Today in Voices, the students did a looping writing exercise. For every reading day, students have to bring a one-page response to the assigned readings. These are not summaries of the reading, but Thought Pieces where the students write about their reactions about the text. They support these ideas with textual evidence.
I put the students in five groups of four and took a few minutes to explain the activity. One student would read his or her Thought Piece and instead of waiting for their turn to talk in response, the rest of the group remained silent once the reading was over. We waited for all the students who were reading aloud to finish and then I gave the class two minutes to free write a response to what was said. This process was repeated three more times for the remaining members of the group. One would read aloud, three would listen, and then two minutes of free writing. At the end of this part of the exercise, each student had three short free writes.
Then, I asked them to pick one idea from the free writes they had done and elaborate on it in another free write for five minutes. After this was done, the students were then allowed to discuss what they wrote with their group. I circulated around the groups and made notes of common themes or questions that came up. This small group discussion lasted about 10 minutes. Afterward, we finished the class with a whole-class discussion in which we talked about some ideas about the author's intent, potential symbolic meanings and what might happen next.
I thought this activity went really well and the students did quite a bit of writing today. For those who are hesitant to speak in class, this activity is great because they can simply read what they wrote and in a small group setting. We will do it again.
Next Thursday, the students will have their first Socratic Circle. I am very excited.
“An empirical philosophy is in any case a kind of intellectual disrobing. We cannot permanently divest ourselves of the intellectual habits we take on and wear when we assimilate the culture of our own time and place. But intelligent furthering of culture demands that we take some of them off, that we inspect them critically to see what they are made of and what wearing them does to us.” ― John Dewey, Experience and Nature
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Friday, January 22, 2016
Voices so far...
This is my first semester teaching at Green Mountain College and I am teaching a section of Voices, the equivalent of freshmen composition, but themes around the ideas of community. My class is reading post-apocalyptic fiction, which fits right into this theme. P.A. fiction, at its heart, is about individuals who are seeking communities in which they can survive in a world that is vastly different than the one they knew. The books are a good read, not too heady, and offer a lot of variety for class discussions.
The first day, I covered the syllabus and my expectations, of course. I am structuring the course in a way similar to Peter Elbow in that I am trying to do away with traditional grading schemes. I want to separate the writing from the grading, but this is difficult in that 1) I have to evaluate them in some way and 2) they are very much accustomed to a traditional method of grading. I'm giving them some grades, a check system for their daily writing assignments, and whole letter grades for their papers, but the majority of their grade will be based on a portfolio they will turn in at the end. I used the whole-letter grade system for papers last semester in my work at the University at Albany. It went pretty well. I also struggle in that I want them to take the assignments seriously, so there are clear expectations as to what an 'A' in my class would look like and what they should be doing.
The other big experiment this semester is with badges. I am awarding badges to students who select writing goals from a list I provided them. They can be the "Sultan of Style" or the "Tyrant of Transitions," or the "Royal Feedback Bestower." So far, they seem to like this idea.
Class is structured with 'writing days' on Tuesdays and 'reading days' on Thursdays. I like the rhythm this schedule offers and I hope it goes well. Tuesday we will be discussing the importance of audience and genre, as well as how to write a research question, as they are completing their research papers at the beginning of the semester rather than at the end. The paper is an examination of a natural resource, scaffolded into parts to make the 15-page assignment more manageable. It is my hope that they will create a similar habit for themselves when they write for other classes in the future.
The first day, I covered the syllabus and my expectations, of course. I am structuring the course in a way similar to Peter Elbow in that I am trying to do away with traditional grading schemes. I want to separate the writing from the grading, but this is difficult in that 1) I have to evaluate them in some way and 2) they are very much accustomed to a traditional method of grading. I'm giving them some grades, a check system for their daily writing assignments, and whole letter grades for their papers, but the majority of their grade will be based on a portfolio they will turn in at the end. I used the whole-letter grade system for papers last semester in my work at the University at Albany. It went pretty well. I also struggle in that I want them to take the assignments seriously, so there are clear expectations as to what an 'A' in my class would look like and what they should be doing.
The other big experiment this semester is with badges. I am awarding badges to students who select writing goals from a list I provided them. They can be the "Sultan of Style" or the "Tyrant of Transitions," or the "Royal Feedback Bestower." So far, they seem to like this idea.
Class is structured with 'writing days' on Tuesdays and 'reading days' on Thursdays. I like the rhythm this schedule offers and I hope it goes well. Tuesday we will be discussing the importance of audience and genre, as well as how to write a research question, as they are completing their research papers at the beginning of the semester rather than at the end. The paper is an examination of a natural resource, scaffolded into parts to make the 15-page assignment more manageable. It is my hope that they will create a similar habit for themselves when they write for other classes in the future.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
If it's not broke...fix it anyway
Teaching the same course year after year offers ample opportunity for pulling out those yellowed powerpoints and coasting. It also offers ample opportunity to fine-tune, experiment, revise, and perfect (whatever that means in teaching) the course. So, for the third time in as many years, I'm revisiting and revising my Logic course.
The main thing I aim to do this semester is to genuinely "flip" the Logic classroom, even more than last year. I think this trendy term is probably overused and widely misunderstood. Often, it seems to be code for a growing impatience with lecture, or maybe just resignation about attention spans that seem shorter and shorter each year (mine included!). Some of the components of a flipped classroom, however, are likely to be quite useful in a class like Logic.
For example, I've been slowing building a small library of online tools for students. Last year, I added to my collection of midnight white board videos that students can watch at their leisure. These videos show my iPad screen as I work through logical problems, and though students don't see me, they hear my voice talking through the problems. I use a free app, so there aren't really editing tools. In that sense, students get the benefit of seeing and hearing Logic in the field, mistakes, swear words, and all.
The main thing I aim to do this semester is to genuinely "flip" the Logic classroom, even more than last year. I think this trendy term is probably overused and widely misunderstood. Often, it seems to be code for a growing impatience with lecture, or maybe just resignation about attention spans that seem shorter and shorter each year (mine included!). Some of the components of a flipped classroom, however, are likely to be quite useful in a class like Logic.
For example, I've been slowing building a small library of online tools for students. Last year, I added to my collection of midnight white board videos that students can watch at their leisure. These videos show my iPad screen as I work through logical problems, and though students don't see me, they hear my voice talking through the problems. I use a free app, so there aren't really editing tools. In that sense, students get the benefit of seeing and hearing Logic in the field, mistakes, swear words, and all.
I'm also revising those old, yellowed powerpoint lectures and posting them online prior to class. I'm going to try to avoid using them as actual lectures in class this semester. The greatest liability in my teaching is that I really enjoy doing Logic, and I especially enjoy having an audience! So, I could spend whole class periods just showing my students how well I solve logical problems; but of course we know that students will learn better if they are the ones doing the problem-solving. So my goal is to spend most class periods in Logic workshops. Students will, of course, have to be prepared, but the only way to help them to develop those habits is to just expect them. We'll see how that goes.
My other big experiment this semester is in using ungraded "badges." My trusty undergrad apprentices are helping to make online badges for "leveling up" in class (such as badges in Venn Diagramming, Truth Tabling, etc.). I'm generally suspicious of gamification in education, but perhaps badges will help to create community and a sense of accomplishment and belonging (via Logic) with this Harry Potter generation. More on that later.
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