This post concerns itself mostly with the reader-response essay on The Things They Carried, which is part of the writing work outlined here. It is also an important look at how the average student handles deadlines and directions. It should be read with both concerns in mind.
Reader-Response Essay: Background and The Things They Carried
We began reading The Things They Carried in mid-November. The formal writing assignments were posted online on December 3 at this address: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3517. The details of the required essay, the titular reader’s response, were posted on December 5: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3514.
To help students write the essay, they were given essential questions to answer by December 6. Three days later, on December 9, they were given model responses to these essential questions to use in the writing process: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3683.
The formal essay prompt was also posted to Google Classroom on December 6. The deadline was given as December 19.
For students who did not do the required reading of The Things They Carried, multiple alternative options were provided: the four chapters spanning pages 118-130; “Speaking of Courage,” which starts on page 131; or “The Ghost Soldiers,” which starts on page 180.
Collected in the formal essay assignment were a bevy of resources. Students had access to an instructional post detailing the reader-response process (http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3013); a printed and online guide to writing a reader-response essay (https://tinyurl.com/maker-readres); and a modified chart to use to brainstorm and outline (https://tinyurl.com/reader-res-chart).
Students were also given multiple digital resources for the novel (http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3514) and another copy of our universal writing guide (https://tinyurl.com/sisyphus-writes).
One of the last requirements for this assignment was to submit a copy of the essay to Turnitin.com. Directions for this were covered in class, included on Google Classroom, and posted online: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=1434.
Adjustments and Modifications: “Speaking of Courage”
On December 17, two days before the deadline for these essays, a work-in-progress grade was posted to Infinite Campus. All students and stakeholders were sent a letter explaining these WIP scores and detailing the current assignment: https://tinyurl.com/stakeholders-121719. A copy of the letter was also shared on Google Classroom:
The deadline came on December 19. Students who failed to meet this deadline were immediately given the chance to advocate for extensions and modifications. These meetings took place on December 19 and December 20.
If the assignment was modified, students were required to read only one chapter, “Speaking of Courage,” in order to write their reader’s response. The essay parameters remained in place; because of the nature of O’Brien’s novel, however, a single chapter can be used for a reader-response essay without losing too much effectiveness.
Here is a screenshot of just one class period’s modified assignments as they were posted:
The deadlines were selected by the students themselves, with a hard cap of January 10, which is the start of Q2C. The complete schedule of GAP panels (as in the panels of a triptych) is here: https://tinyurl.com/gap-calendar-19.
Results: January 11, 2020
On January 11, a complete report was run for all student submissions. This deliberately coincides with the Q2B grade abatement profiles posted that weekend to Infinite Campus for the time frame/panel of 12/10/19–1/9/20.
There are 116 senior students in the makerspace this year. For this assignment, ten students had (or have) individualized expectations — extensions through the end of January; exemptions due to unique circumstances; alternative assignments developed in meetings with Guidance, parents, and administration; and so on.
106 students were, therefore, responsible for the reader-response essay that was due at some point between December 19 and January 10. Every student had the opportunity to request an extension or modification, per the rules of a grade-abated Humanities makerspace.
It is important to emphasize this timeline: January 10 was five weeks after the reader-response essay was assigned and two months after students began reading The Things They Carried. After the original deadline of December 19, we were all off for a two-week winter break; there were no other ongoing assignments for English 12 over the break, given students even more time to complete late work.
Equally important: The reader-response essay is an assured experience for English 12 students. So is the novel. These are two ineluctable elements of the English 12 curriculum. They are required. Even without student self-advocacy and a self-selected extension deadline, late work would have been accepted and given feedback.
And, again, students themselves selected the due date for their modified assignments. Any alterations to those self-selected deadlines were honored. All it took — all it ever takes — is student initiative.
The results: As of January 11, 48 of 106 students had not written a reader-response essay. 45% of students did not complete a required assignment.
It is notable that fully 100% of these 48 students have applied to college and, in many cases, been accepted. They plan to matriculate, each and every one, in the fall of 2020.
That statistic, 45%, lines up with what we know about students who aren’t ready for college. In 2014, most college students didn’t earn a degree in four years; more recent studies have the official six-year graduation percentage around 60%:
The official four-year graduation rate for students attending public colleges and universities is 33.3%. The six-year rate is 57.6%. At private colleges and universities, the four-year graduation rate is 52.8%, and 65.4% earn a degree in six years… Looking at national figures, you can see six-year graduation rates:
– Full-time, first-time students: 59.2%
– Transfer, full-time students: 58.9%
– Transfer, part-time students: 37.7%
– First-time, part-time students: 17.7%
The 40% or so who haven’t done an essay for their English 12 class match up with the 40% or so who don’t graduate from college. It’s why this makerspace leans so heavily on universal skills, traits, and knowledge: Without those basics, students won’t be successful next year. So we use these data to adjust, reassign the work, and forge ahead until we have 100% compliance.
What This Means
Every student who failed to complete it the first time will be given until January 17 to write a fully developed reader-response essay on a single chapter (“Speaking of Courage”) of The Things They Carried. This will be reassigned through Google Classroom to those students. All the original resources will be included.
After that assignment is reposted, separate revision assignments will be given to those students in the 55% who need to revise. This revision assignment will require students to seek and apply specific feedback about their work. The work must be sufficient, and that threshold has been repeatedly defined: http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=2409, http://sisypheanhigh.com/malachite/?p=3658.
One other note: Any student who failed to submit the essay to Turnitin must complete that step by January 17. Turnitin submission is required. If there is no Turnitin submission by January 17, the student will experience the same repercussions as those students who do not finish an essay at all.
As to those repercussions: Students who fail to meet the new deadline of January 17 will be moved into the Learning Center for tutoring and/or have Senior Study Halls replaced with regularly scheduled Study Halls. This has already been explained in great detail in the following essential instructional post:
Feedback: In Shambles
As the student’s schedule is changed, the reader’s response will be assigned again with a new deadline. The work will be required to be monitored by a teacher and/or tutor. This will continue until the essay is completed. There will be no exemptions from other ongoing work.
There will also be the usual gamut of messages and meetings. The GAP score for Q2, at that point, will also default to the lowest tier — to remain there until the student finishes the required work in full.
Thumbnail for this post taken from Brian Kesigner’s Instagram.
