[The Spring 2021 semester seems to have been the most challenging for my students of any in my 20+ years of college teaching, and I know for sure it was the most challenging for me. I’m not gonna pretend I have clear reflections or lessons I can take away from it, but what I do have are striking individual moments that reminded me of why we do what we do in the classroom. So this week I’ve highlighted a handful of those, leading up to this crowd-sourced post with other moments and reflections from you all—add yours in comments, please!]
First, a number
of my colleagues and friends have shared this bracing and important Academe
Blog Guest Post from Nate Holdren.
Responding to
Tuesday’s post, Lauren Kerr-Heraly
tweets, “Nice post. I think videos are a great way to model
writing. I showed
this and we had a great conversation after (in chat then
digital breakout rooms) about the misrepresentation of Cherokees by the U.S.
government as a way to justify removal.”
And
finally, Guest
Poster and all-around friend of
the blog Robin Field shares these extended reflections:
“One of my important take-aways from the third semester of pandemic teaching is my decision to abolish late penalties and accept all work whenever it is submitted. Previously in my freshman seminar, I had one-page response papers due by 7:00 a.m. for my 10:10 a.m. class. I usually was able to grade all of these response papers before teaching that day, so these papers gave me a good sense of the questions students had about the day’s reading and how to direct the conversation. In previous semesters, I did not accept late response papers, because they did not help me prepare for class. As the students turned in 25 of these assignments, missing a few did not impact that percentage of their course grade significantly.
This semester I accepted
late response papers. First, the students did not take advantage of this
flexibility—most students turned in their work on time. For the students who
turned in their response papers late, I learned that my flexibility was
incredibly helpful. One student (whom I will call D) took a full course load
and worked nights to pay tuition and family expenses. D returned to the dorm
after midnight and needed to decide which work to turn in before going to bed
for his few hours of sleep. Many of his response papers were late, but he also
wrote more than the one required page—at times he wrote 3-4 pages,
single-spaced! Despite turning in late work, he was extremely engaged with the
course. He will pass the class because of my flexibility. If I had not allowed
the work to be turned in late, D would have failed the class—an outcome that
would not reflect his understanding of the material but would reflect my course
policies instead.
In the fall, I may add this option to my
courses: The Late Work Explanation Form. Dr.
Lindsay Masland of Appalachia State U writes: ‘Remember my Late Work
Explanation Form? Where students can submit ANYTHING let as long as they tell
me? Some profs were concerned it would be overwhelming to manage. Results are
in! I had 500 assignments to grade. 8.4% came in late but at some point during
the semester, so I was able to grade those as they came in. Many were submitted
before I even started grading. 2.6% came in on the last possible day. That's
only 13 extra things to grade right now.’”
Next
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Other Spring
2021 moments or reflections you’d share?
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