Teaching

What is teaching? Why does it matter? How should it be done?

Master Teacher Retreat

This weekend I'll be co-facilitating a Master Teacher Retreat in the bucolic splendor of Tall Oaks. We've got the wiki started up, and I'll give anyone attending rights to add and edit content. If you've never participated in a wiki before, I highly recommend the 3 minutes it takes to watch the common craft presentation, Wiki's in Plain English. For further ideas on how to use wikis, check out this page.

I'll share my experiences using wikis, blogs and podcasts and other collaborative media in and with my classes.

Here are some links I'll use:

• for the podcast
• podcasts of yor
• Twitter (I'm Kaizer3 and I'll be using the hash tag #kcpdc and displaying using visible tweets (and for those that don't have a twitter account - just enter the hashtag).
  
• Social bookmarking
  
• Google Docs Moderator - where audience can ask and/or vote on questions. http://goo.gl/mod/c33D
  
• Facebook group for the retreat (note: we shouldn't have to friend to collaborate here).
  

Worth the Read: Applied Andragogy

A powerful piece at NPR makes some salient points about education, in the form of a Literacy Narrative. It tells the story of a "terrible" man who may have been an excellent English teacher - and highlights the difference between politics and teaching theory - and offers some warning about the direction education currently takes. The author Alva Noe says:

however depraved his behavior may have been in other respects, at least in my eyes, his practice as a teacher was grounded on respect. He didn’t tell us what to think. He didn’t manipulate us. He exemplified a phenomenon — a certain kind of caring about literature, and language, and argument — and he trusted us to form our own judgments about that phenomenon.

You’d have to be a fool to send your kids to school to learn what the teacher thinks or believes. So said Augustine, who, like Plato, believed that you can’t teach knowledge by telling. What a good teacher can do is afford his or her pupils an opportunity to learn something, not by telling, but by enabling something to be seen, experienced, learned.......Politicians — at least the politicians in this American culture we live in — use words not to communicate, or to argue, or persuade. They pretend to do this. But they don’t. Politicians, like sales people, are interested in outcomes. They want to influence you and they are interested in your beliefs and attitudes only in so far as these are potentially levers they can manipulate

Comic on Teaching

Found this on the Shoebox blog (a tiny division of Hallmark). It's consistently entertaining and occasionally useful.

Team-based Learning: ad campaign

I'm toying with a new idea for the team-based learning (TBL) unit of Comp 1. The lesson uses TBL methods and develops multi-modal composition skills by creating audio, video and static graphics. Last year I allowed greater student direction by letting groups choose their own products to develop. Where

This year I'm thinking of allowing students to take on authentic products and services. I've spoken with the director of the Writing Center here on campus, Kathryn Byrne, and she supports the idea of students promoting the WC, and would like several options to choose from because audio, video and/or promotional material created could be used in real promotion. That means student work could appear in podcasts, vidcasts and the student newspaper, and maybe even radio, TV and more public venues. Any student participation in a successful advertising campaign could be used in resumes as authentic work experience.

We have some material from past classes on the wiki here, a couple classes have used facebook - but that has limitations. See class Facebook group here, but the problem is they mostly created pages in private places that restricts sharing with future classes. Students have also posted video on YouTube here.

I like the idea that education creates a "walled garden" where students are safe to experiment and take risks - but sometimes we build a roof over the garden and ideas wither from lack of sunlight - or root rot. I'll figure out how to wrestle this analogy back to coherence later.

Andragogy - Teaching theory

Many education professors have recommended "A Teacher's Dozen" Fourteen General, research-based Principles for Improving Higher Learning in Our Classrooms by Thomas Angelo. You can find the PDF free here.

It might be more beneficial to require students to read it than to just share it with teachers. It is a succinct and brief treatise on what we know about learning - and since learning is more efficient when students have clear reasonable goals - and when their goals fit with the instructor - maybe it should be required reading. We need to discuss active learning and how it is superior to passive learning, and how that will affect the expectations in the class.

At any rate, my students will start by finishing these metaphors

• "learning is ______________________________________"

and

• "teaching is to learning as ___________________ is to __________________"

Zen and the Art of Cherry Picking.

Road trip to dad's to help out on the farm got me thinking about the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, and how picking cherries relates to teaching and learning writing.

