November 2004
Monday 29 November 2004
- Grades and Student Motivation - On his weblog, Dennis Jerz responds to James Lang's essay, "Failing to Motivate" in a recent issue of The Chronicle. Lang's article anecdotally addresses the assumption that a low grade can motivate a student to work harder, arguing that "we don't know our students well enough to make the kinds... (10:42 | 0 Trackbacks | 5 Comments)
Saturday 27 November 2004
- Student Engagement, Revisited - I caught news of the just-released 2004 National Survey of Student Engagement in a recent article in The Chronicle (which is available online for a limited time). Addressing the degree to which students are "engaged" in their studies, it also features some interesting results about college student study habits, student... (19:02 | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments)
Tuesday 23 November 2004
- Alternative Uses for Mind-Mapping in The Writing Classroom - I'm sure that a majority of those who teach writing at one point or another introduce students to the invention strategy called "mind mapping" -- a form of brainstorming that supposedly draws the more artsy "right brain" (as opposed to the logical "left brain") into the process. I think of... (11:18 | 0 Trackbacks | 3 Comments)
Wednesday 17 November 2004
- Is Discourse Human Research? - At a recent meeting of writing instructors, we learned that students who conduct surveys for freshman composition courses are potentially violating campus policies regarding human research. Some have received warning letters from our campus' Human Research Committee. This surprised me, mostly because I have never encountered this issue before in... (22:11 | 0 Trackbacks | 1 Comments)
Sunday 14 November 2004
- College Students on Election Day - I was dismayed when students in my Poetry Writing course told me on Election Day that many of them had to fill in "provisional ballots" that were likely to be rejected (a major problem in Western PA)...especially after activist groups at our school had gone out of their way months... (22:02 | 0 Trackbacks | 1 Comments)
Monday 1 November 2004
- Straw Poll on Reading - An anecdotal entry, since I've been really busy lately with grading, travelling, and writing this past month.... Today as my Freshman Composition class was getting ready to discuss an essay, I saw some tired eyes across the room and threw out a rather innocuous question to show my empathy: "So... (22:26 | 0 Trackbacks | 4 Comments)