Faculty who have participated in the Southern Miss faculty seminar on writing and speaking over the last few years have expressed an interest in continuing our discussions about teaching online. Here's your spot!
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Last Class Meeting
What haven't we covered during the workshop that you'd like to see covered? What are you still struggling with?
7 comments:
Morgan
said...
I would be interested to hear about and talk about strategies for when students freeze, blank, or otherwise fall apart during a speaking assignment. How do others navigate the line between when it makes sense to continue to encourage a student onward with prompts and questions and encouragement, and when it is time to let the student ( and the class) put things to a merciful end? While this is the extreme situation, I am overall interested in how we acknowledge or move forward when a presentation is clearly painful for both the student and the audience!
I am glad that we have discussed a lot about designing writing or speaking assignments. All my classes have required writing assignments but very few speaking assignments. I am still curious at the best way to mash up writing and speaking requirements in an assignment. And I am interested in strategies that encourage students to speak, especially in an online environment.
I am still struggling with grading - creating rubrics that capture the critical components of an assignment - should a student who misses the point of an assignment pass because the technical components are correct (for example, a student that does not read the assignment and misses critical components but writes well and conforms to the required format can still get a passing grade on a paper). What is more important - content or form?
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to integrate speaking and writing together. In my capstone class, both speaking and writing assignments are supposed to address a single research question, but it still feels like we're lurching from one to the other rather than using them in ways that build more naturally.
I am also interested in Morgan's question. Saving a student from terminal freeze, is there an escape plan that does not further hinder the student? Sometimes prompting works but when it doesn't should some follow-up be made or just move on? I had an instructor that claimed even after 30 years of teaching, she still got sweaty palms at the beginning of class. When I get too freaked, I remember her telling a class about this. It seems to help to realize everyone has their moments of terror.
This seminar reminded me to pay more attention to 1) identify the audience, not just to remind students about this, but to remind myself as well, and 2) always state a clear purpose for any assignment and clue the students in on it. I guess they really don't read minds.
More emphasis on the inclusion of practice and revision might help. My students have been really surprised when I told them submit a draft so we can talk about their efforts. I think I may have forgotten the draft process as a very useful teaching method in every class. For the capstone project I have always insisted on a draft, but not in all the other classes. Thanks for reminding me.
There is a point when the content and the presentation have to be balanced. The point of the draft is to add a review opportunity, if after that draft with feedback there is no improvement in structure the content may not be enough. Consider how many time an article might need to be rewritten before publication. Also, if the structure is too messed up, how can we be sure that the student does understand the content? Being able to communicate what they understand is part of the learning/teaching process. It is a challenge.
I would be interested to hear more about providing feedback to students regarding their speaking skills. At the graduate level I usually do this one-on-one and the students usually get a little defensive in the feedback session. I have thought about putting together an anonymous feedback form almost like the course evaluations we get each semester but then I would have concerns about the students taking the feedback seriously.
Like Sat Ananda, I do not feel I can create an effective rubric yet--though I would do better now that I would have 8 weeks ago! Sometimes, it seems the rubric would be helpful, but at other times, it would be the nail in some students' coffins if I followed it strictly.
This has been a good experience for me; thanks for letting me be part of it.
7 comments:
I would be interested to hear about and talk about strategies for when students freeze, blank, or otherwise fall apart during a speaking assignment. How do others navigate the line between when it makes sense to continue to encourage a student onward with prompts and questions and encouragement, and when it is time to let the student ( and the class) put things to a merciful end? While this is the extreme situation, I am overall interested in how we acknowledge or move forward when a presentation is clearly painful for both the student and the audience!
I am glad that we have discussed a lot about designing writing or speaking assignments. All my classes have required writing assignments but very few speaking assignments. I am still curious at the best way to mash up writing and speaking requirements in an assignment. And I am interested in strategies that encourage students to speak, especially in an online environment.
I am still struggling with grading - creating rubrics that capture the critical components of an assignment - should a student who misses the point of an assignment pass because the technical components are correct (for example, a student that does not read the assignment and misses critical components but writes well and conforms to the required format can still get a passing grade on a paper). What is more important - content or form?
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how to integrate speaking and writing together. In my capstone class, both speaking and writing assignments are supposed to address a single research question, but it still feels like we're lurching from one to the other rather than using them in ways that build more naturally.
I am also interested in Morgan's question. Saving a student from terminal freeze, is there an escape plan that does not further hinder the student? Sometimes prompting works but when it doesn't should some follow-up be made or just move on? I had an instructor that claimed even after 30 years of teaching, she still got sweaty palms at the beginning of class. When I get too freaked, I remember her telling a class about this. It seems to help to realize everyone has their moments of terror.
This seminar reminded me to pay more attention to 1) identify the audience, not just to remind students about this, but to remind myself as well, and 2) always state a clear purpose for any assignment and clue the students in on it. I guess they really don't read minds.
More emphasis on the inclusion of practice and revision might help. My students have been really surprised when I told them submit a draft so we can talk about their efforts. I think I may have forgotten the draft process as a very useful teaching method in every class. For the capstone project I have always insisted on a draft, but not in all the other classes. Thanks for reminding me.
There is a point when the content and the presentation have to be balanced. The point of the draft is to add a review opportunity, if after that draft with feedback there is no improvement in structure the content may not be enough. Consider how many time an article might need to be rewritten before publication. Also, if the structure is too messed up, how can we be sure that the student does understand the content? Being able to communicate what they understand is part of the learning/teaching process. It is a challenge.
I would be interested to hear more about providing feedback to students regarding their speaking skills. At the graduate level I usually do this one-on-one and the students usually get a little defensive in the feedback session. I have thought about putting together an anonymous feedback form almost like the course evaluations we get each semester but then I would have concerns about the students taking the feedback seriously.
Like Sat Ananda, I do not feel I can create an effective rubric yet--though I would do better now that I would have 8 weeks ago! Sometimes, it seems the rubric would be helpful, but at other times, it would be the nail in some students' coffins if I followed it strictly.
This has been a good experience for me; thanks for letting me be part of it.
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