1. The tendency for novice writers to "cherry pick" their data. It doesn't strengthen a writer's position to ignore data that may not agree with your a priori position (what you thought before you learned anything). Teachers want you to look around, become an expert and present a balanced look at the situation, then clearly define and articulate your position. Besides, rejecting too many choices shuts you off to possibilities and limits your experience.

2) "Bruised fruit can sometimes turn out to be the sweetest" (Grandma Dixon). It takes some experience to know what is and isn't useful, so don't be too picky and don't be afraid to benefit from collaboration and judgement of others. Someone else will be washing and pitting - they can help you when you have doubts - better to pick than to leave it on the tree. Just because an article doesn't look like it supports what you think your thesis will be - reading the article may provide ideas that will - or maybe your position will change to something easier to defend - which isn't necessarily bad. Some positions deserve to be changed. That's learning.

3) Going after low-hanging fruit is easy - but less rewarding than you might think. It's harder to find anything original that hasn't been consumed by anyone walking by if it's really easy to access. Like using wikipedia. It's low-hanging fruit: easy to access and generally thought to be up for grabs by anyone - but technically it does belong to the owners of the tree and or land it grows on. If it's community property then it isn't worth quoting. A little work will improve your experience exponentially. (needs work).

4) You think you've picked a spot clean - leave and come back and discover by looking at it from a different angle there's a lot you missed. Revisiting places you've been can be rewarding. Reread research - and search again using different terms and word choices.

5) It isn't about the cherries. My young son helped pick this year. He picked some bad cherries, he provided many distractions and kept my dad and I from being productive, and he on several occasions dumped perfectly good cherries into the grass for reasons that don't make sense to anyone over 3. But it wasn't just about the cherries. We could have bought the fruit at the market for less than what we spent on gas if that was it. He was learning. I was maybe teaching. Three generations of family were spending time together.

Feedback: teacher clarity and millennials

About every semester lately I get a request from a couple students for greater clarity in what is expected in a writing assignment. I expect this because the course goals and objectives of composition classes call for abstract thinking and problem solving. The course calls for me to challenge students with assignments that require them to find solutions, make decisions and discover and determine their own point of view.

But is this a facilitative tension required of any learning, or is it something else? A business publication asserts:

Unlike new hires of previous generations, who may have benefited from training in diversity or technical matters, experts say, millennials need other types of training--in professional behavior, for example, or in basic writing, confidentiality issues, critical thinking, or how to give and receive constructive criticism (emphasis mine).

The publication - and business leaders in general - targets writing as a key skill that young people lack - and further lists some of the top objectives in composition classes. For further articles see my bookmarks on millennials. Not all research agrees. Is conventional wisdom correct that youth are less prepared in these skills than past students?

Furthermore, the issue of professional behavior came up in a recent NPR piece. The story quoted Laura Wand, a director of Marketing at Johnson Controls:

"Dude, dress up. This isn't the mall," she tells the crowd.

With her PowerPoint slides, Wand tries to impart some helpful advice from the real world.

"Multitasking is a myth," she says. "You got a great job. Turn off the cell phone. Stop texting."

The cell phone issue is a frequent topic among teachers.

Students who have never gotten constructive criticism - or who have never been allowed to fail - are less persistent, but there have always been students like that. I remember a student in 2009 who couldn't figure out the metaphor paper and then dropped out of class for a few weeks. He came back and explained that when he gets frustrated, he simply quits.

I feel like if any of my students aren't frustrated by an assignment - then it isn't challenging enough. Optimizing student learning may make me less popular. Higher Ed Morning reports that 45% of students are using online professor rating web sites - and that these sites say whether teachers are "easy grading." If this is a criteria by which students select teachers - how will it affect learning and how will it affect my evaluations?

End of Semester Classroom Assessment: SP 2010

In multiple conversations, class discussions and journal writings, classes have provided me with valuable feedback on teaching this semester.

Concurrent Assignments: Several students voiced frustration with working on a deadline for paper, and before that deadline is reached - having subsequent papers addressed in class. This breaks from the simple linear progression more common in most of their previous classes. While this more closely approaches real life/ work situations, it does demand organizational skills. I'm in the process of gaining feedback from other teachers here at the college. If the majority avoid or disagree with my position on concurrent assignments and have reasons to support their opinions - I will reconsider adapting a more linear and less recursive approach.

