I am the Champion!
I deserve a championship belt or something for grading 20 first reads in a day, along with various second reads and reviews. I RULE!! I absolutely rock!
Now then. Back to my more natural state of existence. After drudging through about six really terribly examples of writing from freshman who shouldn't have made it out of high school, I thought I'd go crazy. So I turned on the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack, and put some of the more martial of the tracks on continual loop. I waged war on those fool papers, and I won. It was a bloody, gruesome battle, and there were several casualties among my brain cells. But the majority of us survived, and I even got to award my lowest grade of the year. A grand, whopping, but totally deserved 45.
His paper was a treatise on the Vietnam War, about 1100 words long, in a single paragraph. Plenty of acronyms, lots of resources, but none of the criteria for either the first draft (which he failed) or this second one (which he failed). I mean, yikes folks. If you fail a paper because it doesn't meet the criteria of the assignment, do you then turn in that same paper (no revision at all?) for a whole new set of criteria? Only if the POS paper matches the criteria. This didn't.
And I didn't award the lowest grade ever, either. Earlier today, some other dumb-ass did the same thing and got a 0. The second reader was kind and gave it a 50, but I, as third reader, was not feeling so generous as that. This is war. I gave it what it earned, strictly doing the math by the points he met or didn't meet. He got a 45 from me. Which means his final grade is a 47.
Now, I don't want you all thinking I go out of my way to give these kids low grades. I actually inspire quite a few third reads for handing out high 80s. Most of the second readers grade much lower than I do. It's just that I make up for it when I see shit. Belligerent shit, that is. If it looks like the kid's just dumb, I give him a base line grade and lots of advice. I don't get vindictive much at all. When I do, I spend that energy racking up error points, which don't actually count against the paper until they reach 60.
I'm --I know it's hard to believe-- actually one of the nicer graders in the system. I don't so far see many of these students coming out of the class with an A.
And that's about it. I'm free now, and get to spend my morning tomorrow in the radiology clinic's waiting room instead of grading papers. I'm someone's ride, so I get to sit there with a book or my knitting and look bored.
I'll post again later, folks.
End.
Now then. Back to my more natural state of existence. After drudging through about six really terribly examples of writing from freshman who shouldn't have made it out of high school, I thought I'd go crazy. So I turned on the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack, and put some of the more martial of the tracks on continual loop. I waged war on those fool papers, and I won. It was a bloody, gruesome battle, and there were several casualties among my brain cells. But the majority of us survived, and I even got to award my lowest grade of the year. A grand, whopping, but totally deserved 45.
His paper was a treatise on the Vietnam War, about 1100 words long, in a single paragraph. Plenty of acronyms, lots of resources, but none of the criteria for either the first draft (which he failed) or this second one (which he failed). I mean, yikes folks. If you fail a paper because it doesn't meet the criteria of the assignment, do you then turn in that same paper (no revision at all?) for a whole new set of criteria? Only if the POS paper matches the criteria. This didn't.
And I didn't award the lowest grade ever, either. Earlier today, some other dumb-ass did the same thing and got a 0. The second reader was kind and gave it a 50, but I, as third reader, was not feeling so generous as that. This is war. I gave it what it earned, strictly doing the math by the points he met or didn't meet. He got a 45 from me. Which means his final grade is a 47.
Now, I don't want you all thinking I go out of my way to give these kids low grades. I actually inspire quite a few third reads for handing out high 80s. Most of the second readers grade much lower than I do. It's just that I make up for it when I see shit. Belligerent shit, that is. If it looks like the kid's just dumb, I give him a base line grade and lots of advice. I don't get vindictive much at all. When I do, I spend that energy racking up error points, which don't actually count against the paper until they reach 60.
I'm --I know it's hard to believe-- actually one of the nicer graders in the system. I don't so far see many of these students coming out of the class with an A.
And that's about it. I'm free now, and get to spend my morning tomorrow in the radiology clinic's waiting room instead of grading papers. I'm someone's ride, so I get to sit there with a book or my knitting and look bored.
I'll post again later, folks.
End.
posted by Rehkmira @ 23:31
1 Comments:
At Tuesday, February 01, 2005 8:27:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
You should know that knitting is a better magnet than a book. Especially a 20+ year old knitting. Next time dye your hair purple, wear clothes with holes or really tight, short or low. And don't forget the white makeup. Bring nothing to do, drape yourself over two chairs. Don't forget earphones and the t-shirt with rude remarks or graphic pictures. No one will come near you.
Thank you for being kind and considerate. You were raised that way. One of the greatest joys of older people is to talk to young people and share a bit of their lives, things they no longer are able to do. You provided some sunshine in their day. sr
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