Oct 23 2008
college field trip
I hope you found your day at UNH valuable. I’m hoping we can discuss the field trip experience on the blog, since we’ll likely run out of time to fully hear from everyone during class. In particular, I’m hoping you’ll reflect on how well we are preparing our students to succeed in college. What insights did you get from having lunch with our alumni or watching the class and wondering about what students were asked to do?
I look forward to reading your responses…
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Wednesday, October 22nd UNH:
As I sat in a first year English composition class I became increasingly disappointed with my environs. I had expectations of a becoming witness to a dramatic shift in teaching methodology and the use of technology tools to improve student writing on the university level.
The classroom was devoid of any technology and the old cramped student desks were good companions to the small size of the now overcrowded and poorly maintained room. Before the class began, I had an opportunity to discuss which type of technology tools the professor used in her class and I was told that past attempts to use technology had resulted in disappointment. She succinctly stated that, “technology doesn’t always work,” and went on to say it was hard enough to keep up with the class work without wrestling with technology. While consciously restraining the shock from escaping my pedagogic façade, I quickly continued my inquiry asking, “How do students hand in their assignments?” I was told that they were required to hand in paper copies. The reasoning was again because, too many times students use technology’s failure as an excuse, the “I lost my USB drive,” or “I spilled coffee on my laptop” seems to have replaced the homework hungry dog. The professor went on to explain, “I don’t own a laptop and cannot grade the papers while away from my office here on the campus.”
The main purpose of my visit was to evaluate student literacy and how I might help prepare students in my classes for higher learning requirements of college. At the same time I was evaluating the use of 21st century technology tools by the professors.
As I continued to observe, the professor handed out a photocopy of expectations for the newly assigned “researched persuasive essay.” During her lecture she asked students to take out their notebooks while she positioned an antediluvian overhead projector in the middle of this acutely asymmetrical room. The stand for the overhead projector quietly protested while being moved with squeals and shutters coming from it aged frame. Upon hearing the ensuing cries I became disoriented and found myself back in 1976 in my own English composition class.
As I scanned for student participation I noted that about 50% of students were engaged in note taking, the others seemed disengaged or bored. As I carefully typed my notes onto my laptop I could feel the computer slide on the small wooden tongue of the desk and wondered if that might be a reason none of the 24 students in attendance had a laptop. Or perhaps it was the lack of use by the professor which had an effect on the usage.
Students were then asked to discuss a paper written by a UNH professor, and hopefully previously read, that concerned the circle of poverty where some people find themselves trapped. The irony of the topic and my observation was, I believe, apparent only to me.
The professor asked for opinions about where the thesis statement could be found. The open dialog seemed to awaken the slumbering student body and a quick analysis confirmed that a large majority of students were now actively engaged.
There were a couple of references to online resources and it was determined that the use of “EazyBib.com” and “iTunes U.” were acceptable in the preparation of the student’s paper. Apparently, several of the students were already preparing to slip back into their digital worlds once this class ended. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that this class ended back in 1976.
The second class I observed was a technical writing class. This class was held in a computer lab and attended by 19 students. The teacher used Blackboard, eBooks and PowerPoint in his lecture. The first PowerPoint presentation provided information on an update to the syllabus. Every student in the class had logged onto Blackboard at their desks and appeared to be following along as the professor detailed the changes. Only one student was also taking written notes. What followed was a discussion on the collaborative final project, how to setup teams, the selection of a project manager, and how to communicate the progress of the groups in regular memos via Blackboard. Clear expectations were posted on Blackboard as to the required contents of the next progress memo. Team name, logo, scheduled meeting times and team member information, were a few of the requirements. The use of Adobe InDesign was a project requirement. Teams needed to find a non-profit “client” and develop real world solutions to address their specific needs while taking into consideration the software, budget, and time line restrictions of the “client.”
After the 25 minutes lecture, a writing prompt appeared on the screen and even though there was an auditable sigh from all present, the clicking of keyboards was an impressive indication of student participation. A lively dialog ensued where students shared the high and low points of previous group project experiences, which was the subject of the writing prompt.
Toward the end of the class the professor projected a page from the text via “ebooks.com” and referenced several of the suggested possible structures for group formation.
