Some Teaching Mistakes Other People Have Made (So You Don’t Have to)

As some old sage said, “Even fools learn from their own mistakes, but the wise learn from the mistakes of others.” In the spirit of that anonymous proverb, here are a few accrued lessons that adjuncts have volunteered from mistakes they’ve made:

Negotiating Your Department

In the frenzy of your hiring procedures, you’ll inevitably miss some really essential pieces of information. Here are a few leads:

· “Find out what the turnaround time for papers is at your college. No one ever told me that, and I had bad student evals for a while. They went way up when I found this out.” (Anonymous)

· “Barring a student from attending (due to lateness) or suddenly ending class due to lack of student preparation—I was told by our dept. staff that both of these are illegal.” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “Get to know the secretaries because they know and ultimately control EVERYTHING, including your files, your supplies, your teaching schedule, and your students’ complaints. Don’t schmooze or anything, but do respect them, because you want them on your side.” (Anonymous)

· “If you are an adjunct or new hire, it would be a mistake to expect: an office, a computer, a printer, a working and available copy machine, a sympathetic secretary, an ID card before the 5^th week, a paycheck before the 7^th week, students who buy their books before the 1^st assignment is due, administrators who care, everything to go as planned. You’ll have to actively pursue all of the above.” (Frank Crocco)

In addition, here are a few departmental policies to check on: plagiarism, attendance, any required first-day procedures, required texts, departmental syllabus, requirements for your final, and (if you happen to be teaching comp) whether or not you must teach research. Other things to check on: audio-visual aids, setting up voicemail, your mailbox, ordering texts, classroom observations, sick days, keys, and electronic grade submission.

Your Classroom Presence

Your attitude and boundaries will set the tone for the whole class. Be professional and enforce consequences, especially at the beginning. You can always be more lenient later on, but it’s virtually impossible to tighten up; students feel betrayed or simply won’t comply with “new” rules.

· “Don't be flexible at the beginning. As far as the students know, class always starts on time, you log every tardy, sleeping in class makes you ‘absent,’ and there are no extensions on deadlines—ever. I didn't understand going in that my students didn't really know how to be students yet. I treated them like old hands at the school game. Result—kids talking in class, going out to make phone calls, and an embarrassing evaluation day.” (Jenny Weiss)

· “If you're young (like, I was 21 when I first taught a college class), don't tell your age (even if the students ask) until late in the semester, if ever.” (Anonymous)

· “Refuse to indulge college-kid humor about drinking: participating at all in those rib-nudge jokes and asides alienates some students because it is absolutely not true that they all drink.” (Anonymous)

· “Jocularity is good, but there is a fine line; too much humor sends mixed signals.” (Rebecca Williams)

· “If you don't know something, don't make it up. Tell them that you don't know but that you'll find out and follow up. And then do it. They will respect you more for not lying and for keeping your word to find out the answer.” (Emily Sherwood)

· “[Assign] an oral presentation the second week. Have a paper due at the end of the add/drop period. Those… are particularly useful when you have 40 enrolled in your lit class, but the fire warden says your room should only hold 30.” (Rob Faunce)

· “Don't give out a personal phone number.” (Anonymous)

· “Be courteous and respectful to your students: part of this is setting clear standards for evaluation in the first meeting, establishing rules, and sticking to them (within reason). But it also means being kind: I have heard several students complain that many of their professors don't treat them nicely (nasty comments on papers, not greeting the class when they walk in, embarrassing them when they don't know the answer in class, etc.).” (Kate Kinney)

And I would add that you should hold yourself to the same standards to which you hold your students. Hypocrisy is the best way to ensure your students’ resentment. Be punctual, be respectful, return papers on time, and apologize if you screw up.

Internet Protocol

Because this is a relatively new medium for communication, most departments don’t have a policy for internet correspondence, and many teachers falsely assume that students intuit what’s good web etiquette. Here are a few ideas:

· “Establish email protocol! This applies to content and accessibility. You can quickly become consumed by this technology if you don't establish limits, and I know that I am not the only instructor who has received inappropriate (and frankly weird) images and messages via email.” (Kate Kinney)

· “Set up an e-mail policy that is explicit about when you will be checking e-mails, how long it will take you to respond, and your expectations about student responses to e-mail (for example, I say I will respond within 48 hours to any e-mail, which means that if they don't get a response, I didn't get it—this avoids the excuse that they e-mailed me something but I didn't get it).” (Jessica Cantiello)

· “Don't let your students know that you are on Facebook! I have had several students attempt to befriend me—ugh!” (Rebecca Williams)

· “Awkward! Now I decline all friend requests from students, during and after the semester, with a polite explanation that I never ‘friend’ students.” (Anonymous)

· “Send me e-mail from an address that has the name of the school in [the subject line], or that clearly identifies you by LAST name. An e-mail from getsasslikewhoa@hotmail.com (true story!) will most likely go in my spam file. Most of them don’t know that there’s anything wrong with sticking with an e-mail address that reflects the truest version of their 8^th-grade selves. I’ve distributed copies of an NYT article about clueless college students not getting jobs because they have no sense of online professionalism.” (Jason Schneiderman)

· “I quit accepting emailed papers when students were inexplicably absent the day a paper was due. They get to stay home in their pj’s and get credit for a paper they finished late while everyone else had to finish the night before and attend, and now I have to print it on my dime? I think not.” (Anonymous)

· “If you [receive] insulting, demanding or innappropriate e-mails from students, just don’t respond. If you feel you must reply, reply curtly telling them to see you after class or during office hours.” (Jason Schneiderman)

And set boundaries for yourself. Your students can reach you any time via email, but that’s no reason to work more for the same amount of pay.

