Teaching Tips

In his book Outliers Gladwell offers the route to becoming a genius. It is not something you have to be born into. It is not a culture, time, place, or socioeconomic status per se. It is something that anyone can develop, if it is important to that person.

So what is this single step that we (you and I, on our own, but perhaps together) can take to become a genius?

It is the willingness to keep working.

Gladwell was building on, among other things, the work of Dr. Alan Schoenfeld of Berkeley, who videotaped students talking through math problems. Schoenfeld found, and Gladwell discusses, that being good at math is a function of success and willingness to keep working (246).

Students who are willing to keep working, trying to figure out what it is that needs to be done, are more likely to succeed. That success makes them more likely to be willing to work on a problem even longer the next time.

Math geniuses, like my eldest son, are folks who are willing to sit and fiddle with a math question for twenty or thirty minutes, trying to figure out how it should work. I know that my eldest does this. I have seen him do it.

Confession time:
I have spent the last four years working very hard at teaching. I’ve taught 5/5/1, 6/6/2, the equivalent of 5/5/0 (developmental classes), and 4/4/1 (the 4s being new preps). I have worked on making my presentation better, my material stronger, and the relevance to my students high.

What I have not done is kept up with educational theories, learning theories, composition pedagogy, etc.

I have not been working on the problems, finding out how other people have said I might do it better. I haven’t even, most of the time, been working on seeing how my colleagues are doing what they do, to see if they can offer me ideas for doing it better.

Immediate response and longer-term study plan:
Recently I have come to feel this lack fiercely and I am attempting to remedy it by reading, taking notes, thinking about, anaylyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, and applying in areas that I think would benefit my teaching.

While right now it is still somewhat haphazard (I have books in a list of recommendations, for example.), I am willing to work at being a better teacher by reading not just the recommended lists, but the works cited in the recommended lists. I am going to graduate school–in my own home and office–for being a genius at teaching.

In addition, I am going to take my present attempts at improvement–including discussions with colleagues, careful reflection over classroom experience and follow-up tweaks, and haphazard blog reading–and develop them into habits and schedules that will help me become a better educator.

I want to be more than acceptable in this field I have chosen, thoughtfully and giddily, as my own. I want to be superior. But I have not been as careful about creating and working towards micro-goals to improve my teaching as I should have been.

Resolved: Dr. Davis will work at being an excellent, superb educator in her chosen field through the acquisition of new knowledge through theoretical readings, creation of micro-goals, implementation of new knowledge, and intense reflection and self-evaluation followed by new and improved approaches to/in the classroom experience.

Forbes has an interesting article, Dear Student: I Don’t Lie Awake at Night Thinking of Ways to Ruin Your Life

One point he makes, I really need to work on.

First, I do not “take off” points. You earn them. The difference is not merely rhetorical, nor is it trivial. In other words, you start with zero points and earn your way to a grade. You earn a grade in (say) Econ 100 for demonstrating that you have gained a degree of competence in economics ranging from being able to articulate the basic principles (enough to earn a C) to mastery and the ability to apply these principles to day-to-day affairs (which will earn an A). I’ve hurt my own grades before by confusing my own incompetence with competence and my own (bare) competence with mastery, so trust me: I’ve been there, and I understand.

I actually have said the “take off” points. I need to do it the other way around.

The author, Art Carden, is right. It is not simply a matter of word choice but a matter of deep and inherent meaning.

Of course, “rhetorical” in his paragraph is not the rhetoric I practice, but the common usage of the word to mean “empty of sense or meaning; having no point.”

5. Create stunning slides.
Slides are optional, but if you’re going to use them, make them great. Even if you’re not a graphic designer, it’s relatively easy to stand out from the crowd of bullet points and PowerPoint templates, by licensing high-quality images from stock sites like istockphoto and Veer, or searching for Creative Commons-licensed photos from Flickr using Compfight (just make sure you read the licensing terms carefully, especially for commercial use!). And Garr Reynolds’ book Presentation Zen Design will introduce you to basic design principles for creating slides from the images.

And if you are a graphic designer, check out Nancy Duarte’s beautiful book Slide:ology, for a stimulating guide to the creative possibilities of slide design. Nancy and her team designed the slides for Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” presentation and feature film, so she knows a thing or two about creating slides with impact.

