The Risk with the Grade

Recently a professor, curious about my interest with linking grades to students' emotions and motivation, asked me if I felt safe when I took an introduction to literature class.

I didn't know how to respond. She reminded how I once expressed to her how much I learned in the literature class, and she wanted to know if I felt safe to take risks there. I answered, "No."

She said to me that safety is a privilege and by keeping students safe we may be denying them particular learning opportunities. In other words, teachers who sometimes push students outside of their comfort zone (as I experienced in the introduction to literature class) can teach some of the strongest and most valuable lessons. 

But what does this have to do with grades and evaluations?

Generally speaking, anytime one is evaluated on their performance they are pushed outside of their comfort zone. As students know their work is being evaluated and marked with a letter grade, they place more value on the assignment.

For example:

As a student who has taken several pass/fail classes, I know the level of importance students place on assigned writing tasks in these courses.  Many of my peers -- myself included -- have said these words, "It's only a pass/fail course," meaning that the level of work required is the bare minimum.

However, had a grade been assigned to the writing task, the level of commitment and effort given by myself and my peers would have skyrocketed. This reaction might be because the grade itself pushes students outside of their comfort zone and motivates them to do better work.

I initially thought, as I have began the early stages of my master's thesis concerning the link between grades and evaluations to emotions and motivations with writing, that harsh grading and strongly critical evaluations must decimate a student's motivation to writing.  But this cannot be the whole story.

In the introduction to literature class that I mentioned above, the first grade I received in the class was an F.  Through much work and determination, I squeaked by with a B for the semester. The F placed me outside of my comfort zone and motivated me to up my performance level. I know without a doubt that my dedication to that class far outweighs any of my undergraduate work from a pass/fail course. A evaluations from a pass/fail course could never motivate me the way the F did. 

Without the risk, uncertainty, and the lack of security grades provide, will student motivation decrease?

Please share your thoughts with me as I explore this topic.

Next Big Thing Blog Hop

This blog has been tagged for The Next Big Thing Blog Hop by EIU's own Lania Knight. 

Thanks Dr. Knight.

As the process goes, she sent us questions, which have been slightly modified because of the nature of our writing projects, and Kelly and I have responded below. 

1) What are the working titles of your writing projects?

Tim: The big writing project of mine is the writing textbook that my co-author Linda Copeland and I are revising and editing. It's titled IDEAS & Aims.

Kelly: My main project right now is my thesis, and it is entitled "Conceptualizing Identity as Performance in Young Adult Literature."

2) Where did the ideas come from for these projects?

Tim: Both my co-author and I have taught basic writing and college composition courses for years, and we wanted to write our own textbook targeted toward basic writing/developmental courses. We organized the book around rhetorical aims/purposes (to inform, analyze, persuade, et al.) and included chapters about college success, analytical reading, the writing process, and research.

Kelly: I spent a great many years of my life as an actress and have never been able to separate myself from the notion of performance and reality -- to me all interaction is a performance of some degree.  I'm a lover of Young Adult Literature and have noticed over the years how this type of literature encourages adults to explore multiple roles or identities -- so I decided to tackle this as a major research project.

3) What genres are these projects?

Tim: It's what higher education publishers call a "rhetoric/reader." In general though, it's a textbook.

Kelly: Young Adult Lit Dystopia.

4) What are one-sentence synopses of your projects?

Tim: IDEAS & Aims is a basic writing textbook that is organized around rhetorical purposes, focuses on analytical reading, reinforces critical thinking, and respects and works with the diverse students who take our writing courses.

Kelly: People play multiple roles throughout their lives, and this fact is endorsed and encouraged in young adult literature.

5) Who is publishing this work?

Tim: Pearson Publishing.

Kelly: Currently no one. But I've got big dreams!

6) How long did it take you write the first drafts of these projects?

Tim: With fourteen chapters and a handbook, it took a good while. But we wrote the first draft of most of the chapters over a two-year period -- mainly during two summers.

Kelly: It took me a month to write the first draft of my fourth chapter, but the other three chapters are moving along much quicker.

7) Who or what inspired you to write these works? 

Tim: My students. 

Kelly: My love the of theater.

8) What else about these projects might pique readers' interests? 

Tim: There are a lot of interesting reading selections in the book, ones you rarely see in college writing textbooks. IDEAS & Aims also has assignments that require professional writing genres like letters, memos, reports, etc.

Kelly: I include a lot of adolescent psychology research as well as sociological research that is just pretty fascinating.  PLUS, I'm writing about The Hunger Games...and who doesn't want to read about that?

Thanks for reading our part of The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. Next up is...

• Kim Sydow Campbell who blogs at Pros Write.

