As I type this blog, my freshmen students are working on Odyssey projects. The students, for a mere 100 points, are excited about doing the equivallent workload of two three-page essays in 10 days. While the students have the opportunity to do different projects, including cartoon drawings, videos, and other activities, the workload is still the equivallent of two three-page essays in 10 days. Not bad for freshmen level! Not bad for junior level! Despite the difficulty, I find the projects, the essays, the videos, the drawings, and the other projects much more relevant and beneficial to the students than a quiz or test over the plot.
I worry about the lowered expectations in k-12 education. I worry this trend is leaking into the college level. I remember from my days of a professional grader (as opposed to any better name for my GTA position there) essays looking like poetry because the student thought changing the margins to three inches to make the length requirement wouldn't be noticed by me. I remember collegiate essays where "evidence" is wikipedia or blogs by someone named, "Cinnamon." I guess if Cinny said something is true, then it must be true! I believe many of these issues can and should be addressed at the high school level. If the we, the educational community, expect our freshmen to only be able to write a paragraph, then we shouldn't be suprised when students at the beginning of the year cannot combine ideas in a structured essay.
I admit, I was lazy in high school. I called myself the King of Procrastination. I assure you I earned every word of that title. However, I remember my junior honors English teacher who whipped me into shape. She made me work harder for my C than I have ever worked before. The hard work didn't just knock the lazy out of me, but the hard work also taught me more about English literature and writing than I have learned in all other classes in my life combined. Without her, I know I wouldn't have been able to survive the WVU graduate school, and I definately wouldn't have three publications to my name. I'm planning on writing a letter thanking my junior English teacher for these lessons; however, I'm too afraid I will make a grammar or mechanic mistake. Even after nine years, I still don't want to disappoint her!
This post is a referendum on k-12 values and ideals as a whole. I hope teachers, in general, realize their students maximum potential. Accomplishing this potential may not always be fun or easy. In fact, often the path is quite tedious and difficult. I just enjoy students, at the end of the year, looking back at what they have accomplished and saying, "Wow, I used to write like that?"
I completely agree about the high expectations. I remember when I was doing the journal entries for Under the Persimmon Tree (whose lessons I need to post on my blog soon). Students complained about writing every day at first, but after a few days they took naturally to it. Some kids wrote two and three times as much as I expected by the last several prompt assignments, and they killed the test essays (I was so proud!).
ReplyDeleteOn saying thank you, I highly encourage you to write your teacher a letter. I recently wrote to a former teacher at Augustana (my old chemistry professor and second father). I told him that he was the reason I was teaching today. He wrote me back and said my letter had meant a lot to him, even brought on tears. Saying thank you is very cathartic and I suggest it!