Course observations question

[polly_mer]

I'm not tenured and can be fired at will for no reason with no notice.  My responsibility remains to do what's right instead of what's convenient.  I can, in fact, be fired for not reporting conditions that hinder  my ability to do the job.

[Caracal]

Sorry I did not get back to this one sooner.  My tablet crapped out last month and I still have not gotten internet service at home, am working on it.   I just wanted to send something today from the library, and will more fully reengage when I get back on line at home.

Random thoughts, now that I have just today submitted final grades for the course:

1) even after well over a month, I am still dealing with the astonishing claim by my supervisor, that I was at fault for the students' cell phone use because I was boring them, and the accompanying even more astonishing remark that college students need to be getting up and walking around.  I am struggling mightily against the thinking that this woman, late 30-ish, and without a doctorate, is just not competent to be supervising college teachers, and indeed sees herself as the defense attorney for struggling students in need of her 'student success program' efforts.

2) she also told me in August, when she hired me, that the students would be given the same diagnostic exam that landed them in the class, again in Dec., to see how they progressed.  Seemed very logical, esp. wrt the objective of improving the reading class, but in Nov., when I asked her when they would be doing so, she told me that they would not be able to be given the test again at this time, because the school cannot now afford to buy access to it from their vendor.

3) WRT criticism of me for being 'timid', I just do not want to hear any such criticism from someone who is not an adjunct professor, and esp from a tenured person.  It is just not rational to expect someone who is essentially a glorified k12 sub teacher, and who can and likely will be fired/ not rehired at any time, for any reason, to be un-timid, esp. when his prior experience (admittedly at other schools) suggests that 'customer first' appeasement is the norm, something which is all the more magnified owing to the financial struggles of this school

More later.

Well first of all, I really am not sure that her doctorate or lack thereof is really relevant, especially since this is sort of an intro to college course. I also don't really see why someone in their late 30s isn't qualified to supervise you. None of that is really the issue. I agree that the specific criticisms don't seem fair. There's nothing wrong with her mentioning cell phone use as an issue, but just blaming you for a systematic problem isn't fair. And I agree that telling you that students need to move around is strange. Trying to get students to move around a bit is a perfectly fine strategy, and one I occasionally employ, but it isn't the sort of thing you should be criticized for not doing.

On the rest, I also would be pretty offended to be called "timid," but it is mostly just unhelpful feedback. Its in the same vein as telling someone they seemed "nervous" or "unsure of themselves." It doesn't give the recipient anything concrete to work on fixing and instead implies that the problem is somehow their personality. On the other hand, you can't teach effectively if you actually are always afraid of your students complaining about you. I have some of these anxieties too, but to teach effectively I have to put them away. What do you mean by appeasement? I think we should be pleasant to students. I believe in being as flexible and reasonable as I can be about things like extensions. On the other hand, you have to have reasonable standards.

[kaysixteen]

The reason I feel her lack of doctorate renders her unqualified to assess me is essentially the same as the fact that by her own admission she is a high school teacher.  She really does seem ignorant of the proper assessment of college teaching reality.

BTW, what do you  think regarding what to do when you computer a student's grade according to the clear syllabus percentage standard s but wonder afterwards whether the grade is too low and you should make a n exception, especially when the syllabus standard s were really not of your own choosing?

[marshwiggle]

The reason I feel her lack of doctorate renders her unqualified to assess me is essentially the same as the fact that by her own admission she is a high school teacher.  She really does seem ignorant of the proper assessment of college teaching reality.

BTW, what do you  think regarding what to do when you computer a student's grade according to the clear syllabus percentage standard s but wonder afterwards whether the grade is too low and you should make a n exception, especially when the syllabus standard s were really not of your own choosing?

Unless you're planning to recalculate everyone's grade, I'd hesitate to do this. If the calculation doesn't give a "reasonable" grade for one student, why can it be trusted for anyone else?

[polly_mer]

The reason I feel her lack of doctorate renders her unqualified to assess me is essentially the same as the fact that by her own admission she is a high school teacher.  She really does seem ignorant of the proper assessment of college teaching reality.

You're not teaching a college-level course.  The kind of course you've described is the newfangled way to deal with students who are in college, but aren't ready for college.  Thus, someone with substantial high school teaching experience is exactly the person who should be supervising the course.

BTW, what do you  think regarding what to do when you computer a student's grade according to the clear syllabus percentage standard s but wonder afterwards whether the grade is too low and you should make a n exception, especially when the syllabus standard s were really not of your own choosing?

If you're worried about student complaints rising to the level of job loss, then grading capriciously (i.e., deviating from the syllabus) is a fast way to get valid complaints that will lead to job loss.  It's possible to give the entire class a tiny, justifiable bump, but not making an exception for one person just because the grade is lower than you thought it would be.

[ciao_yall]

BTW, what do you  think regarding what to do when you computer a student's grade according to the clear syllabus percentage standard s but wonder afterwards whether the grade is too low and you should make a n exception, especially when the syllabus standard s were really not of your own choosing?

Step back. Why was the student's grade lower? Did they miss an assignment? Overall turn in slightly sub-par work and the average catch up to them?

Why do you think it should be higher? Is the student brighter, more engaged, more capable than you think the grade reflects? Why should your perception exceed reality?

I don't have much problem tweaking a D into an "honest effort" C, but anything other than that, I go with where the grade lands based on calculations. Because all the students know what they need to do and their grades are their responsibility.

