It's Sunday night and I'm grading papers - specifically an essay exam from last week on the Great Depression. Due to the recent push for the state ELA exam I feel like my 8th graders are really at the top of their game right now when writing. Of course there are still hilarious (or disappointing) syntax problems, but a lot of students are writing great thesis statements, accurately using specific details to support their arguments, and just writing better.
That said, there are three problems I encounter perpetually: (1) inability/refusal to follow directions; (2) the "pile on," whereby a large number of seemingly arbitrary facts are grouped together in hopes of answering a question; and (3) "the blur," where issues and time periods are blended together and dumped onto a page - references to the Industrial Revolution in the midst of answering a question about the causes of the Great Depression.
Oh, and as you probably guessed the photo is by Dorothea Lange, 1940 near Bakersfield, CA.
No comments:
Post a Comment