Fox Makes Fun Of Smart People

[fox]

i know -- it's a much less interesting feature than datlowen's Makes Fun Of Stupid People essays. sorry. my students (the ones i teach as well as the ones i grade, the former being a subset of the latter) are actually pretty bright, which is why it's so frustrating when they keep doing the same things over and over.

there are three words on this transcription assignment that include the sound that we normally spell "j", as in judge. the symbols the kids are allowed to use don't include anything like that, which the professor tells them is because there isn't a symbol for that sound -- because it's actually two sounds, according to the theories we've been working with so far this semester.

1. in class on monday, no fewer than five kids asked how to transcribe that (those) sound(s). the professor says -- each time -- that they should transcribe it exactly as it sounds. the specific transcription has been mentioned at least once in class, as well.

1a. i've also gone over it in my class, for the approximately half the kids who are taking my class.

2. and yet one paper after another has -- not the wrong symbol, but the right symbol on one of the words with that sound in it and the wrong symbol on one or both of the other ones! i mean, does genius begin with the same sound that outrage ends with, or doesn't it?

(answer we're looking for: it does.)

Comments

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, on exams, when the same answer is required and I'm uncertain, I've been known to put different answers figuring "well, at least I'll get one of them right". But...not usually on homework type stuff.