Grading ad nauseum
See, the thing about grading compositions, which I'm sure you all want to know, is that I don't feel like I'm doing it right if I just slap a grade on them. I even have two rubrics that I use, and I don't feel good just putting the number they rate on the paper so that they can compare it to the rubric, although I *do* do that as part of their feedback. I feel like they'll get more out of me putting two comments, one about something I think they did well, and one about something they can improve. I know that some of those comments from my college professors--those that bothered with comments--still stick with me today. Hopefully, the same will happen with some of my kids. It just takes a long time, plus sometimes I'm thinking, "What the *hell* am I going to say is good about this one?" More rarely, I wonder what I'm going to say for them to improve, since there's really nothing inherently wrong with what they wrote (that age and maturity won't cure; they are 12/13 years old, after all).
It is amazing how much betaing in fandom has helped me with my composition grading skills. Trying to pinpoint what works/doesn't work about a story so that I can feedback the writer makes it easier to see the same thing in my students' writing. Sadly, most of my students' writing doesn't have the inherent enjoyment of fanfic. *sigh* One of the topics they could write about was being invisible for a day. If I read about one more food fight in the cafeteria, I'll scream. Plus, not a single one of them wanted to do anything nice with their invisibility. It was all playing tricks and stealing and destroying. Heathens. Plus, they *all* went to school. Dude, if I were invisible and going to get counted absent anyway? I would totally not go to school. Sleeping in! Free movies! Sleeping in!
What's wrong with kids these days, anyway?
It is amazing how much betaing in fandom has helped me with my composition grading skills. Trying to pinpoint what works/doesn't work about a story so that I can feedback the writer makes it easier to see the same thing in my students' writing. Sadly, most of my students' writing doesn't have the inherent enjoyment of fanfic. *sigh* One of the topics they could write about was being invisible for a day. If I read about one more food fight in the cafeteria, I'll scream. Plus, not a single one of them wanted to do anything nice with their invisibility. It was all playing tricks and stealing and destroying. Heathens. Plus, they *all* went to school. Dude, if I were invisible and going to get counted absent anyway? I would totally not go to school. Sleeping in! Free movies! Sleeping in!
What's wrong with kids these days, anyway?