Reflections on Grading

The grading is done! (That is, except for a few essays that have not been turned in yet...) Here's what I've learned the second time around:

• The essays didn't improve as much as I hoped they would. After grading the first set, I made a bunch of notes about what the major weaknesses were. I also had the students do some reflective writing the day they turned in the papers, which gave me some feedback about what they thought was most/least helpful from our class activities. So, based on those two things, I made changes in my approach for the workshopping days. I thought there would be a dramatic improvement in the grades, but there wasn't. I realize now that my expectations were probably too high--it takes much longer than two weeks and one essay to become a better writer. Thankfully, there was some improvement. For example, I reminded them explicitly not to use contractions. I saw a whole lot fewer contractions in this set than in the last. So, they did improve, just not dramatically. (Though there were a couple of individuals who did).
  
• I don't like giving D's and F's, but I don't give very many A's either. I don't like giving the really bad grades because I feel bad for the students. I know how upset I would be and don't want to cause them to feel that way. I really have to talk myself into assigning those grades even when the writing (or other circumstances--like following my policy of taking off a letter grade for each day an essay is late) calls for them. On the other hand, I'm stingy with A's. (Mark pointed it out, too, as I talked with him about grading--he thinks it's unfair). The problem is that there seems to be a weakness in each paper, so there is a reason not to give it an A. I did have a few this time around, but not many. I had a lot of B+ grades, though--close, but not quite! Maybe I am being to strict about A's, but I think in the end, there will be more A's in the grades at the end of the semester. Many of the B+ papers came from students who have done all the journals and in-class writing, so that portion of the grade will push them up to an A at the end of the semester. Because of that, I think it's okay to be stingy with A's on essays--it gives them something to strive for on the next one, then on the final. (Also, UA doesn't use pluses and minuses for semester grades, so someone with a B+ average will probably end up with an A, unless they've had trouble with attendance or turning in regular HW assignments.)

I think those are my major reflections. I collected the essays on Wednesday and will be handing them back today--a very quick turnaround. It wasn't much faster in terms of time per paper, but I jumped right into grading this time instead of waiting for the preceptorship grading workshop. I think I did 17 or so on Saturday, but I'm sure I'd rather get them done and returned than have them hanging over my head for two weeks!

Besides grading papers, I got to go to the Wind Ensemble concert on Sunday afternoon. It was the first of Mark's concerts at UA that I've attended. It was kind of strange not only sitting by myself, but realizing that I didn't know anyone else there besides Mark! But, it was a good concert. Those of you who have been to his concerts at UNM will appreciate that he finished putting equipment away in 10 minutes! That was incredible because it took between 30 minutes and an hour at UNM. Here, the equipment is stored in a room on the same floor as the hall, just down the hallway, so the tear-down time is much shorter! Since the concert was at 3pm, we were actually home before 5, which was pretty incredible.

English is Bad for Your Health

I got this email today from the director of the EL/L program--shows he has a good sense of humor! So, here's why English is bad for your health:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausage and fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like....Speaking English is apparently what kills you!!!

If speaking English is so dangerous, I wonder about teaching it!

Quick Update

In case any of you have been anxiously awaiting the grade on my first linguistics exam, I wanted to let you know that I got an A. This is good, because, as you may remember, the text was harder than I expected based on the review. (The class average was a 78%) Also, we've got our second test on Thursday, so it was nice to know that I did well on the first. I must admit that I've been frustrated by how slowly things are graded in this class. That test was on October 2nd! We just turned in a set of homework exercises today on one of the chapters that will be covered on the test. So, by the time we get the graded HW back, it will be (long) after the test. Which means that if I've made a mistake on the HW, I'm likely to make it again on the test. Hopefully, I didn't make any mistakes! I feel like it's reasonable for me to complain about the grading timeline; after all, I'm doing my own grading now, and if I can do forty-seven essays in a week, surely the TA for my Ling class could grade 40 exams in less than three weeks...At least it makes me feel good that I'm getting work graded and returned quickly.

