Friday, September 20, 2002
11 of 18 students today. Only 1 or 2 seem to have interest any more. I think more do--some movement on the weblogs--but overall, this might be one of the worst class dynamics I have ever had.
I'll need to try and figure out what is going on Monday. Part of it might be too hands off, although I have asked them to do 10 weblog entries, about 5 of them very specifically defined. One student did stick around to talk about that, but it is one of those frustrating cases where he says "I don't know what you want" and I say "ten weblog entries" and he says "but I don't know how you want them," and I say "well, after your first 2, I told you that they were good, but they don't have to be that long." I also made links to good entries, talked about them in class, yadda yadda yadda.
He's not sure if he is going to make it through the class; another student alluded to that in a weblog entry, I am already at 18 from some early drops. I probably do need a classroom visit to help me figure out what is going on.
For the 11 brave today, I tried to start them thinking about the transition from weblogging to essay writing. I introduced 3 different kinds of arguments—causal, evaluation, proposal--and asked them to outline an argument about weblogging using one of these arguments. They were in two groups of 4, one of 3. Pretty much like pulling teeth. Probably too much information, probably too vague in my delivery. Made me want to just throw in the towel.
I think I'll go read that essay by T. R. Johnson in CCC: "School Sucks."
I'll need to try and figure out what is going on Monday. Part of it might be too hands off, although I have asked them to do 10 weblog entries, about 5 of them very specifically defined. One student did stick around to talk about that, but it is one of those frustrating cases where he says "I don't know what you want" and I say "ten weblog entries" and he says "but I don't know how you want them," and I say "well, after your first 2, I told you that they were good, but they don't have to be that long." I also made links to good entries, talked about them in class, yadda yadda yadda.
He's not sure if he is going to make it through the class; another student alluded to that in a weblog entry, I am already at 18 from some early drops. I probably do need a classroom visit to help me figure out what is going on.
For the 11 brave today, I tried to start them thinking about the transition from weblogging to essay writing. I introduced 3 different kinds of arguments—causal, evaluation, proposal--and asked them to outline an argument about weblogging using one of these arguments. They were in two groups of 4, one of 3. Pretty much like pulling teeth. Probably too much information, probably too vague in my delivery. Made me want to just throw in the towel.
I think I'll go read that essay by T. R. Johnson in CCC: "School Sucks."
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