As a new T.A. I have had a lot of stress dealing with grading. Especially in a public speaking course, grading becomes difficult. I wanted to record my students' presentations however, in class it was brought up that one instructor did that and over graded students. I liked the chapters on grading and feel that they were able to offer some valuable insights.
First Day to Final Grade gave me several very useful pieces of information regarding grading. First, the reading addresses the issue of setting up a grade book. I have a grade book and have been using it primarily for attendance. I will now add grades in on the center flap as the text suggests. I had been toying around with that idea for some time anyhow. One thing that the text didn't mention that I have found helpful is entering all of my grades in an Excel spreadsheet as I grade. That way all of my grades are in alphabetical order so I can just fill down the column of my paper grade book, rather than fumbling around the alphabet in the column. In addition to tracking grades, the book offers valuable insights on handing back graded assignments.
For the first speech, I did not follow the guidelines set in First Day to Final Grade. The book recommends to hand graded assignments back towards the end of the hour to make sure that students don't become disgruntled for the entire class period. Additionally, to hand things back so there is a limited amount of time to discuss the assignment. After my experience, this advice makes sense, and is how I plan on doing things in the future. When I returned the first speech, I lost about half of the class. One student was so angered that he wouldn't look at me, nor contribute to class (he always has something to say). I tried to recover the day by giving the "listen, it's the first assignment and a small part of your grade" talk but much to my chagrin, the class was still a lost cause.
McKeachie talks about grading, but it seemed to be more on a macro-level. McKeachie addresses what students, instructors, and employers want grades to tell them. Frankly, until reading this I'd only considered grades to be something that a student would be concerned with. This brings us to the notion of grade inflation. As we have Dr. Nelson for a supervisor, we all know about grade inflation. I believe that this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed in the academic community. That said, please don't address the problem until after I've completed my education. I believe that grade inflation is something that we need to work on collectively. Additionally, grade inflation is something that lingers in the back of my mind while I'm grading. "Is this average?" and "Hmm, without being comparative to my other students, what is average or "C" work?" are questions that plague me as I'm grading papers. Further, I must remind myself that my students are right out of high school where for the most part, fulfilling as opposed to going beyond the assignment requirements constitutes an A.
Grade inflation is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Academic honesty was also an important part of the reading for this week. An episode from "The Golden Girls" touches on the importance of grading, grade inflation, and academic honesty on the part of the faculty. In this clip Dorothy is filling in for an instructor for the semester, and has a student that she cannot in clear conscience pass. The most important parts of this video (part 2 of 3) are from the beginning to 4:30 and from 7:12 until the end. Unfortunately embedding is disabled on this video, here is the link if you are interested. Although McKeachie does a good job at presenting grading and the notion of academic honesty there are some items that I disagree with.
One for example is the pledge of academic integrity at the beginning of each exam. I think that once students get to college it is insulting to make them sign a "I promise not to cheat" clause. I also think it is demeaning to students. I have made it clear that I expect students not to cheat and plagiarize. I feel that after that it shouldn't be something that I have to remind them of over and over again. Ultimately academic honesty lies on the students. As instructors we are responsible to catch plagiarism and cheating. Further I feel that we have a responsibility to make sure that students know that plagiarism is not an option and that we are here to help and should there be a problem. That said, it is ultimately the student's responsibility to come to the instructor to ask for extensions on assignments, or assistance on parts they do not understand.
Overall I feel that academic honesty, and grading as presented by McKeachie are somewhat universal to any field, including communication. Some of the information in First Day to Final Grade regarding grading is information I don't think I will ever use given my field. I do not anticipate grading problem sets, or lab reports. Additionally, there was no advice given on grading presentations and oral reports. I would really have liked to have seen some advice regarding that type of grading.
Useful links:
NDSU's plagiarism policy and guidelines. This is the full policy that we use at NDSU regarding plagiarism. This document details rights and responsibility of accused students.
General information on cheating, and cheating types. This is the website from Berkeley highlighting different types of cheating students partake in and some very generalized advice on what to do. Additionally the link at the bottom of the page takes you to more advice on what do do about academic dishonesty.
Grade inflation. This article comes from Minnesota State University Mankato and does a great job at explaining and making recommendations in terms of grade inflation.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Post 3 (I love my catchy titles!)
