Digging Out

I finally feel like I'm starting to get the hang of teaching. For one thing, my pile of things to be graded is getting shorter rather than taller. It took me a few weeks to figure out the true beauty of the completion grade and the wonder of having students correct their own spelling and grammar homework.

The highlight of my week came when I gave the eighth graders back their papers. On their first paper, many of them were disappointed when they got their grades. And if I'm going to be completely honest, I probably share some of the blame for their grades. I didn't take as much time as I would have liked to discuss what I was looking for aside from presenting the six traits as explained on the grading rubric I gave them. But I console myself with the thought that some of the students knew how to write a good paper. After all, they are half-way through the school year and should have been learning this stuff long before I arrived.

For their second paper many of them did much better. The prompt was to write about a childhood memory, so many of them wrote about things that happened last week. But that was fine. I admit that when it comes to the six traits, I'm especially partial to the "ideas" trait. Along those lines, I'm constantly telling the students that they need to show me what they're thinking and give lots of supporting details. A few students did an excellent job painting a picture of their experience, including one kid who tends to struggle in school. This time he wrote a paper full of descriptive and supporting details. When he saw the 96 on his paper, a look of pleased surprise mixed with satisfaction crossed his face. I'm sure he worked hard on that paper, and I like to think that he felt like he deserved that grade. That look of pleasure on his face made my day.