Two Feet In | Writing and the Institution

1. History of Comp 2. Restoration & 18th Century Lit (Rothman) 3. History of Narrative (Wood) History of Narrative is out there -- supposedly written for Writers, but the description was more open, so Kofford allowed me to get it. It's more a scheduling thing more than anything else. I'll work with Lone Star in the future and work for morning classes I guess. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed/concerned that there are in fact so few lit courses offered, compared to writing. Good grief -- there should be 3-4 Shakespeare seminars and others on Marlow, even Dryden (?), 20th century American novel, 20th century American drama, etc. Kessler -- never enjoy spending time with her. We met, she doesn't have anything for me yet so will contact me later. I always feel she's talking down to me.

I would hope that grading a paper, the mark and comments, would be some learning experience for the student, but I think that the majority of students pay no heed to these comments and don't even look at comments other than the grade. Believing that, I often feel that making comments is a waste of my time, and in fact only a way to cover my ass in case a student challenges the actual mark. On the other hand, there are some students who learn and want to improve their writing, or at least want to improve their grade. I think sometimes I grade, especially hard on the first papers to show students how ill-prepared for college their high schools have been for them. This isn't fair, nor is it productive. I do know tht I can be offended at student writing, and my comments can reflect that (though I hide this offense in academic jargon) -- sometimes offended at their ideas, but more likely offended at their lack of ideas. Is this intellectual snobbery (and if so, does it matter?). ...

"Though the scenarios Pink presents deal primarily with the business world, I wonder how adult (or late adolescent, in our case) learners could also respond to the same principles if we, as educators, trust them enough to give them autonomy in their learning, opportunities to master their work, and help them find purpose in freshman-level composition courses." Linked