I my opinion the technical writing professor had used technology and telecommunications to create a leaning environment that required students to become more responsible for their own learning. This model of teaching will take time to be assimilated by other teachers, but it is reassuring that the innovators (Rogers, 2003) have arrived.
References
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations, fifth edition. Simon and Schuster.
I was actually very surprised by my visit to UNH as well today. Before class she explained to us that they have been working on the structures of a persuasive essay for about a month now. In today’s class they were going to be creating simple arguments in preparation for counter-arguments on Friday. The teacher also said she felt most students come to class prepared and at an honors level and that only 5 or 6 students are usually below the level required.
The teacher started the class by assigning each student a number between 1 and 4 and then had them break into groups. She then had each group pick either a ring pop or chocolate bar. The assignment was to write ten supporting statements about their product. Once the ten were written they had to finding the other group with their product and combine into a larger group and share their statements. The teacher then directed the two groups to create a thesis statement supporting their product and write a single paragraph argument defending their product.
We witnessed very interesting group work. The chocolate group was comprised of 5 boys and 2 girls and the ring pop group was comprised of 7 girls and 1 boy. The ring pop group was very efficient coming up with their arguments and working on their argument. This group coincidentally was lead by the boy. This boy also brought up the point that both groups should have the same target audience so they decided on college freshman.
The chocolate group required far more attention and support from the teacher. Dominated by men, and led by a girl the boys kept bringing up inappropriate topics and using inappropriate language. I was very shocked that the teacher did not address this behavior and let them continue to try and use inappropriate language. At the end of class she said this was the first the boys had done that and that it was very rare that college students act like that. I guess it took her by surprise but i really do think no matter what grade that behavior should be addressed. Despite the efforts of a few students to keep these boys on task the teacher did have to help guide them and this group really did not get a lot done.
I liked the overall concept of the idea and using the candy. This is something i do with my drama class – but usually without the writing component so i think i will add the writing next semester when i teach this. I did witness common teaching strategies from the teacher which included activating background knowledge, setting specific goals, challenging ideas and offering different points of view, and random class groupings. I was hoping to see some new techniques and strategies.
As far as the students-I think they did well with the project. The seemed interested and when asked to discuss their products and create supporting arguments they did very well. They all seemed to work well in the small groups with the exception of the boy who was home schooled and pushed the boundaries the whole class. Some facts they used during discussions were brand recognition, nutritional value, entertainment value, and endorsements. I thought the students overall did a descent job, but i also feel the teacher could have addressed the inappropriate or straying behavior more.
As far as meeting with students at lunch most of them said they felt prepared for their classes in college. One of their biggest issues was time management, not so much literacy skills. Some areas they said could use some more attention were using citations in their writing, grammar skills, and the volume of reading that is required in HS vs. College. They also said their Senior year English class was the most helpful and that it was that class that really prepared them for college which I think is helpful for our teachers to know. They also mentioned that the teachers that were really passionate were that most influential and had the most impact on their education. I couldn’t agree more with that statement.
I think Kennett is doing a good job preparing our students for college. The students we talked to seemed happy and said they feel they were well prepared for the most part. The only concern i had was the students we met with seemed like they were overall good students primarily enrolled in honors classes in high school. I wonder how students that may not have been as motivated as these students did in their college experience. Do they feel like they were prepared enough?
Thanks for your thoughtful responses, Dan and Holly.
I had a terrific experience on my field trip. I met my son for lunch at The Bagelry where I used to meet my friend Don Murray. Nice reminiscing over a hot bagel…mmmmmmm. Read the new edition of the UNH paper… then off to his Issues in Journalism class.
It is a class for juniors and seniors who are Journalism majors. It meets in the Donald Murray Laboratory Classroom in Hamilton-Smith Hall. It is a huge room with a screen that is about as big as the one in our auditorium. There is an LCD projector mounted in the ceiling and the professor, Lisa Miller, is an expert on digital storytelling and spent years as a journalist before becoming a teacher. She had students discuss a couple of articles they read online and had responded to (written pages turned in) before class. She took them to a web site to show them how to find information they needed for homework. The integration of technology was seamless in this class and clearly useful to both teachers and students.
