I can't even begin to express my disappointment today. After grading a bunch of the final essays which were due last Friday, I was excited that they seemed to be really good. Although I recieved far fewer than I should have (maybe 60% of the classes), I was really positive. I told some other teachers that I was suprised that my students seemed to have responded well to a little less hand-holding regarding this essay.
My goal was to see what they could generate on their own. The papers are, for the most part, of an appropriate length. Many students have made a legitimate effort to apply their analytical skills to the project and have described a unique (or at least supportable) examination of George Orwell's 1984.
Others, unfortunately, decided that someone else could do it for them and simply attached their name to something they cut and pasted from the internet. Five so far, in fact. And I still have one class to check.
Now, I appreciate that some students really do better with hand-holding. It is not a question of intelligence. I have been beating myself up a bit worrying that they didn't have the tools to make such analysis, or that they somehow didn't feel confident enough to try to meet my expectations. And really, I believe that these things are probably somewhat to blame. Unfortunately, though, it seems more likely to be laziness and "senioritis" than much else.
What really makes me angry, though, is that in most cases they didn't really even try that hard to hide it. In one case, the kid simply put his name on an essay that was written by a kid named Xin Wang. Furthermore, most of the kids that tried to get away with this are the same that I have been trying to coax into passing territory for the last few weeks by begging, cajoling and sacrificing anything like fair standards. These kids will fail this semester. I was hoping to save ost of them. They will fail.
My goal was to see what they could generate on their own. The papers are, for the most part, of an appropriate length. Many students have made a legitimate effort to apply their analytical skills to the project and have described a unique (or at least supportable) examination of George Orwell's 1984.
Others, unfortunately, decided that someone else could do it for them and simply attached their name to something they cut and pasted from the internet. Five so far, in fact. And I still have one class to check.
Now, I appreciate that some students really do better with hand-holding. It is not a question of intelligence. I have been beating myself up a bit worrying that they didn't have the tools to make such analysis, or that they somehow didn't feel confident enough to try to meet my expectations. And really, I believe that these things are probably somewhat to blame. Unfortunately, though, it seems more likely to be laziness and "senioritis" than much else.
What really makes me angry, though, is that in most cases they didn't really even try that hard to hide it. In one case, the kid simply put his name on an essay that was written by a kid named Xin Wang. Furthermore, most of the kids that tried to get away with this are the same that I have been trying to coax into passing territory for the last few weeks by begging, cajoling and sacrificing anything like fair standards. These kids will fail this semester. I was hoping to save ost of them. They will fail.
posted by Adjectiveman at 5:38 PM
1 Comments:
as one of your students, it's probably not "appropriate" to be posting here ... but I just thought I'd comment nonetheless.
From my discussions with peers in the class, it was more that they didn't read the actual book enough to analyze what was going on inside of it. And inevitably, they waited to the last minute to start on their essay ... or to start looking for their essay. I'd say it was no more your fault than it was their printer's fault whenever that excuse is used. Either they did it, they were lazy, or they didn't do it I think.
As it were, I think you pushed more than enough to have people turn their things in. It's kind of like the Monty Python scene in the Quest for the Holy Grail when they are told to throw the grenade... not count to three, not two, and certainly not five and not two unless you proceed to three... or however it went. "turn it in Friday because I will not accept it Monday, and not Tuesday. If you think you will be sick Friday, turn it in Thursday, etc... yeah, defintely more than enough.
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