Stacking the Lesson Plans in Your Favor

Graduate student adjuncts are usually hired to teach entry-level, non-elective courses, meaning most of your students don’t really want to learn your material. One option for getting them interested in your presentations is to demonstrate how much they need you by turning the setup into a problem-solving situation. For instance, you can have them try to write an essay or do library research with no instructions. After they’ve failed miserably (recognizing the problem), chances are they’ll actively seek your knowledge and even ask great questions (find a solution). These are a few more time- and pain-savers:

· “Design your class time (lectures, discussion, exercise, whatever) so you are not doing the work for them, i.e. explaining/telling what they should know, but instead leading them to work through problems with you as a guide instead of a crutch. Confusion can be productive. Frustration can be as well.” (Diana Colbert)

· “As an adjunct, most of the work you do outside of the classroom is not paid: construct a syllabus and lesson plans that are realistic with your schedule (and set objectives for yourself and your students that are attainable as well).” (Kate Kinney)

· “Putting more items on a syllabus than you'll realistically get to frustrates students.” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “Assign way less reading and spend way more time on it. This helps students learn to stop hallucinating about what they imagine is happening in a text and actually look at it, line by line.” (Kate Broad)

· “I've also learned never to play my favorite song for my class because they'll make fun of it and I'll get defensive.” (Nichole Stanford)

· “I'll second Nichole's advice not to play your favorite song, and add that, for me at least, don't assign texts that are particularly near and dear to you, because they will inevitably bore your students.” (Mia Chen)

· “In the past, I've made the mistake of hearing about a method of grading and… trying to introduce it into my course mid-semester. As it didn't arise organically from my own planning and vision for the course, I found that I wasn't always sure exactly what this exercise was supposed to accomplish.” (Dominique Zino)

· “I have trouble when I change my course too drastically from one semester to the next.” (Chris Leary)

I also recommend, since you’re probably an adjunct, holding “office hours” during class. While students work on an in-class assignment, instead of finding something to occupy your time, have each come up to sit with you at your desk for a five-minute conference to discuss a current or upcoming assignment.

Clever Ways to Avoid Awkward Classroom Moments

If you plan to incorporate a discussion format into your classroom, make provision for it early. Make sure students are comfortable with one another from simple class exercises (for instance, interviewing each other with questions you assign). Give the students the discussion questions the night before as journal questions, or have them freewrite on the discussion question for a few minutes before you pose it aloud to the group so that they’ll already have formulated thoughts.

· “Wait a few weeks before assigning group work—see how the students vibe with one another—there's nothing worse for a new teacher than having a dysfunctional group in class.” (Rebecca Williams)

· “For getting-to-know-you exercises on the first day, don't leave it to students to pair themselves up. Assign them so if there's an odd student out it's not because of peer rejection. This goes for group work as well.” (Diana Colbert)

· “I never realized it, but only half my class was participating in discussions. A prof who observed me suggested that I switch up the seating order they had created for themselves, so that I ended up making eye contact with (and thus drawing in) new people. I’ve also learned to pull aside the discussion hoarders, compliment them on how well they know the material, and ask them to help me involve other students in the conversations. That way, they get the recognition they’re craving, and they quit silencing the others.” (Anonymous)

· “Always provide for contingencies in your lesson plans. If you've got a group work assignment that depends on having done homework, what will you do with students who haven't done their homework?” (Mia Chen)

· “Sometimes students don't do the assigned reading, so I like to have short pieces ready for class discussion when that happens.” (Margaret Galvan)

· “I’ve found that [assuming students will look up references in class they don’t know] makes them hostile, because they experience it as having attention called to their ignorance.” (Jason Schneiderman)

· “What I've learned: don't ask students any questions I couldn't (or wouldn't want to) answer myself.” (Molly Pulda)

· “For classes where many of the students are under-prepared for college-level work, give examples of the kind of paper you want. Save copies of good papers to be used as examples for future classes.” Diana Colbert

· “Never continue with what doesn’t work. Stop a bad seminar in the middle and ask what your students want to talk about.” (Ashley Foster)

· “When in doubt, go outside. When my class is stagnant, I've taken to taking them outside—NYC is a great text—lots of research assignments lurking in billboards, etc. It also takes the pressure off you as the instructor for a little bit.” (Erica Kaufman)

If a class still seems uneasy with group discussions mid-semester, maybe the students are uncomfortable with your style of authority or they sense your own uneasiness. Have them break up into groups to discuss each question among themselves, and then report back to the class as a whole. Maybe you can slip into a few groups and participate where things are already flowing.

Grading Pains

The typical trajectory of the new adjunct’s grading tendencies: (1) spending way too much time the first semester or the first year responding to student work, (2) regretting and resenting it, and (3) trying to find ways to speed up the process. Try to skip the first two steps, if you can. And be clear about your expectations in the course and with each assignment to avoid later conflict.

