It seems that we are all on board with the idea that speaking and writing across the curriculum is important. There are, of course, obstacles that we have to overcome if we are to succeed in integrating speaking/writing into the curriculum, however. Here are a just a few of the commonly listed complaints about using writing and speaking assignments in the classroom (credited to Chris Anson at North Carolina State University, Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program)
- Avoidance: “It’s not my job—I’m not a writing/speaking person”
- Anxiety: “I’m not a great speaker/writer myself”
- Blame: “It’s the fault of the high schools” “Our university doesn’t provide the right resources”
- Additional layer: “Writing/speaking intrudes on my course coverage.” “I already have so much to teach, I can’t add another thing.”
- Pedagogical apathy: “My teaching is pretty good as is.”
- Misconception: “My discipline is about _____, not writing/speaking.”
- Irritation: “Too many students, not enough time.”
- Extrinsic needs: “There’s no reward for this extra work.”
Choose the 3 obstacles that you think are most applicable to your situation and then reflect on ways that the assumption is wrong or possible solutions to the problem.
10 comments:
Hi all! This is a great topic to discuss. The first complaint I would relate with is the "additional layer" concept and that can go hand and hand with "to many students,not enough time." As I was walking back from the meeting yesterday (on a nice sunny afternoon) I thought about this topic. My first potential solution was perhaps I could put more of the responsibility of the students reading the book and materials I give them, compared to my feeding them the information. This would give some flexibility related to time constraints do to creating more writing and speaking opportunities for students in the class. The challenge is how to redesign a class setting. Another piece of this complaint is "time" related to grading additional writing projects. For this I have no solutions with the exceptions of reducing exams to open up time for grading writing and speaking assignments or the addition of student assistants. The complaint of "there's no reward for this extra work" has some legs to it. I think, unless we get our department chairs and directors on board with a major shift in teaching, the only reward is the possibility that students will come out of our classes better speakers and writer. I think that is a great thing! The question is when you do a cost-benefit analysis, does the benefit out way the instructor's costs? It may. We won't know unless we try...Let's try it once...
I was just looking at the Chronicle of Higher Ed and there is a blog I follow called ProfHacker. It has a lot of good info on Teaching and Learning but there was an especially good post today that talks about scheduling time for writing in your workday to increase productivity. If you're interested, the link is:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-to-try-to-get-a-lot-done-in-the-sciences/38142?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
As far as the question at hand, I think the main concerns I have, or have had in the past, are: avoidance, additional layer and irritation. I am learning through experience and this course that it IS my job and we will send out better prepared individuals when we take that responsibility! As far as the additional layer, I'm still working on that and hope to get some good input from this class. It's hard in my field because there is a national certification exam that the students need to be prepared for when completing our program so there is an expectation of comprehensive coverage of the material. I do have some issues with irritation, also, because of large classes. One way we've tackled that is, for our writing intensive course, we have students assigned a lab instructor who may grade only 5/22 papers. This is spread out among the faculty so it's not so overwhelming.
In Army writing, I have experienced or anticipated the following obstacles.
Avoidance: It's not my job - I'm not a writing/speaking person. This obstacle presents an easy target to knock down. In this academic environment (or the Army environment), we do not designate a certain leader to be the "writing/speaking person". Learning to speak and write is taught in each of the different levels of Professional Military Education regardless of Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) or Officer. Yes, leaders must go through refresher or sustainment skills training to ensure speaking and writing skills do not go away.
Pedagogical apathy: "My teaching is pretty good as is."
This obstacle is another easy one to argue away. As leaders in our profession, we are pushed to constantly improve and change our training methods. We are also surrounded by the life long learning mentality. So we are not allowed to remain "status quo" for long.
Extrinsic needs: "there's no reward for this extra work" We acknowledge that instructors/leaders might not receive additional benefits for more instruction. However, the reward is to see a Cadet that communicates more effectively - both verbal and written. Soldiers are not in this business to receive extrinsic needs. We already receive them though.
My three biggest challenges:
Avoidance: “It’s not my job” This stems from the fact that all my students are either upper-level undergraduates (20%) or graduate students (80%). I feel that if they’ve gotten this far, they should have learned it by now. Unfortunately, this isn’t always true, and I know I need to provide better guidance than “you need to get some help with this”. We do use rubrics in our courses, although I am not always good about posting them.
Irritation: “Too many students, not enough time.” If I can design better assignments, my students will get more out of them. The amount of work does not need to change, but the content of what is assigned does.
Extrinsic needs: “There’s no reward for this extra work.” I know from experience that this is true however, there is more to life than extrinsic rewards. I also know from experience that it is extremely satisfying to get good student reviews and to know I have helped train high-quality professionals for our field.