In my class I generally lecture and ask questions. As I alluded to in earlier posts, I want to move more towards a discussion based environment. This week's reading was very useful in terms of presenting tips for effective lectures and discussions. I think that discussion based classes are very important in the field of communication, therefore this information is of particular relevance to me. Finally, given the previous points it is clear that these are strategies I will incorporate into my classroom.
What was most useful in the readings was about lectures and why they are ineffective. While reading about lectures I can see things in my lectures that aren't working. Also, during the teaching presentations I have been able to note things that I do in my lecture that I don't necessarily find helpful as a student. Given all of this new information I will be changing how I do lectures in my classroom. I think that incorporating discussion into lectures will be key in helping students reach their maximum potential. The combination of discussion and lecture are essential to the field of communication.
It is my opinion that in the field of communication we should be doing just that, communicating. By incorporating discussion into the communication classroom we can help students become more involved in the processes that we teach. For example, this week in my lecture on audience analysis we stopped and took a moment and analyzed ourselves as an audience. I guess my main line of thought is that since we are constantly studying communication we can take a moment and study ourselves within the classroom context. In addition to using ourselves as examples in communication, an arguably large part of the field is being able to support your arguments.
In the classroom, students need the life skill of backing themselves up. I feel that communication courses are the starting point of this skill. We are covering more than just how to speak effectively in a public setting, we are also teaching students how to back up their claims. I believe that by holding discussions rather than lectures we are encouraging students to be critical thinkers of their work. We also get the opportunity to ask students why they hold an opinion and help them to build skills to support their arguments. Finally, discussions can give students the opportunity to see other viewpoints.
Viewpoints of other students are very important to the classroom. By using discussion we can bring these viewpoints out into the foreground. Hopefully some of these viewpoints will teach students new ways to see vital issues, and the world at large. Another technique that the text recommends, which I feel is important to our field, is asking students to argue the position that runs counter to theirs. This is a fantastic way to get students to broaden their worldview, and learn how to formulate a solid argument. Finally, it teaches students not only how to think, but also new ways to think.
Mixing discussion with lectures enhances student thinking, which is why it is something I would like to incorporate into my classroom. I think that there is much value to be had in having good student discussions. As the semester progresses I am seeing a willingness in my students to discuss and participate in class activities. I think that the ides the text offers are valid in terms of facilitating discussion. I broke my class into small groups to discuss a video clip on Monday, then brought them back into a larger discussion as the text recommends. I must say that the results were outstanding. My students were lively participants, and we had an engaging conversation on audience analysis that brought up aspects of the clip that I hadn't considered. This is how I feel a communication classroom should operate, and how I would like mine to be in the future.
This week's readings provided many relevant and useful pieces of information. I feel that the elements of an effective lecture were very helpful. Also, the use of discussion in the classroom is essential in our field. Suggestions surrounding these two items are things I would like to incorporate into my own classroom.
Helpful links:
Discussions
Electronic discussions, and more helpful hints
Lectures
Additional points of consideration in lecturing
What was most useful in the readings was about lectures and why they are ineffective. While reading about lectures I can see things in my lectures that aren't working. Also, during the teaching presentations I have been able to note things that I do in my lecture that I don't necessarily find helpful as a student. Given all of this new information I will be changing how I do lectures in my classroom. I think that incorporating discussion into lectures will be key in helping students reach their maximum potential. The combination of discussion and lecture are essential to the field of communication.
It is my opinion that in the field of communication we should be doing just that, communicating. By incorporating discussion into the communication classroom we can help students become more involved in the processes that we teach. For example, this week in my lecture on audience analysis we stopped and took a moment and analyzed ourselves as an audience. I guess my main line of thought is that since we are constantly studying communication we can take a moment and study ourselves within the classroom context. In addition to using ourselves as examples in communication, an arguably large part of the field is being able to support your arguments.
In the classroom, students need the life skill of backing themselves up. I feel that communication courses are the starting point of this skill. We are covering more than just how to speak effectively in a public setting, we are also teaching students how to back up their claims. I believe that by holding discussions rather than lectures we are encouraging students to be critical thinkers of their work. We also get the opportunity to ask students why they hold an opinion and help them to build skills to support their arguments. Finally, discussions can give students the opportunity to see other viewpoints.
Viewpoints of other students are very important to the classroom. By using discussion we can bring these viewpoints out into the foreground. Hopefully some of these viewpoints will teach students new ways to see vital issues, and the world at large. Another technique that the text recommends, which I feel is important to our field, is asking students to argue the position that runs counter to theirs. This is a fantastic way to get students to broaden their worldview, and learn how to formulate a solid argument. Finally, it teaches students not only how to think, but also new ways to think.
