With the drop date approaching, it’s time to have a series of difficult conversations with students, ranging from “you need to pick things up a little if you want to do well” to “you can’t possibly pass.” I always find this hard, because as a student I was basically always mortified to discover that my professors knew I existed. But I’ve gotten good feedback from these conversations, too — and the percentage of floundering students who have no earthly idea that they aren’t doing well, let alone failing, is astounding to me. How much hand-holding is too much, of course, is the age old question — and if I advise them too well, and all the failing students drop, will that make my grades look artificially high?
Nothing is without questions at this stage in my career, I am learning.
I’m finding that realistic expectations and perceptions are a real difficulty for my students. Trying to explain that a B- is not in fact a bad mark, but instead demonstrates just above satisfactory competency in the material, is really difficult. There are grade inflation problems everywhere, of course, that make it really difficult to keep C meaning satisfactory, B meaning good, and A meaning excellent. And preparation is a problem. Students who coasted through their high school English classes with creative projects and oral presentations are stunned to get to post-secondary school and discover that they have no idea of how to approach formal essay writing. And it takes a lot out of a person to be the gatekeeper in the first-year literature class saying that yes, your ideas are good, but no, that’s not quite enough.
I internalize too much of their own anguish — that’s part of it. When does that wear off?
I have it, on good authority, that it never wears off, haha!
I know what you mean, though. The week after midterms is always rough. But there are payoffs. For example, I had a student who hasn’t spoken in class or done any work in 2 weeks, come to office to find out what she needed to do to pass my class after seeing her midterm D. She was genuine, and it canceled out the sinking feeling that several other students just like her had resigned to fail. I think we have to cling to the small victories.
Posted by Ben V | October 24, 2010, 8:11 amIt never ever wears off? Jeez…
I agree, I definitely feel that some students really need the wake-up call to double-down on their efforts in class. And it’s heartening when a bad mark makes a student work harder (almost makes up for the ones who just glare harder when the marks come back).
Posted by dr. b | October 24, 2010, 9:00 pmI struggle so much with the economics of grades. Some of my high school students and their parents want collect grades as though they’re tokens of completion, not a demonstration of academic strength. Others equate a grade with their personal identity: A=Awesome, B=Bad, C=Crappy…and so on.
The whole system is broken, but I haven’t come up with a better plan yet.
Posted by Jennifer L | October 24, 2010, 12:07 pmThe grade system is like democracy — the best so far, but deeply flawed…?
Posted by dr. b | October 24, 2010, 9:01 pmThe drop deadline at my school has come and gone — before it passed, I made the announcement to all my classes: time to commit to class, or bow out. (Our registrar has gotten hardcore about clamping down on students who want to apply for late withdrawal.)
They all seemed to nod and understand. Except for the one girl who’s missed half of the semester, who I thought already HAD dropped…. who showed up last week as if she could just pick up where she left off.
We had to have The Talk in my office later. She was genuinely stupefied at the idea that I wouldn’t let her turn in two months worth of late work, and then continue on with the class. Rrrrrrgh.
I think you just helped me stumble upon my next blog post.
Posted by Didactic Pirate | October 24, 2010, 12:11 pmI shall look forward to reading it.
Stupefied is a good word for it. I am never not surprised by how disconnected students feel from their grades. The grades are assigned to them, not earned, and many of them seem to wander around in a haze of confusion. I think they think it’s all trickery and magic dust sometimes, instead of just boring old effort and math.
Posted by dr. b | October 24, 2010, 8:59 pmI typically just e-mail them the numbers. Call that passive-aggressive, but I just don’t have time to sit down with *adults* and teach them that they can’t pass if they never show up and never turn in any work.
Let’s not forget these are people who have been in school for at least 13 years before they get here, so if they don’t understand the consequences of non-attendance and non-performance by now, then nothing I can say will change that. (Plus, if they’re never here, I can’t exactly talk to them in person anyway.)
I also have a hard time believing they’re genuinely stupefied. I wonder how much of that is part of the sympathy act, like telling the officer who pulled you over that you had no idea you were going 90 in a 30.
Posted by John | November 1, 2010, 6:36 pmOne of the hardest parts of the job to cope with, other than grading. Telling a student that they either need to put in more effort or drop, only to have them say that they are trying as hard as they can. You realize that they just are not ready for the class and that you should refer them for remedial work– then they cry. AS my dean is fond of saying, everyone has the right to fail.
Posted by Donna | October 24, 2010, 7:49 pmI think the realization that hard work might not be enough is soul-crushing on both sides.
Posted by dr. b | October 24, 2010, 9:02 pmI too am in the thick of this very problem. I graded midterm lit exams, and got the classic split: students either got the material and did very well, or they didn’t, and bombed. Unsurprisingly, many of the ones who did poorly are also the student missing journal assignments or have low Cs on the ones they did turn in. I believe it is because they are in a 200-level course but have not taken our second composition course–the one which focuses on academic tone and incorporating sources. So in a sense, they’ve been set up to fail by an administration that wants to see “butts in seats” and is willing to keep the standards lower in order to do so. It’s a long story, but in an age of declining lit enrollments, what can we do?
Posted by Mamalayne | October 25, 2010, 12:32 pmI’m amazed at how much has to be spelled out to students. Then I realized that a lot of them don’t know how to figure percentages. They have all their grades, but can’t work out that a little quiz with an A doesn’t balance out a big essay with an F. They have the percentages of everything on the syllabus, they have their grades so far, and yet can’t seem to work that out.
I’ve taught for over thirty years and I am still making basic assumptions about university students that are too elevated.
And even hearing that it is too late is sailing over the head of one of the students. “Oh” she wrote in an email. Then I’ll have everything in by next Monday. Ten weeks of work in a few days. Even blunt isn’t working.
Posted by Ellen K | October 27, 2010, 4:25 pmI believe that this goes best if you stay completely factual and nonpersonally judgmental even if you feel judmental. I say things like, “you haven’t been in class enough” and “for whatever reason this isn’t working for you right now” I help them diagnose why that might be so (background, too long a wait between classes, lack of attendance/not doing enough fo their assignments or not doing them thoroughly only if they ask for it. I teach at a community college and I find that being factual and respectful works best for me. But I am not any kind of doctor.
Posted by marty muenks | October 31, 2010, 12:52 pm