“A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” -- James Joyce
During my now five-day weekend, I've been curled up with many student essay drafts, spilling out the remnants of four pens (two black, one blue, one red) onto their pages. As a grader, I have two things I try to keep in mind:
1) Students tend to wait until the last minute to make changes, so I don't want to write "awk" or "rephrase" or something that will leave them dumbfounded at 2:00AM the night before the final paper is due. So I tend to write quite a bit of explanation on the pages. (In a few instances, I've actually written more words than the student's effort contained.) My hope is to provide a guiding, meaningful voice for those students racing against sleepiness and the morning alarm.
2) I need to keep a notepad or laptop next to me so that I can capture (a) positive or negative examples (transitions, use of evidence, passive voice) for later student instruction and (b) unintentionally funny mistakes for my own enjoyment.
I suspect many English teachers keep such a list, and I'll share a few of my favorites (these are students from long ago, and they are all in their early thirties now). What we called "error analysis" in my old life in software development should illuminate these examples:
The "I've never written that word before" Error
If you are not well-read, it is easy to have a word in your vocabulary that you know only as a sound associated with a concept. Having never seen it in print, you must improvise.
* I had never before been asked to serve as a paw bearer.
The rain lashed down on the mourners, bowed and whimpering at the sight of the huge paw being borne into the small, country church.
* These students from different religions can help their fellow pears understand all cultures and feel more of a community with all people.
Though they try to hide it with their parochialistic bluster, Pears--all to often--feel so alone.
* Mr. Webber has been found guilty of many Mister Meaner crimes.
No commentary necessary.
The Spell Check Error
For those of us who remember the days before it was ubiquitous, spell check is a godsend. But like any great power, it requires great responsibility and caution in its use.
This from a college student. Thank God those tests were eliminated before I started teaching high school.
* In a multicultural cirrocumuli, students are given the opportunity to study such greets as Maya Angelo, W.E.B. Dubious, and William Falconer
This is really a treasure.
Falconer has always been my favorite author, but I'm not sure why a high altitude, billowy cloud of multiculturalism would be required to read the utterly WASPish literary giant. Nor is it clear how a cultural diversity-endorsing mass of water vapor would promote Mrs. Angelo -- with whom I'm not familiar.
Less confusing is said cloud's desire to advocate the work of Mr. Dubious, who found time amidst his busy career as a super villain to be a momentous figure in the civil rights movement in the early 20th century. He was truly one of the greets.
I'm headed back to the piles of papers, so there are certainly more to come.
This is great! Totally needed that :)
ReplyDelete