Mixing discussion with lectures enhances student thinking, which is why it is something I would like to incorporate into my classroom. I think that there is much value to be had in having good student discussions. As the semester progresses I am seeing a willingness in my students to discuss and participate in class activities. I think that the ides the text offers are valid in terms of facilitating discussion. I broke my class into small groups to discuss a video clip on Monday, then brought them back into a larger discussion as the text recommends. I must say that the results were outstanding. My students were lively participants, and we had an engaging conversation on audience analysis that brought up aspects of the clip that I hadn't considered. This is how I feel a communication classroom should operate, and how I would like mine to be in the future.
This week's readings provided many relevant and useful pieces of information. I feel that the elements of an effective lecture were very helpful. Also, the use of discussion in the classroom is essential in our field. Suggestions surrounding these two items are things I would like to incorporate into my own classroom.
Helpful links:
Discussions
Electronic discussions, and more helpful hints
Lectures
Additional points of consideration in lecturing
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Post 2
This week’s reading had several pieces of useful information. The more we read From First Day to Final Grade, the more I appreciate the book. Not only does the book provide many useful points, it gives techniques that are highly applicable to the field of communication, and provides me with ideas that I would like to incorporate into my own teaching.
I found the chapter on weekly class preparation very useful. The chapter answered some of the questions I face as I write lesson plans from week to week. Some of the material I found redundant as we had discussed it in orientation, but many insights I found to be highly useful.
The book touches on using the board rather than power point presentations. I found this to be a good idea because I have been using power point in my classroom and students haven’t been active in taking notes. I think there are two reasons for this. First, students aren’t necessarily sure what the most important points are. Secondly, I think I may move a little too quickly through my power point presentations. Writing on the board should slow me down a little, and also clearly illustrate what I find to be important points from the textbook.
I still plan on using power point in the classroom however; I’m going to use the board to illustrate the most important ideas. Hopefully this will get students more actively taking notes, and slow me down enough so that it is possible to take notes. Using the board wasn’t the only useful piece of information from this week. I also liked the ideas on discussion in the classroom.
My biggest complaint about my classroom is that when I ask questions and try to initiate discussions I get blank stares. I now know some of the reasons why, and have ideas how to fix this.
The biggest problem I have in the classroom is that I have been trying to run task-based discussions without the knowledge of how to properly do that. I thought discussion was discussion until I read this chapter and learned about the two types of discussions. With the tools provided in the text book I think I will be better equipped to run task-based discussions in my classroom.
Regarding discussions, the text speaks to reasons why students are silent. I feel the text leaves out a very important reason for silent students. I think that the culture of the geographical area where students are from can affect the amount of conversation in the classroom. For example, in the Midwest, some students are raised not to make themselves appear as if they are a know it all. Many students feel that they are being ostentatious when they speak up in class, rather that contributing to knowledge. In cultures, or co-cultures in this case, where modesty is valued; I feel that students are less likely to speak up in the classroom. I believe that framing discussion as a way of learning, rather than a way of showing what students know may help students overcome this cultural phenomena. In communication understanding the culture is an important part of running a classroom.
Communication has several solid uses for some of the techniques found in the text. Discussions on issues are a great way to come up with speech topics. Additionally, when discussing an issue, I feel it is a good idea to make students take the opposite position and formulate an argument for that position. In my opinion, most of our field‘s work doesn’t revolve around being right but, forming an argument to defend what you think.
Students should also feel comfortable working together in a communication classroom. I liked the ideas presented about different ways to divide students up so that they all work with different partners. Especially in the Fundamentals of Public Speaking classroom, students need to feel comfortable with each other and feel as if they are amongst friends rather than strangers. I feel that when students feel like they are among friends they will also have better discussions.
The text gave some very good advice on how to run a discussion. I have had issues running discussions in my classroom in the past, and now feel far better equipped to do so. As I mentioned in my last blog I would like to move my classroom from primarily lecture based, to more discussion based. After reading this section I think that this is a good idea because students can learn many things from a good discussion. I also feel like I will be able to effectively run a discussion in my classroom. Hopefully the ideas I drew from the reading for the week will make my classroom a place of livelier discussion and active learning.