The bulk of the lesson was for students to research scandals in the newspaper world. Students were given 19 possibilities (from Wikipedia actually, which a student complained about as a source, and she said they were only using it for the list of scandals which they would research thoroughly and independently) and then assigned one of the scandals to find information on to report out to the class. Most students worked in partners. They all immediately went to computers that rimmed the walls and the back of the classroom and began searching, skimming, linking, searching farther, etc. for about 20 minutes. One student in each pair kept open a Word document where they took notes for their presentation.
It was interesting to watch students work and then reflect on the kind of reading I observed that they were doing. It looked like the kind of reading I do when I’m looking for an answer–different than the novel reading I do, or the reading I do when preparing for our class. I watched students skim an article in seconds, then use the hyperlinks embedded in the text to take the search farther. They were savvy about sources and often discussed their reliability. Clearly they’ve learned that either in this class or elsewhere. They went to YouTube and many news sites. They looked at photos of evidence, scanned pages of old newspaper articles for older stories, editorials written on the scandals… it felt like the multi-genre study that Ed and I teach. Multi-genre reading. Very interesting.
Lisa roamed like we all do when working with groups. She checked on progress, answered questions, nudged students to search differently or more thoroughly, and generally watched them think. Presentations were really interesting.
At the end of this class I went to a class for English Teaching majors taught by Tom Newkirk. It was a class of about 20 students and I won’t comment on the teaching since I was the guest speaker. I found the students to be fascinating and articulate and just wonderful people.
Now if you ask Dave Freedman, who watched me zip by him heading north on 16 that night, I made it back to Conway in record time, but understand my daughter was playing a duet in the Music Honor Society presentation that night and I HAD to.
I can’t wait to hear from the rest of you.
Have a great weekend.
I also had a wonderful trip to UNH. At lunchtime, we met with 5 freshmen that graduated from Kennett last year. One of them was Mike, Brenda Harris’ son, and four of his friends from KHS. Among them were English majors, a Social Studies major, a Computer Science major, and a business major. All five of them emphatically stated that KHS had prepared them extremely well for college life. For the most part, they all felt that their years in high school were more demanding than their endeavors at UNH. Three of the five were excellent time managers, and often had assignments completed days if not weeks in advance. The other two said they were hard-core procrastinators, but felt very comfortable with that method.
Many of them stated that they did not have any writing assignments at all. Most had multiple-choice exams and a few projects to complete for earning their grades. The English major was the only one that had lots of writing to do. I asked him if he still used the writing process as he prepared his papers. He stated that he did not; instead he re-corrected and re-wrote as he went along. However, he said that the learning process that he had used in high school was very helpful to him, and that he automatically incorporates many aspects of it in his writing informally.
The class we attended was a Sociology class for juniors and seniors, entitled “Homicide.” It took place in a large lecture hall with close to 200 students. It was a simple old-fashioned lecture format, with a limited amount of time used for taking questions and comments from the students. However, it was the quickest and most entertaining 90-minute lecture that I have sat through in a long time. The professor was extremely animated. He took the first 10 minutes or so of class to review recent murders that had taken place since the class (and oh my – how many there were!) Then he discussed some of these cases by linking them to some of the theories and information that the students had previously learned about.
When he introduced new material that was important, he repeated the information several times and prompted students with “you need to write this down.” He gave relevant, meaningful examples of new theories in a way that students could easily relate to. He also was humorous and even self- deprecating. I learned so much new information that helps me understand my own students (no – they are not homicidal maniacs) – I could have stayed and listened (and learned) for at least another hour.
Although there was no use of modern technology, it really didn’t seem to matter, at least not to me. I believe that every student in the room was actively learning and listening. It made me want to go back to school, just to learn something new again. Thanks, Penny, for the opportunity to have such a great day!
Last week Sharon Cross and I had a wonderful visit to UNH. We began by having lunch with my son and four of his friends. The first thing that impressed me was that all of the young men he invited showed up and patiently answered our questions. I felt that this was a token of the respect they had for Kennett and their teachers. Secondly I was impressed that they were all so thoughtful and articulate. We questioned them about many aspects of their experiences at UNH and they were very willing to share with us.