6. Keep it simple.
Simplicity – focusing on core themes and eliminating fluff – is the key to a lot of great design, great writing, great music, great dance, and great art of many kinds. It’s also one of the things that makes presentations powerful and memorable.

This is all you need for a truly great presentation:
One big idea
Three key points
One compelling story
One idea per slide (and no more than six words)
One clear call to action

from 99%’s How to Create a Captivating Presentation

Being a big CHE fora fan, I found some words of wisdom (WoW) that I wanted to share:

These are from geonerd:

How to make grading lighter?

Pull out the five highest performers in the group. Get a boost from seeing them do well, and confirming that the material is accessible to students who make an effort, and get into your routine.

Next, pull out all of the absolute most painful papers in the class. You know who they are. It’s always the same ones. Have your chocolate and beverage of choice ready. Power through it. You’re dying. It doesn’t matter. Keep reading. Everything has to end eventually.

After you have survived all of the really awful papers, the remainder will feel easy by comparison.

I think that is probably a good idea, though I might go for the horrible first and then the great, as a reward.

Writing on the final exam?

I write MUCH less than usual on the last exam. Then I leave the stack of graded exams at home on the dining room table. When a student emails to say that are coming by to see their exam, then I pull out that paper and write more on it and bring that one paper with me to campus. If a student comes by unexpectedly I say “I’m sorry, those are sitting on my dining room table at home. If you come back tomorrow I’ll bring it with me.” Then I go home and write more comments on that student’s exam.

I am so going to borrow that idea.

From comments on Siobhan Curious’ Classroom as Microcosm blog’s post How Do Games Help Us Learn?

Ty discusses playing games with teachers. One that was successful was Two Truths and a Lie.

We also played Two Truths and a Lie (each person offers two true and one untrue statements about themselves and the others attempt to guess which is which). Aside from helping us know one another better, we latched on to an idea for using the game with students. If we take a concept being explored in class, small groups (3 people) would have to develop statements about the idea. In math, it was a kind of graph or number property. Social studies and science suggested phenomena and societal dynamics. Story elements and writer biographies were ideas for language arts/reading.

Siobhan herself said:

I love Two Truths and a Lie – I have them work together in groups and use it as a practice for oral presentations. In groups of four, three people must make true statements about themselves and one must lie, and the class must try to guess who the liar is. It’s always interesting to find out which of my students are good liars!

So, this also can be used to help break through the fear of public speaking.

Disclaimer: I like this game because I can always come up with a more outrageous truth than most people will believe.

Break through the fear of public speaking using a game.

Siobhan Curious asked a question: What games work in school?

And her commenters told her. One that sounded particularly useful, interesting, and easy to work with was from Sharon Sept-Isles.

Another game I use is “Panic” –a deck of cards with categories on them (“farm animals, soft things, outdoor sports, pastas, etc.” Students need to name five (or three, or seven –you decide) things in that category. It is amazing how difficult it is to think when you are the one on the spot (and how well you can think when it is not your turn!). I have used this in English to introduce the idea of extemporaneous speaking; it can be modified from the original game by having a student speak for 30 seconds on the given topic (My favourite pizza toppings are onions, ham, pineapple and sweet peppers. This combination is called a Hawaiian pizza, but not everyone in my family enjoys it as much as I do…until 30 seconds are up). I use it in Humanities to loosen students up for the challenge of speaking in front of each other. A game is much less intimidating than a presentation, so it is a helpful stepping stone.

Go forth and do likewise.

I need to create my second semester fyc class. Even though we have three more weeks of school, counting Thanksgiving, but not finals, I am already gearing up for next semester.

Second semester first year composition:
I will also be teaching another freshman composition course which is composed in a way totally different from any I have ever taught. It requires four papers, each of which build toward the final research project, and which each add one additional source to the project. So, the first paper has one source. The second paper has two sources. The third paper has three sources. (I believe that these must be different sources as the final research project requires at least six sources.)

Today I found this idea on the CHE fora:

[T]his time I required that they submit, first, an abstract with a clearly stated thesis, and second, an annotated bibliography/outline, with a revised thesis. These are each worth only 5% of their grade and I do not mark off for grammar, spelling, etc. The assignments must be submitted digitally, and I slot them directly into my google docs, which I can then “share” with each individual student once I am finished commenting.

Thanks, new member Girasol, for a great idea for my second-semester fyc class.

Thinking through previous practices that might produce positive results with this class:
Requiring a pre-writing exercise that includes more than the necessary articles for the final project be found and linked.