Interesting links:
American Classroom Culture
Research Article on Classroom Discussions
Lesson Planning Resource
I found the chapter on weekly class preparation very useful. The chapter answered some of the questions I face as I write lesson plans from week to week. Some of the material I found redundant as we had discussed it in orientation, but many insights I found to be highly useful.
The book touches on using the board rather than power point presentations. I found this to be a good idea because I have been using power point in my classroom and students haven’t been active in taking notes. I think there are two reasons for this. First, students aren’t necessarily sure what the most important points are. Secondly, I think I may move a little too quickly through my power point presentations. Writing on the board should slow me down a little, and also clearly illustrate what I find to be important points from the textbook.
I still plan on using power point in the classroom however; I’m going to use the board to illustrate the most important ideas. Hopefully this will get students more actively taking notes, and slow me down enough so that it is possible to take notes. Using the board wasn’t the only useful piece of information from this week. I also liked the ideas on discussion in the classroom.
My biggest complaint about my classroom is that when I ask questions and try to initiate discussions I get blank stares. I now know some of the reasons why, and have ideas how to fix this.
The biggest problem I have in the classroom is that I have been trying to run task-based discussions without the knowledge of how to properly do that. I thought discussion was discussion until I read this chapter and learned about the two types of discussions. With the tools provided in the text book I think I will be better equipped to run task-based discussions in my classroom.
Regarding discussions, the text speaks to reasons why students are silent. I feel the text leaves out a very important reason for silent students. I think that the culture of the geographical area where students are from can affect the amount of conversation in the classroom. For example, in the Midwest, some students are raised not to make themselves appear as if they are a know it all. Many students feel that they are being ostentatious when they speak up in class, rather that contributing to knowledge. In cultures, or co-cultures in this case, where modesty is valued; I feel that students are less likely to speak up in the classroom. I believe that framing discussion as a way of learning, rather than a way of showing what students know may help students overcome this cultural phenomena. In communication understanding the culture is an important part of running a classroom.
Communication has several solid uses for some of the techniques found in the text. Discussions on issues are a great way to come up with speech topics. Additionally, when discussing an issue, I feel it is a good idea to make students take the opposite position and formulate an argument for that position. In my opinion, most of our field‘s work doesn’t revolve around being right but, forming an argument to defend what you think.
Students should also feel comfortable working together in a communication classroom. I liked the ideas presented about different ways to divide students up so that they all work with different partners. Especially in the Fundamentals of Public Speaking classroom, students need to feel comfortable with each other and feel as if they are amongst friends rather than strangers. I feel that when students feel like they are among friends they will also have better discussions.
The text gave some very good advice on how to run a discussion. I have had issues running discussions in my classroom in the past, and now feel far better equipped to do so. As I mentioned in my last blog I would like to move my classroom from primarily lecture based, to more discussion based. After reading this section I think that this is a good idea because students can learn many things from a good discussion. I also feel like I will be able to effectively run a discussion in my classroom. Hopefully the ideas I drew from the reading for the week will make my classroom a place of livelier discussion and active learning.
Interesting links:
American Classroom Culture
Research Article on Classroom Discussions
Lesson Planning Resource
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Post 1
In today’s post I will be addressing the readings from last week, and my own experiences in the classroom. I will be talking about the items of most utility to myself as a new teacher, how I can apply what was covered in the reading to the field, and finally how I plan to incorporate it into my teaching.
Useful in today’s readings:
There were many things that I found to be useful in the week’s reading assignment. In Teaching Tips I found chapters two and three very interesting. Although I don’t find them terribly important right now, I believe in the future knowing how to build my own course will be very useful. I also liked how we got tips on text book selection. In my current role as a T.A., I hadn’t really thought all that much about selecting a text book for my course because it was done for me already. By contrast, I had thought about the syllabus, but was given one at orientation. After reading chapter two in Teaching Tips, I wish I would have taken more time with the syllabus and crafted it into something more my own.
Chapter three in Teaching Tips also addressed several items that I found to be useful. After reading chapter three, first I got a sense that I ran my first day of class about how I should have. That said however, I feel that I gained much valuable information regarding how I will run my first class period next time. Next time I will cover less material in the syllabus, and spend more time with icebreakers and activities to give students a feel for the course. I think I may have read a little too much of the syllabus to my class. In the future I hope to make better use of this time.
