This is a conversation that I feel should have happened at the beginning of Hermione's first year.
"You wanted to see me, Professor?" Hermione knocked and poked her head in after hearing the call of 'enter' from the other side.
"Yes, Ms. Granger, come in." Professor Flitwick said, setting aside what he was reading and giving her his full attention. "I wanted to talk to you about your latest assignment."
"Is something wrong with it? I wrote about everything I could-" She blurted, panicked that it was anything less than perfect.
"Yes, I'm aware you wrote everything you could find." Flitwick interrupted with a grimace. "That's... part of the problem. Miss Granger, when we assign an essay about a certain topic, like lets say the uses of..." He flapped his hands slightly as he thought of a random topic that she would have covered as a first year. "The use of flobberworm juices in Potions, for example. The topic is how a flobberworm can be used, nothing more, nothing less. That topic does not include the history of flobberworm usage, who discovered the uses, or the feeding and care of flobberworms. And when we ask for a set length, lets say... Six inches. We want six inches. We do not want two feet. Do you understand this?" He asked her seriously.
"But six inches is really too short, how am I supposed to include everything in six inches?" She demanded, a little hysterical at the thought. She couldn't write that small!
"Six inches on the uses of flobberworms is more than enough." He said dryly. "When you deliver an essay that is so far over the assigned length, and with tiny handwriting that we can barely read, and it's full of ramblings that has nothing to do with what the assignment was specifically about, that tells us that you did not understand the assignment or the reading. That tells us that you do not know how to pick out the relevant information and then put it in your own words. You do not know how to be concise. Do you understand what I am telling you?" He eyed her sternly. "When I ask for six inches on the correct wand movements and pronunciation of the levitation charm, I do not want an entire foot on the history of the spell. That is not what I asked for. That information is absolutely irrelevant to what I wanted you to write about. And what I actually asked for is rushed at the end, as though it's just an afterthought." He held out the essay that prompted his calling her into his office.
"But... the history is-"
"Not the assignment." He cut her off.
She looked down, blinking hard. He felt bad about this, but she had to learn. She'd been at this school for two months now and her assignments had not changed. All of the other teachers were complaining about the extra work she was making them do, but nobody seemed inclined to actually talk to her about it or mark her assignments what they deserved to be for the poor quality of work she was showing. They were too pleased by her eagerness to learn and didn't want to 'squash it'. Truthfully he was surprised Severus wasn't marking her work down for it, but then again his essays were usually longer simply by virtue of Potions being such a complicated subject compared to the rest of them.
She needed to learn now before she got older and such bad habits became ingrained.
"But don't teachers want to see effort? I'm working hard and going above and beyond, isn't that what teachers like to see?" She asked desperately, a little bit of anger coloring her tone now.
"We do appreciate effort and hard work. However, do you see these stacks here?" He held up the stack of parchments he'd been bent over before she knocked.
"Yes, sir." She mumbled, eyeing the parchments and wondering what they were for.
"This is the stack of essays from last week that I have yet to grade. This beside it, is the stack from this week." Neither one looked like they'd been touched yet. He pointed at the pile that was about half the size of the others. "This is the pile from two weeks ago. Miss Granger, there are over five hundred students in this school. Do you see any assistants or any other teachers around here for any of your subjects?" He asked dryly.
"No, sir."
"Exactly." He said, and she sat there for a moment, eyes wide as she started to see what he was possibly trying to tell her. "On any given day I receive upwards of one hundred essays that I must grade and pass back to the students. I have projects that I must examine and grade from the upper years, detention to oversee, I have my own House to see to, I must eat, sleep, plan for the next days lessons, I have to actually give lessons. I do not have time to deal with essays that are over a foot longer than asked for. And that's not going into what Severus and Minerva have to do... Not only do you do yourself a disservice by not training yourself to pick out the important and relevant information, but you do your teachers and classmates a disservice, as well."
