End of the Year Interviews

Hello everyone,

After a few years of teaching, I developed the habit of interviewing students at the end of the school year after grades were turned in.

When students knew that grades were turned in, they were very willing to tell me exactly what they thought.

You may be surprised by what they said.

Almost invariably, for the first 10 years of my career, my students complained that I was too easy. They said that I was too willing to let people get away with things, and that much of my work was not hard. They appreciated rigor; they wanted discipline; they craved accountability.

It shocked me.

For the last twelve years or so, I have not had a student complain that I was too easy. Ironically, I haven't had a credible student complain that I'm too hard. (I often joke about it myself.) Students complain about how hard I am during the school year, but never at the close, when grades are in, when the students have attended regularly. (Ditchers complain, but one can't always accept their testimony, tainted as it is.)

My interviews with students were not just general. I would ask about specific lessons or literature. "What did you think of that film?" I would ask my cinema classes. "I have reservations about that book; do you think I should teach it next year?" (The book was Catcher in the Rye, and it was often my students' favorite book, despite my reservations. I continued to teach it for the years I taught expository composition.)

Still later in my career, my family and I invited graduating seniors from my drama and AP classes over for a barbecue. In that relaxed atmosphere, at the end of their high school careers, they were very pointed in their analysis and perfectly willing to be helpful to me and those who would follow them.

Now that the year is winding down, I recommend that you have interviews with your students. Use their viewpoints as an important factor in your own self-evaluation. Make sure that you depersonalize it as much as possible. (Never ask a student, "Did you like me?" Rather, ask, "What did you like about the class? What did you not like? Was the class too easy?") Ask a variety of students, but give particular credence to the college-bound, hard workers who attend regularly. They can give you very insightful analysis of what happened in the course of the year.

I am a different teacher than I was when I began, and I owe a lot to the end-of-the-year interviews.

Jeff Combe