Welcome to what I hope will be a weekly blog post (EDIT: 5/22/23 that did not happen)about how I’m using specifications grading in the chemistry writing intensive course I’m teaching this semester. I’m doing this because 1: I need to get better about recording my experiences for what I should change for the next time & 2: I’m going for my Level 2 badge of Lifelong Learning in Inclusive Teaching.
About the Course
Chemistry 350 – Writing and Presentation of Chemistry is an upper level writing intensive course. This basically means students are expected to write something, get feedback, revise and resubmit. The requirements are mostly vague so it’s up to the instructor to design it however they feel. For example, past instructors have asked students to write a review of the research in a chemistry research group they find interesting. The students are mostly juniors and seniors and the class enrollment is maxed out at 20. The room is designed for active learning.
Make this a picture of my sketch pad notes for the course
Challenges
There are three big scaries for me:
- I’ve never taught this course before
- I’m going up for reappointment and have to fit in a classroom observation at some point
- I don’t have a TA
The first time you teach a course, it’s an exercise in survival. I know that my plan is going to fall apart by the end of the first week because I still have to teach my (reduced!) 5 sections of general chemistry 2 lab with 18 TAs (7 new, 11 experienced). And did I mention that lab ends at 11:20, I have TA debrief from 11:20-11:30ish, and Chem 350 starts at 11:30? I’m going to be late every class. The class meets twice a week but most Fridays are department seminar so I’ve got 80 minutes a week for this class. I have no idea how I’m going to keep up with reading and giving feedback on a regular basis.
Advantages
There are also three big spots of hope:
- I’ve (probably) taught all of these students at least once.
- Dr. Steve Mang at UC-Irvine (as of this writing).
- I don’t have class on Thursdays all day or Mon, Weds, and Fri afternoons.
I’m hoping the students have a somewhat positive impression of me due to time (it’s probably been 2-3 years since they took gen chem lab), rumors about other courses I teach, and enough experiences with bad teachers that the unknown feels safe. But I buried the lede. The true advantage? Dr. Steve Mang. Not only does he have a paper published about doing his writing class with specifications grading, he gave me his entire Canvas course shell. This means all the formatting, the rubrics, the assignments, documents for students, and documents to run the course (grade tracker, token explanation, etc.) are already there. I’m hoping that losing the other 4 sections of lab I would usually be teaching means that I can keep up with reading and feedback.
This is Steve Mang. I will either be praising or cursing him by the end of this course.
My Course Plan
I did the math to figure out how contact hours at UC-Irvine, which is on a quarter system, compares to Rutgers-Newark, which is on a semester system. Hilariously (sarcasm font), his class has ~125 contact hours during the quarter. I have 22 contact hours…for the whole semester. Not to mention he has TAs. Immediately I knew I needed to cut but first I had to figure out what his course was. CONSIDER PUTTING PICTURE OF THE WEEKS HERE. Let me tell you, Steve designed this brilliantly but it’s also a fuckton of work for the students. There was no way mine could keep up with it and neither could I, frankly.