"My classmates?" She asked, confused.
"It takes us longer to grade the essays, meaning that we cannot pass assignments back in a timely fashion and your classmates will not know how they have done on the assignment and know what points they are weak on. And that brings me to another point, actually. I love that you come to class prepared, I really do." He assured her. "However, you do not give your classmates a chance to show the same."
"What do you mean?" She asked defensively. She helped them all the time!
"You're constant hand waving? It can be quite off-putting for everyone else. And when we call on a different student, more often than not you call out the answer, anyway, even when you have not been called on. I believe Professor Snape has been quite strict with you on that point already." He gazed at her sternly. Now that Severus had been addressing with her. Over, and over, and over again.
"I just want to show that I've done the reading and-" She trailed off, sniffling a little bit. Wasn't she helping them? The kids at her old school expected her to give them the answer all the time, that was just being helpful!
"I know. And like I said, I love that you come to class so prepared. But you have to give the other students a chance to show that they know the material as well. Every class period I see less and less hands raised when I ask a question, and more and more glances in your direction. I don't know if they are reading ahead or coming to class prepared because they know you will give them the answer. That only harms them academically and it will harm them even more in the future when they are outside these walls and do not know how to find answers for themselves."
"But, I'm just helping them. I- isn't giving them the answer just being helpful?" She was really confused now.
"No, Miss Granger, it's not. If that's what was happening at your old school, then your classmates were just using you and being lazy about their own studies. Just simply giving them the answer is not the way to go. Academically speaking, if you truly want to help somebody, then you should help them by helping them figure out the answer on their own. Give them the reference materials, but don't just outright give them the answer." Filius said gently, now starting to see where some of the problems lied. At least, that problem. "They need to learn how to research on their own, how to manage their time wisely and effectively on their own for the most part, and how to think on their own."
Hermione was silent.
Filius watched her for a few more moments before he stood up, satisfied that he'd gotten the point across. "In class, instead of instantly throwing your hand up, wait a few minutes for everybody else to have a chance. If nobody puts their hand up after a few minutes, then you can raise yours and wait to be called on. Do not just blurt out the answer. I expect to see improvement on what we discussed today, Miss Granger." He warned as he escorted her to the door."
"Yes sir." She mumbled as she walked out, head down and brows furrowed in thought.
Filius watched her go and sighed before he went back to his grading. Hopefully he got through to her and they would see some improvement in her assignments and classroom behavior.
"So, who spoke with Miss Granger?" Minerva asked when she entered the Staff room for the monthly teachers meeting.
"I did." Filius said calmly, satisfied with himself.
"Finally." Severus muttered to himself. He wanted nothing more to have done it himself, but he knew that he would hear no end of it from Albus, and the little brat probably wouldn't have even taken it seriously because he was the 'Dungeon Bat' and she was the 'poor, picked on Gryffindor.'
"Now, really, Filius, was that necessary? The girl is just-" Albus started to say, frowning at the small Charms Master.
"Yes. Yes it was." Filius set his tea cup down with a slight thud, making some of the tea slosh out. "The girl was doing herself no favors academically with the way she wrote her essays, and her constant hand-waving and calling out in class was doing her no favors socially."
"Not to mention the extra work it was giving us." Severus muttered again.
"Well, I for one am glad somebody finally did." Minerva sighed as she sat down. "I would have done it myself, but I just don't have time." She admitted.
"And I keep telling you that you need to scale down on your duties." Poppy cut in, frowning at the Deputy Headmistress/Head of Gryffindor/Transfiguration Professor/part-time Headmistress.
"There is nobody to pass any of my duties to." Minerva reminded her tiredly. Everybody else was busy with their own duties and she just couldn't bring herself to pile any more on their plates. Not like Albus was constantly doing to her.
A few of the staff glared at Albus at the reminder.
Albus frowned, but said nothing else.
For now.
"Let's begin." He instead started the meeting.