September 10, 2008Aletia;In fact, I had a huge breakthrough in class today. My students were angry that they had received what they consider to be 'low' grades on papers I gave them back (they all expect and desperately need, to get “A’s” although, ironically, their generation—early to mid twenties—doesn’t really want to WORK very hard for an “A”), but I spent a l-o-o-n-n-n-g time explaining to them that in writing their term papers they were ignoring the ground rules and the very basic procedures for papers, regarding the simplest of elements—such as introductory paragraph with topic sentence and thesis statement and summary of support; transitions in the introductory paragraph leading to summary of support; body paragraphs featuring expansion of support; quotes from the text they are writing about to support their claims; citations and footnotes to expand on secondary information and sources; etc. (a prerequisite for my course is a basic composition course focusing on expository writing, which is why they are expected to have mastered all of those elements before even registering for my course).They were resentful of my pointing this out to them, most of them claiming they had received “A’s” and “B’s” in their composition courses earlier in their college coursework, and asserting that if they couldn’t ‘reember’ the elements of term paper composition, then maybe it ws because they had found the information to be so boring, and had ‘mastered’ those skills only long enough to ‘pass’ their composition courses. I pointed out to them that ‘mastery’ or requisite college level skills and competencies means far more than committing the barest details to short term memory and that in fact ‘memorizing’ is not the best method of studying college course work. In an advanced level college course such as mine, they are expected to demonstrate understanding, insight, critical, and analytical understanding, not a good memory.I kept at it, explaining why they are expected to be able to think, not just mindless regurgitate meaningless data, and I got nowhere trying to convince them of that. They demanded to know why I expected them to perform on essay exams rather than administering ‘true or false’ or ‘multiple choice’ tests, and I responded by writing a detailed list of required competencies on the board and explaining why the university says that each of these competencies are necessary. I discovered while talking to them that (as I have lately suspected) hardly any of their former instructors in the lower courses have taught them the earlier competencies they need to be able to do the required work in the course they are now in--it's a course that requires them to have mastered the skills of the last course in the university’s composition sequence--the most crucial and the hardest--research paper writing.Then I discovered through arguing with them further, explaining to them, persuading them, and wrestling with their agitation, that they were having trouble reading.They couldn't read my comments on their papers partly because they are not used to getting detailed comments and critiques from their instructors!They are used to simple, rudimentary grammatical editing of their papers, after which instructors tell them to revise using a key to the editing marks so they can 'get higher grades'. I expect them to edit and proofread their own papers BEFORE turning them in. They are unaccustomed to having to pay such strict attention to what they are doing. They are also not used to reading complete sentences from instructors telling them what they are doing wrong. They particularly have a hard time with sentences that have dependent clauses--they can't hold in their heads the verb and subject-object relations contained in complex sentences, particularly sentences that are written in tenses other than the past preterit, present, and future tenses. They are used to reading simple, declarative statements from their professors giving them direct orders and telling them in easily numbered steps, how to write the 'corrected' version of their papers, which they then re-submit in order to get a better grade.One student had a terrible time with the following sentence I wrote on her paper in my critique of her composition:"This paragraph is too long, and so there is no way you will not run into trouble with the much too redundant, and non essential information you have included here."She literally could not read or understand that sentence. She couldn't put the three clauses together properly in her mind, and saw them as contradicting each other! She couldn't tell if I was saying 'there is no way you can do this', or, 'you will not run into trouble'. One clause, to her mind, was an admonishment while the other was encouraging her for having done things properly! I was amazed. It had not even occurred to me that college couldn't make sense of language at the sentence level by the time they get to a class at the advanced level I teach. There is a four course composition sequence, and it is in the first in the sequence that subject object relations, dependent clauses, and verb predicate agreement is dealt with.Instructors have been watering down the curriculum, passing students along who ought to have failed, and some professors are doing minimal work; or simply acting as tutor/ghost writers for their students. These students quite naturally are outraged at me, then, because I will not ghost write and edit their papers for them.Remember the same sort of confusion you saw in my Africana Studies students at Wayne State when you sat in on my class this summer? Juniors and seniors in that class were totally confused by this language on one of their quizzes:"Argue against the notion that the Caribbean is not a region with the capacity to develop normally once neo colonialism is eliminated."They couldn't understand what the question was directing them to do, and so most of them thought I was telling them to argue that the Caribbean cannot undergo development even if neo colonial forces are removed from their countries! They made this same error a second time, on another exam, even after I’d shown them, by diagramming the sentences, what the dependent clauses were doing and meant. On the next exam I worded another question in the same way, and yet again they couldn't understand it. By the end of the semester, through repetition and through focused lecturing, I got them over it. But it was a shock to me to realize that what their professors have been doing is simply oversimplifying language for them so that they can more easily follow mindless directions. In other words, some of their professors have been enabling illiteracy.The issues we dealt with in our union contract demands last year of course are a major part of adjunct professors (contingent faculty) not teaching up to standards, and soft balling students: lack of job security, low pay, constant commuting from one campus to the next, and a sheer lack of SLEEP, are all elements of our job which make it tough for us to willingly invite even more work by assigning more papers, requiring more written portions on exams, and meeting one on one with students even more frequently, which are the things required to slowly break them of their dependency on having professors ghost write for them. There is a massive amount of effort involved in our getting them to work harder, draft, edit, proofread, and take detailed, effective notes in class rather than sleeping or listening to a walkman while class is going on, or depending too heavily on recording class on an audio recorder but not paying attention to it in real time and not participating in class DISCUSSION (which it takes a lot of effort to convince them is crucial, at the college level, to their learning the material).Many students, I am finding, are learning 'by ear'; the way musicians who can't read music learn a melody. Students listen for 'key words' in the class discussions, they mark up texts with yellow markers when they see those 'key words' and often fail (just don’t bother) to read the text closely. When they have to assimilate and even communicate the MEANING of what they have read they are like 'by ear' musicians who are lost when you put sheet music in front of them.Anyway, I am exhausted lately; up late at night (like right now) grading endless papers doing extended office hours, and fighting the students' anger and ant-intellectualism every class meeting. On top of all that I'm writing a novel, working on three journal articles and a book review for editors who have been screaming at me for missing my deadlines (see my last piece, from the Arab American News, attached) and trying also to keep up with email! By the way: will you read a draft of an article I am working on for The Panopticon Review, on the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade? Yes, I’m exhausted.But I am doing what needs to be done.Thanks for the encouragement.Ray
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