Spring Semester Blues

I need to write this quickly, because I've got about five minutes before my Midrin (migraine meds) kicks in and obliterates my mental faculties.  

This weather and the flu epidemic have wreaked havoc on every vestige of structure I have for my classes.  Thursday, only six students showed up, and Friday wasn't much better.  As it's rather difficult to have a successful round of workshopping with so few people present, I ended up having them journal, assigned extra credit to those who bothered to appear, and rescheduled our organized chaos for this upcoming week.  It's a little frustrating.

Also, I'm finally starting to get to where I can work around my headaches.  I'm so far behind on grading that I think I'm about to lose my mind.  I just can't really pretend to find joy in reading textual analyses when my brain's messages resemble television snow.  Thanks to new medication, I'm starting to get to where I can think through the fuzz, but I've got a lot of catching up to do, and all it's doing is making me think longingly of break.  

I do feel encouraged, though, by the majority of the final drafts I've read so far... it seems my more structured instructions (summarize, respond, outline, formulate an intellectual judgment, then write) have really helped this batch of students get the hang of the textual analysis.  In fact, all I've read at this point understood the basic concept, and we're really at the point where we need to focus on polishing and expanding presentation.  After beating my head against a wall repeatedly last semester, it's a relief to know that I'm pretty much over that bump.  

And... there go my smarts.  The drugs kicked in.

Critical Analysis Unit

Because I chose to tackle the Critical/Textual Analysis unit first, I did not have my own sample draft prepared.  Even if I had managed to focus long enough to get it together in time, I don't imagine I would have used a sample version.  Between the copier crash and the struggle to readjust to a new semester, I found myself mostly giving direction on the board rather than on an overhead or by passing things out in class.

That being said, I did adopt a little more of a process this time around, and that helped my students understand the concept immensely better.  First of all, I divided the class in groups, having them pick their essay (one article per group, but each student writing his or her own essay, of course).  I asked them to work together to, first, summarize, and second, create a detailed outline.  This helped them to break the argument down into specific points and evidence.  Next, I asked them to work together in groups to write a practice analysis for one article that I picked.  Naturally, I carefully emphasize the differences between a summary, an opinion essay, and an analysis.  Because they worked together in class, they were better able to come to me with questions as they arose.  As such, when they wrote their own rough drafts, the drafts were almost all definitely on the right track--much different from last semester's experience.  

I'm proud of my students!

At Last! A Voice!

Wow... that was a fast week!  I meant to post on Friday afternoon about how I finally got my MWF students to speak--and at times, enthusiastically.  Then, the idea flew out of my mind.  

Anyway, we're beginning our I-search this week in my classes, and I decided to try to get my students to actually talk about their potential topics.  For a few minutes, nothing.  Just a lot of eyes avoiding mine.  After a little announcement that I meant to have every single person talking willingly by the end of the semester, and a few pointed and extended bouts of direct eye contact, first one, then another student volunteered.  Another five minute later, we had discussion!  Finally!  I could've danced.  

Well, I was going to write more, but I took a rather painful slip on the wet floor of my bathroom this morning, landed flat on my back, and my head feels like an over-inflated balloon, so I'll pick back up on this topic later... perhaps after my Aleve kicks in.