Week 13

Well, this was our second week off this semester. I had no grading and so managed to switch off work for practically the whole week. I say practically the whole week because I went to visit friends in Berlin - friends who were ex-colleagues and so from time to time our conversations turned to "work". Also, strangely enough for me, I did not log onto the Internet for the whole of the week. This was despite the fact that my traveling companion had his state of the art iphone with him and was constantly online himself. Also the friends I was visiting had their two laptops constantly on. However, I resisted the temptation and confined myself to living in the "real" world. Of course when I got back to Istanbul, one of the first things I did was log on and I'm pleased to say there were no disasters awaiting me. Having had a week off, I now feel inspired for that last push towards the end of semester - primarily because I have already started planning for semester break. There's nothing like the prospect of another holiday to get you through a busy and stressful time at work.

Week 12

The first lesson of this week was devoted to students writing their in-class assignment. I did try to make like as easy as possible by allowing a week and a half to read the text on which the assignment is based. I also made the actual task available a full week in advance. As a teacher, supervising the writing of such assignments during class time allows for some time to catch up on administrative work. However, it still means that whatever students write in class needs to be graded at a later date and it's never possible to grade a whole set of assignments in the same amount of time as it took students to write it. And so, after students wrote the assignment, I had to spend every available moment for the rest of the week grading. Although I succeeded in grading the assignments in time for the second lesson of the week, I did not give the results or provide feedback. My major concern at the moment is getting students prepared to write their second essay. Therefore feedback on the in-class writing will have to wait until the second lesson after the Bayram - the day on which students will submit the first draft of their second essay.

Although we haven't really spent a lot of time preparing for the second essay, I often find that it is best to get students started as soon as possible in actually writing something. They may do quite a good job, in which case everyone is happy. However, if I find that the penny hasn't dropped then I will be able to fit in an extra draft for those who are struggling to understand what it is they need to do. So...here's hoping that the concept of synthesis is grasped immediately and we all have a pain free end of semester.

Speaking of pain-free, we now have yet another free week to look forward to. Now that I have succeeded in grading the in-class assignments and because "the ball is in the students' court" (they are working on their second essay)I am in the blissful situation of having no grading and so can look forward to a worry free week.

Week 11

Although I began last week's blog by pointing out that I was awarding students' first big grade, I can begin this week's entry by saying that by the end of this week I will have awared 58% of students overall grades. Before they leave for Bayram therefore, they will have an extremely good idea of how well they are doing.

In the first lesson this week I brought students attention to the course schedule. I guess they don't look at it other than when the instructor draws their attention to it. Most students were therefore surprised to learn that they have an inclass writing assignment next week. In order to minimise the damage caused by this assignment, it will be worth only 10% of their overall grade (as opposed to 25% which each of their take-home essays is worth) and I gave them the task in advance. They have also had over a week to read the text and I gave them the task in advance. Does all this mean I am going to get wonderful essays? Here's hoping.

Also this week students were given the first stages in preparing to write their second essay. The reading of the texts on which the essay will be based is not actually expected until next week but this week we did lots of building exercises. Here's hoping that when students do actually read the text, a lot of what they are reading will sound familiar. As one of these building exercises, students had to write a story in which one of the main characters is having an online relationship while at the same time is engaged in one in real life. The stories ended up exhibiting many of the same characteristics of essays. Although students were provided with the basic scenario, including the names of the characters, some completely dispensed with such details and let their imaginations run riot. The inspiration for the prompt on which the stories are based, comes from the text the students have to read for next week. I wonder whether the original researchers found that many of their stories had nothing to do with the original prompt that they provided their subjects with.

As hinted at above, we have another week off soon. I am hoping to have the in-class writing assignments graded by then and so will enjoy the break. Students also, if they get organized should manage to take all/most of the week off. A lot depends on how well prepared they are for writing their second essay. So, all of us have something to look forward to at the end of next week.