· “Think of (and present) the syllabus as a contract of sorts. Perhaps even ask the students to sign it. This way, you are bound to it in the same way that the students are—I find that this lessens end of semester grade change pleas. I also usually put a clause in it someplace that entitles me to ‘change the schedule as I wish’ so I am not necessarily trapping myself, just making it clear to the students that if we both do our jobs, things will be stellar.” (Erica Kaufman)

· “Provide assignment sheets for each major assignment with expectations, formatting details, and a grading rubric, if possible.” (Jessica Cantiello)

· “I never thought I'd be someone who used grading rubrics (seems so rigid), but I've started doing my grades on a point system and that makes it really easy to show students halfway through the semester where they are and to assign final grades at the end.” (Kate Broad)

· “Now I also try to tell students what skills are essential to the current assignment so that I can share with them the purpose of the activity from a teacher's perspective (and remind myself of it too!).” (Dominique Zino)

· “[I’ve learned not to take] too long to return graded work (announcing turnaround time helps all-around).” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “I like to work up a final grade rubric, photocopy it 30 times, and fill it out for each student. Then I staple a copy of it to their final paper; if they come to get it, or if they've given me a SASE, they can see my math. Invariably, students email me with grade complaints, and it is a relief to know that I have a physical record of my math and assessment.” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “When grading, try to open with encouraging comments. (I know it's not always easy. But you can always, at the very least, recognize the effort it took to sit down and attempt the assignment.) The goal is to keep them writing.” (David Bahr)

· “Try to grade papers in spurts. Sitting down to grade 25-30 papers at once will test your patience and make you mean.” (David Bahr)

If you’re interested in the grading contract idea, you can find a sample of one for an English composition course at adjunctlifeline.blogspot.com.

Odds and Ends:

You’ll still have to learn from your own mistakes, but here are a few more ideas:

· “Always carry chalk (or other board-writing implements) with you, for sometimes your classroom may not have them.” (Margaret Galvan)

· “Class time will invariably be too short/long.” (Tali Noimann)

· “Organize your preparation material as well as you can to save time in later semesters, and to make preparing a teaching portfolio easier when it's time to go on the market.” (Diana Colbert)

· “Don't assume that, just because you wrote something on the syllabus, students will know about it.” (Jessica Cantiello)

· “Consider keeping a blog, which students are required to check when they miss class, where you post announcements, journal questions, homework, or syllabus revisions (so you don’t have to answer the same questions repeatedly).” (Anonymous)

· “Take the time to teach basic reading and writing skills. If you assume students know how to actively read, annotate texts, frame arguments, organize their writing, etc., you'll spend time backtracking instead of moving forward.” (Diana Epelbaum)

· “Trust your instincts. If you think a student is making up a dead grandparent or the significant personal tragedy, you're probably right. If you trust that a student needs a hand, give it. If someone needs two extra days, and they've earned your trust, do it. Just follow your gut, and you'll usually be right. And when you're wrong, you'll learn.” (Rob Faunce)

The Big Picture:

Regardless of any weird moments you facilitate or mistakes you make, remember you’re still the expert in the room. Even if you lack the years, you have way more knowledge and experience with academic writing than your students.

· “It took me a long time to learn that all of us, as teachers, are individuals. We each have our own strengths. Learn to trust those strengths and don't try to be someone you are not. The students detect this, and you'll hate your job. Enjoy the process. I've met great people.” (David Bahr)

· “And remember that you'll make it through the semester somehow, even if it's not pretty.” (Mia Chen)

· “Don't get so caught up in the teaching that you forget that you are a grad student. (I think this one is really important, especially for all of us who teach too much.)” (Emily Sherwood)

· “Life is more important than your course. If students miss class or fail to turn in work, don’t shame them or get angry. Point out their options: prioritize school for now, drop the class, or at least maintain this amount of work to earn a C for the semester while still managing whatever crisis has arisen (as will inevitable happen for 2+ students).” (Anonymous)

· “Forgive yourself. The first two years of teaching are hard enough without punishing yourself for the growth process. You've got to forgive yourself and keep on keeping on. And when a whole semester goes to pot, remind yourself that you start again next semester. It's all good.” (Rob Faunce)

Finally, one more thing about adjuncts and mistakes: I encourage you not to give a lot of free labor—grading, student conferences, emails, etc.—to your classes out of guilt or obligation. CUNY gets what it pays for (part-time, underpaid, often fabulous but overworked teachers). Teach what you can, and do a great job, but don’t let the job encroach on your own studies and life. If your paid hours aren’t sufficient to equip students, it’s CUNY’s responsibility to pay for more teaching or office hours. Certainly don’t perpetuate this unfair system by throwing in a bunch of free time; let the administrators learn from their mistakes too.

Grading Contract

So here's an idea (and most of a document) I got from Ira Shor, who is pretty much the foremost theorist on critical pedagogy (check out Empowering Education, the "bible" of critical pedagogy). Instead of just handing out a syllabus with your set-in-stone policies, negotiate a grading contract together with your class. I observed and have copied Shor's method, and I've found that the semesters I used the grading contract have been more successful. During those semesters, students didn't suspect me of being unfair or anything b/c they saw clearly what the expectations were.