Ways to implement the text in communication:
I believe that the field of communication does a great job at implementing what the books talk about in terms of teaching practice. I believe that as we are naturally enthralled with the phenomena of communication. As a field we pay especially close attention to how we communicate. Although I feel we may pay more attention to how we communicate, I think that First Day to Final Grade makes some good points that are often forgotten.
Some reminders I found particularly helpful were based on gender and ethnicity. I knew that students react differently based on the gender of the instructor. The book also addresses ethnicity and language barriers that I hadn’t really considered. Although I’m a native speaker of English, not all of my students are. I think the book gives some good insight into overcoming these issues.
Incorporation of the material in my classroom:
After completing the readings, I have several things that I am going to try to incorporate into my classroom. First, I know that next semester the first day of my class is going to look very differently. I did use all of my time on the first day, but next semester I will use it differently. I will spend far less time reading the syllabus, and I will just highlight the most important points. After that I will spend more time in activities and icebreakers.
As for the remainder of this semester, I think I’m going to change my approach to covering the material. I liked what Teaching Tips said about time management, especially in terms of my students and the time they should be spending outside of class preparing. I still plan on lecturing however, I think I’m going to slowly wean my students off of lecture and plan more activities. I think right now my course is catering to those who aren’t reading the text, and I need to change this early on. I plan on slowly reducing the amount of lecture while increaesing the amount of discussion and activities. Hopefully the transtion will be both beneficial and seamless.
This week’s reading did several things for me. Not only did I get valuable information I can use right now, I also got material that I believe will be helpful in the future. I plan on continuing my education with the eventual hope of becoming a professor. I feel that the information in this week’s reading has given me tools to use as I move forward with my career both as a student and a teacher.
Helpful Links:
Textbook selection and review process.
Syllabus Planning
Useful in today’s readings:
There were many things that I found to be useful in the week’s reading assignment. In Teaching Tips I found chapters two and three very interesting. Although I don’t find them terribly important right now, I believe in the future knowing how to build my own course will be very useful. I also liked how we got tips on text book selection. In my current role as a T.A., I hadn’t really thought all that much about selecting a text book for my course because it was done for me already. By contrast, I had thought about the syllabus, but was given one at orientation. After reading chapter two in Teaching Tips, I wish I would have taken more time with the syllabus and crafted it into something more my own.
Chapter three in Teaching Tips also addressed several items that I found to be useful. After reading chapter three, first I got a sense that I ran my first day of class about how I should have. That said however, I feel that I gained much valuable information regarding how I will run my first class period next time. Next time I will cover less material in the syllabus, and spend more time with icebreakers and activities to give students a feel for the course. I think I may have read a little too much of the syllabus to my class. In the future I hope to make better use of this time.
Ways to implement the text in communication:
I believe that the field of communication does a great job at implementing what the books talk about in terms of teaching practice. I believe that as we are naturally enthralled with the phenomena of communication. As a field we pay especially close attention to how we communicate. Although I feel we may pay more attention to how we communicate, I think that First Day to Final Grade makes some good points that are often forgotten.
Some reminders I found particularly helpful were based on gender and ethnicity. I knew that students react differently based on the gender of the instructor. The book also addresses ethnicity and language barriers that I hadn’t really considered. Although I’m a native speaker of English, not all of my students are. I think the book gives some good insight into overcoming these issues.
Incorporation of the material in my classroom:
After completing the readings, I have several things that I am going to try to incorporate into my classroom. First, I know that next semester the first day of my class is going to look very differently. I did use all of my time on the first day, but next semester I will use it differently. I will spend far less time reading the syllabus, and I will just highlight the most important points. After that I will spend more time in activities and icebreakers.
As for the remainder of this semester, I think I’m going to change my approach to covering the material. I liked what Teaching Tips said about time management, especially in terms of my students and the time they should be spending outside of class preparing. I still plan on lecturing however, I think I’m going to slowly wean my students off of lecture and plan more activities. I think right now my course is catering to those who aren’t reading the text, and I need to change this early on. I plan on slowly reducing the amount of lecture while increaesing the amount of discussion and activities. Hopefully the transtion will be both beneficial and seamless.
This week’s reading did several things for me. Not only did I get valuable information I can use right now, I also got material that I believe will be helpful in the future. I plan on continuing my education with the eventual hope of becoming a professor. I feel that the information in this week’s reading has given me tools to use as I move forward with my career both as a student and a teacher.
Helpful Links:
Textbook selection and review process.
Syllabus Planning
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