Pondering....
I just met with a student who is a multi-lingual learner (that is, English is not her first language and she’s busy at work acquiring a third language, as well). I had asked her to meet with me because her I could not grade her last paper. Although it was clear she had taken a great deal of care with it-the spelling was flawless-the sentences were so poorly constructed as to be virtually unintelligible.
As I have decided to give all my students option to rewrite this assignment, I wanted to make sure she understood that she really really needed to work with the writing center on the revised version (of course, looking back at my comments on her first paper, I told her exactly the same thing three weeks ago).
None of this is new or surprising. Multilingual learners poses interesting challenges, students ignore instructors’ comments, and students are often surprised that instructors really mean what they say (for example, clearly one third of my students thought that my minimum page limit requirement on the last assignment was merely advisory, despite my repeated indications that it wasn’t; the same students were also most surprised that I really meant it when I said that any paper not meeting the minimum page limit would be rewarded with a D).
But I digress....
What I was intrigued with is this student’s assertion that I apparently was the only instructor who had difficulties with her writing (she was not being confrontational, just informing me when I asked if she had similar problems in other coursework). She added that she had received Bs and B+s on her writing assignments in her 100-level English courses. Huh.
I can’t see how that is possible, unless she either took a lot more care in those classes or the instructors weren’t paying attention. Or, it’s possible she is either deliberately or unintentionally misremembering.
So, here I sit, pondering....
Still....that level of work is not acceptable in my classes regardless of how carefully it is spell-checked.
As I have decided to give all my students option to rewrite this assignment, I wanted to make sure she understood that she really really needed to work with the writing center on the revised version (of course, looking back at my comments on her first paper, I told her exactly the same thing three weeks ago).
None of this is new or surprising. Multilingual learners poses interesting challenges, students ignore instructors’ comments, and students are often surprised that instructors really mean what they say (for example, clearly one third of my students thought that my minimum page limit requirement on the last assignment was merely advisory, despite my repeated indications that it wasn’t; the same students were also most surprised that I really meant it when I said that any paper not meeting the minimum page limit would be rewarded with a D).
But I digress....
What I was intrigued with is this student’s assertion that I apparently was the only instructor who had difficulties with her writing (she was not being confrontational, just informing me when I asked if she had similar problems in other coursework). She added that she had received Bs and B+s on her writing assignments in her 100-level English courses. Huh.
I can’t see how that is possible, unless she either took a lot more care in those classes or the instructors weren’t paying attention. Or, it’s possible she is either deliberately or unintentionally misremembering.
So, here I sit, pondering....
Still....that level of work is not acceptable in my classes regardless of how carefully it is spell-checked.