That said, here's the process: hand out a proposed grading contract on the first or second day and let the students take it home, mull it over and decide if they'd like to change anything. Next meeting, negotiate, make revisions, sign off on it. In the past, my students have cared about tardies and absences.

And here's the proposed contract, originally drawn up by Ira Shor and revised a little by me (the teacher responsibilities part). Feel free to plagiarize and augment, as both Ira and I happily believe in sharing intellectual property:

Proposed Grading Contract

Please read and suggest any changes you think are needed.

For a grade of “A” (excellent):

• 2 absences ok, but not on essay due dates or scheduled conferences with professor (grade drops one letter for every 2 absences after first 2).
• 1 tardy ok (10 minutes)
• All HW and reading done in time for class (essays drop a letter grade for each day late)
• “A”-level quality on all written essays (including word count)
• “A”-level participation in class work and discussions
• Give useful feedback to other students in peer editing groups.

For a grade of “B” (good):

• 4 absences ok, but not on due dates or scheduled conferences with professor, and not 2 weeks in a row (grade drops one letter for every 2 absences after 4).
• 2 tardies ok (10 minutes)
• 1 HW assignment can be turned in late (essays drop a letter grade for each day late)
• “B”-level quality on written essays (including word count)
• “B”-level participation: do all class work and join most discussions
• Give useful feedback to other students in peer editing groups.

For a grade of “C” (average):

• 6 absences ok, but not on due dates or scheduled conferences with professor, and not 2 or 3 weeks in a row (grade drops one letter for every 2 absences after 6).
• 3 tardies ok (10 minutes)
• 2 HW assignments can be turned in late (essays drop a letter grade for each day late)
• “C”-level quality on written essays (including word count)
• “C”-level participation: do all class work, not much participation required in discussions
• Give useful feedback to other students in peer editing groups.

General Policies:

• If you miss attendance, you’re “absent” unless you come sign it after class.
• Students are responsible for anything the professor says in class.
• Stay till the end of every class, except for emergencies. If leaving early, tell the professor.
• No interrupting, insulting, or disrespecting others in class discussions (golden rule).
• Don’t talk over professor (including announcements during group work).
• All HW and essays typed
• Students may revise essays for a higher grade as many times as desired, but the grade will only be raised if students make substantial revisions (turn in with old draft).
• Plagiarism = 0 on the assignment, possible expulsion (non-negotiable)
• Turn off cell-phones and pagers.
• Food and drinks are a good idea, as long as you clean up.

Professor’s Duties:

• Return assignments in a timely manner (by the following week, unless it’s a revision).
• Treat students with respect and grade according to the policies on which we decide.
• Teach required essay genres, as well as the other genres we decide on as a class.
• Teach class only one time; if a student is absent, he or she should ask a classmate about missed material.
• I will only teach students who want to be taught by me. I reserve the right to ask students to leave.

Student Resistance

Student Resistance to Authoritarianism

I could also call this “How to Share the Power with Students,” but both titles are pretty cheesy. However, these ideas have proved very helpful for several colleagues and me. Drop a line if you have any more suggestions!

During their entire education experience prior to college, your students were probably forced to attend classes they neither chose nor necessarily liked—both by legal mandate and parental coercion. Since they had no official “say,” these students made use of a number of strategies to assert their personal agency in classrooms, usually amounting to blocking the teacher from teaching the lesson in any way possible. Do you remember doing this when you were in high school? Pretending not to understand assignments, moving desks into a circle v e r y s l o w l y , lying to substitutes about the class work left by the teacher, praying for fire drills, blessing the movie days, and so on?

Now that they’re in college, your students actually get a choice in the matter! They can choose most of their classes and even choose whether to attend or sleep in. The resulting difference in student attitude, I find, is that high school students automatically disrespect the teacher because he or she is the authority, and college students automatically respect the teacher because the students feel more personal authority in that situation.

However, sometimes you might still run into student resistance in college courses—especially if you're teaching a required general course like freshman comp or Math 101—but not really be able to put your finger on it. Maybe you feel like you can’t get through to the group, or that you’re a bad teacher. Maybe you're disappointed with the discussions or you even sense rudeness or disdain sometimes. Classroom problems can originate from a number of causes, of course—maybe you don’t care about the class and the students are picking up on it—but problems may also arise because students feel that you the teacher are too controlling. Maybe they think you dominate the discussions too much, that you’re not truly asking for their answers/opinions, but are instead searching for a specific answer that’s hidden in your brain (have you been on the other end of this with any of your teachers or profs? frustrating). Or maybe they feel your attendance policy is overly strict, but they don’t feel comfortable talking to you about it. And then again, maybe they have nothing against you; they’re simply required to take your lower-level General Education course, and they’re determined that the system can have their bodies but not their souls.

In any case, the result is that you’re the only one who wants to accomplish your agenda, and you’re sorely outnumbered by very intelligent and even crafty adults who are prepared to protect their right to choose what they learn.

Forms of Student Resistance
Everything amounts to “gunking up the works”—keeping teaching from happening. Here are some forms of general resistance I’ve compiled from a few studies that sometimes deal with pretty intense forms of subjugation, but can be applied to your class as well.

