The In-class Essay

I drove my daughter to the bus stop today.  She’s currently attending a community college.  We spent the better part of our 20 minute car ride talking about an essay she had to do for one of her classes.  She said, “a lot of students are mad at the teacher… I don’t know… I’ve never had to write an essay like this.” 

            When she says “like this” she’s talking about the process not the content.  If memory serves, the process goes something like this:

Handwritten rough copy is done in class. Rough copy + articles which will be cited go into a folder.  The rough copy gets marked up by the teacher for structure only.  The students get their first copy back and – given the teacher comments on structure – are given the opportunity to do a second draft with proper APA format/citations.  It all goes back into the folder.  At a later date, they get all their work back and get to word-process it in a timed period in a computer lab.

One of my daughter’s comments: “The kids don’t get how they can improve through her feedback.”

A little bit of context: a) my daughter, although fairly successful in the academic stream in high school, has much higher kinesthetic and art intelligences; b) she’s in an Educational Assistant Program.

At the risk of generalizing, I say this to make the point that my daughter is probably typical of college students; I would venture to say that most kids who take college programs are those who don’t necessarily love academia and are much stronger in the other intelligences.  So we’re asking college students to write an academic paper and then we’re denying them the collaborative editing help and the tools such as online style guides and so on, which, ironically, we as instructors would never deny ourselves when we’re faced with a significant writing task?

            Over the past year, I’ve heard from some very passionate secondary teachers who use similar elaborate processes.  The similarity: most of the work is done in class. 

            I think that there are a couple of forces at work here.  Let’s deal with the obvious one first.  Teachers feel – pick your adjective: angry, frustrated, violated, exasperated – when students plagiarize. Hence, the in-class work is an answer to cheating.  The obvious question to that is: Is the pedagogy driven by a quest for quality student learning or is it driven by the fear of plagiarism?

           

            It’s actually not all that different than a crime prevention argument: do we put societal structures in place which make it more difficult for the minority of criminals to commit their crimes while at the same time creating a bleak and uninspiring culture for the majority who don’t commit crimes?  Or, to return to the classroom, why not create a culture of academic honesty and deal with the handful of those who cheat when they cheat as opposed to structuring our curriculum to make plagiarism difficult, thereby hamstringing our curriculum? I for one would much rather assume and foster a culture of integrity.

            It should be noted that there is more to this discussion than the avoidance of plagiarism.  The evaluation policy, as stated in Growing Success, 2010, states that “To ensure equity for all students, assignments for evaluation and tests or exams are to be completed, whenever possible, under the supervision of a teacher” (p. 45).  Interpretation (especially for many secondary English teachers): the in-class essay. 

            Interestingly – in case you need some context – the very next paragraph begins with: “Teachers will take various considerations into account before making a decision about the grade to be entered on the report card.  The teacher will consider all the evidence collected through observations, conversations and student products…”

           

            I’ve written this piece over the last month and a half, because I haven’t really been sure what I wanted to say… not for the lack of things to say.  Quite the opposite.  Other topics/issues to consider (for other blog posts : ):

·        No homework in France… what’s up with that?

·        The famous Finnish system.  I’m going to read Finnish Lessons.  I’ll get back to you on that one.

·        Forget the in-class essay; how about the adjective-less Essay (capital E intended)?  What happened to authentic learning?  I heard one teacher (from another jurisdiction) talk with great pride how his ENG4U1 Shakespeare Essay, with all the critical quotes and MLA bells and whistles, is his “gatekeeper” (his word, not mine) for kids who want to go to university.  You can’t get a 70% in his class unless you’re successful with this essay.

The above ideas are pretty raw.  Like I’ve already mentioned, I started this post well over a month ago and have hesitated to put it up here.  I say this to encourage you to comment, question and disagree.  I genuinely want to know what you – the dozen or so people who will read this : ) – think.