On writing
In one of my HS English classes we had to write an essay describing a place. Some place familiar to us- our bedroom, for example. I kind of cheated and wrote about the view from my window. I waved my wand and created a breeze to blow objects down the street, I snapped my fingers and made cars drive past at the exact moment I needed them.
The day it was due, I shared it with a few of my sweet, lunkhead football playing classmates. Don't ask me why I was seated surround by football players. Their essays all sounded the same: To the right is my bed. It has a blue blanket on it. Above my bed is a picture. Next to my bed is a nightstand.
They read mine and told me I would probably get an F for not following directions. Instead, I got an A and the teacher made a big deal of talking about my paper and telling everyone that I had the highest grade in the class, blah blah blah. That day I learned that as long as I wrote well, it didn't really matter if I followed directions or not ( I also learned to keep in mind that not everyone likes to be told their grades in front of the whole class- that it can, in fact, embarrass a girl and make her not turn in any work for the rest of the semester, causing that A to drop to an F).
I took great joy from then on, answering questions the way I wanted to. Essays, test questions, whatever. As long as I showed some real knowledge and wrote clearly, I could get away with it. Usually.
In my college US history class I had to write an essay comparing the three books we had read for the class. We had to rank them according to which was most helpful for the class. The three books consisted of a political satire (very funny and only loosely based on anything), a novel (well writen, but not exactly historical- almost timeless), and some sort of quasi biography of a Native American tribe. I think that book started out as a textbook, but spent too much time trying to hang out with the cool novels on the playground, and picking up their bad habits. It would go on at length describing scenery. It jumped all over the place chronologically. The characters were impossible to keep track of. Plus it was very very dry. It was easily the worst written of the three. It was written about real events though, and this was a history class.
I simply could not rank them. It was a stupid assignment. So I wrote an essay that talked about each book. I was insightful, and knowledgable. Instead of ranking them, I wrote how it was impossible to rank them and explained why each one had its place in this class. She graded it, and wrote glowing remarks throughout. Until the end. Her last lines said, you would have gotten an A if had followed directions and ranked them as assigned, but instead you get a B.
So this is what I learned:
1. Don't embarrass shy students by first announcing how a student has the highest grade in the class, and then a month later, bringing the whole class into a discussion about how that student now has the lowest grade in the class.
2. Don't give stupid assignments.
3. If you must give a stupid assignment, and a student approaches it creatively, be kind.
The day it was due, I shared it with a few of my sweet, lunkhead football playing classmates. Don't ask me why I was seated surround by football players. Their essays all sounded the same: To the right is my bed. It has a blue blanket on it. Above my bed is a picture. Next to my bed is a nightstand.
They read mine and told me I would probably get an F for not following directions. Instead, I got an A and the teacher made a big deal of talking about my paper and telling everyone that I had the highest grade in the class, blah blah blah. That day I learned that as long as I wrote well, it didn't really matter if I followed directions or not ( I also learned to keep in mind that not everyone likes to be told their grades in front of the whole class- that it can, in fact, embarrass a girl and make her not turn in any work for the rest of the semester, causing that A to drop to an F).
I took great joy from then on, answering questions the way I wanted to. Essays, test questions, whatever. As long as I showed some real knowledge and wrote clearly, I could get away with it. Usually.
In my college US history class I had to write an essay comparing the three books we had read for the class. We had to rank them according to which was most helpful for the class. The three books consisted of a political satire (very funny and only loosely based on anything), a novel (well writen, but not exactly historical- almost timeless), and some sort of quasi biography of a Native American tribe. I think that book started out as a textbook, but spent too much time trying to hang out with the cool novels on the playground, and picking up their bad habits. It would go on at length describing scenery. It jumped all over the place chronologically. The characters were impossible to keep track of. Plus it was very very dry. It was easily the worst written of the three. It was written about real events though, and this was a history class.
I simply could not rank them. It was a stupid assignment. So I wrote an essay that talked about each book. I was insightful, and knowledgable. Instead of ranking them, I wrote how it was impossible to rank them and explained why each one had its place in this class. She graded it, and wrote glowing remarks throughout. Until the end. Her last lines said, you would have gotten an A if had followed directions and ranked them as assigned, but instead you get a B.
So this is what I learned:
1. Don't embarrass shy students by first announcing how a student has the highest grade in the class, and then a month later, bringing the whole class into a discussion about how that student now has the lowest grade in the class.
2. Don't give stupid assignments.
3. If you must give a stupid assignment, and a student approaches it creatively, be kind.
posted by Mrs.B at 7:43 AM
6 Comments:
Ok, the history teacher was a nutjob because you did the assignment--you ranked them all equally important. (History profs are often goofballs though--I'm glad I didn't go that route).
When I was in grad school, we had our students turn in end of the class portfolios which we would all then read as a group and rank (it sucked btw). One of my students wrote this wonderfully funny essay and two of the three readers loved it, the third failed it for not being academic enough. When I had graded it, I gave it an A--because good writing that is creative about the assignment should always trump good but uninspired writing.
Hi Mrs. B. I wish any of my teachers had had a blog like this when I was in school. Thanks.
If you taught at my son's school, I'd write a letter requesting you as his teacher. (but if I did, you'd probably never speak to me again)
When I saw the title of this blog referenced at the Book Shelf blog, I laughed. You go, girl! A nice clean academic blog. I'll visit regularly!
And you're editing your comments, too, I see. Good for you.
I don't think there is anything wrong with setting up your blog so that the webmistress/webmaster decides if your comment gets in. For one thing, the spammers keep getting more creative, and you don't want them bestowing 456 comments in one day telling you where you can get your body parts lengthened. For another thing, there is nothing wrong with censorship, so long as everyone understands the ground rules. You really aren't allowed to yell "FIRE" at the theatre, and you really shouldn't be allowed to go to someone's blog and comment "I think you should #### ######## and the ####### horse you rode in on" if they don't want you to.
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