A Hill of Beans

Sorry for the late post. I agree with most of the comments on the helpful advice of Bean and Curzan and Damour. I think both books will be helpful to revisit from time to time. Something that interested me was Bean's comments on individual conferences, which I think can be tricky and, if done incorrectly can look as if the instructor is just wasting time. I also think they can be incredibly valuable, especially in explaining some of the comments you've written on their papers. Sometimes the notes we give on essays, no matter how clearly expressed we think they are, are not completely understood by the student, and a conference can help to further explain these notes. In the past, I've looked at conferences as an opportunity for the student to show up and have these notes explained to them, and I think there is a certain value to that. However, looking back on it, I realize I wasn't expecting anything from them other than to show up, and receive my pearls of wisdom. I think that a better approach would be for the student to come in with questions, for them to be bringing something to the table, so that they come in already thinking about their essay. I think that the approach I was using made it to where they probably were not thinking about the paper much until the moment they sat down with me. I also like the idea of distinguishing between higher and lower order concerns, and making clear before the conference, in an address to the entire class, that the conference will focus only on higher order concerns.