We'd also like to recommend these blogs for your perusal:

• Mike Rose's Blog
• Presentation Zen
• Plain Language Matters

Motivation and Biting the Bullet

I’m going to share a little secret with you, one  I am sure some if not most of you will empathize. From the time Halloween rolls around bringing pumpkins, football, crisper weather, hot cider…and midterms on, I find it increasingly difficult to stay motivated to do my work, to concentrate on the tasks at hand, and to do it all with a smile on my face and a skip in my step.

The things I really want to be doing are going to the movies or to the bookstore to get the latest book in a series I have been waiting for (I know some of you might not love this idea, but roll with it). I want to spend time with my family and friends without feeling guilty for putting off this research or that paper for a little bit longer, or for turning down those same people to do this research or that paper.

So, by the time Thanksgiving Break comes and goes, my mind and body are shutting down, preparing for Winter Break  and in a very animalistic way hibernating for winter.  

The question is: how do I (read: we for those who are nodding their heads and giving me an “Amen!” as you read) keep going, stay motivated (enough), and get what I need done, done?

In my eyes, there is only one answer: Bite the bullet.

Dig deep and find those last dregs of motivation and determination to get the job done. Do it and put it aside. Then go celebrate a job well done…or at least a job done to the best of your ability while juggling all your other final projects.

Of course, getting myself to that point also takes a certain amount of avoidance, brooding, and panic to light a fire under my tooshie.

But then I do it. I bite the bullet. I hand it in, and then I take the time to relax over break (read: work and make some extra money for the next semester, see family and friends, and generally run around like a chicken with its head cut off, but in an entirely different way than I do while I’m in school).

A Writer's Motivation

Dan Pink’s presentation “Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us” (video shown below) discusses the science of motivation in the workplace. With the visual help from RSAnimate, Pink makes a surprising argument. 

When a task becomes more complicated than grunt work and requires some conceptual, creative thinking, exterior motivators no longer work (Pink). In fact, exterior motivators have the opposite effect. A large prize puts more pressure on an employee and reduces the chances of success. 

Too often employers find the work of their staff to be flat, insufficient, and simply bad. Offering a larger bonus only makes the matters worse. These descriptions of performance are not limited to employer-to-employee relationships. Many college professors make the same comments in regards to their students' work.

Motivation is a common topic in pedagogy just as it is in the business world. What exactly motivates students? If the grade is not a motivator, what else is there?

Just as employees, students perform better with a sense of having purpose, a sense of contributing to society, a sense of mastering a skill. When students believe they are leaving a mark on the world, they are better motivated.  With better motivation and a lack of pressure from an exterior motivator such as money or a good grade, the final product may improve immensely.

Students cannot escape the pressure grades place on performance. However, they can move the focus away from the grade and complete the task for more important reasons. This may sound like heresy. The grade is the goal; the goal is the grade! 

But the philosophy of grade-getting turns a student’s work into basic hoop jumping that Pink argues may hinder the performance.

If a student can integrate their work into a community that values the work (i.e. study groups, writing centers, club organizations) and/or believes the tasks will lead to a pride of accomplishment, then the work they produce will have much stronger potential. 

About What I Said on Procrastinating...

Welcome back, folks. If you're like me, chances are you were not as productive as you planned to be over the break. I wrote a list of four goals I wanted to complete by the time this past Sunday evening rolled around. Let's just say I took a loose interpretation of the word "complete." But now is not the time to dawdle! Now is the time to be productive!

...or not. But I can be optimistic, right?

In a way, I'd like to think my goals list was a step in the direction of being productive. The goals were not necessarily the order of steps I had to take in order to have a productive break, but they were obstacles I'd have to overcome if I wanted to minimize my stress levels in the next three weeks.

"Wow, Doug, this is great advice and all, but what the bleep does it have to do with writing?"

It has everything to do with writing, just let me explain.

In one of my moments of productivity (I had them! Pinky swear!), I went back to revise a paper. We had a peer review in the class so I had lots of valuable input from my classmates, operative word here being lots. I felt daunted by the amount of suggestions thrown my way by everybody, all of them excellent suggestions on how to make my better just that much more awesome. Before I started to sob over all of my scratchings, I had brainwave: compile suggestions into a list and check them off as I went.

This made all of the comments I was working with less of a jumble and more of a list of objectives to check off as I completed them. I could then see progress I was making with my paper without having to go back through it over and over. Then, when all of my objectives were checked off, I could go back and read it to make sure it flowed like a river in spring or in my apartment's parking lot.

So, for future reference:

• Finish paper
• Get peer reviewed
• Make checklist
• Eliminate things of checklist as they're completed
• Turn in paper

Do this in whatever order you like, although you might find it helpful to do the first four before you do the last bit.

