Don't Know What Worked, But I Gotta Keep it Up

I often share this video with my students as I’m grading their papers:



It’s a fun way – I think at least – to share a bit of myself with them, and to get them laughing even just a little bit about the grading process. Which, face it, isn’t always a fun thing.

This semester, though.

Typically, I’ve got a good-vs-bad paper curve that looks a bit like this (forgive the purple paper):

I’ve seen this semester after semester. There are about a half to a third of the students who get the concept and turn in a good paper, with about the other half or two-thirds falling in mostly the bad paper category. Sometimes the ratio of good-to-bad is about 1:1, but most of the time is about 2:1, so that’s what I expect.

This semester – and in both classes, no less – the good-vs-bad paper curve looks like this:

And it is NOT that I have lowered my standards. I’m grading the same way as compared to past semesters.

I can think of only three things that may have caused this. Okay, four:

1. I sent out a pre-course “English 101 Survival Guide” email in which I outlined, in detail, what the argumentative synthesis paper is supposed to look like.

2. I’ve provided my own example of what the paper should look like. Speaking of which, I really need to finish my Part Two.

3. The students enrolled in both of my classes are just generally better writers than what I’ve had in the past.

4. It’s a fluke that will not be repeated next semester.

I am as stunned at the ratio of good papers – I’m going to say the good/bad ratio is close to 7:1 this semester, in both sections – as Miss Shileds was as she read Ralphie’s perfect sentence:

“Listen to this sentence: ‘A Red-Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.’ Poetry. Sheer poetry! Ralph, an A plus!”

Note two of the possibilities involve something extra I did this semester. Given my generally pessimistic outlook on life, I have to discount their impact. But barring numbers 3 and 4, these things are the ONLY things I’ve done differently this semester than in semesters past.

There’s only one thing to do: See if the fluke repeats next semester, while offering the same helps my students got this semester.

Also, I’ve really gotta finish writing Part Two.

And I should definitely get a hat like Miss Shields. Maybe that’s the only thing missing to get those few bad and mediocre papers over that good paper bar.