In comp tale 42, the instructor didn't have time, with their daily life, to grade papers. So, instead of being honest with the students, they returned the papers saying they were the worst they had ever seen. While this may be unethical, they said the revised papers were the best they had ever seen. So this brings up the question. If you are swamped and cannot grade the papers in a timely manner, what is the best thing to do? While this instructor had a good outcome, I'd say that this strategy is not the best way to go about a situation such as this. I would imagine that telling the students that you're incredibly busy and will return them as soon as possible. That is more honest and ethical than returning them and telling the to rewrite to buy you some time. I've had instructors tell me before that they are incredibly busy and they're sorry it is taking so long. In these instances, I understood completely and didn't get angry or judge them for taking the time they needed.
So what are the best ways to cope with having a ton of your own work to do while also having a ton of students' work to grade?
I think if you are in that situation, telling the students that you will have their work back to them as soon as you can is probably a good approach, and then do what you have to do to take care of both your graduate projects and whatever you need to do for their class. One thing to look out for in making the lesson plans is when your own assignments are due for classes. If you know you have some big project due on a certain day, it makes sense to try to schedule their due dates a couple of weeks before or after yours so you have time to take care of both responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about it as a student? If your instructor said he or she did not have a time to grade your paper and apologize for it and said he or she will give you back soon. I am sure you will be fine, you will not evaluate her or him badly at the end of semester. They will understand and they will give you more credibility of your honesty. Unless you did it again......
ReplyDeleteThis is something I struggle with, but agree with M's comments above. I was searching for a new way too though, and if you don't know when your big projects are due yet, maybe you could just give the students the assignment sheets on the first day, but don't include due dates. You could tell them that due dates will be given, but for now you're waiting to see where the class is at before assigning them. Also, you could encourage them to look ahead at will be due so they can start thinking about what they want to do. Hopefully over the next few days you would get your own assignment due dates, so then you could give your students due dates for their assignments. I know that this isn't completely honest, but it might buy you time. Is it ethical?
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