"Warm" vs "Harsh" phrasing in student instructions and interactions.

[jerseyjay]

As a general statement, it seems likely that there is a direct relationship between looking at one's phone in class and getting a poor grade.

In regards to a specific student, however, I am not sure that there is as a close causation as kaysixteen seems to believe.

And in any case, if a student got a low grade on a paper in my class, and she came to talk to me about it, I think I would focus on the paper itself: it is not in the correct format; it does not have a strong thesis; it does not use the correct type of sources; it has too many typos and grammar errors; etc. I would focus on how she should improve these specific areas of the paper, not how she should change her behavior. If the student is egregiously looking at her phone each class, I might point it out, but if I say, "your grade would be better if you didn't look at your phone all the time," I would seem to be promising that if she changed her behavior her grade would change.

Other reactions to kay's post: it seems counterproductive and, I think, cowardly to not call out a student when he egregiously misbehaves and instead wait several weeks later to write comments on his paper. Furthermore, I have between 75 and 150 students each semester, so I cannot know all the students who look at their phones, nor remember this several weeks later.

Finally, to the extent that grading is supposed to be an objective evaluation of the student's performance on the exam or essay, it would seem to be best to limit distracting information. This is of course never possible, but not looking at the students' names seems to be a good step. If, after grading the exams, there is strong clash between your image of a student and how she does on the exam or paper, it would seem to be warranted to either revise your image of the student or double check there is no plagiarism. But grading a student poorly because you know he misbehaves in class seems to really be going about it backward.

Finally, my doctor has told me I should lose weight several times. I have to say it is not a very effective technique. First, it ignores certain subtleties (I lift weights, so my BMI is not necessarily as accurate a measure as it might seem to be, either though I am sure I should weight in any case), but also,  it lends itself to being dismissed. And in any case, I know I should lose weight, just like many students know they should study better. But that doesn't really help me achieve that goal. That is, it is rather counterproductive. Nagging students about their behavior tends to have a similar effect in my experience.

[Caracal]

It's been standard practice for 10+ years to grade anonymously when possible.

This would have limited efficacy for me. First, I grade a fair amount of things, like research papers, where the students are doing work on different things and have discussed them with me. Even when the assignment isn't identifiable, the writing often is. That's especially true with the best students. Hiding the name isn't going to make much difference with the student who always writes in class exam answers that are three times as long as anyone else's-especially when I had him last semester too. Most good students tend to have very distinctive in class essay styles, actually. Unfortunately, I'd probably recognize many of the worst ones too. That would leave the mushy middle and I don't tend to have a lot of opinions about many of those students anyway...

[Caracal]

As a general statement, it seems likely that there is a direct relationship between looking at one's phone in class and getting a poor grade.

In regards to a specific student, however, I am not sure that there is as a close causation as kaysixteen seems to believe.

And in any case, if a student got a low grade on a paper in my class, and she came to talk to me about it, I think I would focus on the paper itself: it is not in the correct format; it does not have a strong thesis; it does not use the correct type of sources; it has too many typos and grammar errors; etc. I would focus on how she should improve these specific areas of the paper, not how she should change her behavior. If the student is egregiously looking at her phone each class, I might point it out, but if I say, "your grade would be better if you didn't look at your phone all the time," I would seem to be promising that if she changed her behavior her grade would change.


Finally, my doctor has told me I should lose weight several times. I have to say it is not a very effective technique. First, it ignores certain subtleties (I lift weights, so my BMI is not necessarily as accurate a measure as it might seem to be, either though I am sure I should weight in any case), but also,  it lends itself to being dismissed. And in any case, I know I should lose weight, just like many students know they should study better. But that doesn't really help me achieve that goal. That is, it is rather counterproductive. Nagging students about their behavior tends to have a similar effect in my experience.

There's actually a pretty good parallel here. A high (or low) BMI might be correlated to health problems on a population level, but that doesn't make it is a good way to assess any particular individual. I also assume that if a doctor is good at talking to people and has time, what they would really want to figure out is why someone might be gaining weight. Is it because they started lifting weights, or because following a divorce they have become increasingly sedentary and get take out 7 days a week?

It isn't really that revealing that a student seems distracted in class. If you're trying to help them, you need them to help you figure out why they are distracted.

[Ruralguy]

Doctors (Family/General Practitioners anyway) focus on a handful of numbers that they know correlate with doom.  So, they focus on BP, Cholesterol, Blood Sugar, weight/BMI.  Of course, its just surface treatment, but that's where they all start. Its up to you to input more information, though good doctors who actually talk to you will find out about other issues or nuances, such as what +/- there might be on your BMI because you are weight lifting, etc.  I realize that's perhaps a derail, but I guess where it relates to teaching is that a good teacher who has the time, can try to get a bit more information or at least encourage the student to look into their own issues a bit more without just nagging.

[mbelvadi]

It's been standard practice for 10+ years to grade anonymously when possible.

I'm just a librarian, not a writing professor, but if this is the standard practice, why isn't it also standard practice to have the students put the "cover page" (which includes their name) as the LAST page of the paper instead of the first?  Wouldn't that make it a lot easier to not accidentally see the name until you're ready to?  And let's face it, their "title" isn't actually important to read first, for grading purposes. 

