Week 14

From students’ perspective, this week was probably a very easy one – there were only two day’s of lessons. However, as I set Wednesday evening as the deadline for submission of final drafts of the second essay, it turned out to be my most demanding week. Some students were really organized and even got their essays in early so that they could go home to their families and relax not having to worry about me and my demands. However, the ball was now back in my court and I had the stress of getting everything graded by next lesson. Having a day in which you plan a bit, teach a bit and grade a bit is perfectly manageable. However, when you start grading at 7am and do nothing all day but grade, the lack of variety makes the whole process much more difficult. However, again I must say that I was generally pleased with the quality of the work I received as virtually all essays were comprehensible and to a greater or lesser extent demonstrated mastery of the art of writing synthesis. I had noticed but it came out in conversation in class that at least for one section, the class average grade for the second essay was higher than that for the first. Given the level of difficulty of the task, this was quite an achievement. Another reason for this higher average would be that a few weaker students who had been struggling to keep up had opted to drop the course and focus their attention and energies on their other courses.

Week 13

Time has flown. I of course have had to look forward to the end of course and plan what will happen for the last couple of weeks. When the week began, I could say that there were still three weeks left but the reality is that because of holidays lots of lessons will be missed. As mentioned before, it is clear that students feel a great sense of relief when they hand their essays over to me - they have worked hard on creating them and while they are in my possession for evaluation, students can let go of the responsibility and "take a breather". However, because I am so acutely aware of how little time there is left, I worked hard through the weekend to ensure that I could get all the essays back (at least those I had received on time) during the first lesson of the week. This meant that students only had the weekend to recover from the writing of the first draft. The ball was thrown back in their court and now they have to start worrying again. They may feel pressured by having to get their final draft in before their big Bayram but I hope that once they go home to their families and realise that they have no work from Comm 101 screaming to be done, they will appreciate that the final push was worth it in the end.

This week was another one of those busy weeks where I had to conduct compulsory tutorials, teach and grade late submissions. I haven't yet made a tally of who did and who did not attend a tutorial but there of course will be a few who will claim that they could not find a time to suit them. There were of course lots of slots on Monday and Tuesday that were never filled. I have also had students sign up for fifteen minutes before the deadline for submission of final drafts. I suspect that they haven't yet put two and two together and realised this but when they do and they try to book an earlier slot, they will of course be all filled.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I hope students can. There appears to be a few that can't. In fact there are a few that have fallen at the last fence. Some students appear to have just given up at the prospect of having to write the second essay. This is really a shame as they are so close to the end. One final push and they'd have it over with. However, they are now committing themselves to having to repeat the course next semester. Here's hoping it'll go well for them but from past experience I can only warn that because of how tired they'll be they may even have less energy next semester for jumping that last fence.

Week 12

This is the week in which students have to hand in the first draft of their second essay. They have been warned also that the quality of their second essay will have a bearing on the grades they will get for their final exam. The final exam will require them to write a similar essay to what they are doing now and so what they learn during the process of writing this essay will prepare them for their later exam. From discussions of the text in class and practical exercises we are doing, I feel that most students have a fairly good grasp of what it is they need to do. This whole idea of synthesis is quite new to most of them and it is understandable if they feel a little phased at first. It would be great if we had more time to do further practice but I’m afraid we don’t have that luxury. Teachers who have to constantly look forward and plan to the end of semester are acutely aware of what needs to be done and what time there is to do it. Students seem to survive from day to day and so don’t fully appreciate why particular deadlines need to be set. Unfortunately my course must proceed according to the schedule regardless of whether another instructor has organized a mid term on a particular day.

I left school at 1pm on Friday with a bag of essays to be graded over the weekend. The bag was not as heavy as it should have been. At least 30% of students missed the deadline for submission. What do they think is going to happen now I wonder?

Week 11

This week I learned from one student that when they got their grades for their first essays, many students were assuming that I was playing a trick on them and would eventually tell them to reverse the numbers in the grades. In other words if a student got 86% they were assuming that I would tell them it was only 68%. So, I guess I had deflated them so much that they didn’t really believe that they could do so well. However, it is clear that most students are really trying and paying attention to detail and responding to feedback. However, there were some students who were of course, rather unhappy with their grades. I remember one student in particular who had her essay returned to her at least three times because it was not three pages which was the minimum requirement. Each time she returned exactly the same essay which was still only two and a quarter pages long. Eventually I had to give up and just give her a token grade.

I had to miss one of my lessons on Wednesday morning in order to deal with an important administrative matter. When I turned up for my 12.30 lesson, one of the students demanded fair and equal treatment – he was of course suggesting that I cancel the lesson as I had had to do earlier. However, when offered fair and equal treatment – come in on Saturday morning for a makeup lesson – he declined and was quite happy to be treated “unfairly and unequally”.

Well, almost half of the overall grades for the course have now been allocated and so students should have a fair idea of how they are doing. Hopefully they will be able buckle down now for the home stretch and maintain the momentum that we have built up. However, this is the time of the semester when students tend to be overwhelmed by mid terms and find it difficult to keep up with all their work.