The consensus of opinion was that they felt well prepared for college. They felt that their Advanced English classes in particular prepared them for the writing they had to do, although most of them said there was less writing than in high school. One student was an English major and he had the most writing assignments. He was also a procrastinator and had just been up most of the night finishing a paper. We had quite a discussion on time management and whether they felt prepared in that regard. Finally I think we all agreed that time management vs procrastination is more of an inherent quality and perhaps would never change.
We asked the students whether the way the writing process is taught at KHS was useful and whether they still employed it. They suggested that although they did not still use the process at such, they had incorporated it into their own writing processes and streamlined it. This made sense of me as I think a writer naturally moves on to a more flexible and personal process. Textbooks and other reading materials did not appear to be a problem.
One area that could be looked at is Foreign Languages, which is a requirement for Liberal Arts students. They are given a test to see which level class they should take. Two of the students, one in French and one in Spanish, ended up in a refresher class for no credit. They pointed out that they had not taken a language class as Seniors in high school and one I believe not even as a Junior, because they could not fit it into their schedules. This put them at a disadvantage during the testing.
Overall Sharon and I both came away feeling proud of our students and thinking that KHS was doing a good job at preparing them for college. However, these were all highly motivated and advanced-level students. I think it would be interesting to interview some students at two-year and technical colleges.
After lunch we attended a sociology/criminology class called ‘Homicide.’ This was a fascinating lecture course in an old style lecture hall with many students. Fortunately the teacher was excellent and the time flew by. The students appeared extremely engaged in the subject.
The lecturer started off by using actual examples of homicide cases and then went on to integrate theory with example throughout his lecture. He indicated when the students should definitely write down specific information and apologized that the projector for the laptop was available and the white board was broken!
After the lecture we questioned him about assessment. Did the students write essays? He said that there were too many students in the class which was popular with both behavioral science students and criminology students. He used multiple choice test and used ‘scantrons.’
All in all we had a great day, came away impressed by our ex-students, and feeling that KHS was sending off students in good shape.
Sorry to put a dim light on the UNH visits, but unfortunately I was disappointed. When I approached the professor in the technical writing class and introduced myself he hesitated and then the “light went off”. “Oh yea, unfortunately I am giving a mid-term exam today.” I thought, “oh great’. But I did have the opportunity to peruse the text and talk with the professor.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the text he uses directly aligns with my Communicating in the Workplace curriculum – professional in business – resumes, cover letters, job interviewing, thank you letters, business letters, memos, agendas, meeting minutes, electronic presentations, etiquette, etc. I have been considering converting my long-term personal portfolio project to electronic; his opinion was the world of academia seems to put more emphasis on it than its actual use beyond. I was disappointed with his opinion, but will do more research.
The professor told me it was a paperless class; he projected the criteria for the mid-term with PowerPoint. Several times students had to ask for him to switch from one slide to another. As a student I think I would find this frustrating. At exactly 11:00 he announced class was over. With this method there would be no more curling up on the couch for me with a stack of papers to grade!
When I got back to school I chatted with one of my classes of mostly seniors and talked about how the professor looked like a student – jeans, shirt untucked, and hanging below his sweater. Students wear hats and walk in late. I hope our emphasis on the importance of professionalism is not in vain.
I didn’t know the Kennett students, but recognized them. Penny, I was shocked when Cam said he didn’t know Kennett had a school newspaper! And he is journalism major! But I heard what I expected; arriving on campus freshman year is an eye-opener. Students need to figure out time management quickly! One hundred pages of reading over a weekend is not unusual, and the famous Kennett 5 paragraph essay was no more. And citing sources – some professors use APA, or MLA, or Chicago, or just have their own style! Perhaps this year not accepting, or limiting late work, will help prepare students for what lies ahead.
I had a good experience at UNH. Erica and I observed a 400 level Biology (Bio Intro for mostly Bio majors). Dr. Walker was a wonderful presenter. It was in one of the smaller lecture rooms. He did a standard lecture for about 40-45 minutes pausing at critical steps in his presentation to ask if the students had questions. It was a truly fascinating lecture on fertilization. He mentioned many times that actual fertilization of an egg occurs in about one minute which made all the biological processes that occur in that time even more fascinating.
