Minor calamity

[dr_whom]

Okay so I was going to have my intro sociolinguistics students pair up to write their first data-analysis papers, mainly with the aim of halving the total number of papers I'm going to have to grade.

However: minor calamity!

I just discovered that there's a prime number of students in my class! What do I do?

Comments

[sandmantv.livejournal.com]

Is the prime number 2?

[dr_whom]

It is seventeen!

[ophblekuwufu.livejournal.com]

You might give the students the option of working on their own. Some people do prefer to, after all.

Otherwise, 2s and 3s?

[dr_whom]

Yeah, I'm thinking the way to go is making pairing up optional, but making them write slightly more if they do pair up.

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Were you intending to choose the pairings, or have them choose?

[dr_whom]

I was going to choose (or randomize), though if I make it optional obviously I can't do that. I think what I'll do is stipulate that if they pair up on more than one paper they can't partner with the same person more than once.

[occultatio.livejournal.com]

May I strongly endorse the not-mandatory element of this plan? One of the big lessons I've learned, both from my own education classes and Alexa's recent travails, is that it's a really bad idea to grade any student on work done by another student, since it's fundamentally out of their control.