reflection on TBL: FA 2010

The overwhelming majority of the class really liked the Team-Based Learning (TBL) project, but 5 or 6 didn't. As a whole the classes succeeded, but there were issues of ineffective group dynamics and missed deadlines. Last semester I ran the TBL unit later in the semester, after a tour of the Nerman and perhaps more direct discussions of the relationship of composition in art and media to college composition classes. There hasn't been trouble connecting the project to the goals of the class in the past.

There seems to be more misunderstandings due to errant expectations this semester. We need to review how college is different from High School (see link for the brilliant comparison contrast by SMU). We had a quiz over this the first week. For example

Professors may not follow the textbook. Instead, to amplify the text, they may give illustrations, provide background information, or discuss research about the topic you are studying. Or they may expect you to relate the classes to the textbook readings....Professors expect you to think about and synthesize seemingly unrelated topics.

It surprised me that several students said they didn't learn anything about composition from the TBL project. That was on the rubric as a goal.

High schoolers read short assignments, and can expect the teacher to cover the homework and explain it. In fact many don't need do assigned readings, but will expect the teacher to correct or explain missed homework. In college the onus is on the student.

Also, high school teachers will remind you when you don't turn in work, and when assignments are due. That's not the expectation of a college teacher. I have been doing this, but it seems wrong and unfair because 5% of the students take up almost 50% of my time and cause 85% of the aggravation. And it bothers me that some students who appear to be struggling haven't come to see me, even when I ask them to. The SMU site goes on to say:

[In High School] teachers approach you if they believe you need assistance. [While college] professors are usually open and helpful, but most expect you to initiate contact if you need assistance.

Also

[High School] teachers are often available for conversation before, during, or after class. [But college] professors expect and want you to attend their scheduled office hours.

Composition classes are gateway classes. Much of what we teach in Comp 1 is really academic readiness or life skills. In Mary Sherry's "In Praise of the F Word," she argues that for real learning to happen, failure has to be an option. This may not happen in high school if you show up most of the time, but it the work world, and in college failure happens and we learn from it.

3 people complained that they did too much of the work, and that it caused resentment or friction. Comments made by others in their groups lend credibility to their concerns. Because these were students identified by their teammates as leaders and hard workers, it rings true. Several of the harder working students complained that people in their group "goofed around on the computer" during class instead of staying on task and getting work done in the classroom. This is the first time I've run this project in a full computer lab. This bears study.

Most groups had problems meeting outside of class and this caused friction, which interests me because I instructed for all work to be done on campus during scheduled class time. Groups made inappropriate use of classtime, assuming they could meet outside of class. This happened last semester too. I talked about it in class.

Several groups didn't submit readable/viewable video. I offered use of my camera - no one said they needed it.

1/3 said the amount of time was appropriate, and 1/2 said they needed more time. Many of the people who said the amount of time was appropriate (or in one case too long) come from groups that didn't produce functional video and missed other deadlines.

At the begining of the semester we did an icebreaker where we chose what we would be if we had to be reincarnated. I disproporianate number of both my classes chose power-dominant images. In the decade or more I've been doing this icebreaker I've only had this many power-dominant images chosen twice. Both times it was a challenge to teach the class, but in one case the class experience was ultimately one of the most rewarding teaching experiences I've had.

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?

advice to myself - what I'll do differently next semester

We will

1. establish the role of wikipedia (ie. anything there should be considered common knowledge, so it doesn't make an effective quote in a real research paper - but can make useful footnotes for electronic discussions).
   
2. likewise: queries to ask.com or about.com can be a useful place to start a personal journey of discovery - but are ineffective citations in a respectable essay. These sources function more as an appeal to an authority than legitimate research - and the authority is a search engine.
   
3. dedicate more class time earlier to the iSearch, and discuss cognitive biases and credibility earlier - making ourselves accountable. We still see too much cherry picking and insubstantial research.
4. restrict ourselves to documents and data available through the Billington Library or through the internet without fee or registration - so anyone can track down other people's data.
5. increase the penalty for papers that fall short of minimum length requirements.
6. consider increasing the amount of points given/ received by peers. Classmates are amazingly accurate in peer assessments.
   

I also need to share more learning styles/ life skills content early on. NEED TO COVER IN CLASS "How college is different from High School."

Also, here's an interesting and counter-intuitive video from Stephen Fry on "what I wish I'd known when I was 18." Not sure I agree with all of it - but he makes some good points.

On End of Semester Assessments.

My reviews on ratemyprofessor.com have been pretty good, but some of the comments have been bewildering and contradictory, but it could be worse - considering a response another teacher got (courtesy Huffington Post). The student was wicked clever and brutally cutting. Ah... the joy of anonymity.