Hello everyone! I am definitely on board with the idea of enhancing the writing and speaking skills of students throughout my courses. I think the following three concerns are the most problematic:
1. Avoidance: “It’s not my job—I’m not a writing/speaking person.” In the past, I have been quite guilty of thinking that learning how to write and speak is the responsibility of other courses taken early in college. I still think those courses are absolutely necessary, but I realize that I have not encouraged or discouraged my students during the writing or presentation development process. I have taken a "you should know this by now" approach, which does not foster growth in either skill set. I think a more involved, responsive approach to writing and speaking would greatly benefit my students, from freshmen to seniors.
2. Additional layer: “I already have so much to teach, I can’t add another thing.” I must admit, I still struggle with this issue as covered in last week's readings. I am completely on board with the concept of incorporating more critical thinking activities into my courses which could help my students retain the mounds of information I am providing them. I will be interested to learn the steps necessary to implement critical thinking assignments into my lectures without sacrificing course content.
3. Irritation: “Too many students, not enough time.” I think we can all agree that a lack of time is an ever-present issue. Will I have time to develop different, although beneficial, content? Will I have time for additional grading? Will I have time to incorporate new materials into my already packed lectures (see concern #2)? Just from last week's readings and discussion, I believe it is possible to implement these items without great sacrifice of time and existing course content, but I do not know the exact solution quite yet.
I also think this is a great discussion area, and one that should have a wider voice on college campuses, besides just complaining in the hallways. When I looked at the list, there seemed to be two camps, one in which writing/speaking is necessary but burdensome, and the other where writing/speaking is unnecessary. I believe I will choose from the former camp, because the latter members have no defensible argument. Everyone needs to be able to write and speak well. Having taught a course in which content grew every semester, I also toiled under the weight of adding or keeping writing and speaking assignments while also covering content. For me, using technology, such as Blackboard, blogs, and wikis, allowed me to offload material from the classroom into cyberspace, and thereby retain time for S/W activities. I do not think the students liked this model, but at least it worked. I think the issue of blaming our predecessor teachers is not helpful in our classes, although this may be the root of the problem. What would be helpful is some type of system where faculty concerns and experiences could be shared with decision makers in the freshman comp area. Our job is to assist the students in improving their skills, not just throwing up our hands in frustration. Finally, I think the issue of 'too many students, not enough time' is the most critical one on the list. My classes next fall will have 60 students, but it is one heavy in projects and homework. There is absolutely no way I can do speaking/writing with no grading help, and then do research, service, etc. The administration wants more and more warm bodies with fewer faculty. The result will be reduced time for skill building. Thus, at some point the administration needs to accept that the factory model of higher education will not put out quality writers and speakers, or change the paradigm.
It looks like the main concerns are in the areas of 1) avoidance, 2) additional layer, 3) irritation, and 4) extrinsic needs. We'll talk about assignment options that will help with time issues. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution for managing large classes and a heavy writing/speaking load. I think that means writing/speaking assignments in small classes become even more important. We'll talk more about this today.
I am sorry for my delay in posting! I think that all of the factors are very likely. The three that I think most closely relate to my situation are anxiety, additional layer, and extrinsic needs.
1. First, anxiety does play a small role in my assigning lots of written assignments. I am a decent writer, but I do not have an English background. I am not totally comfortable spouting off subject/verb agreement rules or the rules about the many errors in punctuation that can be made. This definitely keeps me from grading as hard as I probably should on papers – unless it is a very obvious imperfection.
2. Secondly, the additional layers completely relates to my courses. There is so much information that I have to pack into a class that it certainly seems that I have no time for anything else. I have had poor results from thinking that the students would learn things on their own time, so I feel like I need to tell them everything.
3. Lastly, extrinsic needs also play a role in the assignments that I give. I am a very busy person in so many different aspects of my life. It is hard for me to create enough time to grade written assignments, and even harder when I know that I am not getting rewarded for the extra effort.
All of these excuses are just that. I am definitely on board with this writing (and speaking) across the curriculum and hope that this seminar gives me ways to expedite the process and overcome these barriers!
The biggest obstacle I face is directly related to the size of my classes (40 being a small class...my largest is 300). This is where I am hoping that the workshop will help me realize a solution to this challenge. It may not be feasible to include speaking opportunities in my class of 300, but perhaps it can be done in my smaller classes. I have toyed with the idea of using submitted video assignments, this would include the student giving a lecture (to the image capture device) and subsequently sending the e-file to me.
The second is that students are often paralyzed with fear at the thought of giving a speech in front of the class. As a psychologist I am very confident that I could help the majority of students overcome the fear of public speaking. However, the class size issue still remains.
Lastly, it is a widely held belief that this "added" dimension will take away from needed lecture time. I firmly believe in supplementing text book material with alternative methods. As stated above the class size has always been my Goliath.
So, some of these issues weren't resolved completely. Hopefully you have started thinking of alternatives, though. Anything else come to mind after leaving class? I really like the idea of video recording practice sessions. And, yes, you can have students record speeches outside of class. It's not the same experience as an in class speech, but it could be useful.
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