next »

[anon99]

FWIW, as a follow-up:  The average on my human sexuality exam was a neat 75%.  Interestingly enough, the 6 students on the low end of that curve ALL sit together--the yakkety-yaks who giggle constantly.  One of them reported to me that she did a survey of her classmates after the exam and that "everyone" failed the exam  (you know, the "everyone" equation:  everyone = 5 out of 24 + the surveyor).  No, sweetheart, you and your giggly girlfriends failed it, but everyone else did just fine...

This is when a histogram including the average and top mark is useful.

[sciencegrad]

That said, I had a male snowflake a few years back who was the only student in a class of 40+ to leave a quiz question identifying the penis in a diagram completely blank.  When I handed the quiz back, he informed me that he didn't want to put an offensive term in the blank for that question, but couldn't remember what the scientific name for penis was - and he figured that since he'd heard "penis" on late-night TV it must be offensive, so it couldn't be the scientific name for that organ, and he knew I wouldn't accept "wee-wee" as an answer.

This is really interesting.  It sounds like you professors teaching bio sexuality courses could write some really interesting social commentary pieces based on your experiences.

[marigolds]

I'm actually surprised that students aren't more comfortable with clinical terminology--maybe it's just my group of parent friends, but it seems to me that the worry over sexual abuse, and the tips given to parents to help them keep their kids safe (which include being comfortable talking about sexual parts with real names), would have made this terminology more common.

There ain't no party like a two-year-old birthday party with a baby pool to learn what kids are calling all their bits these days.  It's pretty cute to hear them talking so clinically with their little lisps about penises, scrota, and vulvas.

Has this trend not hit other types of parenting, I wonder? 

[prof_cj]

INTENSELY disappointed right now with how my BASKETWEAVING RESEARCH students are failing at basic grammar and sentence structure at this point for their papers. This is a class that moves beyond Writing 101 skills to cover research-oriented skills, and some of them are being so sloppy I feel like it's a conspiracy.

I've already had a nice chunk of F's for failing to completely follow instructions or not turning anything in (and then wanting to turn something in over a week later when the syllabus is VERY direct on my policy about late papers that have no excuse beyond "I was busy" and "I forgot"), and I've had to reprimand students several times into the semester so far. Also, to curb a pattern of lazy prep for tiered projects, I had to (with the blessing of the dept) amend the rules on due dates and material due for upcoming papers to get them to actually do the work.

This is depressing.

[lilac53]

I feel your pain, prof_cj. I'm also disappointed in my graduate class, who seem completely unable to do a close reading (something that should have been beaten into them by now). Despite spending ten minutes at the start of every single class so far going through what's required, their weekly close reading exercises rarely move beyond general plot summary and brief discussion of overall themes. Sometimes, they can be quite amusing though - this week, for example, they were looking at a text similar to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and one student complained that it gave a dangerously unrealistic view of Texas (which, you know, has many other attractions and the film might give an uneducated viewer and potential visitor the impression that it was populated only by psycho-killers).

Graduate class.

[lohai0]

Stu Dent asked me to switch from one section of my class to the other. There were still seats, so I ok'ed it. Then he never shows up to the new class...until today. See, he got a great deal on airline tickets to Someplace Tropical, and so he decided to take the rest of January off without telling anyone because he is a free-spirit-real-artist-whatever. At least when he saw the look on my face he cut off his request for an extension for the work he missed.

[compdoc]

An entire class of juniors and seniors in a required course on composition... I wasn't expecting miracles, but I was expecting the work done correctly without plagiarism.

Silly me.

The problem I'm having with it is that this is the beginning of 50% of their grade. They need to have this down pat to continue.

I was very lenient (too lenient) on the grading, but it was terrible anyway. I was too lenient because I committed in class to accepting one thing late because the student misunderstood my email. (Yes, but the SYLLABUS was not my email.) Then it seemed like it wasn't fair to hold someone else to a higher standard.

Dumb. I have got to quit agreeing to stuff during class. I should just say, Come talk to me after class during my office hours.

Anyway, I want to fail them all (or most of them) but I need them to learn the material. If they fail, they won't think they have any reason to work on it more.

So I'm toying with:
Using each section from the rubric as a homework grade worth 100 points and adding a plagiarism category. Then having them rewrite the papers. Grading the next set much more stiffly, since they know what they should have done now.

Giving them a plagiarism grade separately. Having them rewrite the papers. Grading the next set much more stiffly, since they know what they should have done, and averaging the original grade and the new one.

I have a headache from thinking about it... Didn't even have to hit my head on the desk!

[mountainguy]

Compdoc, I made a similar mistake last semester, and it was a trainwreck. If I were you, I'd return the assignment to all students ungraded and tell them they need to review the directions and review for proper citation of sources, blah, blah, blah. Then I'd grade the sh!t out of whatever they turn in and never accept a late or plagiarized assignment again.

