Monday, August 24, 2009

Teenagers everywhere are pissed at me


I feel pretty bad about myself right now. The main assignment for my seniors for the semester - this was for most of the marbles - was to write a research paper about a country of their choice exploring the literary culture of that nation. The basic question in the prompt was what aspects of the culture lead to certain literary habits? For example, in Nigeria European colonization lead to a surge in literature in indigenous languages, and inspired Chinua Achebe to write work that countered the white perception of his people.

I talked about how to cite sources and develop a works cited, but I don't think I went over it enough. I did one lesson on it and gave them all samples, but I sometimes forget these kids tend not to remember something unless you've explained it to them five times.

At least half the class didn't cite a single source. One girl copied and pasted and didn't proofread, so her paper ended with the line "Now he joins us in the studio today."

You can tell when people copy/paste most of the time because the stuff they copy is so much better written than the stuff they write on their own. Most of my students have a lot of trouble with sentence structure and grammar so when they copy it jumps right out at you, especially when they use textbook vocabulary. And since most of the kids didn't cite sources, I assumed if one thing was copied, it all was.

By the time I got to the sixth paper in a row to do this, I was pretty pissed. My notes were getting meaner.

And that's how I ended up with poor Erin in tears.

Apparently she did not copy and paste her whole paper and in fact spent a lot of time on it, and that's why it was so well written. But she had failed to cite her sources so I assumed she copied the whole thing.

She ripped her paper up. She ripped up her friend's paper who also got a fail for copying.

I told them all they could rewrite their paper and I would change the grade. In some cases, they just needed to cite where they got their info. Unfortunately for Erin, since she ripped up her paper, she can't just write it in the margin. I hope she saved that thing on a computer somewhere.

Another student who wrote a shitload of information about her country but neglected to devote a single word to literature left her paper on the table and stormed out when the bell rang.

Both Erin, the girl who stormed out, and three other girls I accused of copying are girls who are very close to me. They eat lunch in my room every other day.

So now I feel very very bad. I should have explained this better. I should have done more than one lesson on citation and given them better examples. I should have had them turn their papers in earlier, and I should have stopped grading when I realized I was angry.

Never grade papers while you're angry. It makes children sad.

15 comments:

  1. you shouldn't apologize for doing what you had to do. I think you did the right thing by giving them failing grades for not properly citing their papers. You're a TEACHER, it's your job to TEACH them.

    It's unbelievable, but some students actually get accepted into college and they still have NO idea how to do a research paper or cite sources. It's pathetic.

    and word verification: "mation." NO, THAT'S NATION, YOU GOOGLE BASTARDS!!!!

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  2. Man, I know what you're going through! Apologize to Erin and I'm sure she'll be okay. In fact, this could be a huge moment for her. Not the fact that her teacher apologized to her, but the fact that her teacher cares...and there's more to education than grades.

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  3. Oh yeah I apologized to her already. We worked it out. She's going to rewrite it with citations.

    It just let me know that I need to be clearer with my instructions and nicer with my comments.

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  4. Or you could complain to the teachers who sent them to senior year without those basic skills. Or maybe that would be the government or the parents.

    Shit, no wonder I won't teach.

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  5. Oh believe me, Christian, there's plenty of complaining. But they came to us this way and now we have to make up for it.

    Believe it or not, it's better than it was. Four years ago they were barely literate.

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  6. Anonymous6:47 PM

    Much better to have pissed students that are accountable for their work than happy students who don't know how to think for themselves. Hang in there--this might be the most important lesson they get.

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  7. I believe it. I live in Brooklyn and I shudder to think what high school is like - even with good teachers.

    That's one of the reasons I'm in favor of a national school dress code. Students will take themselves more seriously if they have to have some discipline in their lives.

    Or maybe they'll all just get pissed.

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  8. Eh. We have uniforms. I'm divided on them. Our school is not diverse at all so it makes every kid harder to identify and it makes the school look even more like a prison than it already does. On the other hand, it does prevent some clothing related problems. I wouldn't say it has an effect on discipline one way or the other.

    Now if the kids had to dress up, that I'd be in favor of.

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  9. Yeah, that's what I mean. Not a uniform but NICE CLOTHES. Especially now that so many jobs require disciplined study (IT, Computers). It's better to prepare them early.

    Business casual is good but business formal is better.

    That means NO jeans or T-Shirts. No over-sized anything. If you let people run rampant they will be rampant.

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  10. No uniforms. No dressing up. Let's let these little fucks be individuals before the work force attempts to make robots of them.

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  11. Well hell, if we're gonna go that route, let's allow thong bikinis.

    You have to have a dress code of some kind.

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  12. A dress code that allows for individuality is fine.

    But the hot girls should be allowed to wear whatever they want. I guess the hot guys should get the same leniency.

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  13. Umm, Jack. Stay off the crack. Sure corporate America will take you to the limit but they pay better than McDonald's.

    It's better to be prepared for the worst. Though how business formal is a bad thing is beyond me. I love my ties and jackets.

    Hell, even if you interview for McDonald's they expect you to be somewhat presentable.

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  14. Umm...Christian...I think I know everything about you there is to know.

    Maybe next time you'll respond to what I said, not what you wanted me to have said

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  15. 'At least half the class didn't cite a single source. One girl copied and pasted and didn't proofread, so her paper ended with the line "Now he joins us in the studio today."'

    -I see that all the time. are seniors not the laziest beings on Earth?

    'You can tell when people copy/paste most of the time because the stuff they copy is so much better written than the stuff they write on their own. Most of my students have a lot of trouble with sentence structure and grammar so when they copy it jumps right out at you, especially when they use textbook vocabulary. And since most of the kids didn't cite sources, I assumed if one thing was copied, it all was.'

    How much work should I do if they didn't do any work at all???

    ReplyDelete

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