I have often reflected at
the end of the semester, in true Profhacker fashion, by giving a 3x3 course
evaluation. This means sharing what worked, what didn’t, and what I plan to
change. This was easy to do when I was
essentially teaching the same class in multiple sections. However, now that I
am teaching composition and professional writing it is hard to make such comparisons
so this evaluation and reflection will likely not fall into such neat
categories.
Overall, I feel pretty
good about how my professional writing class turned out. I taught this class
for the first time in the Spring and that was OK but as I had barely a week to
plan the class (for the first time) and I inherited a book it was a bit rough. This
time around I had the benefit of experience and time to plan so it was much
more thought out and I do not plan to make any major changes for the new Spring
Semester. Students report that they learned a lot and had fun. I feel the same
way so what’s not to like?
My Writing II class
continues to be a work in progress and I plan to revamp it yet again for the
Spring Semester. I have high hopes for the new version as it is an idea that
excites me (see The Walking Dead in my writing classroom) and I had an
additional brainstorm about how to marry my new idea to my old practice of
focusing more on writing in the disciplines so it will be a course about
walking/writing dead in the disciplines.
I have spent a lot of my gym time thinking about this class and can’t
wait to see what comes of it!
What worked
I borrowed/adapted a Group
Learning assignment from Cathy Davidson for my professional writing class and
this turned out to be a great assignment. Students really did an amazing job
with it and we all learned something from the process as well as the results.
For this assignment students had to teach the class about some technology/tool
that could be used to produce their final projects. Throughout the rest of the
semester students referred back to these tips/tools and used them for their PW
project as well as work in other classes and their professional lives.
Another success for the
Fall Semester was the use of Google Chat to support virtual office hours. While
overall my use of Google was a bit hit-and-miss (see Google vs. Blackboard) in
terms of success, I can unequivocally say that Google Chat gave my students
quick and easy access to my help and advice. Although it was not always
convenient for me (having to interrupt my work or break a chain of thought), it
definitely helped create a connection with my online students that is always
difficult to forge in an online class.
Finally, the use of
interactive journals was something that worked well and I will continue to use.
Side discussions, support, and practical advice were all a part of the peer
comments on student journals and I think contributed to a sense of class
community. I was pleased with this activity/assignment and will definitely use
it again.
What didn’t work
My attempt at a peer
leader assignment, during which students would take turns leading discussions
and track participation, was a dismal failure. They were supposed to work in
teams and that was always a problem as most of the teams did not work well
together at all. The evaluation part of the assignment was also problematic even
though it was really a matter of noting who had participated and who had not. I
wonder if this type of assignment is simply more problematic in an online class
as I’ve done similar things with traditional classes. I’m not going to use this
assignment until I’ve thought it through again so probably not for the Spring
Semester as I’m at a loss right now.
Similarly, my class
reporter assignment was terrible. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of students
creating a wiki, blog, or some other record of the lessons they learned in a
class. However, the actual execution in both classes fell far short of my hope.
I think the idea is still a good one but it may not work for a writing class as
well as it does for a content-driven class and it may also be a problem for an
online vs. traditional class. Either way, it is going back on the shelf for now
while I mull it over.
My last failure is the
scaffolding I prepared for my Writing II students as they worked on their final
papers. I thought it would help them to chunk the paper but most were resistant
to the idea and the final papers of those who did participate were often too
chunky. I have some ideas for working the scaffolding into our discussion and
reflection assignments that will make the support more subtle and allow
students more room to grow. I read a blog post a few weeks ago (Intrusive Scaffolding) about how too much scaffolding is actually a disservice for
students and I think this process assignment is a good example.
What will change
While I will still have
students create Google accounts at the beginning of the semester, our early use
of Google will be for interaction (Google chat) and social media (Google+). As
I already noted (see Google vs. Blackboard), I used Google for journals,
discussion, and writing workshop in the Fall Semester but this met with mixed
results and I think sometimes the technology got in the way of the pedagogy
which is never a good thing. I plan to use Blackboard’s blog tool for
interactive journals and discussion but am reserving the option for using
Google for writing workshop at the end of the semester.
As noted above (and in The Walking Dead in my writing classroom), we will discuss the big ideas found in
our literary readings with those found in popular culture (specifically comic
books and their related media). We will then explore (in discussion and in writing)
the ways that those big ideas play out in the disciplines. Stay tuned for more
on this idea!
This semester I am going
to try out a journal assignment focused on self-assessment and self-regulation.
One of the reasons I tried the peer leader assignment is that keeping track of
all the posting/discussion activities is a logistical nightmare for me. It is a
constant battle to find the right balance (not to mention the time) between
teaching and evaluating. My hope is that by making a place/time for students to
record (weekly) what they did to further their learning and meet the course
goals will make them more aware of their own responsibility for their growth
and grades. Plus, this will give me a private place to comment on their
activities as a student separate from their writing and thinking. I hope that
separating these enforcer activities from the writing coach/mentor activities
(made in comments on class reflection and discussion) will allow me to focus my
efforts as well. Or maybe I have just
devised another way to make my head spin. We’ll see!
How did your Fall Semester
turn out? What are your plans for the Spring Semester? I always love to study
(steal/copy/adapt/adopt) the assignments and class activities of other
teachers.
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