NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/bit/listserv/history/6281

Text File | 1993-01-23 | 1.8 KB | 36 lines

Comments: Gated by [e-mail]
Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UXA.CSO.UIUC.EDU!MARVIN
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 21:47:37 -0600
Sender:       History <[e-mail]>
From:         marvin laurence w <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: Large lecture sections
Comments: To: [e-mail]
Lines: 24

Being a grad student, I hesitate to enter the debate about how best to
conduct large survey classes.  I have been a teaching assistant at two
different institutions and have found that the TA's usually care more
about the students than the professor.  I would plead with you not to
go to omr forms--students get no writing experience out of it.  For
those who are history majors, their in-class writing experience has to
wait until they take  upper division level classes.  At that level,
the professor ends up having to grade style instead of content.  For
those who are not seeking a liberal arts degree, not having to write
essays goes along with their other classes.  In other words, they
escape into the real world with zero writing skills.  I had not
written an in-class essay until my freshman history classes, and I
knew many in the same boat.  Waiting until I was a junior to write
in-class essays would at best set me back a year or two.
    As a TA, my time is stretched between my own classes and leading
three discussion sections of 25 students each.  Usually I graded to
mid-term essays and a final, and two term papers.  It would certainly
be easier to give scan-tron tests, but this robs the students of
valuable writing experience, and only proves that they can memorize
facts.

Larry Marvin
History dept. UIUC
[e-mail]