[canuckois]

I'm actually surprised that students aren't more comfortable with clinical terminology...

Mine are, if that's any comfort.  The papers I'm grading now are filled with penises and vaginas and uteruses (uteri?).  The students also use these words in class with no trace of self-consciousness or embarrassment.  Granted, many of them are hoping to become physicians, so I'm sure that has something to do with it.  It does make me oddly happy, though, to watch a group of seniors having a serious discussion about breasts and penises....in a humanities class, no less.

[anakin]

An entire class of juniors and seniors in a required course on composition... I wasn't expecting miracles, but I was expecting the work done correctly without plagiarism.

Silly me.

The problem I'm having with it is that this is the beginning of 50% of their grade. They need to have this down pat to continue.

I was very lenient (too lenient) on the grading, but it was terrible anyway. I was too lenient because I committed in class to accepting one thing late because the student misunderstood my email. (Yes, but the SYLLABUS was not my email.) Then it seemed like it wasn't fair to hold someone else to a higher standard.

Dumb. I have got to quit agreeing to stuff during class. I should just say, Come talk to me after class during my office hours.

Anyway, I want to fail them all (or most of them) but I need them to learn the material. If they fail, they won't think they have any reason to work on it more.

So I'm toying with:
Using each section from the rubric as a homework grade worth 100 points and adding a plagiarism category. Then having them rewrite the papers. Grading the next set much more stiffly, since they know what they should have done now.

Giving them a plagiarism grade separately. Having them rewrite the papers. Grading the next set much more stiffly, since they know what they should have done, and averaging the original grade and the new one.

I have a headache from thinking about it... Didn't even have to hit my head on the desk!

Compdoc, were you around when I had 14/54 students (pre-teachers) plagiarize a really really easy assignment? - I forget. Anyway, the gist of the advice I got here and elsewhere was, if that large a proportion of your class is doing some task incorrectly, then use it as a teaching moment. It was excellent advice. I went back and did a mini-lecture plus an in-class "homework" on plagiarism. Two students repeated it (and earned course "Fs") but 52/54 were fastidious attributors and non-plagiarizers from there on out.

Don't conflate the grade, or the grading process, with learning the material, with your own emotional (totally understandable!) reaction. Either way it sounds like rewriting the papers is part of the game plan. You don't need to be harder on them, you need to make sure they have the opportunity to understand where they effed up and correct it. FWIW I think rewriting papers is a good game plan; I wouldn't even bother with the first round. How about a just-in-time plagiarism exercise in class as well?

But yeah, once you get past the teaching moment, what MG said.

[bioteacher]

To paraphrase a web blog I recently read, if a dog were to "write" on the floor using blocked anal glands as his writing instrument, the dog would do a better job producing something readable than my students.

I'm serious.

I need to go find that blog and remind myself that grading crap is something many of us do......literally.

[llanfair]

To paraphrase a web blog I recently read, if a dog were to "write" on the floor using blocked anal glands as his writing instrument, the dog would do a better job producing something readable than my students.

I'm serious.

I need to go find that blog and remind myself that grading crap is something many of us do......literally.

Yes, we do.

[professor_pat]

This term I'm teaching an interdisciplinary course that integrates natural science and social science: say, "Reed Biology and Basketweaving Cultures." We've arrived at the part of the course in which students are required to propose and lead seminars exploring current issues (of their choice) at this intersection.

At least two of the proposals far are for topics like Reed Biology and the Chinese Electronics Market, or Reproductive Biology of Wetland Creatures That Eat Reeds.

StudentFolks, where have you been these last weeks?? Yes indeedy, your proposed seminars should actually have something to do with our interdisciplinary course topic. That means BOTH Discipline A AND Discipline B.

[dochalladay]

I've had three headdesk moments with students today, each shocking/galling/cringe-worthy in a thoroughly different way.

1. The student who tried to argue in class that Seinfeld was the first ever situation comedy.
2. The student who said, "See, I'm from the South, where race isn't really an issue."
3. The student who wants to meet with me on Friday to discuss adding a double-major in "phychology."

The last one normally wouldn't get to me, but coming on the heels of the others... I think it's a night to pull out the good scotch.

[reener06]

2. The student who said, "See, I'm from the South, where race isn't really an issue."

Geez. Yeah, no issue--we just don't acknowledge it or talk about it. No issue there.

My moment last week was when I was discussing legislation passed in 1969 and asked who the president was who would've signed it. The only response I got after a looong time? JFK. I had to let the student know he was long dead by that time. I guess the 1960s only means JFK. Did they not see the Mad Men episode where he died?