writing can be what lead them to plagiarize. In the article he talks about how many Freshman, like people in "high-stakes, time-sensitive" situations, tend to struggle with effective time management, they develop tunnel vision, which affects their ability to make decisions and evaluate consequences. When they get caught in these problems their first instinct is to revert back to something that has worked for them in the past. For Freshman writer, that tends to be the way they were taught to write in high school. That's about as far into the article as I've gotten, but it seems to make sense. Freshman don't deal with pressure very well and deadlines can create the time-sensitive situations that Pangborn was talking about. In those types of situations students fall back on what's comfortable or they may have a higher risk of cheating. Those are things that I'm going to have to take into account in my own classroom and try to develop my lesson plans in a way that deters that type of thinking.

Grading

We're getting into the time in the semester where my mentor is involving us in grading. Grading has to be my least favorite part of teaching. I like reading students' papers. I'm always excited to see what they have done with the topics they have been working on. I think what I don't like about grading is the fact that I don't feel like I can spend as much time as I would like on each paper. I just don't have the time,, especially if I want to get them back in a decent amount of time. That means that I have to focus on what I believe are the most important or most helpful things. This gets frustrating because I want to talk about everything and I know that I can't. The other problem is trying to write my feedback in a way that the student will understand. With freshmen it's difficult to know whether or not they will know what I'm talking about. Hopefully, over time it will get a little better.

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

Between our textbook review and having to order our books this week I have been doing a lot of thinking about composition textbooks. One of the biggest challenges for me is the price of textbooks. I have such a a hard time justifying the use of a textbook that would cost the students more than $40-50. I know that the content should probably be more important than the price, but having been one of those students that had to purchase those books and still getting notices about my own student loans I can't help but take the price of a textbook into consideration. I was one of those students who tried to pay for all of my books out of pocket if possible and sometimes that was a struggle. When I was still majoring in the sciences, I paid almost $800 for all of my books and equipment for one semester. That probably wouldn't have happened, except that semester all of my instructors chose new editions of textbooks that I couldn't find used copies of. My struggle now is that I love Dr. Ranieri's multimodal textbook, but I believe it costs around $90. I think the students would get a lot out of it, but at the same time how much are they going to be able to focus on school work when they are worried about having enough money to pay for it?

Just Let me Help You!

Tale 67 really struck a cord with me. My last university had a pretty low retention rate for undergads. We had a lot of commuter, nontraditional, and part-time students. The majority of the students were working at least one job, though I would estimate that a large majority were working at least two, and many of them had a family they were taking care of as well. I worked with students that were consistently late to class because they had to drive across town from work, students that had to miss classes because their child was sick, students whose jobs scheduled mandatory training the same time as our class, and even a couple of students who had lost their homes in the middle of the semester. There are so many obstacles that students have to deal with that its no wonder some of them decide that its not worth the effort and drop out. It's disheartening sometimes when we're not able to help students, especially when they've put in all the work, but I've come to understand that most of the time we can really only help them with what's going on in our course. 

A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Feedback Go Down

          A recent comment by my mentor last week has got me thinking about instructor feedback. She was handing back the first paper and she told the students that they shouldn't be frightened by the amount of writing that they saw on their papers. She didn't want them to think that she was trying to tear their papers apart, she just wanted them to know what they could work on for revision. At the end though, she mentioned that sometimes she forgets to put positive feedback on the papers and that they shouldn't take that as a personal slight. I was a little surprised because I have always tried to give students at least some kind of positive reinforcement on all of their assignments. Not that I don't give them critiques as well, but I feel like sometimes instructors are so focused on finding what's wrong with the paper that they don't notice what the students may have done right. Most of the students in our classes are not English majors and many of them are not confident writers. Being too/solely negative in your comments can have a damaging effect.

          The worst case of damaging feedback I've seen was in the second year of my MA. A previous student came to me to talk about an assignment he was doing for his current English class. He was extremely upset because on the second page of his paper the instructor had written that she didn't read the rest of the paper because the first part was too bad. I was shocked. Had this student been one of my strongest writers? No. Did he struggle sometimes with grammar? Yes. Was his writing bad enough that it hindered the meaning of his papers? Not at all. I was so mad at this instructor (and I still am! Your still on my list lady!). I knew that this student had always come up with great topics to write about and good ideas about those topics. He simply struggled with more of the grammatical aspects of writing, which was common at that school because we had a lot of students that came from very large, underfunded high schools. And yes, sometimes I had to get on this particular student about proofreading his papers, but now he was telling me that he didn't even see a point to turning anything else in. He was afraid to go talk to the instructor because he thought she would just tear him down further. He was even considering just failing the class (it was too late to drop) because he said the comments on his first paper were similar. This student did need guidance in his writing and he did need to have a lot of critiques on his papers. However, the negativity of the instructors comments and her failure to acknowledge that he had any strengths in his writing made him just give up. To me the point of FYC classes isn't to weed out the bad writers, it's to help develop those writers so that they can be successful in the future and sometimes that development needs to include building their confidence.  

