Stratego.

I'm betting we all get at least one of these emails every semester:

Professor,
The drop date already passed for freshmen. Can i email you before the final to see if you can tell me how much more or less I will need to score on the final to pass your class because I really want to pass. If I need a higher score, I will look over the information more for the final.

I replied, "You need a higher score. Look over the information more for the final."

I mean, that kind of request just BURNS ME UP. It's very much in line with this post from Rate Your Students:

Here's the deal. Know the shit I taught you. Read the material. Stop trying to second guess what's on the fucking examination and apply your pea-sized brains to learning what you ignored all term. I swear I could give you all the questions in advance, and that a third of you would find a way to fail anyway. Stop being so strategic about your "education."

I truly don't understand that "strategic" tendency of some students--the ones who want to know their exact numerical value in the class so they can "aim" for an exact numerical value on the final--as if that were possible!--so that they can pass the course with a bare minimum of 59.6%.

I mean, if you've been scoring 50s on all your essays this semester, and are clearly failing, in no uncertain terms, by the end, WHY would you be concerned with exact percentages on the final? Wouldn't you just want to do the damn best that you can in your effort to salvage the course???

Not enjoying the silence.

I thought for a first post of content, I'd link to this blog post by a professor at Swarthmore. It struck my interest particularly because my freshman students are positively, irritatingly taciturn. After reading this, however, it occurred to me that perhaps no one ever taught them how to talk in class:

[T]he teaching of analytic writing in college should be preceded (and accompanied) by the teaching of persuasion as an art and a way of life. Waiting until you’re in the thick of writing to talk about what makes a good argument, or how an argument flows convincingly from one point to the next, is too late.

There is a whole understory of small skills that are part of being a good college student that are even less often the explicit focus of instruction. I’ve talked about the skimming of reading assignments and searching skills before. Here’s another in the same vein: looking for something that is worth discussing in a reading assignment. [my emphasis]

What follows are six specific suggestions for what students should look for in a reading assignment--things to bring up in class discussions.

I think with a bit of editing, this could become a useful handout. I may even use it as a take-home assignment in conjunction with the readings. I am so tired of pulling teeth to get someone to SAY something, anything, in response to an assigned reading.