Third Week of Class: MLK Day and 3 Student Conferences

I didn't get to meet with my students face to face on Monday because of MLK Day. The weeks seem to be flying and there doesn't seem to be much time to do everything work-wise, social-wise, family-wise.

Two students cancelled their student conferences with me this week for a variety of reasons. This is the first semester that I am forcing my students to come to my office and talk about their papers. However, I am only requiring that they see me once, so I don't suppose that is too torturous for them.

The meetings provided time for us to get to know one another better and discuss drafts of their first papers. For most of the students, I headed them off at the pass on their traditional argument approach. Most were trying to construct an argument rather than present their rhetorical stance in their claim. I had assumed that doing a traditional argument would be much easier than doing a constructive or Rogerian approach. Surprises never cease and it pays to follow the adage that "Never assume anything."

My students' first drafts are all in and graded based on the annotations they did on their drafts and the completed self-review worksheets they copied and pasted to their drafts. The assignment is worth 25 points and is considered an editing assignment. In order to get them to scuba dive and not snorkle when they review their work, they will need to know how to annotate effectively. Most are on their way; some will just do the minimum and write words like, "develop" or "delete" and leave it at that.

I am looking forward to reading significantly different revised drafts next week.

Life is indeed good. Teaching rocks!!