Queries

How do different teaching times (length of session) affect teaching and the planning of lessons?

From mentor E.B.

I have a preference for the longer meeting times—when I have taught shorter classes, I really have to remind myself to quickly address all the key points that I need to make and not to veer off course. So I suppose my answer is to streamline for the shorter classes and make sure I have enough material for the longer. I’ve been trying to do group work at least once a week to break up the monotony of the “the lecture.”

I am also more strict about tardies in a shorter course, because when a student rolls in 15 minutes late, they have essentially missed a quarter of the class.

From mentor A.H.:

A two-day-per week schedule seemed to give me more time to elaborate on ideas with students (a single class discussion could go deeper and farther). However, conferences were harder – the three-day-per week schedule made conferencing (in class and out of class) easier.

From mentor B.S.:

[This year] I went from teaching an hour-long class (3 days/wk) to one and half hour classes (2 days/wk). This has provided me with challenges in adjusting my lesson plans–first, I had to change my sample plans from the practicum to the shorter time then I had to change a semester’s plans, while eliminating things that failed miserably and adding new sessions to fit a longer class. Overall, though, I welcomed the change as I often found myself short of time. For example, in-class debates are more effective and I can allow (force) more students to participate in presentation/rebuttal/closing rounds. I also instituted a new form of short response, the debate position response, that almost everyone has time to post to the wiki before class is over. That said, there is some lost contact time. The most obvious instance is during the rough-draft workshop days. One hour is more than sufficient for any student to read and comment on 2-3 of their peers’ work. I have taken to, after the first workshop, lecturing on relevant topics for 20-30 minutes beforehand such as MLA format, the use of quotes, editing for cohesion and logic, etc. Some lessons are easily negotiated in an hour and do not necessarily lead well into others without overburdening the students with reading assignments. For example, I recently introduced the final paper, a task which can easily be done in @ 40 minutes or less. Last semester, I allowed my students 10-15 minutes to write a short response addressing what they view as a problem in their community and a possible solution. The following class, we examined the concepts of feasibility and the stakes involved in a proposal. This semester, following the introduction to the project and a review of criteria/justification, I decided to launch into an examination of feasibility and stakes by watching a “South Park” episode and reverse engineering the proposed solutions to perceived problems. This did not necessarily go as well as I had hoped.

How do different teaching times (time of day) affect teaching and the planning of lessons?

From mentor E.B.:

I would like to say I have noted patterns in the days and weeks-such as early morning classes are more subdued than afternoon meeting sessions, but I really think class chemistry has a lot to do with the overall –aura- a class generates. Some groups just really gel, and, others unfortunately, do not, no matter what the time. I have energetic 8 am groups and sleepy afternooners. It doesn’t seem to correspond with the time/meeting.

From mentor B.S.:

The past two semesters I have taught 1020 in the morning. I have little to offer in ways of comparing to other times. Last winter, my class, meeting 8:30-9:30, was difficult to motivate and I had many absences (which were held against student’s grades) and even many that registered but never came to class. This semester, I experienced classroom behavior that was antithetical to my expectations. My first section, 8- 9:30, is generally very lively and we often have great discussions (sometimes off-topic, which presents a whole new challenge). I have difficulty eliciting responses from the second group, 9:30-11. I have developed an easy rapport with each student individually regardless of section. Strangely, the latter section contains the stronger writers than the other group. While this should give me pause to consider the validity of my lesson plans, especially those which I hope will encourage a free flowing exchange, I have seen considerable improvement in the writing in both sections from the start of the semester.

How do you deal with students’ varying levels of technological proficiency?

From mentor E.B.:

It seems to me most students have a decent grasp of the basic technology, however, I do run a few “clinical” type sessions, where I have shown them how to perform key computer moves via the projector. This would include everything from how to submit a paper via safe assign, to putting in the headers (per MLA style) in word, to doing research via the library’s portal. (These are all separate class sessions). If a student is really baffled by some aspect of technology (and I have had a few that are) I have sat down with them in my office or after class and gone through a few basics. I think that all students should have a decent working knowledge of the technology for school, but also for their future. I love using the wiki because it introduces them to that type of technology, but also demonstrates how easy it is to use.

From mentor A.H.:

I begin at the bottom and walk through it for EVERY project (sometimes even the proficient falter)!

From mentor B.S.:

Tech proficiency has not really been too much of an issue for me. I do have some students that do not own computers and subsequently rarely log in to blackboard or upload their papers to Safe Assign. I have also tried using Dropbox this semester for returning graded work. Many of the aforementioned students ignore the shared folder request or do not bother to sign up for dropbox. While this is a nuisance, they do have, and utilize, alternative means to submit their work to me such as email and our wiki. Usually, however, their work is graded last as I have a system in play between Safe Assign and Dropbox for 90+% of my students.