From James C. Scott’s Domination and the Arts of Resistance: The Hidden Transcript:

• silence (you know those moments after you ask a discussion Q?)
• lying (about homework or even about being happy with the class)
• venting to other students (instead of talking to the teacher)
• rumors/gossip (snickering during class discussions and talking over the teacher)
• daydreaming/fantasizing about being out of class (the window gazers, and sometimes even the students who are looking straight at you)

From Ira Shor’s Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change:

• playing dumb (claiming to have read the wrong chapter, asking too many questions, etc.)
• getting by (slacking till the end of the semester, then begging for extra credit)
• cutting class (Shor includes this one, but I personally prefer a student cutting class over attending with a bad attitude)

How to Avoid It

1. Only teach students who want to be taught. Make sure you don’t overstep your boundaries; know what you can expect of yourself and your students—after all, they just might be justified in resisting your attempts to control them! It is the student’s right to choose whether he or she wants to learn what you’re teaching or fail the course. It is never acceptable for us to force someone to learn something, even if we know it will be beneficial in the long run. As I’ve written before about students who choose to plagiarize or fail, we as teachers do not have the right to cheat students of learning from their mistakes (though, like anyone else, I make exceptions with discretion). What you do have the right to is a healthy teaching and learning environment; you can require students to leave their attitudes outside the class or take themselves outside the class.

My personal mantra for these situations is “I will only teach students who want to be taught.” I announce early on and remind my students often that if I sense that someone doesn’t want to be taught by me, I ask him or her to leave. Yes, I’ve done this several times—I simply tell the student (who is sleeping or sassing or continually talking over me) that he or she doesn’t seem to want to be taught by me that day and is welcome to come back when he or she does want it, but goodbye for today. They’ve always come back with apologies.

Your job is to teach, not to make students learn. Check your expectations of yourself.

2. Immediately put the work of learning in your students’ corner. Acknowledge that they are capable adults who are responsible for achieving the grade they choose. I like to give a talk like this on one of the introductory days:

· First, as much as I would like to believe otherwise, I understand that my class is not the most important thing in the world. Families and jobs sometimes take precedence, and that’s why I give them a certain number of absences right off the bat.

· Next, I tell them they’re free to do anything they want in my class, as long as they’re prepared to accept the consequences—a low grade for poor work or too many absences, a look of disbelief from the teacher if they walk out in the middle of class, whatever.

· Kindergarteners learn when they’re entertained, but adults learn only if they choose to. In other words, no teacher can finagle or trick adult students into learning something they don’t want to learn. In fact, no teacher can stop students from learning either, not with the internet, libraries, Amazon.com, and so on. (In addition—for all composition teachers reading this—Patrick Hartwell argues that grammar cannot be taught in “Grammar, Grammars and the Teaching of Grammar.”) I acknowledge this and I tell students that they get to learn as much as they want and, while I want them to aim for an A, they’re free to choose any grade they desire, and it won’t hurt my feelings. This may not be kosher, but I also encourage students to drop my class and sign up for a different section if they don’t like my policies (or, heaven forbid, me), because that’s a part of their right to choose.

· Finally, I teach the list of forms of student resistance right away. I let them know I’m aware of how much power they have in the classroom and, since I respect their decision either to excel or fail, I ask that they respect my teaching time if they choose to stay in my class and attend.

3. Give students a chance to talk back. Usually, we only find out what worked or what flopped when we receive our student evaluations a semester later, and by then it’s too late to augment the class. Ensure dialogue between you and your students for something closer to a democratic education experience (I recommend Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed for more on this), and learn from what they’re telling you. Here are a couple things I’ve tried and liked a lot (and students have told me they like these practices because they’ve never had a chance to explain themselves or answer the teacher):

· When I hand back papers, I have the students circle any of my comments that may be illegible or unclear in a different colored ink and respond to any questions I asked on their paper or defend their grammatical or stylistic choices.

· I also hold regular in-class 5-minute conferences (about once every two weeks) to touch base with students in a seat near my desk while everyone works quietly on in-class essays. I love this practice! I try to have a conference for major papers and revisions, in which case I ask questions like “Do you feel like you understand the assignment?” and “Do you understand the comments I made on your draft?”

· I have students write “cover letters” to me when they hand in papers; I imagine you can do something like this for tests too. They usually answer 4 questions:

1. What do you think is the strongest part of this paper?
2. What do you think was weakest?
3. What grade do you expect and why?
4. Any last words?

4. Give students a say in the syllabus:

· When you have a choice in your curriculum, let the students vote on what they want. Or if you really don’t care how much homework versus participation is worth, let them vote on the percentages. Or take a bigger risk and let them vote on things you do care about!

· I recommend the grading contract (email me and I'll be happy to send you a copy) I’ve adapted from Ira Shor. Ask them to make revisions to the contract before they sign it.

· Shor also writes about offering students “protest rights” when the material gets too boring or seemingly pointless in exchange for required attendance (see When Students Have Power: Negotiating Authority in a Critical Pedagogy).