Inquiry Learning: while the theory may under-gird much of the comp 2 lesson plan, future students will benefit from having more of this particular andragogical discussion early in the semester - Additionally, regardless of future decisions on concurrent assignments, we need to discuss the iSearch assignment early in the semester (because, after all, the "i" is for "inquiry").

Minutia of MLA: even though it may seem redundant to me to discuss what can so easily be looked up in a wide variety of places (Free MLA handbook online) - more class time may be warranted.

Syllabus quiz update: next semester we need to add questions to the syllabus quiz re: 1) it is possible to pass the class if one of the formal essays/ papers is not turned in (False, it isn't). 2) any late work can be turned in at any time up to the final exam ( if it's a formal essay it must be turned in pass - but after 2 weeks there are no points available and after 3 weeks - or after the final day to drop - a student risks becoming an academic zombie ( present - but with no chance of passing the class).

Concurrent assignments.

I promised my comp 2 (122) students I’d survey other teachers on an issue. In class I outline the major papers and provide written assignment prompts with the syllabus on the first day of class. I also provide a “grade tracker” with due dates, points for each assignment, etc.

Before the final draft of the first assignment is due, I introduce in class the second paper in class and begin work - including posting topic choices and tentative thesis statements. After collecting the first paper, but before completing the process of writing the second paper – we address and start the third paper. We always start the next paper before completing the current assignment.

A former boss and professor got me started doing this - and I remember talking then about how this will likely be new for students and they may push back against it, but that it pushes the onus of time management from the teacher to the student, it more transparently communicates with the students, etc.

One of my classes pointed this out and questioned the practice - and it impressed me that they noticed an intentional andragogical decision. I'd forgotten that this may be new an challenging. I promised to survey other teachers at this school and perhaps other community colleges and question the ethics, relevance an merit . That practice (of concurrent assignments) started in a four year school - and reflected the educational theory and beliefs of that teaching community. It's time for me to reassess the practice for the current student community.

If you teach composition 122, please take a moment to vote in the survey to the right.

Lessons from Master Teachers

At the KCPDC Master Teacher Retreat this year, 20 of the best teachers from colleges in the KC metropolitan area generated a list of axioms or teaching truths: philosophy they teach by, such as:

• Teachers should violate expectations of the students (regarding bad, or no longer appropriate, andragogy).
• Teaching isn't talking, and learning isn't listening. Good teachers don't tell their students what to do, but engage in a conversation about learning.
  
• Bad teaching is answering questions that haven't been answered
• Teachers have to be authentic or transparent in their motives and goals. This means having discussions about pedagogy/ andragogy.
  

We further discussed the importance of talking to students about striking the right balance between: home, work, school and health.

On Blogging

You deserve some info, research and support on blogging.

Web 2.0 in the Classroom has collected an impressive collection of links to answer most of the questions the skeptic or resistant learner could ask regarding the educational value of blogging. The links are organized with basic info on top, and grouped helpfully. For example if you need to know why before you do something in class....scroll down to pedagogy. I prefer the term andragogy and have posted on that - though I have no evidence anyone appreciated the joke or the cartoons. To quote This is Spinal Tap "there is a fine line between brilliant....and stupid." Do we all walk that line when we write? Should we? More on that when I finish reading this round of papers - which have walked the brilliant side far more frequently than the other.

New Open

China and Chinese speaking countries will be the largest English speaking populations within a few years. How new users impact the language interests me. While living in Taiwan I noticed "New Open" used the way we in the states use "Grand Opening." The Chinglish version is more succinct and communicates the same information - even communicates it better to non-native English speakers (NNS) than the idiomatic phrase that sounds right to locals of these united states. The language likes economy of word use.

Welcome to my JCCC writing blog Grand Opening. This blog will share educational philosophy, (aka pedagogy, or the more correct but more easily misunderstood andragogy (no that has nothing to do with androids)), as well as resources for students of composition.

Goal: to post content of use to composition students using multiple modes of expression.

And a bit of trivia: I changed the title because I couldn't decide if the title should read "as clearly as possible," or "as clear(ly) as possible"?

For original source of these cartoons go to http://xkcd.com/