Dr. Walker referenced UNH’s Blackboard system for the video link where the students could look at sea urchin fertilization to see it action but did all of his lecture using the whiteboard to create visual images of what is occurring. Contrary to what might be thought the old-fashion method was very effective. He was able to erase things and combine them as the process required. It was a lot of biology to explain but he did it quite well. We asked him about technology both before and after the lecture. Dr. Walker’s response was that some professors use it quite effectively but he preferred the white boards. The boards allow for more flexibility and there can be problems with its dependability if there is a someone else teaching in the room before your class and it can’t be tested. For the lecture we saw I can certainly see how the non-technology route supported his thoughts. His method communicated the elegance of the biological process and the changes that occur so quickly well. It was interesting to see the students who came prepared with multiple colors of pens to allow them detail with the required drawings.
Dr. Walker told us later that when the new physics building was being built the physics department had them take out all the white boards and replace them with chalk boards. Having been a physics major I can certainly understand them doing that. Sometimes the elegance of basic physics can be lost in all the new technology and the chalk board for problem solving allows the brain to focus on the physics and not get distracted by the technology. We toured the new physics building and they are certainly up on new technology in the labs and other areas.
In terms of preparing students for college, Kennett science is doing well with the lab books. If anything we are doing the students a disservice by “spoon feeding” too much. Dr. Walker indicated that the students don’t know how to pull information out of a lecture. They need work on note taking from lectures. They also need continued work on scientific writing.
I have mixed emotions about my trip to UNH. It was the first day away from my Kennett classes and I believe that placed an added urgency to the experience. Unfortunately, I went into it with a “this better be worth it” attitude – not the most conducive to learning! My loss.
young female observers. The intensely serious student frustrated with the seeming futility of group work (he knew he could accomplish this much more effectively on his own!) Most students were affably going with the flow; several were challenged not to eat their candy assignment (at least one failed.) Prof. Jackman offered us some insight into student preparedness prior to class (or was it after class?) She lamented that even some of her honor students are challenged to create a written argument, but almost all do quite well with research alone. The general ed classes are less prepared; of 24 students, at least 6 are truly unprepared for college writing.
Holly F. and I attended Prof. Jackman’s freshman Honors Composition. She offered us a warm greeting and an overview of the course, students and current assignment just prior to class. Over the course of the semester, students are required to write three essays: analytical, persuasive-researched and personal. They were currently working on the persuasive-researched essay. The annotated bibliography was due that day (Wednesday) and the first draft was due that Friday. I was not surprised to find these assignments due so close together as it mirrored my own college experience. Kudos to Prof. Jackman for structuring the assignment, but the close due dates defeated the purpose of that structure; there simply wasn’t time for feedback prior to the first draft. That day’s lesson was to create an argument that would be counter-argued in the following class. Again, kudos to Prof. Jackman. Most college instructors would not “waste” class time modeling/teaching an assignment. Perhaps this is common in a composition class, but it certainly is not done in most history classes. (For the record, I vehemently disapprove of how most historians approach teaching.)
Holly did an excellent job describing the class, so I’ll not bore my reader with repetition. Throughout the class, my mind returned to my own experience as a graduate assistant grading (for the most part) freshman essays. I met these students before that day. There was the clown crudely showing off for the (relatively
Lunch with the Kennett grads was disappointing. There was some confusion as to the meeting place (not on our part) so by the time we found our grads, there was little time to talk. I’ll quickly summarize my findings: 1.) students felt very comfortable with the 5 paragraph essay when they began college; 2.) many were not ready for the reading overload (my thoughts: Need skimming instruction? Time-management instruction?); 3.) Kennett kids will definitely need citation skills; 4.) senior year in HS was strongest – best prep for college; 5.) grammar and spelling instruction is key (these students felt competent, but feel many of their peers are unprepared); 6.) UNH emphasizes research instruction, so maybe not as important at HS level (student opinion); 7.) inspirational teachers at Kennett were most effective in focusing student learning.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. My writing style is atrocious! I’ve reached a point in my life where I can no longer differentiate between the grammar I was taught and the writing style I have developed over the years. This was a point of discussion between teachers after the Kennett grads departed. How can we (non-English teachers) reinforce what students learn in English when we have so little knowledge ourselves?! I can recognize when a sentence is incorrect, but I can’t clearly relay that to my students. Help!?
