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I always toy with sharing work and when sharing, to what degree to share. My experience has been good writers don’t necessarily gain anything in the process while not-so-good writers are often intimidated.

My biggest concern: the death of what little original thought is out there. If I point to something and speak to its strengths, I can expect to see 30+ papers trying to do the same thing for the next assignment, and for a number of reasons, it never works out well.

The comparing of good and bad is what I think may have made the difference: while many students don’t seem concerned by placing their names on substandard work–or by my seeing their substandard work–there is something about the potential of that substandard work being pointed at in a lesson that seems to make the point. I hope. Please?

I’m torn about the shared experience thing: on the one hand, I’m thrilled to know I’m not alone, and equally thrilled I’m not being perceived as some uncaring monster; on the other hand, it isn’t necessarily comforting to know we are all basically facing this stuff.

I’ll be rooting for you!

I just happened by your blog while trying to prep for a lesson and ended up reading back entries for a long while. This may only be my second year of teaching English at a community college, but your experiences (and humorous/outraged reactions to them) are so like my own it’s uncanny.