One of my own experiences:
I encountered some of these forms of resistance when I taught an English 101 block-scheduled class who traveled from course to course with one another everyday. In other words, they were living the high school experience, and they acted like it; in fact, they were calling it the “thirteenth grade.” The students were shockingly disrespectful in class, talking over me to one another, chuckling over whispered jokes, and staring out at me from behind folded arms much of the time. The implicit accusation was that I was forcing them to be there, but they were going to show me that they didn’t have to enjoy it. I left everyday for the first 4 weeks feeling completely demoralized! I’d already been teaching for 10 years, but I couldn’t figure out why the particularly resistant ones wouldn’t just drop the class—or at least skip a few! Then I found out their scholarships stipulated a certain schedule with no leeway and even monitored their attendance, so they were rightly upset about their limited options, but taking it out on the wrong person—me.

In my case, it was enough simply to teach the modes of student resistance and offer them a chance to address the persons who could do something about their situation—that is, a chance to problem-solve instead of accept their circumstances. First, I wrote a list of the forms of resistance on the board and began to point out some examples I’d seen in class. “This tells me,” I told them, “that you feel you don’t have a say in what happens in this class, when I actually am hoping for much more feedback with which I can shape the course.” I don’t know if that’s the magic formula—I certainly wasn’t expecting it to change all that much—but when I went over those forms of student resistance again in the next class, I got the best student participation I’d ever had. They knew that I knew that they knew what they were doing when they pretended they couldn’t answer my questions; our next discussion was very peopled! Next, I had them write persuasive business letters to the administrators of their program for their next major writing assignment. They had to research their program, review the contracts they had signed, find the best contact, and write a polite but persuasive letter requesting that they be allowed to choose their own schedules, classes and teachers. After that, the rapport between the students and me changed for the (much) better.

It takes a lot of honesty and self-criticism to keep from getting defensive in the face of student resistance, but it’s worth it.

Grading Papers Quickly

As an adjunct English teacher with many other responsibilities, I’ve tried to memorize and apply every technique for becoming a quicker paper grader I’ve heard throughout the years. The main thing seems to be keeping the attitude of letting your students learn from their mistakes instead of micro-managing their every rhetorical move. Here are a few strategies I’ve collected:

1. Grade for only a few things at a time per paper since (1) it’s quicker, of course, and (2) students learn better when they can concentrate on only a few issues at a time. For each assignment, though I may mark a few extra things on the paper to let students know about things they can think about for future papers, I only evaluate and figure into the grade a few certain items that I announce beforehand. For example, one paper may focus on thesis statements, clear topic sentences, and paragraph cohesion.

2. Time yourself. Only spend 10 minutes on each paper; when the timer rings, move on. I know first-time teachers who take up to an hour per paper, which probably indicates that these teachers are addressing these papers as graduate-level work and providing feedback that will be over the students’ heads. You may take a little longer than 10 minutes and feel very stressed at first, but after a while you’ll get quicker at looking for the specifics you need for assessment while also engaging with the content.

3. Only mark 1 or 2 paragraphs. There’s no need to mark every grammatical deviation your students make, since they tend to make the same error over and over. You can mark only 1 or 2 paragraphs, and then let your students know that the rest is up to them. Otherwise, you can fall into editing (rewriting) your students’ papers for them instead of encouraging them to learn from their mistakes and practice. In other words, you might end up teaching your students to simply follow directions instead of write well.

These are only a few suggestions. Please feel free to email me more ideas and I’ll add them.

The Launch of Equity Curricula

With Campus Equity Week beginning next Monday, the Adjunct Project is launching our Equity Curricula in several ways, including email forwards. This is the email we're sending out -- of course, you'll have to email me for the attachments, but please feel free to copy, paste and send to an inbox near you!

Every other year, Campus Equity Week (CEW) is observed to raise awareness of adjunct working conditions and the university policies that shape them, but often the people who are most profoundly affected by this unequal labor system—students and adjunct/part-time teachers—are the ones who are least aware of these issues. This year at CUNY, however, the Adjunct Project is releasing Equity Curricula, materials deigned to educate both adjuncts and undergraduate students, as well as to make a statement to our CUNY-wide administrations: Exploiting part-time adjuncts is unjust, and it injures CUNY's capacity to educate. Please read on and pass this information on to every adjunct you know!

Equity Curricula:
For at least 15 minutes of 1 day during CEW (October 29 – November 2), the Adjunct Project is asking both adjuncts and full-time faculty to incorporate information on adjunct teaching conditions into your class lessons—be it a class discussion, a persuasive letter exercise, a statistical analysis of adjunct and full-time wages for the same workload, or an extra-credit assignment to find a link between course materials and adjunct labor. Simply let students know that it's CEW and challenge them to view adjunct issues through your field's lenses for 15 minutes or more.

The Adjunct Project has prepared "Equity Curricula"—several department-specific assignments (http://adjunctlifeline.blogspot.com/2007/09/equity-curricula.html), as well as a general presentation of the issues that you can use for a class discussion (see attachment). We have also made available a PowerPoint presentation, which you can request by emailing us at adjunctprojectcuny@gmail.com. For further information or to design your own lesson, see the list of helpful articles and contacts below.

Why this is good pedagogy:
Let us stress that we aren't asking you to bring politics into the classroom; the politics are already there. After all, "our working conditions are their learning conditions." We're simply asking you, in the spirit of academic freedom, to make those politics explicit and, as conscientious educators, to pursue excellence in teaching by creating a pedagogically effective environment for critical thinking, a goal for which Equity Curricula is particularly ideal.

