In the past few weeks, Flavia, Dr. Crazy and Tenured Radical have written about their undergraduate years, professors that impacted them (or not), and how those years influenced their future, their decisions of becoming professors and their current practice in the classroom. I will not write about that now (that's a long story and I don't have the time), but I do have a pedagogical question that is somehow related to those posts.
I've been going over the final paper proposal that my students in the Civ class turned in on Monday. Mostly they are what you expect. A few are brilliant, many are solid, and one or two are a lost case. I am supposed to return them next Monday, with comments, suggestions, etc. I've been doing that without a problem, but there is one case where I am not sure how to proceed. It is a proposal by a above average student. Ze is a sophomore. My feeling is that the student is onto something really original, but still hasn't figured it out yet clearly. It is a topic I have very little knowledge about (theology and politics in Latin America), so I can't really guide him too much. The proposal could lead to a great paper, but it also has the potential to become a disorganized mess, and that would certainly affect the student final grade. That's when Flavia's post really came back, about being the above average student who never really got too much feedback and sailed through with A-/B+. I don't know what to do with the student proposal. The easy route would be to write suggestions to scale it back to a level where I know ze would get a B+ or A- in the final paper. But I love seeing a student who is ambitious (in a good way) and challenges hirself, and would hate to feel I'm short-changing hir. On the other hand, since my knowledge of the topic is really limited, I would hate to let him go ahead and maybe only get a B-/C+ because I wasn't able to guide hir and ze couldn''t pull it off.
What would you do in my position? I have until Monday, so suggestions are welcome.
I would be honest. Give the student the two options-- go this route because it's more scaled back and I can help you or be ambitious and go this route but know you're on your own. Sometimes students want to do a paper because they want to do a paper and don't really care if the grade falls short of the A/B level. Besides if they're above average I doubt the paper would be a total mess.
ReplyDeleteI would say some encouraging things about the topic, and then suggest that it might be difficult, but has real potential to be very exciting, whereas a more limited approach might be less difficult, but also less exciting, and then an invitation to come talk to you. During the conversation (assuming the student takes advantage of the invitation), you can get a sense of how ready this student is to take on the greater challenge and proceed accordly.
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