Act I, Fall 2011. I assign a semester-long project to my grad students. I offer them feedback on topic selection in advance, but that's it. I am crushed under the weight of the grading, staggered by the magnitude of the task and the direness of the papers. I cannot even see the goodness of the good papers clearly because the bad ones are so blindingly awful. I stumble into mid-December certain I will never assign a project like that again.
Interlude, Fall 2012. NO SEMESTER-LONG PROJECTS, NO SIRREE. DO I LOOK STUPID?
Act II, Scene i. August 2013. I do a summer workshop on designing my fall course. I think, "This course needs a semester-long project." But! this time! I will offer them Formative Feedback along the way! I will show them their errors and they will fix them! Fairies will caper along the unicorn-trodden paths of Learning Together and we will frolic there!
Act II, Scene ii. September 2013. I grade until I am an old woman.
Act II, Scene iii. October 2013. I grade until I am an older woman, stooped and shriveled but still clutching her red pen.
Act II, Scene iv. November 2013. I post about my gray hair, failing to connect it to the ETERNITY of grading this fall has brought me.
Act II, Scene v. December 2013. I think I might die of grading. If I don't die of grading, I might die of futility-- I showed them their errors and a substantial fraction of the class said, "Yeah, whatever." I am late submitting grades to the registrar because SO MUCH grading. And also despair. SO MUCH DESPAIR.
Act III, Scene i. August 2014. At a workshop on student writing I say, "I almost died of grading last year. Penna-rubra-tosis, they call it, when you stab yourself through the heart with your red pen because you can't face one more comma splice." The workshop leader raises an eyebrow. She says, "Let's talk about your formative feedback."
Act III, Scene ii. November 2014. I have told the students I will give them advance feedback on selected parts of their semester-long project. Two parts are required submissions; two more parts are optional. All parts get a preliminary grade, which will be incorporated into the final grade. "Making good use of feedback" is built into the rubric as well, with a hefty penalty for people who disregard the comments I have labored over. I require them to get structured feedback from a classmate and from an outside party, and to tell me in detail how they're making use of that feedback.
I'm trying to make it a project they can really learn from that also leaves my will to live intact.
It's still a lot of grading.
P.S. I love 90% of my job and my students are awesome.
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