Paulo Freire argued that rote memorization is not true learning, but actually trains students to receive unquestioned orders like good workers. Instead, he endorses a pedagogy of problematizing real-life situations—for example, students' educational context—and asking them to assess and solve the problem. Freire sought to foster in students critical thinking, the ability to see injustice as a problem to solve instead of circumstances to accept. This approach is student-centered, rather than teacher- or discipline-centered, and it encourages students to APPLY the material they're learning in your class to their real-life conditions—that is, to become practitioners in your field.

When: 15 minutes of 1 day during CEW (October 29 – November 2)
What: Equity Curricula (see resources below and attachments)
Where: your classroom
Why: create awareness among students
Who: you and everyone to whom you forward this, adjunct or not

CUNY administrators have relied on adjunct/part-time teachers to carry half their course load for less than half the wages, and they have also relied on our keeping our mouths shut about it. However, we're not content with this labor system and, just as we hope for our students, let's act as democratic citizens and change our circumstances by exposing them.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO TEN OR MORE ADJUNCTS, and anyone else who might be interested in Equity Curricula. We rely on your lateral support for this project! Also, look for our open letter in The Advocate and other newspapers.

Resources
Equity Curricula: http://adjunctlifeline.blogspot.com/2007/09/equity-curricula.html
General Presentation: attachment
PowerPoint Presentation: by request (adjunctprojectcuny@gmail.com)
AFT Campus Equity Week: http://www.aft.org/higher_ed/cew/
"The Corporatization of Higher Education": 2-page attachment (good for assigned reading)
Articles for Campus Equity Week: attachment (for further research)

Email us adjunctprojectcuny@gmail.com to let us know that you're participating, or if you are unable to access the attachments.

Peer Review

Peer review, though few people think of it in these terms much anymore, is your opportunity to induct your students into your discipline community’s main practice: proposing ideas, then having them read and critiqued by equals. I mostly hear peer review discussed as a nice way to break up the monotony of classroom instruction or simply as an exercise you’re supposed to do for whatever reason, and I think it’s for this reason that peer reviews often fail. I know several instructors who have attempted peer review and, frustrated with weak student response, abandoned it for a more traditional teacher-centered grading approach. My peer reviews have been pretty successful, so I’ve compiled a few tips I’ve picked up over the last 8 years. First, the objectives of peer review exercises:

• To decenter teacherly authority (a truly difficult task) and encourage student responsibility.
• To help those students who are interpersonal (social), kinesthetic (hands-on), verbal and “teaching” learners (others will learn better from writing it on the board, listening to a song, acting it out, thinking of it metaphorically, and so on (see Howard Gardner’s theory of MI for more on that)).
• To allow students to “get each others’ backs”—to catch an “error” before the teacher sees it with her red pen (if you give grades).
• To teach collaborative learning and working (this is one of the most desired skills in hiring, according to employment surveys).
  

Classrooms have different ends, and should thus have different means. Peer group practices will vary. What do you want to teach in your classroom? Creative writing? Self-actualization? Academic discourses? Your peer group questions and practices will need to be shaped accordingly. What won’t vary is the students’ need to be comfortable and honest with one another. Here is an outline of how I conduct peer reviews of writing assignments in my English 101 class; please feel free to take from it what you can. First-time teachers, just keep in mind that the most important elements in this exercise are being comfortable with honesty, mistakes and criticism.

Preparing Students for Peer Review:

1. Play Host(ess): One thing that will never change for peer groups is that students need to be authentically comfortable with each other in order to take advantage of this exercise. During the weeks or days leading up to the peer review, I encourage them to become friends. This involves a certain attitude, not just practices. I have to truly be interested in my students and want them to enjoy each other.
• First day introductions: I have everyone in class meet one other person and find the answers to a few questions that are designed to help them find someone with similar interests. They then have to introduce their new “friend” to the rest of the class. When there’s an odd number of students, I get to participate too. During the introductions, I periodically point out random students and ask the class for a name or major to quiz them – just makes it fun and makes them want to pay attention. See my post on What to Do the First Day of Class.
• Explicitly tell students to make friends. I tell them to get a few fellow students’ phone numbers for days they end up missing so they can make up the notes. I announce on the first day that I will never “re-teach” a class, but that they’re still responsible for everything they missed. When a student asks me what she missed, I refer her to another student (“You missed a lot. Ask Wayne; I know he takes good notes. Make sure he tells you about the email list.”)
• Prior experience in groups: Warm the students up to the group thing by having them meet for several assignments leading up to the revisions. I generally have at least one group project per week, but it can’t be something completely open-ended (such as “What do you think about the chapter you read?”). It should invite different opinions and encourage the students to recognize the insights around them. I like specific prompts like "Describe the two intended audiences for the two articles you read."
  