Conferences

So this week is conference week in my mentor's class. I have a love/hate relationship with conferences. I love them because I feel like the students get a lot more feedback and are able to revise their papers better. I would love to do conferences for all my papers because I feel like the students learn more through them. I hate conferences because they take so much time! If you don't read the paper's ahead of time then you have to have really long conferences. If you do read them ahead of time then you have to spend the time before hand getting through everyone's paper and commenting on them before you even start conferencing. Especially as a grad student, I don't know that it's feasible. I definitely make sure to have at least one conference with them, so that I can go over patterns of issues that each student is struggling with. I think if you are going to do conferences you should have one at midterm and one before the final paper/portfolio is turned in. This gives students time to try to adjust their writing from high school expectations to college expectations, as well as giving them a little extra help before the last major assignment is turned in.

The (Red) Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

Even though Tale 47 was probably one of the smallest tales that we've read, it is one of the tales that I relate to the most. I had such a hard time not starting with grammar when I started grading papers, especially since I wanted (and still due) to get through the grading as fast as I could. Eventually I had to just put the pen away when I first read the papers. It's such an ingrained habit that I even correct the novels I read for leisure (not with pen, just in my head). I get so annoyed with myself when I start thinking about how a sentence could have been written better because it ruins the effect of the story when I start thinking about it too much. I think it's the same with students' writing. If I stop to correct every superficial mistake I won't be able to get the effect of the whole paper. Also, I think students also have an innate negative response to red ink. Instead I bought a pack of multicolored pens. Purple is less threatening than red, right?

P.S. My mom gave me this book when I started teaching. It's adorable.

How nice is too nice?

One of the the things that I worry about as a teacher is being too nice. I think I have a tendency to be a little too sympathetic with my students. If they had a "problem" printing it or were really struggling with the material, I'll usually give them until the end of the day to email me a copy. I've pushed back deadlines for the class or let students turn it in a day or two late. I know that I should probably be a more strict (stricter?) with these things. But here's the thing, I really don't care. If they get the work in and it's complete I'm fine. Sometimes things come up. Sometimes the printer really wasn't working. I was one of those students that did things last minute, so I occasionally ran into those types of problems and I'd feel like a hypocrite if I was hard on students that did the same. Granted, I don't think that I'm crazy lenient. I haven't just thrown out all the rules. But if a student acts like their trying I'm probably going to cut them a little slack. I guess the problem then is in being fair to the other students that turn things in late because they just didn't do it. Is it unfair to let one student turn it in late, but not the other? Also, being lenient usually means that at least one student will try to take advantage. Maybe I need to be firmer with students. I don't know. I like being understanding. I like not being super strict. I don't really have a strict personality, which is why it feels a little off. And now I'm rambling. Okay, I'm done. Have a nice day. Bye.

You Mean What I Know

I really liked this particular chapter of Comp Tales. I may not have had many of these experiences myself, but most of them fell into the areas that I have the most concerns with about teaching. I often worry about grading, whether it's the trickiness of grading more emotional papers like memoirs or my ability to adequately judge a students writing and give it the right grade. Reading about other instructors experiences has given me ideas on how to deal with some of these issues and things to look out for, like students bullying you for a grade. There were a few tales at the beginning, where they talked about students misunderstanding what they said, that did resonate with my own experience. I was having my students do an in-class writing activity and I had told them that we would be working with recursive writing. What I failed to do was explain what recursive writing was. After I told them to start writing I noticed that there were a few students just staring at their papers. When I asked if they needed help one of them replied with, "I just don't know if you're going to be able to read this." I asked what he meant and another student responded, "We haven't had to write like this since like second grade. I don't even know if I remember all the letters." And that's when I realized that the majority of the class thought I just wanted them to do their in-class writing in cursive. We had a good chuckle over it, but I did learn that sometimes I start speaking in Comp jargon and my students have no idea what I mean.

To Vent or Not to Vent?

First of all, in response to Tale 17, about sending the email to the whole department - reply all is the worst! I've never sent anything controversial, but I always feel stupid when I have accidentally forwarded something to everyone. That said, the actual tale that I want to talk about is Tale 27. I feel like I can see both sides of it. I definitely don't want students to have to hear the negative things that instructors might say about the student population as a whole. Not only could that ruin their confidence in class, but it could also create tension between that student and her future instructors. On the other hand, I know that sometimes instructors just need to vent. It could just be that they are having a rough day and a problem with a student is the final breaking point. I've had days where I just need to get all of the negative stuff out, so I can let it go and move on. Unfortunately, the easiest place to vent or blow off steam with other instructors is at school, where there are likely to be students around to hear it. The best solution would be to just not say anything, but we're human and that's not going to happen. However, instructors could get together weekly outside of class, where there aren't likely to be any students, to vent. Not only could they blow off steam, but it could create a tighter bond between colleagues. If it just happens to be one of those days where you have to talk to someone then I would suggest using your office. Maybe not the best solutions, but it would keep instructors from unintentionally damaging a student's confidence.

