Friday Feature: Why Did I Assign This?

I just finished grading my last summer session paper!! Woo hoo! Hoorah! I don't have to grade any more papers until fall semester! 

I honestly considered making that first paragraph the entire post. But then, on a whim, I Googled "why teachers shouldn't assign papers" and found this wonderful piece from The Atlantic that somehow managed to describe every emotion I've been struggling with this week.

Grading this particular assignment is always a challenge because at the end of the semester, more than ever, the clock is ticking, so I'm limited in how many breaks I can take for my own sake and for theirs. And this time around, I've reconsidered the assignment much more seriously than ever before. 

Maybe it's because it's summer. Maybe it's because my summer class is 2.5 times larger than ever before. Maybe it's because asynchronous online teaching has had me experimenting with less traditional ways of determining whether or not my students "get it." 

Maybe it's because so many seem not to get this paper, which is why it's worth enough to make sure they write it but not enough to tank their grades.

But that's an entirely different post.

In any event, I'm meeting with a colleague in two weeks to talk about how she does a similar assignment for her class and I'm hoping that her ideas and the new things I've tried this summer mean that this paper will go away. I won't miss grading it, and I'm certain my students won't miss writing it either.

Papers are done. Now all that remains is grading the other stuff. Luckily, I saved the most enjoyable projects for last. And, perhaps the key to what to do instead is already in those (virtual) piles.