I have to say that I like going down to UNH, I was excited to see my alma mater. I was observing Krista Jackman’s class, English 401. The funny part was that I had the same class in the exact same room! The nostalgia just kept coming. Anyway, before class I caught up with Krista and she told me that the kids were assigned 3 major projects. They did them from hardest to easiest: Analytical, persuasive, and the last one I can’t recall. She told me that they did the assignments in this order because of the standardization of Eng 401 about 5 years ago. Many of the professors said to the English department that their students didn’t know how to write these kinds of papers, the students came in no knowing what an analytical paper was. She also told me that only about a 1/3 of her students knew how to write an analytical paper (she teaches only 1 section of regular 401 and the rest Honors; the fact that only 1/3 of the Honors kids knew how coming into college was a little scary for me). It was time to start class and she asked me to introduce myself.
I said how I was a foreign language teacher, and then she said something that I knew, but still surprised me. She asked, “Where they learned most of their grammar?” the response was “Spanish class” or “French class”. She asked if anyone learned grammar in English class, and not a hand went up. Krista started her class with a quick grammar lesson on numbers. This was done on an overhead projector because she said that the technology in the building wasn’t always reliable. I can hear Dan’s groans right now. After the grammar lesson she started with introductions. She put up different examples of introductions and read each of them out loud. She asked if they were able to identify the thesis statement. They had a discussion about it. Rinse and repeat, till the end of class. It was a good class. It wasn’t boring; I just didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary.
After class I had the chance to speak to her. This was the part I was more excited about. I asked if the students that she was getting well prepared. She gave me a surprising break down. She said that in a class of twenty-five, three or four kids would not be able to put a sentence together, two to three kids would be great, and the rest were ok.
I asked her to tell me what she would do if she had control of the educational system, what she would require for us to do so that her students would be better prepared. She told me that she would like to see kids through out their four years of school do more critical reading. She wanted students to be taught how to think critically, to be able to state something and then back it up from information in the text. She called it synthesized thinking. Also she wanted for us to give more grammar lessons, just short ones, just five to ten minutes for three days.
I was very surprised from what she had said. I remember when I graduated KHS and when my brother graduated, we felt somewhat prepared for college life. I’m currently trying to get some information from former Kennett grads to see if they felt the same way, through Facebook. But from the conversation with her, we need to step it up a little for out students.
I hope that the English in this was readable I didn’t get a chance to really proofread.
I visited the same two classes that Dan noted in his opening comments. It was a class that could have occurred in 1976, or 72, or whatever year he noted. I viewed the class with a lens not so focused on technology, however. Not so much a surprise, eh? But the mode of the writing required in the class, really the current focus on genre, which was persuasive writing, hurt me some. There seemed a highly formulaic approach to the teaching of the genre; a thesis statement might have burst through the wall and grabbed me by my writer’s throat, threatening to drain all the air from my lungs, my figurative enthusiasms for writing to begin with, if you will. I imagined Don Murray, vaulted guru of the teaching of writing, a fella with a building in his name on campus, and a writing center no less as Penny had mentioned in her entry, and I wondered what he might think of the class and the prescribed nature of the first year writing program at UNH these days. I remembered speaking with the faculty member I visited with last fall on this unh visit day, and he noted that the program Murray was so associated with creating and sustaining would probably not fall into his favor in many ways right now. I heard reasoning for the changes. I heard about what students couldn’t do… write analysis and write persuasive opinions enough in their college content courses, so that the 1st year writing program had to teach students how to write in those forms, those specific genres. I am such a narrative guy by nature, and such a zealot for student choice, advocate for writers’ choice about topioc, form, vocie, audience, all sorts of big things, really, that the parameters, requirements, genre specific reserch required study was quite off-putting to me, and made me wonder how much voice would emerge on the pages of those student assignments. And voice is almost everything in writing. If present, it can jazz the un-jazzable. And I’m writing argument right here, right now, and trying to splash in some authentic voice along with valid points and not get too caught up in criticizing some folks who were kind enough to host my, and our, visits, but shazam, the thesis statement, supporting evidence, deliver conclusion world of academic writing scares me