October 2, 2007
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A super smart, super innovative buddy of mine up at my alma mater wrote a response to the post below on Facebook:
KM: “i’ve had similiar issues with this. i use to give very detailed sheets, even do writing in class that basically created a nice outline for them (all they’d have to do was take it home and develop it a little), but still received “eh” papers. i’ve actually had better success when i just hand them a “here, do this, this is what i want but not in great detail” and they are left to figure it out. i’m not sure why…”
My Response to her: “Yea, it’s a mystery. I mean, with my online class I want to give more direction because I don’t get to see them f2f, yet… not many of them have followed the layout on the handout. It’s frustrating, but I guess it’s a way to have a backup plan for complaints – if they complain about their grade, I can point at the handout and say, “Hey, it was all laid out for you; what happened?”
I know, personally, I did well with or without major direction on papers when I was an undergrad; however, I liked writing & wasn’t too bad at it. So, by giving directions/layouts, I am trying to counter the way I learned to write knowing that not everyone likes to write or can go off of “nothing.”
I wonder… do we really have students who learn differently (visual learners, etc) or are they just lazy? Of course, I’m not really even speaking of the majority here; most students do well.”I keep coming back to more questions: Is it my job to make my assignments interesting to everyone or, even, easy? Is it my job to make them passionate about writing in general? Is it my job to stoop to their level/ability and have them write less about topics that they care more about? I suppose the latter part of that question is quite do-able, but I really don’t think I have them write THAT much. Three plus pages for each of their three papers in the semester? Is there still academic rigor involved if they write less? Can I still get quality that way? I wonder if 6 small papers versus 3 medium-sized ones would be a better format? I’ve never tried it; I may have to.Ah, don’tcha love reflection?