[Hegemony]

I think the answer is that you figure out how the grade got "too low," and you adjust next time.  For instance, maybe they got a low grade on an assignment that was so trivial that you believe it should have counted for less.  If you are stuck requiring the assignment, just grade the assignment more generously next time out.

If I have a really good student who just happened to bomb a class for some reason, I don't change the student's grade, but I talk to or email the student to express confidence that he/she will do better in future classes, and to say that I know it was a hard term, and so on — just to give some teacherly reassurance that one grade is not a diagnosis of inadequacy.

[Caracal]

I think the answer is that you figure out how the grade got "too low," and you adjust next time.  For instance, maybe they got a low grade on an assignment that was so trivial that you believe it should have counted for less.  If you are stuck requiring the assignment, just grade the assignment more generously next time out.

The two exceptions to this are if:
A. You think the grades as a whole are skewed. Last semester, for various reasons I changed stopped dropping the lowest exam and at the end of the semester, I found that as a result there was a pretty low percentage of As (we don't have A-s...) I rounded up to an A from further down than I usually do. This semester I'm changing I'm changing a few things with other assignments that should fix the problem, but it didn't seem fair for last semester's students to get fewer As. 

B. The student is very close to the grade cut off and there was some very specific circumstance out of this student's control that caused them to lose a few points. Something like the student's attendance grade suffered because they got the flu in the middle of the semester.

Like Ciao said, I'm more likely to do this on the lower end. I might be quite generous to a student who had a series of disasters but tried and is just short of a C. I'm much less likely to do this on the A range without a very compelling circumstance.

[kaysixteen]

The syllabus grade percentage breakdown was poor, overweighted to class participation and the silly journaling assignment.  But his participation was poor and he didn't write any of the journaling entries or his article presentation, his class participation was poor, and he missed several classes.

I get that the supervisor's hs background has some relevance to a course like this, but the course requirements are to teach the skill s they did not learn in HS, not continue with bad hs methods leading to bad hs outcome s.

[ciao_yall]

The syllabus grade percentage breakdown was poor, overweighted to class participation and the silly journaling assignment.  But his participation was poor and he didn't write any of the journaling entries or his article presentation, his class participation was poor, and he missed several classes.

I get that the supervisor's hs background has some relevance to a course like this, but the course requirements are to teach the skill s they did not learn in HS, not continue with bad hs methods leading to bad hs outcome s.

Well, a student's job is to follow the syllabus, complete assignments, and prioritize higher-weighted assignments to make sure they get done. What they think of the assignment is not relevant.

You might think it's not great weighting either, but if you were required to follow it, it was still the student's job to perform to it.

[Caracal]

The syllabus grade percentage breakdown was poor, overweighted to class participation and the silly journaling assignment.  But his participation was poor and he didn't write any of the journaling entries or his article presentation, his class participation was poor, and he missed several classes.

What grade are we talking about here? And how close is the student to the next highest grade?

[polly_mer]

The syllabus grade percentage breakdown was poor, overweighted to class participation and the silly journaling assignment.  But his participation was poor and he didn't write any of the journaling entries or his article presentation, his class participation was poor, and he missed several classes.

Record the grade the student earned and negotiate with the Powers that Be for a better weighting for the journaling assignment for this term.

I get that the supervisor's hs background has some relevance to a course like this, but the course requirements are to teach the skill s they did not learn in HS, not continue with bad hs methods leading to bad hs outcome s.

Unless this particular person was personally responsible for all the students in the class failing to learn in high school, ignoring the course coordinator's recommendations are a bad idea.

Is your graduate work directly in remediating primary/secondary skills in a postsecondary environment?

Do you have several years of successful teaching of remediating primary/secondary skills in a postsecondary environment closely related to the students at this particular institution?

Do you have similar credentials in adult English as a Second Language?

If no to all these questions, then your best option to go talk with the coordinator and get a plan to do better this term if you want to have this same job next year.  Listen to why the participation aspect is weighted so heavily as well as what the true goals for the journaling assignment are. 

This class has been developed in this way for a reason; if you want to be successful in terms of meeting expectations for the job, then find out what the reasons are instead of just pooh-poohing them.  You resent the term "timid", but it's timid to both refuse to ask the questions to start a negotiation or to refuse to just flat out make the changes your expertise indicates are necessary and deal with the fall out.

If yes to at least two of these questions, then you should seriously consider your options as a highly qualified professional being told to do things contrary to your direct expertise.  Being told to spin straw into gold (i.e., the impossible task you've already claimed is true for this course) is never a good sign.

For the readers at home, every term we have many people rediscover the truths that having a PhD and college/HS/other teaching experience is not the same as having the most relevant degrees along with the most relevant teaching experience for the specific course and the specific demographics being served.  Content knowledge is not the same as knowledge in how various groups with specific previous educational experiences best learn the material.  That's much more true the farther down the prestige scale one goes.

[kaysixteen]

I had a nice chat with her last week.  She was very happy with the overall performance of the class but we will have to agree to disagree wrt the relative utility of some of the active learning, group work, entertainment type strategies she suggested.  These kids were assigned to the class in order to learn the skills needed to succeed in college, and I taught them those skills. 

She, BTW, didn't really know what the syllabus grading policies were.  If i ever do it again, I will insist on substantial changes.