Grading Learning Community papers

There are no classes today because of the Thanksgiving holiday. I got to sleep in a half hour this morning and wake up slowly with the kids. I gave them breakfast and then played Nintendo with Nathan a little before taking Nate and Ellie over to Mom's house so I could grade papers. I have the house to myself and have iTunes on. I should be good to go for paper-grading.

The problem is I am still letting someone's comment from yesterday get to me. A student said the Learning Community students feel they haven't learned to write because I haven't taught them to write. I could let loose a huge diatribe here about pedagogy and what it means to be "taught to write" these days, but I feel like that would accomplish very little. It would only make me feel more self-righteous and angry.

Instead, I'm looking at the stack of student papers I have to grade. I can honestly say there has been visible improvement in the writing of 9/17 students who remain in the class. Of those 9 students whose drafts have substantially grown over the semester, I notice some trends. The first is that the most successful of those students come prepared for first draft days and then heed the comments left for them during the peer review day (including the ones I leave). The other trend I see is the students who have changed their writing styles and upped the level of critical thinking in their papers were also prepared for the mid-term conference and talked honestly to me about their writing at that time.

Of the 8 who remain in the class but have not had the same success, I just plain ole don't know about 1-3 of them because they keep failing to turn something in. There can't be any improvement in the writing if the writing is not happening. I understand writer's block. I understand shutting down when things get too stressful. But, honestly, I cannot do anything for a student in that situation unless the student decides for herself that she is going to make a change and try to do something about it. And I cannot help at all if the student continues to spin her wheels in isolation. If nothing else, the value of the Learning Community should be that there are two teachers. If the student is unwilling to talk to me about it, then why haven't they gone to Denise for extra help? There are so many different ways to get help. If the student hasn't sought help and continues to blame others for the lack of productive homework, then, well...I'm actually speechless here. I don't know what.

The other students (the ones who have been turning things in but do not see the grades going up)-- well, I can make a reasonable guess here. My guess is that in the past they were provided with step-by-step instructions about how to write. Writing consisted of so many paragraphs, and word count was more important than what those words said. Points were deducted for so many comma splices and run-ons. Teachers put marks on the papers; the students tried to decipher the marks and "fix" them and then turned in a final draft, again with more emphasis on the surface of the writing than the text itself. Students used to that approach will find me frustrating because I refuse (flat out refuse) to believe that writing is a step-by-step formula to greatness. In fact, I think that is often a step-by-step to mediocrity. And I will not settle for mediocrity.

That is also why the A paper I just graded actually has more marks on it than a D paper might. Every paper, I read it for what it is and for what it could be. I think students are here to improve beyond what they are to evolve into what they could be. If that makes me a frustrating teacher, then so be it. I believe that is the path to genuine learning. If you want to rip me apart in teacher evaluations or even go complain to the department chair, fine. But you know what? At the end of the day, I know I am doing what I am supposed to be doing to make my students stronger writers who question what should go on the page instead of merely following directions.

And now, hopefully with that off my chest, I can go grade the remainder of the papers.