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Time Management Via WPA-L
The messages below are part of an exchange on WPA-L, an exchange that started as a result of Jerry Nelm’s posting on after plagiarism. I’ve included the dates and senders’ names, and I’ve added one link and one download link; otherwise, these are “as is.” (gb) Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 14:40:58 −0700 From: Clifton Justice Jerry In your discussion of the plagiarism issue (see after plagiarism) you brought up another significant challenge that my students face, time management. I’ve tried a number of different strategies to try and assist them in dealing with this issue. In recent semesters I’ve worked with students to create for their midterm portfolio an action plan discussing how they will fulfill the requirements of the course. This document, even when a table format is suggested, completely overwhelms some of them. It seems the notion of figuring out in advance what they are going to do and by what date is just too much for them to face. Many of them cannot complete the assignment. What suggestions would you and others make for helping students with this time management problem? Clifton Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 22:51:06 −0500 From: Jerry Nelms Clifton, I’ve attached a handout (download PDF) on time management that I’ve used with my students. It provides strategies. But time management also needs practice. Just giving them a handout, of course, probably won’t help. It really takes spending time in class having them do the reflection practices and the timetable to make any difference at all. And there are no guarantees. Jerry Gerald Nelms Associate Professor, Rhetoric and Composition Department of English Southern Illinois University Carbondale Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 07:06:16 −0400 From: Nick Carbone Clifton, I have students bring in blank calendar pages and copies of all their syllabi from all their courses. Then we go through the calendars and mark in red pen key dates for things — essays due, exams, reading assignments and so on. This gives them a visual map of all the work they have to do over the term. We then go through again and in green pen they put a start date. If you have to read three chapters in biology by June 10, when are you going to start that? The harder part is the step Jerry’s handout gets at, organizing day by day, but I find that having a visual map helps. I also tell students that one of the things my writing course does, and does deliberately, is present them with due dates that are designed in part to help them organize their time. For example, if a final draft of 6 page is essay is due in two weeks, we’ll start work on that essay now. They’ll be asked to read something and to write a response, they’ll have to bring in drafts, do peer reviews, create an annotated bib and so on. The writing course is a lesson in writing time management. As an aside, I’ve found that students who don’t make these mini deadlines, who consistently come in with work not done or with excuses on why it was done so last minute, those are students who are likely to be candidates for panic and being tempted to cheat deliberately or who will likely plagiarize inadvertently because they’re not leaving themselves time to be careful. Those are students who an office hour visit can sometimes help — you find out they’re overwhelmed in many courses, not just yours usually, and you can do something: make an appoint at the study skills center, call their advisor (if they have one), or put them in touch with other academic outreach and/or counseling services if that’s needed. Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 12:31:52 −0700 From: Karen Schwalm Several years ago I created this Student Life Calculator that helps students see when (that) they are over-committed: http://gecko.gc.maricopa.edu/~kschwalm/English101/calculator.htm Usually they are quite surprised by the results. (I used to have them write an analysis of either the causes or effects of the kind of schedule they had, but I haven’t used that assignment in years. Maybe I should go back to it!). I also created a countdown timer for all my assignments. See an example here http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~kschwalm/English101/Assignments/overview.htm that shows them how much time is left before the final due date for the assignment. They like it, but I’m not sure how effective it is in getting them to manage the intermediate assignments. Karen ----- Karen Schwalm Faculty, Department of English Glendale Community College Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 14:50:18 −0700 From: Karen Schwalm I also want to make a plug for the Assignment Calculator designed by the Center for Writing and the University of Minnesota Libraries : http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/ Much to my delight, I have just realized that this is now a sharable application. See the blog: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/jveldof/calculator/ Karen ----- Karen Schwalm Faculty, Department of English Glendale Community College Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 10:06:52 −0500 From: Sharon James McGee Nick, I’ve done something similar to this (but on a less grand scale) in my fyc classes in the past but have stopped doing it. One reason I’ve stopped: Every semester, some students would write on the teacher evaluation form that I was babying them too much by doing this kind of thing. They didn’t like it. Felt it was too high school-ish for them. They are grown-ups and don’t need my time management help. (Then, of course, there were those who appreciated it.) I approached this task as “Hey, here’s something I’ve learned that can help you…” but I got this reaction. So, how do you approach this task so that students don’t feel you’re patronizing them? (I ask in all sincerity—I really want to know.) —Sharon Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 14:17:40 −0400 From: “Bergmann, Linda” Time management can also be taught as the timeline part of a project proposal (which I always require). Estimating the time and resources necessary to complete a project may come across as more “adult” than time management. Linda Bergmann Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 14:38:16 −0500 From: Jerry Nelms In order to not encounter as much resistance to discussing time management, I often prepare for it with a unit of reflection on writing processes. I often assign first a set of questions, adapted from those in Andrea Lunsford’s ST. MARTIN’S HANDBOOK. I call this assignment a Writing Profile. It requires students to reflect on their usual writing processes for school papers and essays. I, then, assign them to write a report on their processes, having them find a focus, what’s most important, what processes they use characterize their writing, for good or ill. By this time, we’ll have had at least a couple of discussions about procrastination, because virtually every student in the class will believe they procrastinate, and most do. Once they’ve admitted they procrastinate, it’s a short waltz to discussing time management. There will still be some students who resist, but frankly, my attitude is “tough.” Students react the same way to a lot of things we ask them to do in school, only to discover, as they go along, that there is value in these activities. While motivation is crucial to learning, motivation does not have to start out as excitement for assignments, only acquiescence. Motivation is fluid, ebbing and flowing throughout the process. Frankly, as long as I get acquiescence at the beginning of an assignment, I’m fine with it. My concern is keeping them acquiescing and hopefully, recognizing value and relevance and thus, becoming more engaged in the assignment as it goes along. When structuring assignments, we need to worry less about initial responses and more about making assignments that keep students moving toward the learning outcomes. While it may seem counterintuitive, I believe that motivation is more important at the end of an assignment than it is at the beginning. Jerry |