CALL ME MAGGIE

The majority of students today expect assignments with finite parameters, clear grading paths, and a checklist of things they can tick off to get an A.

“Pick my own topic for an essay? What do you mean by that? What topic do you want me to pick? Is there a list?” It would approach the comical if it weren’t so sad.

Even though I explain during my course introduction that merely fulfilling the parameters of the rubric will usually net no more than a C, and that to get an A they must write so well that I forget that I’m grading a paper and become simply a reader, my students want me to tell them how they’re supposed to do that.

via So Many Hands to Hold in the Classroom – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education.