Teaching Journal #4

This week we covered Porter, Bernhardt, and the workshop on their intros and syntheses. Overall, the week got better over its course. The students were more vocal and concerned about project one than the readings, probably because they know that they will, at the end, potentially be evaluated on the writing they do for this project.

 

Monday we went through the vocabulary I had them define at the beginning of class, and cleared up any questions about the terms Porter uses (intertextuality, iterability, presupposition, and discourse community). I need to streamline this process, as it is currently taking too long. I don’t want to get rid of it though, because I think understanding the terminology is a necessary step in understanding the piece as a whole. I showed them a Family Guy clip and had them point out instances of iteration and presupposition. From the responses I received, it seemed like they understood both concepts. We talked about plagiarism, the autonomous writer, originality, freedom, and the discourse community as a class. In an effort to get them to make better connections in their syntheses, I did the group activity Albert suggested, which asked them to find “fruitful connections” between this article and the others we’ve read. The connections I received were much better than what I had been reading in their reading responses, so I think I would do this activity again. When asked, they expressed concern over the intro and synthesis that was due Friday, so I said I would spend time talking about it on Wednesday.

 

Wednesday I spent the first half of the class answering questions about project 1. This seemed to quell their fears somewhat, so I am glad I spent the time to do it. However, as a result, the Bernhardt discussion felt a little rushed. We went over the four laws of gestalt a little more quickly that I usually do with terminology, but I think this is for the best. The students still get a reminder about the main ideas of the article, and I don’t waste as much time just talking about the building blocks of the essay.  We discussed the rest of the article as a class, and they were more vocal than they had been on Monday (maybe because at that point they had asked so many questions about the project their vocal chords were primed for discussion).

 

Friday we watched the video “Beyond the Red Ink” and discussed. They agreed overall with what the students in the video said about teacher comments. I used the discussion as a springboard to talk about my own feedback. I asked them to be brutally honest (but of course they probably still don’t want to bash the teacher in front of her) about my comments, and they said that I exhibit many of the traits promoted in the video. I also used the opportunity to tell them how I will respond to their project one papers. I told them that I would focus on the most important concerns I could find in their papers, leaving lesser concerns like grammar for another revision. Afterwards,we workshopped two student papers. This was a very interesting exercise. In many instances, the students were tougher on each other than I would have been. I found myself mediating the conversation a great deal in order to make sure that feelings were not hurt. (I took the names off of the papers, but still, students in the class had written them). The workshop definitely fostered student involvement in the discussion.

 

Overall, I think I am getting more comfortable in my teaching style. I am quicker on my feet when something isn’t working, quicker to rephrase a question or dial it back if it is clear the students don’t understand. Mostly, I would say I am getting better at gauging student need (i.e. their need to go over project one, their need to discuss key terms before we discuss key ideas).