On another note, I wanted to post this lovely picture of the new stained glass window in my parents' entryway. Those of you who don't know, my dad's dad, Grandpa Mike, works with stained glass (he does woodworking, too). My mom has been keeping him busy making stained glass windows for their house. So far, there's a garden themed one in the family room, a tea themed one in the living room, an etched-glass pond scene in the study, and this one, the newest, in the entryway. My dad helps Grandpa Mike make the designs, and mom helps pick out the glass. Beautiful, isn't it? I can't wait to see it in person!

Changing gears again in 101

It's hard to believe that another week has come and gone. This was also week 8, so now the semester's officially halfway over. On Wednesday, I'll be collecting another set of papers from my English 101 classes. The assignment for this paper was different (a textual analysis), which means that the papers will probably be less interesting to read, but they may be easier to grade. I hope to have them graded and returned by Monday, so that's a pretty quick turn around. Although the grading is very time consuming, I'm really excited to be finishing this unit and moving on to the next one. Our next unit is based on a borderlands theme. So, they'll be reading a variety of texts about the border, which should generate some very interesting class discussions. I'm also taking them to the Center for Creative Photography on campus and we'll be watching a movie in class. Hopefully both the theme and the activities for this unit will get them really involved. I'm looking forward to class on Friday--we'll be analyzing some political cartoons about the border/immigration issues. At the end of the unit, they'll be able to bring in additional sources to write an essay on a theme that we've touched on during the unit. I hope that will lead to some interesting papers. I've also rearranged my syllabus so I'll be doing pair conferences with them before the paper is due, allowing me to cancel class on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. As long as Mark can work out his schedule, we should be able to drive home on Tuesday night.

So, besides preparing for the papers and the upcoming unit, I'm trying to nail down a topic for my paper in Linguistics. I think I'm leaning toward teaching pragmatics in a second language. I can already tell how busy the last couple weeks of the semester will be, so if I can get this paper done way ahead of time, it would really help. I'm also still trying to get on the list of tutors at CESL--I applied through the university's HR department a few weeks ago, but just got a letter saying I meet the minimum requirements, but since I'm a student, I need to apply with a different form. Too bad, because the HR application was really a pain! So, I'll be finishing that up and turning it in this week. I'll also be registering for Spring classes on Monday and turning in my availability form for teaching next semester. If I get a T/Th teaching assignment (which is unlikely), I would only have class/teach from Tuesday-Thursday! I don't know when I'll find out, but that could be really nice.

Miscellaneous

The week is off to a good start so far. I think I'm even going to finish everything on my to-do list today, and that'll make two days in a row!

Last night, we hosted the small group dinner and Bible study at our apartment. This was the first time we've really had people over since we moved. I kept thinking about how silly it was that we've finally got a really nice place but no one to have over! Meanwhile, all of our friends and family did come to our crummy apartment in ABQ. So, it was fun to host the dinner. I think there were 9 of us there last night, and it seemed to go well.

Today I met with the director of the EL/L program and he told me the classes I'll be taking next semester. Registration starts on Saturday already! So, in the spring, I'll be taking Modern English Grammar (which I've heard is really hard), an Anthropology class called Language in Culture (I took a class with the same name during undergrad), and Contrastive Rhetoric (which I don't really know anything about, except that it fulfills my 'writing option'). I am excited, though, about taking more classes and getting further into the program. I'm also supposed to be only teaching one class next semester, so hopefully the workload won't be too overwhelming.

Besides that, I've gotten a little 'job' on the side. I'm on the list of tutors in the Writing Program, and someone contacted me a few weeks ago to work on a project. I hadn't mentioned it yet because I was waiting for more details to come together. Basically, it's a Christian woman who has written an inspirational book about her life/testimony. She has contacted an online publisher about publishing it; they were interested, but told her it needed to be edited. So, I'm working on it with her, making grammatical corrections and probably helping to reorganize the content as well. She's not written anything like this before, and I've not edited something like this before, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes. I just read through the first couple of chapters today, though, and I can definitely help to improve it. I'll be paid by the hour and can pretty much work at my own pace, so it's an ideal opportunity for some extra income. I hope these things will come along pretty regularly.

