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September 20, 2005
Teaching Journal - Weeks 2 and 3
The fact that it's already week 4 and I'm just getting around to this entry is suggestive of how the weeks have gone. Week 2 is always a funny rhythm because of the Labor Day holiday, and then Week 3 starts to feel like something will stabilize. Balance hasn't come yet - I'm still trying to figure out how to fit my student work into the schedule created by my teaching. The weekdays just seem to get completely eaten up without any clear time (or mental power) for my own homework. So I have to be all the more focused on the weekends to prepare ahead.
As for teaching, I could summarize both weeks by saying I talked too much, and acknowledging this as a direct result of not feeling in control of my plan. But it seemed to work, and at the end of week three I am pretty happy with where both classes are and where we're headed for the next few weeks.
Writing 105 was involved in the introductory unit for both weeks.
During Week 2, our discussions focused mostly on their reading notes and research results. After reading Manning Marable's introduction to The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life, titled "What We Talk About When We Talk About Race," and discussing key concepts such as "life chances", "lucky days" and "unlucky days" the students did a database research project on the emergence of "life chances" as a concept/term in sociology, and an internet search on "the color line." For the first part of Tuesday's class I had them tell me about their results - one key thing that stood out for them from their notes. It was a good discussion. They brought up interesting observations and were able to tie them back to the underlying text, Gregory Howard Williams' memoir Life on the Color Line: The True Story of A White Boy who Learned he was Black. They had also been asked to expand on an in-class exercise from week 1 where I randomly assigned the students to one of three quotes taken from Williams, and had them work in groups to come up with passages from Marable that would help them imagine how Marable might respond to Williams. For homework, they were asked to take those results and expand their thoughts into a 400 word response paper. I had them submit those responses to the Drop Box in Blackboard, mostly to be sure they could all do it before the major essay comes due.
Tuesday they were asked to write a "discovery draft". In class, I explained the idea, emphasizing that it should not be considered formal, did not require an introduction or conclusion at this point, and should be mostly about testing what they know and still needed to know to write the final paper. On Thursday I grouped them according to the prompt they responded to and had them share drafts and discuss strategies for revision/organization. For homework over the weekend, they were asked to revise their drafts, to read a section from Writing Analytically on introductions and conclusions, and to write 3 different versions of each for discussion in class.
Week three was all about making a coherent paper with these drafts. They again grouped up to discuss introductions and conclusions, in an attempt to select a good one for their revised draft. We reviewed the prompts for the invention portolio. For Thursday, I had them bring their handbook, an expensive little chunk known as The Writer's Harbrace Handbook Brief (yes, really in that order). I showed them various sections pertinent to final editing, and pointed out the section about MLA citation, which they are required to use for this paper. Papers were due Sunday night in the Drop Box. The invention portfolios will come with them to class in Week 4.
WRT 307
Week Two was a short week because of the holiday, so most of what happed was the first three of the Genre Presentation Project presentations. They did a pretty good job, given how little instruction I had given them. The first presentation was about presentations, and it didn't cover all I wished it had but it was okay and gave the students a good example to work with. The student who got edged last week got back in. I completely revised the schedule for the rest of the presentations. I had set them all up to come in steady succession for something like four weeks, and I realized this wouldn't allow me to talk about any of the writing I was asking them to do until it was over, several weeks after they wrote. Not good for context. So I changed it so that there is only one presentation per class session, and then other stuff can happen.
Week Three was still about the presentations, but I also was able to review and discuss the key ideas that emerged from their initial papers on the anticipated difference between academic and workplace writing. It was interesting to me that they believe business writing to be more clear, less fluffy, more direct - even to the point of being terse. We talked a bit about how different workplace situations call for different levels of brevity or "fluff."
I asked them to read The Cluetrain Manifesto online and respond to any two of the 95 theses found there. I also asked them to read the Preface to Small Pieces Loosely Joined, and to post comments on that, especially in relation to Cluetrain. It will be a few sessions before I can get back to those discussions, because next week I want to work on their cover letters and resumes.
Both classes move into Unit 2 as week four begins. Breathe out and carry on.
Posted by cageyer at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2005
CCC Online site debut
It's live! The new CCC Online site, developed by new editor Collin Gifford Brooke with the able assistance of Derek and Madeline, debuted yesterday. You can read more about it here.
Well done, C, D, and M!
Posted by cageyer at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2005
Critical Thinking
Cleaning out some old notebooks, I found these notes:
Critical Thinking Skills
1. gather complete information - more than one source
2. understand and define terms (make others define terms, too)
3. question the methods by which results were derived
4. question the conclusion: do the facts support it? is there evidence of bias? remember correlation does not equal causation.
5. uncover assumptions and biases
6. question the source of information
7. don't expect all the answers
8. examine the big picture
9. look for multiple cause and effect
10. watch for thought stopping sensationalism
11. understand your own biases and values
Where did I find these notes, you ask? One of the thousands of writing readers published in the last 10 years? A research guide? You'd think so, wouldn't you? I mean, this is a great little list of exactly the kinds of things we attempt to teach our students with respect to writing in both our first and second year studios, exactly the kinds of things the good folk in English and Cultural Studies try to get students to use with respect to reading, so it stands to reason that this nice summary should have come from such a course, right?
Not so. The origin of this list is...
Human Biology: Health, Homeostasis, and The Environment, 3rd Edition, by Daniel D. Chiras.