Confrontation, We Meet Again

Yesterday in the class that I sit-in on, we had a student show up that had missed the last three sessions. He come in late, was on his phone, and didn't have the paper that was due that day. I assumed that my mentor was going to want to talk to him after class. Being a little unclear about my position in the class I wasn't sure whether I should stay or not, so I left. I thought that she was going to be very strict about the class policies, especially because of her hatred of cell phones in the classroom. However, when she found me later that day she explained that the student told her he was confused about how to write the essay and he didn't know how to ask about something that we had already talked about in class. She said that she decided to give him a chance to complete the assignment, but that she firmly stated that the attendance policy was still in place and he must complete all the assignments to pass the class. She also told him that she was always available to explain things if he didn't feel like he could ask questions in class. As a person who struggles with confrontation, I think it would have been beneficial for me to have seen he handle this in person and I wish that I had stayed. From now on, I plan to just ask my mentor what her preference is for these types of situations. Hopefully, I won't miss another possible learning opportunity.

Always Watch The Video Before You Show It To The Class

 This chapter on beginnings brought back a lot of memories of little mistakes I'd made and things I'd learned my first few semesters pf teaching. My second semester teaching I had a Film Studies major in my class. During the section on memoirs he was constantly telling me that he would do so much better if he could do a video memoir, to which I would respond, "I'm sure you would, but the class is called Composition." I eventually told him that while he still had to write a memoir, I would give extra credit to anyone that wanted to make a YouTube video for their memoir. Bob* was the only student to do so
 The next class we started with Bob's video. I hadn't read his memoir yet and as it turned out, Bob was writing about a college party he attended. The first few minutes showed actual footage of the party with students dancing in a crowded house and what I'm sure was underage drinking and people smoking pot. But I was trying to be open minded and allowed it. Then I uttered a sentence I didn't ever think I would say in a classroom, "Bob, is that girl not wearing pants?!?" What made it even better was that as I made my way to the front of class to turn the video off I heard shots being fired and people yelling about the police showing up. There was a minor discussion/argument about finishing the video that may or may not have ended with me shouting, "You guys are going to get me fired!" Safe to say, I learned from then on to watch all the videos used before they were shown to the students.

* Fake name.

Age vs Authority

As a younger instructor, I have had issues in the past with maintaining authority in the classroom. The hardest part is trying to maintain a relaxed/open atmosphere in the classroom, while still being an authority figure. Being a younger instructor I feel that the students sometimes feel that they can take the relaxed atmosphere a little too far. They sometimes see me as another student or a friend that happens to be teaching the class. This can be helpful during class discussion because they feel like it is easier to open up and talk about things, but they also don't care as much about staying on topic or getting assignments in on time. Then they are shocked when I'm not "cool" with their lax attitude toward class.

I've also had quite a few nontraditional students in my classes. While most are super respectful, I have had a few incidences with age. For instance, the closer the students are to my age, the more they see me as a peer and not a teacher. I had one student that was maybe a year older that I was and during a class about narratives I gave some examples from my own that I thought would help the students better understand the activity. For this particular student, we'll call him Joe, those examples must have seemed familiar because he decided to shout "How old are you?" from the middle of the class. I tried to play it off with humor and told him I was 55. That just made him more insistent. Then he started asking when I graduated from high school and saying that we had to be the same age. I basically told him that my age didn't matter and we needed to focus on the activity. The class went back to what they were doing, but for the rest of the semester Joe was more outspoken and much more likely to interrupt class. He also was one of the students that I had the most problems with when it came to turning assignments in on time. I can't definitively say that my age was the only factor that could just be how he is, but I do think he felt much more comfortable doing these things in my class because we were close to the same age.

Narrative Assumptions

The first story told in Chapter 1 really resonated with me. The previous school that I taught at had a high number of nontraditional students. As an instructor I tried not to make any assumptions about my students until I had gotten to know them better, but it never failed that the first day of class I would catch myself looking at this student or that student and think, "You're going to give me problems, aren't you?" I noticed after awhile that I was often times thinking that about one of my nontraditional students because I assumed that since they had been out of school for so long that they would be the ones most resistant to learning. And I was so wrong. More often than not, my nontraditional students were the ones that tried the hardest and really wanted to learn.

The discussion of the use of narrative also resonated with me. In all of the classes that I've taught I always had my students write some type of personal narrative. Sometimes I've questioned whether this type of writing is actually helpful to the students and more than once I've contemplated scrapping the assignment so I could teach them more "important" genres of writing. However, at the end of the year I get at least one student who tells me that they were really glad I had assigned a narrative paper. I realized that it gives students a less threatening form in which they can develop their writing and, for the most part, they enjoy having a time where they get to relate some part of their story to others.