{"id":108,"date":"2011-05-23T17:02:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T17:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/2011\/05\/23\/managing-summer-school-expectations\/"},"modified":"2015-08-25T17:04:58","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T17:04:58","slug":"managing-summer-school-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/2011\/05\/23\/managing-summer-school-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing Summer School Expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Small<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a lot of work to do in just a few weeks!\u201d says a student in a summer school course. \u201cYou can\u2019t possibly expect us to get through all of this reading in less than 2 months?!?\u201d says a student in an accelerated learning program. Many students eyes bulge out of their heads when they read our summer syllabi. What we have here is a failure to communicate and negotiate expectations. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut Nathan, my academic rigor is not something I negotiate with my students!\u201d you might be thinking. I agree. I don\u2019t negotiate where I set the bar, but in a way we all negotiate how our class will perceive or interpret the placement of the bar. When I\u2019ve taught summer and accelerate learning courses I\u2019ve use a story, analogy, or parable1<\/a>, of sorts to try to win students over to my way of thinking. Here it is:<\/p>\n

A man sits down at a fancy restaurant. As he places a cloth napkin in his lap the waiter takes his drink order. \u201cTonight we have a lobster bisque, tomato basil soup, or a salad. Which would you like sir?\u201d the waiter says clutching a small notebook and pen. The man thinks for a moment and replies, \u201cI think I\u2019ll have a caesar salad.\u201d \u201cYes sir, right away.\u201d A moment later the waiter places the caesar salad on the table. As the first forkful of leafy greens enters the man\u2019s mouth his face scrunches and he spits out the bite of salad. \u201cExcuse me miss, but this is the worst bowl of soup I\u2019ve ever tasted!\u201d The waiter\u2019s reaches out to take the salad away as she says, \u201cOh, I am so sorry sir. I thought you ordered a caesar salad.\u201d Indignantly the man says, \u201cI most certainly did order a caesar salad, but this tastes nothing like soup.\u201d The waiter turns cocks her head to the left, \u201cSir?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Point:<\/strong> Don\u2019t order a salad and complain it doesn\u2019t taste like soup.<\/p>\n

I tell my students that registering for a summer or accelerated learning course and complaining it goes to fast is like ordering a salad and complaining it doesn\u2019t taste like soup. Of course the class is set to a rapid clip, that\u2019s what you ordered. \u201cIf you want to take this class at a more leisurely pace, I will be teaching this in the fall,\u201d I usually tell them. It\u2019s crucial that you emphasize the humor in the parable. If you sound like an angry parent shaking your fist in the air saying, \u201ckids these days!\u201d you will only push your students away. Almost always, my students laugh at the story and jump on board with the expectations I’ve set<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

\n

1.<\/a> I can hear my literary colleagues bristling at my inaccurate use of the term parable. Apologies in advance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is a lot of work to do in just a few weeks!\u201d says a student in a summer school course. \u201cYou can\u2019t possibly expect us to get through all of this reading in less than 2 months?!?\u201d says a student in an accelerated learning program. Many students eyes bulge out of their heads when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1982,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30650],"tags":[30603],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-for-teachers","tag-class-management"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1982"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}