Conference and Other News

It's hard to believe that it's Monday morning again already! As expected, the weekend went by very quickly. Thankfully, I got almost everything on my to-do list taken care of, despite being away from home for most of the weekend. I'm very glad that this week will be a little more normal.

The conference was pretty good--the theme was "Intercultural Competence." Not all of the presentations seemed to have direct application to my situation now, but most of them were at least interesting. One presenter talked about teaching using children's literature and provided a long list of activities to use when discussing literature. Those activities will certainly be helpful for my 101 class, since we spend about two weeks per unit reading and discussing texts from an anthology. I'm always looking for ways to keep those discussions interesting and productive. I will say that the most impressive part of the conference was the food--we had snacks and dinner on Friday, and breakfast, lunch, and snacks on Saturday. I'm quite sure the $20 I paid would not have even covered the cost of all that food! The other really good part about the conference was that a handful of 2nd year EL/L student were there, too (on Friday, at least). So it was a good opportunity for me and the other 1st years to get to know them a little better, and also discuss things about the program and the field in general. For example, I learned that it is expected for me to present at some kind of conference during my time here (which no one had yet mentioned). It also sounds like several people are planning to go to the TESOL conference in Denver this spring, which I had also been thinking about. Maybe we'll be able to arrange a carpool or something. I have to remember to think ahead about conferences and presenting and what I'll be doing after my master's, but it's hard to keep all that in mind when I've got a to-do list a mile long just for today!

Mark also played on Sunday with the SASO--this was the last part of his gig with that group. He got a ticket for me, so I was able to go. They played in a beautiful church in the far north part of town. It was a well-attended concert, and Mark did a great job with the difficult cymbal part on the last piece. In fact, he was pretty much the star of the show for that movement. It sounds like he'll probably also be hired to play with this group for their concert next month.

The only other thing I can think of to share is that it has finally started to feel like fall. Yesterday and today I needed a jacket in the morning. We were able to turn off the A/C and crack the windows at night, and Mark stayed cool enough. Today's high is only in the 70s. But, it's supposed to warm up again to the lower 90s by the end of the week. Honestly, I really like the weather, but Mark is eager for it to cool off and stay cool.

Nogales

I made it to Nogales and back on Tuesday. I was gone for about 6 hours on that adventure, which was longer than I thought! I met the group at 3:40 and we got back after 9. By the time I picked Mark up from school (he had a rehearsal) and got home, it was almost 10. That made for a very long day. Besides the transportation time, though, I enjoyed going down. I observed a pronunciation class taught by a recent grad from the EL/L program. Mark and I had met her when we came out for his audition, and talked to her a little bit at the beginning of the semester party, so it was nice to see her again. Also, she's basically come through the program and been able to get the kind of job I'm interested in, so it was good to talk to her about that. The class was about 20 adult students, mostly professionals who are taking the course because their jobs require it. They were advanced students, and it seemed like they were doing really well. The teacher did some very cool activities. I think it's kind of hard to teach pronunciation for 2 hours straight, but she did a great job keeping the class moving along. The other really interesting thing about the whole experience was just being in the van with all the other teachers--it was like a mobile teachers' lounge. So they discussed what they did over the weekend, new teaching materials they'd found, politics, and, of course, they gossiped about the students and other teachers at CESL. It was probably good for me to hear how the actual teachers feel about CESL instead of only hearing the official info about the program. Not that they said anything bad, but it was probably a little more realistic picture of the program, from the inside out. So, it was worth going, but I don't know if I'll do it again, because of the time. I think the program is a good idea, but it doesn't seem practical for the teachers to spend more time in the car than in the classroom!