Creating a Works Cited list for those articles.

Creating summaries of the articles the students intend to use. This actually did not work well one time, because the students then incorporated the summaries into their papers, which was not the point of the exercise. However, if they write the summaries, I know they have read the articles. (Or I find the plagiarism early.)

Projects/avenues that might contribute in a positive manner to this course:
Poster presentation as the final project.
Have the students create a poster presentation about their research and present it. This would be helpful for:
tying the first-semester fyc paper on visual rhetoric to the research project.
those who end up doing the undergraduate research fair.
those who are in the social sciences (or in the technical edges of the humanities).

Proposal and progress reports:
This would be useful to the business majors.
It would also keep me informed about what progress (if any) they are making.
It might allow me to intervene in situations where the work isn’t being done in a timely manner.
Perhaps the progress report would be most useful between the third paper and the final large project.

Things I need to find/figure out:
fyc
What the full scope of this fyc course is. (Perhaps get others’ syllabi?)
Where I can get the books I am supposed to be teaching from.
linguistics
What linguistics books the previous teacher used.
Where I can get a copy of that book.
Decide whether to use a popular linguistics book as a text as well.

Other classes:
My schedule changed yesterday. Now instead of a sophomore literature course I have taught once, I will be teaching a senior linguistics course that I have never taught.

I am very good at seeing the problems with a student paper and not so good with expressing what they have done right.

I know that some of my students, who work hard and still don’t do well, get very frustrated. I am not sure positive feedback will really fix that problem, but I think if I tell them what they have done well, it would be better.

Part of the problem is that I assume a 100 for whichever section of the paper I am grading (content, organization, etc) and then take off points from there. I only add points on if 1) it is novel and good or it made me smile (I cry easily.) and 2) if the paper was far more developed or detailed than I expected/wanted.

Perhaps I should go with a rubric that gives generalities instead. I did that with one paper and that seemed to be more positively received. Of course, that could be because I gave them the rubrics in an email and didn’t hand the papers back in class so that I didn’t see the frustrations.

I’m still thinking about this and any feedback that would help would be appreciated.

While reading the CHE fora, I found an answer to this problem of missing positive feedback. I am adding it here because while bookmarking on the fora works, I am far more likely to search for the information on TCE.

lasquires gave this advice:

I would say don’t give any positive feedback that isn’t sincere, and if an essay really does need quite a bit of work, the bulk of your comments will naturally address things that aren’t quite right. I usually write comments following a hierarchy of concerns:

1. Does the paper have a topic that is germane to the assignment?

2. Does the paper have a supportable argument?

3. Does the writer provide sufficient evidence in support of that argument?

4. Is the paper organized effectively as a whole?

5. Is the paper written and organized effectively at the paragraph level (appropriate transitions, etc.)?

6. Does the writer document sources correctly?

7. Does the writer use appropriate diction/style and is the paper well-edited?

8. Does the paper rise to a level of uniqueness or eloquence that sets it apart from the majority of papers produced by students at this level? (For me, an affirmative answer in this category is necessary for an A).

Almost all of these could be written about on most of my students’ papers. Perhaps I need to use a rubric that just lists these questions and says:
yes, mostly, halfway, somewhat, no

I kind of like that idea.

How can we engage students when we lecture?

Have you ever given a lecture to a class where everyone sat still the entire class period? One where the students did not jump and run as soon as (or even before) the bell rang? If you have, how often have you wondered exactly how you managed that? If you haven’t, do you dream of this or just give it up as an impossible dream?

According to Robert B. Cialdini, students can become engrossed in a lecture with a single, simple feature at the beginning. They will listen raptly, eagerly and not even shift when the bell rings, if we start our lecture with it. They will clamor to know the answer, even when they should be out the door on to their next class.

What is this single feature that we can add to the experience?
If you are intrigued, not just wanting to know the answer, but wondering when I will give it, then you won’t be surprised to hear that the key to engaging the audience is a mystery.

No, I don’t mean we don’t know. I mean it is a mystery, a puzzle, a tale that involves questions. It’s a mystery story.

What if I told you that in sixty minutes, I could increase your average college grades by a half a letter grade–for the next four years?

That’s the mystery I offered my students yesterday. Now the research has been done (though only using minority students) and I know the answer. I can increase their college averages by simply letting them know, making them believe, giving them sufficient examples to show that everyone is confused by college. Apparently many people are unaware that college students are often doubtful of their decisions, frustrated with their efforts, and confused about what to do next. Learning that is sufficient to increase their confidence and their grades.