into thinking that not so much learning of craft will occur in that room or with the students at their computers completing their assignments for argument. Choices for writers seemed minimized due to the demands of a faculty that want students to enter their classes and write research and analysis papers. I had to write tons of those papers too. I don’t anymore. Who does? Things in the class I visited were too close to a prescribed kind of formulaic writing for me to feel enthused about the possibilities for writers. And that seemed to be driven by a faculty that wanted academic writing. Sure, it’s college, and we had better have a place for academic writing. But I can’t remember many details from the academic papers I wrote for all of those professors of this or that subject. But I sure can remember the night a published, award winning novelist told me that I had voice in a story I was writing at the time in that workshop, and one hundred other details to go with the moment, and that story, and many others like it, too, that I wrote from my place of writers choice. I guess I’m sad that so many writers have to write a certain way because so many professors want them to. Give me analysis, give me persuasive writing in the curriculum is what they all seem to be saying. Give me voice and imagination is what I call in reply. I don’t know where the proper blend is for a balcne of rhetorical strategies for our developing writers, but check chapter 12 in our Adolescent Literacy text, the chapter written by Don Murray, to find the kind of place I favor as a writing workshop. The chapter title is, “Teach Writing Your Way.” I think I saw a class that was teach writing this way because of faculty demands for undergraduate student research papers.
OK so I tried to reply once, only to have the internet crash when I finished, I will try again. I enjoyed my trip to UNH and am thankful for the opportunity. I do feel it is difficult to answer the questionabout literacy though. I went to a class on homocide, and there was a quest speaker. The guest speaker was facinating and I think I may ask him to come in to speak to my classes as his information about forensics may spark an interest in kids. I did not have the opportunity to have lunch with students so I did not get any student input. I tried to speak to the professor before the class only to find out it was really the guest speaker and he did not know anything about the class. I was flanked by 2 students, one who checked her sylabus, I tried to look over her shoulder, but could not determine the amount of reading necessary for the class. The students did not have an opportunity to engage with the speaker very much, however they seemed interested in the topic and the information he presented. Both girls took notes which were similar in length and content. They seemed to be efficient at note taking and seemed to capture the pertinant information. One thing I notice in my class is that students do not know how to take notes quickly and how to shorten what they write. I think we would serve students well by teaching them how to take notes, something for me to work on I guess.
Thank you for this opportunity to network and to once again be reminded to think outside the box for my class.
I decided to visit a class at the White Mountains Community College here in Conway, and I’m glad that I did. The new facilities at WMCC are impressive. The building is new and the classrooms are well-equipped with current equipment. The building is shared among a few organizations, and it obviously smaller than a typical college or university campus.
The class I first attended was a Web Site Design class. It was a small group and each student received plenty of individual attention from the instructor. Students were working on Websites either independently or in pairs, and they worked cooperatively to help solve issues much as they would if they were in “the real world”. After I attended the Web Site Design class, the instructor invited me to attend some of her other classes, so I returned that evening for her “Software Tools” class. She first had the students work in small groups to discuss the pros and cons of various hardware configurations as a way to help them solidify their understanding of computer terminology, then analyzed their conclusions as a large group before having them break out to work on individual PowerPoint presentations.
The instructor was excellent; I am impressed with her ability to teach such a wide range of classes. She shared with me that she is currently teaching 14 different classes for four different institutions. Her classes include Critical Thinking and First Year Seminar for Granite State and Plymouth, and four online classes for Devry University, among others; a dizzying work load, yet she manages to remain at ease, is upbeat, and obviously motivates her students.
Our graduates were completely at ease working with a very diverse group of students ranging from their peers, to adults who may have never had the opportunity to earn a college degree, to returning professionals twice their age who were back in the classroom to upgrade their skills. I am glad that we have this option available to our students; for some who are not able, ready, or willing to go on to a four year institution away, this is a great, affordable option that allows them to make significant progress toward a college degree. In these classes, they are able to interact with peers and returning adults who confirm the importance of continuing education.