Posted by beardedlady on March 27, 2003, at 9:05:03
In reply to Re: Hi, Shar. » beardedlady, posted by shar on March 26, 2003, at 21:22:37
> I know you could not be referring to the great state of Texas with that "hell's basement" comment...so you must be referring to my new job (it's temp)...grading student essays done as part of a standardized test!!!
Uh, yeah--that's what I meant. (!)
> Now, that is true hell. They come in batches of 40 essays, handwritten/scrawled, two pages max, high school juniors. It's enough to make you want to move somewhere where the leaders of tomorrow will not be able to find you! It is downright SCARY that these kids cannot put a sentence together (as in subject+predicate type regular old sentence). There is the rare really great essay, though. And a LOT of plagiarism from "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul."
Yes, it's totally scary. What's scarier is grading placement tests for adults. I used to do the test for getting into my composition class. Students had to read an article and respond to it. That's all. The response had to be coherent, mostly grammatical, and relevant.
When you see some of the people in my class, you can't believe they ever went to high school! And most of them are older adults!
Thanks for not double quoting that dreadful book!
> I don't work in a basement, but it is a windowless room. Same thing.
Okay, okay. I was talking about Texas.
> Some GREAT quotes. But, I don't think I can say any of them because it's all super confidential. I will say, though, that I was surprised to learn that Sojourner Truth and Rosa Parks started the civil rights movement in the 70's, and it was Lincoln that said "ask not what your country can do for you... etc."
Are you sure they started--and it in the '70s? I thought it was the Battle of 1912 that launched Civil Rights.
> I've been wanting to tell you about the job--I knew you would appreciate it from a grammar and wordophile* perspective,
Close enough. I think it's lexophile. I started to write a fabulous article comparing the top-selling dictionaries. It was called Lex-Ophelia--Get Thee to a Dictionary!
>but working 8-5 I haven't been too much on the boards of late. So, I'm glad you said hi! And, how's it up there in hell's attic?
Glad you popped in, too, and that the love life is grand. It makes everything else easier to take. I think your job's pretty cool (how did you get it?); it must be a laugh riot. That kind of stuff really gives me a chuckle (though it makes me totally frustrated).
I really like Michael Moore, who did "Bowling for Columbine," among others. But his speech at the Oscars floored me. I think I'm going to have to write a work of "fictition." Oh, Fictitia! Fetch me a lexicography!
beardy : )>
poster:beardedlady
thread:213242
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030326/msgs/213398.html