National Novel Writing Month

November means three things to a student: papers, Thanksgiving, and avoiding papers until after Thanksgiving. But to some of us, it means one additional thing: National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. If you've ever taken a creative writing class comprised of some of the "hardcore" folks who actually enjoy writing, you've surely heard the phrase. While I personally disdain the phrase in its abbreviated form (it sounds like a technology from a pulpy science fiction series), I've always been attracted to the idea behind it as a creative writer. I must confess I've never actually made an attempt to participate.

The goal is simple. You have thirty days beginning on November 1st at midnight and ending on November 30th at 11:59 PM to write 50,000 words. Say you have about 250 words to the page. Do the math and you'll find that it comes out to be, like, a 1000 pages. Or something. I may carried a number wrong, but math is not my strong point. In any case, assuming you fire off the necessary amount of words by the end of the month, you'll have yourself a beautiful novel.

Then again, it may not be that pretty. Part of the fun/torture of NaNoWriMo (there I go, doing it myself) is taking no time to edit and focusing on pure, nasty generation. According to the website, it's "a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing," which translates into, "you'll probably hate what you wrote when you read it later." They even have the good hear to warn you that "you will be writing a lot of crap." But they insist "that's a good thing." And I'm inclined to agree with them.

As writers, we want to edit as we go, often causing problems for us as we compose. Our internal editor is shouting away at us in our minds, reminding us that "that's crap" we just smeared on the screen/page/napkin. But with NaNoWriMo (ugh) we accept it, nay, we embrace it!

So why do it? The official website offers a few reasons ("To stop being one of those people who say, 'I've always wanted to write a novel,'" or "To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties") and though they may not seem the most productive reasons, I assure you there is something to get out of it aside from a bunch of pages of a mess. By participating in NaNoWriMo, you're pushing yourself to become a more dedicated writer. You set goals for yourself (write 1,600 words a night, 12,500 a week, etc.). The most beneficial thing about National Novel Writing Month (haha!) is that you get to gag that internal editor and stuff him in the trunk until he learns to play nice. Or until you're done with your novel.

Now, off to write 1,600 words of garbage.

Avoid Stress by Starting Early

Much of the time people think about how to start papers and worry if they will meet professor’s expectations and the like. Writing rough drafts is very important and an aspect of writing a paper that doesn’t get as much of attention as it should, especially when you’re just starting out in the college experience. My advice, draft!

The idea of drafting can be very daunting and quite scary. It does involve starting early, brainstorming in advance, and doing research right off the bat. All of this combined can be really overwhelming. This is something that your professors understand. So most of the time, you’ll get assignments for bigger papers early. Once that happens, it’s all in your hands from there.

Once you get an assignment, do whatever form of brainstorming that works for you. Whether it is actually writing a draft, composing bullet points, cubing, or another brainstorming method, starting this process early will help your final draft down the road.

Once you have done some brainstorming, take the time to actually outline and plan out a draft. If starting on a rough draft right away works, then do that first.

After drafting, if time allows, step away from the draft. Work on other homework and do something relaxing before revisiting the draft for editing or adding to the paper. Before you feel like you have your finished product, make sure and go through the process of editing and revising. 

Hopefully the idea of creating multiple drafts of your paper before it is due will help with the process of solidifying the paper and making sure that you follow the assignment. My best advice is START EARLY!

Squeaky Chairs

"Writer's Block" is a diagnosis for a writer's mental constipation. Although this term is so frequently used, I don't believe in it. The way that I see it, there are an infinite amount of words floating all around us, just waiting to be plucked from the air. When people say that they are experiencing writer's block, to me, that says one of two things: that they are either being too picky, putting too much weight to every word, or that they feel uninspired to write at all. Both of these are sad scenarios. One way to perpetuate writer's block is to blame it on forces outside of ourselves. This room is too... rectangle. This chair is too squeaky. I ate a cheeseburger for lunch. Cheeseburgers always make me tired. I can never write when Uncle Harry is in town. My computer keyboard has Cheetos stains on it. That shadow on the wall looks like a unicorn in the House of Representatives trying to answer a cell phone with a fire extinguisher. And the list goes on.

Once we realize that we can write anywhere, no matter how much of an acute angle our room makes, we will never struggle with blank pages again. One way to do this is to begin writing without expectations. Often, we have such a narrow idea of what we want our product to be that we don't allow the writing to just happen. Go with it. No matter what it is your writing, the key is just to start. The answer is in the act of doing, not complaining. In fact, I titled this blog without knowing how "squeaky chairs" were going to fit into a a blog about writer's block. Once you allow your ideas to flow through you, you will soon be amazed at the result. If you have a writing assignment, or are just pressuring yourself to write, then sit down and do it. Once you get into this habit, the term "writer's block" will seem like a fake doctor's note to you, too. So the next time that you have trouble writing, just sit down and start!