Grading papers

I don't enjoy figuring grades. I'm a score keeper - I don't "give grades," but the truth is I want people to get good grades. I can not reward those who ignore the assignment prompt though, and it's hard not to get a little annoyed when someone does those little things I've harped on all semester, like:

• misuse block quotes - in format please - otherwise it's mondo confusing.
• display obliviousness to the "that vs. who" distinction. If you're referring to a human, use who. "That" implies a thing (or maybe a non-sentient animal?). See Grammar Girl for elaboration.
• ignore minimum page lengths. They are there for a reason. Many teachers will simply fail any paper that comes up short. Maybe that's what I need to do.
  

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).

Student evaluations of my teaching 2009

Because it has been my first semester at a new school, with new textbooks, a unique student population and new administrative systems and procedures for me to learn, I've erred on the side of flexibility, communication and student support. I've: extended deadlines at signs of confusion and readdressed assignments, sent more email to students regarding performance than ever in my past 14 years of teaching, and even called at risk students at home. This is in addition to a wiki site with tons of content and this blog - which has had 37 posts over a 16 week period - more than twice a week I've published relevant information, shared feedback and offered an opportunity for student feedback and collaboration. I gathered feedback at midterm and over the last 2 weeks - here is some of what I've learned.

• Students didn't know I have chronic asthma. Frequent deep breaths can be interpreted as sighs - students who paid no attention to my breathing suddenly become quite sensitive to it after a paper get's handed in or a question is asked. I heard this once before from a faculty peer observer who didn't know me well. I need to warn students so they don't confuse respiration with exasperation.
  
• Those who used the blog loved it - but when I asked "what did you think of the blog, wiki and podcast" many said, "What? You have a blog?" Every week (and after every new post) I'd show it on the projector - but still I need to brainstorm ways to advertise it as a resource and how to get students to comment.
• We like the wiki - but the organization stinks. For the record it is a collaborative space managed by students. I agree it's a mess, but that mess is a community effort and a community responsibility. In retrospect my name shouldn't appear in the link address. I thought when I created the first page my name would help identify it for students - but reflecting now it might make it seem more teacher-owned than student-owned. It might also reveal personal ego/ hubris.
  
• Students don't seem to appreciate getting phone calls when they miss several classes/ required work - though a text message would be appreciated. From my perspective the calling took a lot of time, and didn't seem effective. The one or two people who did come back to class after getting a phone call disappeared again. It might have actually saved the success of one student - but he did react as though he felt the call was intrusive.
  

Responses to the MicroLab assessment

The numbers generated from the Microlab assessment should not be compared to grades. 76 was the high score in my combined comp 1 classes and that's the high score I've seen as a writing center tutor as well. That doesn't mean that person got or would get a C grammar grade.

• this is a writing class -
• grammar isn't graded separately -

The consistent confusion reveals how powerful grades are. No matter what instructors or the Writing Center tells us, we reduce all feedback to a letter grade. If we get a number we quickly convert it. Maybe the assessment shouldn't report % scores to students.

Haven't seen much specific reflection by students. I've given some specific feedback on grammar and mechanics (including: s-v agreement, sentence boundary issues, unclear antecedents (pronouns) and misplaced modifiers, word choice, style, etc.). The microlab gives similarly specific feedback, but I have seen little specific grammar discussion in the reflections so far. It's as though we aren't reading our instructor's comments or looking beyond an arbitrary number on the microlab assessment.

Many in our classes - myself included - have expressed concern that this assessment is not fair for non-native English speaking (NNS) students. 3 of the top 5 scores in our classes came from NNS.

Some note that the school and the teacher needs this assessment information. I'd been thinking it was to the students' benefit and I'd ignored the institutional role. The WC does collect a copy of the sheets tho don't they? And the information is reported to the instructor. The former is likely because student's lose things, and if the WC keeps a copy you won't have to retake the assessment. The latter is because if the info weren't reported to the instructor - no one would do it.

Parting thoughts...

1. Grammar can not be divorced from language and composition.
2. The institution doesn't care about your individual results - or shouldn't.
3. Teachers need to do a better job helping individual students need to learn better how to use the feedback. It's a tool - not a means of validation or personal criticism.

MidTerm Class Assessment

In looking at the class feedback on how things are going, I am impressed with the overall maturity and reflection in the feedback. In response to the prompt

What has been the most challenging/ what course objectives need further
exploration/ what directions should we toward?

Responses fell in to the following areas.

• big ups for: group work/ ad campaign: 6
• favorite class. Perfect pace: 5
• grammar/ structure/ mechanics: 4 (What are comma splices)
• technology /tech learning curve (wiki/angel): 4
• organization: 4 (thesis, transitions,
• peer feedback/ revision: 4
• literature (poetry/short story): 3
• research/ citing sources/evaluating resources: 3
• group work can suck if your group doesn't click: 3
• I hate getting out of bed so early in the morning: 3
• thinking of what to write about : I
• not challenging enough. Faster pace/ more homework: I
• group work was most frustrating but most fun. : I
• should not have to write on subjects we don't like: I
• want to know where grade is - use Angel Gradebook?: I