Yes, I know the style manuals dictate that first page (we librarians know all about style manuals), but that begs the question as to why they do so and given that the top two major styles, MLA and APA, are products of professor-membership organizations, shouldn't they be trying harder to modify their style rules to facilitate this "standard practice" rather than undermining it?

[Ruralguy]

Most schools give students a non-governmental ID number, which can be used for such purposes, assuming that most professors will only check the online registration lists *after* grading the assignment. I don't bother. I just grade. I almost always then check all of the papers for consistency (in my case its problem sets) of comments and points off, revise accordingly, and then record the grades. Most points off come from missing stuff, so its only occasionally subtle.

[jerseyjay]

It's been standard practice for 10+ years to grade anonymously when possible.

I'm just a librarian, not a writing professor, but if this is the standard practice, why isn't it also standard practice to have the students put the "cover page" (which includes their name) as the LAST page of the paper instead of the first?  Wouldn't that make it a lot easier to not accidentally see the name until you're ready to?  And let's face it, their "title" isn't actually important to read first, for grading purposes. 

When I give blue book exams, I have the students write their names on the back of the blue book or the inside front cover. This makes it easier to grade without seeing their names. It also (sometimes) prevents students from sneaking a blue book into class.

Since Covid I've mainly been using Blackboard to have students do exams, and that has a feature to not include names on exams when grading. 

[apl68]

Informative thread for somebody who's been out of the grading business for a long time.  I've now learned that:

1.  It is widely expected that instructors will grade assignments without first knowing the student who is being graded--wasn't a thing in my day.

2.  Some classes still use blue books!

[kaysixteen]

Widely expected by whom?   I have taught at three different schools since 2014, and in not one of them did anyone ever suggest anything about trying to avoid reading student names before grading anything?   How exactly would I do that with those Latin vocab or verb conjugation quizzes, in any case?   We all must have missed that memo.

I get that nagging has its drawbacks, but sometimes blunt confrontation is essential, such as when the doc has to tell the 50 yo 30 year two pack a day smoker with the hacking cough-- you must quit now, or you are going to die.   Similarly, 'you would do better were you not playing on your phone all the time' has the virtue of not only almost certainly being true, but being a necessary part of the professor's responsibilities.   I am open to suggestion as to how to phrase this differently of course.

Obviously phone use policies will be discussed in the syllabus and gone over on day one, but it would not be possible, really, and certainly not a healthy use of time, to individually stop class every time some student is observed on one, and, of course, if I did that, I would be open to being criticized for being 'mean', as well, methinks.  I have never taught a class close to 75 students, of course, so I get that the prof doing that has likely less memory of who is doing this.

[apl68]

It's evident that situations, classes, and circumstances vary quite a bit here, as is often the case with these things.  Evidently the grading without student names practice is still not the standard everywhere.

Kay, you know your situation and your students' needs better than other commentators.  However, it is worth noting the advice, from multiple posters, on how to convey feedback to students in ways that minimizes the likelihood provoking an unhelpful student reaction.  It's worth carefully considering.  There's a lot of collective teacher wisdom represented here.

[kaysixteen]

I did say I was open to rephrasing suggestions, but the examples I gave, wrt the doc and the smoker and the prof and the failing phone user, do necessitate direct and unalloyed commentary.   Unfortunately, over the years many posters here have regularly poo-pooed my belief that a professor actually has a responsibility to see to it that the students learn the stuff he is teaching them, and not allow them to not do this with lame arguments such as 'they're adults, it's their responsibility, blah blah blah'.   This is especially important when teaching cumulative learning subjects such as languages and mathematics.

[Hegemony]

And so has confronting them bluntly actually led to better grades on their tests and papers?

[downer]

We can separate out day to day realities from the platonic form of a college professor. I've never had a job description saying it is my responsibility to make sure students learn, and no administrator has said that to me. Sometimes I suspect colleges like students failing because then they have to retake a course, which means more $$$. Unless it is a prestigious place, colleges are mainly concerned about the retention rate.

In an ideal world, professors are well paid, have small classes, care deeply about all of their students, and so are motivated to make sure they succeed. That would be great. We are a long way from an ideal world. Compromises are made on all sides.

[RatGuy]

I think comparing an instructor writing "you would've scored better if you weren't distracted by your phone in class" is not analogous to a doctor telling a patient "you should cut out the cheeseburgers if you want to avoid another heart attack." A patient who asks a doctor "how can I avoid this situation in the future" should receive blunt feedback without judgment. A student in a class is not asking such questions -- they're in class for the grade, and outside of metacognitive exercises are hardly ever asking "how should I do better?"

I agree that students who come to office hours to ask for specific advice are usually open to hearing "your phone is a distraction in class." And I'd certainly tell a student in that context. But I'd never write on an exam or an assignment "You missed this because you weren't paying attention when we discussed it in class because I personally observed you looking at your phone during those lectures." Indeed, we are actively discouraged from doing so (it's part of our annual legal training). I'd never put such a thing in writing, either on an exam or in an email. I mean, unless I wanted to run the risk of being fired.

[the_geneticist]

Widely expected by whom?   I have taught at three different schools since 2014, and in not one of them did anyone ever suggest anything about trying to avoid reading student names before grading anything?   How exactly would I do that with those Latin vocab or verb conjugation quizzes, in any case?   We all must have missed that memo.

You can have them write their name on the back of the quiz.  Or have the quizzes in a format that is automatically scored (bubble sheet, online, etc.).