Who'd have thought to look in a biology textbook for this lovely, clear, succinct list. When I was building my teacher toolbox from prior assignments, prior courses, textbooks I don't plan to use, etc., it never occured to me to check my Biology 101 textbook. So I'm glad I found that note; glad I took the time years ago to copy that information out of the text so I could find it amongst notes I was tossing.
Daniel Chiras, by the way, has written some cool stuff with emphasis on sustainable living and building practices. Along the way, he has managed to ruffle some feathers, as this article notes. Now, if the conservative folks in Texas want to reject his work as “anti-free enterprise, anti-Christian and anti-American," I am definitely in favor of its wholesale adoption and widespread integration in a variety of school curricula. There is certainly an enterprise to be developed around sustainable living, just as there was around wasteful consumptive living. Not only is sustainability not anti-Christian, it reflects sound Christian doctrine, from God's first instruction to Adam to steward the earth through Christ's instruction to his disciples to travel with the bare minimum they needed, and to his believers everywhere lay up their treasures in heaven rather than accumulating things on the earth. Sustainability is also perfectly in line with Thomas Jefferson's vision of an American built as a society of yeoman farmers (leaving aside, of course, the obvious problems with slavery, etc.). It is American to have freedom to claim land (even if not fairly) and build wealth (even if not fairly). But it was, originally, also very American to conduct one's affairs after a moral imperative. That part seems to be missing in much of our history.
To return to the point, though, with Madeline and Becky's recent comments on sustainable living in the wake of Katrina, Dr. Chiras's work seems newly compelling. You can find him here. Other bios appear here and here, at sites of organizations who support sustainability.
Posted by cageyer at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)
Writing
I've been catching up on my blogroll the past few weeks. There's something about that counting thing that Bloglines does that sooner or later just screams for at least a passing visit to the sites. Some I read, some I just skimmed through. This one caught my attention. Follow the link "this little trick" to a delightful site for writing prompts.
I took a creative writing course in my undergraduate days where the instructor told us we had to write something everyday, even if we didn't think we had anything to say. Her suggestion? "Begin with the weather."
That sounds pretty mundane, but I was amazed at what happened when I did it. Some days I literally wrote "begin with the weather" before attempting to describe the conditions. Once my pen was engaged, it was easy to connect to other thoughts, however silly or trivial. Sometimes that's all that happened. Sometimes it was an opening into some really good stuff.
Since I've been in graduate school, I've nearly lost my ability to write. This little find, in this site full of little finds, is already helping. Give it a peek.
Posted by cageyer at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2005
teaching - week one
*phew*
That's how I felt yesterday when I left class. Glad to have navigated the week, feeling like I was either completely off or on autopilot or otherwise not really on top of my game at all. I think I did okay, and my students were engaged, so I think it went better than it currently feels like it went.
I'm teaching two different courses this term. MW afternoons I teach WRT 307, Professional Writing. This course is required for some of SU's programs, notably the School of Management. On the first day, all but one student acknowledged taking the class because it is required. That one student, unfortunately, got edged out of registering for my section. I was upset about that, but glad to learn that he had successfully enrolled in another section. I hope he likes it. Anyway, 20 students, juniors and seniors, some with real world work experience and some not. Some experienced in a wide range of workplace writing, some not. I think it will be a good mix. This week, we discussed the genres of workplace writing, assigned the Genre Presentation Project and scheduled presentations. In addition, they have written a short essay on what they expect the difference between academic and workplace writing to be. For next week, they have to write a letter of application to my class and accompany it with a resume. So I think we're off to a good start there.
My other class is a WRT 105, meeting TTH at 8 a.m. It's a weird sensation to finish a class at 5:00 in the afternoon one day and be back but in a different class at 8 am the next. The week felt a little off getting used to that rhythm. Since the TTH class meets before the program office opens, I have to be prepared before going into my MW class with all the stuff I need TTH. It requires a bit of planning and forethought.
I'm following the shared syllabus for the course, even though I'm not required to, because I believe the assignments are well-written, deliverable, and serve the tasks of academic writing well. The first unit keys off of the university wide summer reading selection Life on the Color Line by Gregory Howard Williams. The campus has really taken this reading up, to the point of potential overkill for some students. This week, my students read an essay by Manning Marable, which is the introduction to his book The Great Wells of Democracy. I became acquainted with this book in an earlier graduate course I took and found it provocative and compelling. I was very pleased with the work the students did with that essay. Their journal entries and discussion around the two texts this week indicated we will have good, productive, sometimes contentious class discussions around the issues of race in this country. I'm also working to keep their focus on the writing, on why and how certain kinds of writing have more authority than others, how the claims in the texts are being presented and supported - the kinds of things they will need to know how to do in their academic writing here and beyond. So far, I feel very good about the assignments and the results.
I didn't have any classroom or equipment problems. I feel good about that, given what Tyra had going on, and some of what I heard other folks talking about during the week. I did have a rather painful start to the week when I stepped out of Crouse Hinds hall on Monday afternoon without realizing it is a step down. I wrenched my foot pretty good, and after continuing to walk on it all day and into the evening, got home feeling like it was broken. So I was a little foggy Monday afternoon in class, and a little bit still on Tuesday morning. I think it's all good now.
This weekend I hope to get on top of what's to come so I don't feel so scattered. I'd like to return to the classroom on Tuesday morning with a good sense of both schedule and calendar (that is, the work my students will be doing in the weeks ahead and the way my time will flow as I move through those weeks). Every semester is a new rhythm; this one just feel more fragmented than most.
Posted by cageyer at 12:10 PM | Comments (1)