Can I give you a more extended example?
That’s a short example and certainly not one that engages attention for a long time, at least not as I set it up here.

But is there a way to extend an example? Of course there is. Here is one from Cialdini’s 2005 Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology article.

One of the most successful book sections I registered was written by an astronomer. He began a 20–page section with a puzzle: How can we account for what is perhaps the most spectacular planetary fea- ture in our solar system, the Rings of Saturn? There’s nothing else like them. What are the Rings of Saturn made of. anyway?

Then, he deepened the mystery by asking how three internationally acclaimed groups of scientists could come to wholly different conclu- sions on the answer. One, at Cambridge University, proclaimed they were gas. Another group, at MIT, was convinced they were made up of dust particles. The third, at Cal Tech, insisted they were composed of ice crystals. How could this be? After all, each group was looking at the same thing, right? So, what was the answer?

I will not take you through the whole process of discovery and tell you how the differing backgrounds of the teams—astrophysicists here, as- tronomers there—led them to look at different aspects of the phenome- non and how a crucial measurement error led one team down the wrong path. Suffice it to say that the process of unraveling the mystery was not unlike the process of scientific investigation, wherein hypotheses are generated, implications are tested, nonproductive approaches are taken, errors of interpretation are made, and evidence is marshaled until a sat- isfactory resolution occurs. By the way, this is no small benefit of the use of mysteries in our lectures. The process of resolving mysteries is re- markably similar to the process of science. So, in the use of the mystery approach, we not only give students information about content, we also send them a sub–rosa message about process.
Let us get back to the main point. Which answer was revealed at the end of 20 pages? The beautiful, mysterious Rings of Saturn are mostly dust! Actually, they are ice–covered dust, which accounts for some of the confusion, but they are mostly dust nonetheless.

Now, I do not care about dust, and the composition of the Rings of Saturn is entirely irrelevant to my life. But, that scientist had me turning pages like a speed–reader. Here’s the telling thing: I am sure that I will never forget the answer to the mystery he constructed. Moreover, I am sure that I will never forget how three groups of scientists could have been so confident in their opposing answers to the question. This strikes me as an enormous advantage of mystery stories. They can get our stu- dents to become engrossed in and to remember important material that they otherwise would not care about because it does not seem relevant to their daily lives. Mystery stories do not need personal relevance—they bring their own. (24)

Cialdini doesn’t just offer the mystery story: a mystery, the players in the mystery, a discussion of possible alternatives for answers to the mystery, and finally the denouement as a way to improve lectures. He offers an additional tool as well.

There is another way to improve lectures.

Have you ever noticed that students are riveted by some material, not even noticing that the class period has gone by, while some material has them shifting (or Facebooking) through the entire class?

There’s a reason for this. It’s not really a secret.

Boredom.

When the students are wiggling and tuning us out, it is because they are bored.

Why are they bored?

Students are bored, not because we are boring, we are not inherently boring. All of us can remember an engaging discussion, a particularly well-told joke, or a story that we told to a breathless audience.

Nope. It is not that we are boring.

We are bored.

Yes, I said it. (Well, Cialdini said it first.) We are bored. We know the material isn’t that interesting, so we are bored. Our being bored makes our students bored.

How do WE become engaged in our own lectures?

We find something interesting, something engaging, something we think is fascinating and we add THAT to the lecture.

Just having an addition that is unique, interesting, and engaging TO US is enough to make the lecture more engaging to the student (28). We need to be excited in the classroom. If we are, they will become more excited.

Today’s lecture (in my class) is going to be about a proposing a solution paper. We are in the process of writing those in my fyc classes. But the beginning of the lecture, which is really a repeat of the reading we did yesterday, is a two-minute movie featuring Dr. Davis as Albert Einstein and starring Gandhi as my personal Socrates. There’s a really lame joke on the mispronunciation of precedent being understood as president, a discussion of the principle of fun as a guide for my solution, and a belch. (It is a college class, after all.)

I’m really looking forward to presenting this little two-minute movie, including Gandhi’s Homecoming Queen wave from the moon, in class.

Because I am excited about it, the students will be more excited about it as well.

Ever heard that proverb “like begets like?”

Here’s an example of it in teaching.