the bull by the horns

Two weeks ago, I gave one of my classes a little talk.

They are a 101 class that meets from 4-6 in the afternoon, the same class I expressed concern about a month ago when I discussed students (and other people) who make you lose faith in the innate goodness of humankind. Granted, most of them seem like nice, if unmotivated, people, but even the motivated ones are being affected by the general disengagement and sometimes outright (or sly) nastiness of some of the others.

So here’s what I told them:

-At the end of the last couple of classes, I have left feeling annoyed.

-I think that the activities that are working well in my other classes are not working as well here.

-I know for sure that there are many people in this class who really want to learn and improve.

-However, I don’t think ANYONE here is learning to their full potential. This includes people who are failing and people who are getting 80s. Everyone could be learning more and doing better.

-I think some people are not learning to their full potential because it’s not a priority for them. That is fine. Your priorities are your choice.

-However, I think some people who really, really want to learn are being affected by the atmosphere in the class and so are not getting the maximum benefit from the class.

Here are some things that are bothering me:

-Some people seem to be doing the absolute minimum and just waiting for the class to be over. I know that this is the last class of the day and that we’re all tired; also, the classroom is sometimes hot. However, some things need to be learned, and the time and place of the class are not going to change, so we have to find a way to deal with them.

-Some people are coming to class unprepared: without their books, and without having done the reading. They seem to believe that they can just share someone else’s book, or get someone else to explain the reading to them. This drags their partners/group members behind, and so everyone is affected by someone not pulling their weight.
For this reason, we’re not going to do any group work for the next while. Everyone is going to be evaluated on their INDIVIDUAL work, and if you’re not prepared, you’re probably not going to be able to do it. I don’t like this any more than you do – it makes a lot more work for me – but we’re going to do it anyway, and then see if I feel more comfortable about you working in pairs/groups again.

-People often talk amongst themselves when I or other students are addressing the class. This wastes a lot of time. Also, more than once, I’ve heard people laughing amongst themselves while other students were talking.
Try to imagine how you’d feel if you were trying to express your ideas and someone started laughing or ignored you and talked with their friends. Now try to imagine how you’d feel if everyone listened attentively and respectfully. I’m sure you can see how that kind of respect is essential for maintaining an atmosphere where everyone can learn at their maximum capacity.

So we settled down to do some questions on “The Boat.” No group work, I repeated. I want individual answers from each of you. And I observed them inch their desks closer to one another, slip papers back and forth when they thought I wasn’t looking, and even fully turn their backs to me to work on their friends’ desks.

I suffer from slow reflexes. This is true in both professional and social situations. If I am at a party and someone says something rude to me, I am frozen in my tracks. My gut response is, “She couldn’t have said what I thought she just said. No…she did. It couldn’t have meant what I thought it meant. Could it? Why on earth would someone say such a thing?”

The same is true in the classroom. Looking around, I was thinking, “They can’t be doing what I think they’re doing. I must be misinterpreting this situation. These are college students. They are not openly defying my direct instructions to do their own work.”

When I took their papers home that weekend, I spent all of Saturday carefully reading over their answers, comparing them with the answers of their friends, and writing them long notes explaining why they were receiving no credit for the work because they had clearly not done it alone.

The papers were returned to them by a substitute teacher the following class. When I asked her how the class went (the task for that lesson was an hour-long review quiz), she told me that they had seemed very focused and diligent and almost everyone finished early (as opposed to my other section of the same class, where I haven’t had to address any behavior issues until now but where some problems cropped that day.)

When I next saw this class, I told them that the substitute had said that things had gone well, and that this was encouraging to me, considering how things had unfolded the class before. I acknowledged my mistake: I had not clearly explained what people should do if they were not prepared to do the classwork. For this reason, I was now bringing them a list of procedures that I probably should have given them at the beginning of the term (but hadn’t, I did not add, because in all my time as a teacher it has never occurred to me that college students would require such a list.) The list read as follows:

Procedures for Completing In-Class Study Questions

-Please follow all instructions.

-If you are asked to complete questions alone, please do so, without consulting with others.

-If you are asked to work with a partner or a group, please respect the number of people allowed per group.

-Please submit your responses, neatly written and double-spaced, on a paper complete with your name (or the names of group members.)

-Unless otherwise indicated, please answer questions in full sentences and/or paragraphs, not in point form.

-Sometimes we will discuss some questions before the end of the class. You may wish to make notes on your paper about the class’s discussion and responses. Please make these notes in a different colour (eg. pen vs. pencil, pink vs. blue), so that your own answers are clearly distinguishable from the answers of others.

-Please remember that study questions are meant to help you practice. I am not very concerned about whether your answers are “right” or “wrong.” I am interested in the effort and thoughtfulness your answers demonstrate. If all answers are complete and thoughtful, and if you have followed the procedures outlined here, you will receive full credit, even if you have misinterpreted or misunderstood some things.

-If you are not prepared for the in-class study questions (eg. if you haven’t done your reading and/or don’t have your books), please excuse yourself from the class when the time to do the questions arrives. In some cases, it may be possible for you to do the questions on your own at home and submit them before the next class. If not, please accept the penalty responsibly and try to come prepared next time.

-Please remember that the effort you make preparing for and completing study questions will pay off when you do your graded assignments. The purpose of all in-class work is to prepare you for those assignments.

When it came time to do the study questions that day, I explained the procedure again: if you haven’t read the story, but have your books and want to sit quietly and read it and do the best you can with the questions, that’s fine. If you’re not prepared and don’t have your books, please excuse yourself from the class and come prepared next time.

Two students approached me to apologize and say they couldn’t do the work. They had credible explanations, so I sent them to do the work at home and submit it before the following class. Several others sat reading while the others worked on their questions. No one turned around in their seats or pulled their desks together. I saw no papers being slipped back and forth.

I haven’t yet checked their answers, but I feel optimistic about what I will read.

I became a CEGEP teacher in part because I didn’t want to be a disciplinarian. I wanted to impart my love of literature and learning to young adults who had made a mature and reasoned choice to continue their schooling, and were on some level intrinsically motivated, if not to study literature, at least to become educated people. The joke’s on me. However, until I embrace classroom management and the establishment of clear rules and consequences as part of my job, I’m going to continue on this downward spiral of frustration. This class and I are not out of the woods yet, but I’m hoping that some possible major issues might have been averted, at least for now. I’ll keep you posted.