Months ago my seniors started warning me, “Don’t expect any
work out of us second semester.” Seniors enjoy mystifying and dramatizing slacking
off at the end of high school. I’ve taught seniors for a decade now and some of
it is just an attitudinal stance in the midst of burnout, while some is
real.
Junior year is perceived as the hardest year, with SAT and ACT high stake
tests, G.P.A. concerns for college admissions, and many students taking A.P.
classes for the first time. But seniors report that first semester of twelfth
grade is harder: taking the SAT and ACT one more time and praying for an extra
100 points; taking SAT II tests, which are harder still; grades still counting
for college; more A.P. classes; and college applications with the Common App,
writing scores of essays about “Why do you want to attend our institution?” No
wonder seniors want to believe second semester they can just coast.
My experience? High-achieving students (A+ and A.P.
students) don’t slack off, actually cannot despite their intentions to, because
they’ve been thoroughly conditioned—but with a few notable exceptions every
year, which frustrate senior teachers. Medium range students who were working
hard to keep up or who were just doing enough to earn B’s, tend to do less and
less at home, but in the classroom are thoroughly engaged—that is, in the hands
of very capable teachers who engage seniors and set the intellectual bar high,
but not the workload. Second-semester seniors are less and less motivated by
the fear of a grade of C (though selective colleges have been known to rescind
acceptances for a severe drop off in achievement). Some teachers rely solely on
grade anxiety to externally motivate students to make an effort and to do lots
of work. External motivators lose their potency near the end, which may
frustrate teachers but may be healthy for students in the big picture. Grade
anxiety doesn’t encourage innate curiosity or the natural love of learning,
which in many students atrophied years ago—especially in high-pressure college
prep high schools—to be replaced by grade grubbing and just doing enough to get
by.
I’ve learned to lighten homework expectations second
semester; mostly I need them to read pages in short novels (Heart of Darkness, The Stranger, Kafka’s Metamorphosis) because I don’t have
enough class time (200 min./week) to have them read it all in class. Some stop
reading at home, and as we know, some never did (see Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide and Carol Jago on how even
A.P. Lit students can fake it). Nonreaders make English teachers squirm
uncomfortably (I am right now!), but Penny Kittle’s Book Love and other independent reading programs are an antidote,
and I try to get them to read free choice books, like Hunger Games, The Fault in Our
Stars, and so many others, as a second track of reading.
Every grade has its challenges, and most teachers have a
grade they prefer; some teachers love middle school kids but wouldn’t be caught
dead teaching seniors, whereas I like teaching seniors, despite their
developmental challenges, despite senioritis, and despite the lower demands I
find I have to make. The 2001 NCTE book Writing at the Threshold gave me the title for my class blog
called College Threshold
. I like teaching students on the threshold of young adulthood; even if they
talk a big game of senioritis, I find I’m not frustrated with my students, but,
like their parents, ready to let them go and face a new crop of rising seniors.
Comments with differing opinions are welcomed.
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