• Encourage group solidarity in class discussions: I invite short, personal-ish anecdotes when we discuss readings, and I often ask if anyone else can relate in order to promote “shared experiences” (things like dealing with bureaucratic processes, differences in addressing grandparents and friends as an exercise in audience awareness). I also often say group-defining things like “We’re smart today!” or “This is such a great class” (I know, Polyanna), and I ask about their weekends and other classes when I first come in.
2. Explain Peer Review in Detail
• On the board, I write: “An enemy multiplies kisses, but wounds from a friend can be trusted” (Jewish proverb).
• Pep talk: I give a few scenarios to help my students understand the practical aspects of what they’re doing and to encourage them to be honest with each other:
  
• Honesty is good: I ask the class which they’d prefer—someone telling them about the green thing in their teeth or someone pretending it’s not there to avoid embarrassing the owner of the mouth (and other situations: whether the jeans make them look fat, fly is open, booger hanging out their nose, etc.).I invite stories from the brave and then relate those to catching each other’s errors before the teacher sees them with my evil red pen.
• Mistakes are good: the toddler learning to walk must fall many times. They’re trying something new, so they should make mistakes. If their papers aren’t full of errors, they’re probably not trying anything new. I tell them this so that they feel comfortable with lots of marks.
• Criticism is good: I have them raise their right hands and repeat after me: “I will not be offended today at the comments my peers make on my paper.”
• The guidelines:
• I have the students tell me about the assignment requirements we’ve already established and write those on the board. I prompt them with “Who is the audience for this paper?” and then list the things as they call them out that are important for being effective in that context. For the academic ad analysis, the important things are 5-P essay structure(thesis statement, topic sentence, paragraph cohesiveness, etc.), MLA format, grammar and spelling, things like that.
• I tell the students to look specifically for this list of things in each other’s papers. I think this is really important because otherwise they’ll just look for grammar, or else they’ll give the paper back and say it looks good.
• They make groups of 3 and trade papers every 30 minutes. I often count their revisions of each other’s essays as a quiz grade.
• Those who don’t bring a draft are often some of the best writers (perfectionists, in fact, which is why they don’t bring a paper), and their insights can be very helpful, so I allow them to revise too as long as everyone else has had a chance first.

During the Peer Review

1. Bring candy! Food makes people talk, so before we begin I toss out candy for correct answers and pass around a bowl of sweets (be sure to bring both chocolates and fruities). I think it creates kind of a party atmosphere, so the students feel a little more free to talk and ask questions.
2. Continue playing host(ess): I walk around in the groups answering questions and looking over shoulders and encouraging them. I find they relax when I tap a comment they’ve written and say, “Good point,” or tell the owner of the paper, “Hey, you’ve got a good friend here! He’s really helping your paper.” For other papers, I cry, “More ink! Don’t you even care about this person?”
3. Be there for the questions: I get a lot of questions about MLA format and grammar, and I almost invariably get another student to answer.

The up side to peer review is that students truly do catch one another’s “mistakes,” so after a revision, I get papers that are already on their second draft. Plus, I get to answer a lot of questions that students didn’t have until they were actually writing the paper at home, and consequently didn’t ask, also leading to better second drafts. It’s usually a pretty fun class too.

Personal Research Paper

I wrote a teaching narrative for a column in this issue of The Advocate, in which I described a twist on the traditional research paper for English 101, so I thought I’d include it here in case anyone's interested. This assignment is good for community colleges, where students are often more career-minded and a little less patient with deconstructing metaphors in French theory (though French theory is, of course, no less important).

The purpose is for students to research their own projected careers so that they can anticipate requirements (including time and money) and choose appropriate internships and classes along the way. I adapted this from an assignment Dominique Zino passed on to me from her 101 class (thank you, Dominique; I love this assignment). Unfortunately, I can't attach documents to posts in this blog, so I'm including it as text. Feel free to copy and paste, adapt it, pass it on, and do let me know if you have any suggestions.

Personal Research Paper

Requirements:

• approximately 5 - 6 pages
• MLA format
• summaries of 3 sources due Tuesday, May 1
• annotated bibliography with 5 sources due Wednesday, May 3
• draft due on Tuesday, May 8 (conferences)
• paper due Thursday, May 10

Research Question: How can I achieve the career I want
in 10 years (or less/more)?

There are two major parts to this paper: the what and the how. You may decide to change your chosen career as you research the process to getting there, but that’s quite all right. It's why we do research: to explore all our options before making a choice.

1. Career: What is your ideal profession (not lifestyle)?

• income you can expect, mitigating factors (gender/race, ability, location, availability/demand, education)
• working conditions you can expect (long hours, travel, stress, conducive to having a family, early retirement, vacation time, burn-out rate for others in the profession, etc.)
• type of personality and skills needed (verbally proficient, social, competitive, decisive, analytical, etc.)

2. Steps: How will you make yourself a serious candidate for the profession of which you hope to be a part?

• degree and classes, as well as GPA and requirements for transferring to 4-yr college
• experience (internships, volunteer work, skills you can acquire at certain jobs now that will be helpful later)
• other certifications
• contacts (who you know now and how you can make more)
• length of time required to achieve career
• amount of money required

Caution: For this assignment, avoid diary entries in which you write what you hope will come true. Give a pragmatically delineated plan that maps out how you can move from point A, the person living the life you have at present, to point B, the person living the life you want. Demonstrate how this plan works.

Tip: If you know someone currently in the profession you’re interested in, ask as many questions as you can. A formal interview may be included as part of your bibliography.