I had a student last semester with severe dyslexia. He had his own tech issues, but had plenty of support and adaptive devices to assist him. His assignments were turned in later than the other students but that was an accommodation I was willing to make upon learning of his learning disability from the Office of Student Disability Services.

What are key things that first time instructors often forget/neglect?

From mentor E.B.:

always have a contingency plan that is not based “online.” I love using the WIKI as mentioned before, but there have been periods where the WIFI was offline, or whatever I wanted to do via the computer just didn’t work—so it’s good to have a hard copy of what you want to do (or back up plans).

Another thing I learned the hard way is to keep in mind that many of these students are freshman or sophomores. I don’t believe in dumbing things down, but I think my standards were quite high. I received my MA, and I was still dwelling in the land of Foucalt, Lacan, etc. I had to come down and realize that the people I was teaching were not MA students or used to the type of work we were doing there.

Finally, organization is key to your success here. If you are incorporating attendance into your grade, try and arrange some sort of simple system. I would not recommend sign up sheets unless you create an easy way of doing it.

From mentor A.H.:

I neglected ENGAGING my students (I failed to wait long enough for student responses… I was too nervous with the silence). I moved ahead and answered my own questions when no answers were forthcoming. Instead, I should have reworded questions (simplified questions) until students could answer (and been more patient).

From mentor B.S.:

One simple item I forgot last year, and again this year, is to explicitly state page length/word count for the major assignments wherever they are discussed. I have them listed in my credit breakdown on the syllabus but not on the rubrics or information pages for any of the major papers. I have since re-edited my wiki pages this semester, but even for the daily session introducing the last project, I did not repeat this information specifically. I have many essays coming in far under the minimum which may or may not be related to this oversight.

A second item, which I greatly improved on this semester, is remembering to take daily attendance. A simple excel file with class days and columns for assignments will go a long way towards determining participation points/debits.

Finally, one thing I think many first time teachers forget is that there is a wide support network. Most TA’s and prof’s, I’ve found, have been more than willing to discuss issues of pedagogy or answer specific questions on the ins-and-outs of teaching at Wayne.

What rhetorical moves/issues do students most have trouble with?

From mentor E.B.:

I have found some classes have a bit of difficulty with understanding how to properly discuss the use of pathos, ethos, and logos in the ad analysis and rhetorical analysis. Even though I discuss it for weeks, I still always have a few people that say thing A is a logos, rather than writing that this thing is evidence of the author’s appeal to logos.

Though many classes tend to do better on the papers in which they create their own argument, I would say several classes have had difficulty coming up with proper topics for the definition assignment. This year, I assigned a loose topic of technology and it seemed to eliminate any of this hinky attempts to define love or peace or culture. Yikes!

From mentor A.H.:

I think students have the most trouble with the gap between the first two papers and the last three. They have trouble making the shift from analyzing the work of others to EMPLOYING those techniques themselves.

From mentor B.S.:

The most troubling part of teaching rhetoric has been making the shift from analyzing rhetoric to creating it. The best strategy I’ve come up with is to be aware of this future hurdle and lay the groundwork in the early part of the course. For example, this year, before explaining the concept of rhetorical situation, I had my students search out blogs and write a quick response to them. They were to consider the blogwriter’s credentials, his presentation, hosting website if applicable, prospective audience, and specific content of a post or two. The idea was to get the students to think about issues of ethos, pathos, logos, audience, genre, discourse and context prior to actually introducing the terms/concepts. Additionally, I also hoped to garner information on topics that students cared to discuss for future lessons as well as demonstrate to them the variety of topics on which they could write persuasively. This, I believe, lay the groundwork for discussing rhetorical situation and made the rhetorical analysis assignment less intimidating. Also, it provided multiple examples of rhetoric employed outside the classroom on a variety of subjects.

Queries Submitted:

• Establishing authority as an instructor
• Teaching students with varying levels of preparedness and different learning styles
• Mastering time management within class sessions
• Mastering time management as a GTA (scholar/teacher/faculty member)
• Mastering time management in grading papers
• Learning grading norms at the department/institutional level
• Learning effective grading skills
• Determining the role of 1020 in the overall general education writing curriculum
• Helping students understand the importance of the skill learned in 1020
• Developing a sense of (writing) community in the classroom
• Teaching students how to write rather than correcting/editing their writing
• Promoting discussion in the classroom
• Dealing with confrontational students
• Figuring out the freedoms/constraints of teaching your first semester at WSU
• Incorporating your own interests  into the classroom
• Determining student expectations
• Developing critical thinking skills in students