I'm struggling through finals week and wondering why the grading burden feels so much greater than usual this semester and suddenly it hits me: those two extra seats added to first-year composition classes. True, two extra students can't make a huge difference in the amount of grading I'm doing this week, but let's look at what they've added to my reading, responding, and grading burden this semester:
15 reading responses @ 400 words each = 6000 words per student
x 2 students = 12,000 words
Two in-class essays @ 750 words each = 1500 words
x 2 students = 3000 words
Two drafts requiring extensive feedback @ 750 words each = 1500 words
x 2 students = 3000 words
Two papers @750 words each = 1500 words
x 2 students = 3000 words
One research draft requiring extensive feedback @ 1500 words
x 2 students = 3000 words
One research paper @1500 words
x 2 students = 3000 words
That adds up to 27,000 additional words of student writing for me to read and respond to this semester--if they wrote the bare minimum. It doesn't include one-on-one conferences (two required, more requested), in-class exercises (many), frantic e-mails requesting help, or two extra students to haul around on the library tour.
That's a lot of work.
The good news is that the seat numbers for next semester have been restored to a more reasonable level. The bad news is that the people responsible for setting that number seem blissfully unaware of how big an impact two extra students can have in a writing-intensive class, so there's no guarantee that the number won't increase again in the future.
One of these days we'll all be replaced by robots. Meanwhile, I've got 73 more papers and exams to grade.
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