I always find it difficult to be engaged during the first day of a new class. Most people feel a little uncomfortable around all the new people and the first day is usually filled with logistics and doesn't really provide much of an opportunity for students to engage with one another. I was curious to see how Professor Gleason would address these challenges on her first day and I noticed several strategies she used to avoid making the day boring and uncomfortable.
Description: I liked that Professor Gleason introduced herself with a lot of detail on the first day. I do not generally know much about my professors, but I like knowing about them. I think this was especially important to do before students wrote their letters to the teacher, since I believe it would make them more comfortable sharing information about themselves. Professor Gleason also engaged students by asking them, "Where do you think I'm from?" I think it broke down some of the barriers between teachers and students by allowing them to analyze her like this. I felt allowing them to do this allowed the students to build a sense of comfort with the teacher and establish that the classroom is a safe and open space.
Response: I really liked this part of the lesson. I think adult students in particular like to feel that their instructor respects them and wants to have a relationship with them. I also think it's important in building the trust and respect of students to establish your credentials and your investment in your field of study. I think thoroughly introducing yourself allows students to buy that you care about teaching both because you love your discipline, but because you like the interpersonal nature of teaching as well.
Ideas/Next Steps: I think that in the future I would like to write a letter introducing myself to students to further build relationships, trust, and mutual respect. I think it might be a nice addition to the syllabus.
Description: Professor Gleason had students pair up and talk to one another and then introduce their partner to the class. I have done this a few times in classes in my past and particularly like it. I did a variation on this in a Spanish class once, and I like it as an activity for ELL students especially since it is a great speaking and listening activity.
Response: I think that college English classrooms sometimes don't address all aspects of language learning. Many times, speaking and listening skills are not developed, which I think is a shame because stronger listening skills, lead to stronger speaking skills, which lead to stronger writing skills. If we want our students to write well, we need them to listen and speak more. I also have noticed a tendency with some of our late-arriving immigrant students: they generally have stronger spoken English than written English. Capitalizing on their language strengths is very important in the writing classroom, when many students who are ELL students feel unsuccessful. I also noticed that students were more comfortable sharing with the class after they shared with a partner. One struggle I had is that I felt like I couldn't absorb all the information about the students in the class.
Ideas/Next Steps: I felt a noticeable positive shift in the energy of the room after we did this activity. I have noticed a trend that the energy level of the room tends to go up after activities where 100% of the students are engaged. I have seen this pair-share strategy used frequently with younger students and I love that it gets everyone talking. I would like to learn more about other structures that get the whole room engaged and talking in small groups or partnerships all at once. I also think an additional perk of this activity was to allow students to be able to start forming comfortable relationships with their classmates, which is an essential foundation for a class in which peer review will happen. I think I might try and facilitate that more by doing a Google form with students so that I can share basic information about them that they might have in common. I might also make a list of student emails if they feel comfortable. I want to find ways to encourage my future students to make friends in my class. I think that's a great dynamic to have in a writing class to balance out the criticism that students may be receiving. I want to think about this more. I have frequently reflected on my relationships with my students, but I haven't really given much thought to how to establish a camaraderie within the cohort of students I have. I think this is especially important on a commuter campus like City College's. Building community is very much a crucial part of teaching.
Description: Professor Gleason brought copies of the books to class to show students. She also told them the price of the books in advance and in the syllabus. She chose to photocopy a part of the book so they were able to do the reading even if they didn't have a chance to purchase the book by the next class.
Response: Unfortunately, I don't think it occurred to me how important it is to choose affordable books for students. I realize this now and I want to consider it in the future. I also would definitely make copies of the first section of the book in the future. I think many students struggle to get the books on time for a variety of reasons, so it saves headaches on both the students' and teacher's parts to have part of the book available early.
Ideas/Next Steps: I would like to see what other affordable memoirs there might be. I think memoir is a great genre to read when writing essays.
Professor Gleason mentioned to students in her syllabus that they are eligible for a free six-month Amazon Prime membership and a free New York Times subscription.
Response: I didn't even know about these resources! I am definitely going to take advantage of them. When I took Basic Writing Theory and Practice, Lynn Reid emphasized that when you work with basic writers or a mainstream composition class, part of your role is to introduce students to academic life and culture.
Ideas/Next Steps: I would like to ask around to learn more about the resources and services students at CCNY have available to them and include them in future syllabi of my own.
Professor Gleason's Introduction of Herself
Description: I liked that Professor Gleason introduced herself with a lot of detail on the first day. I do not generally know much about my professors, but I like knowing about them. I think this was especially important to do before students wrote their letters to the teacher, since I believe it would make them more comfortable sharing information about themselves. Professor Gleason also engaged students by asking them, "Where do you think I'm from?" I think it broke down some of the barriers between teachers and students by allowing them to analyze her like this. I felt allowing them to do this allowed the students to build a sense of comfort with the teacher and establish that the classroom is a safe and open space.
Response: I really liked this part of the lesson. I think adult students in particular like to feel that their instructor respects them and wants to have a relationship with them. I also think it's important in building the trust and respect of students to establish your credentials and your investment in your field of study. I think thoroughly introducing yourself allows students to buy that you care about teaching both because you love your discipline, but because you like the interpersonal nature of teaching as well.
Ideas/Next Steps: I think that in the future I would like to write a letter introducing myself to students to further build relationships, trust, and mutual respect. I think it might be a nice addition to the syllabus.
Pair Up and Introduce Your Partner
Description: Professor Gleason had students pair up and talk to one another and then introduce their partner to the class. I have done this a few times in classes in my past and particularly like it. I did a variation on this in a Spanish class once, and I like it as an activity for ELL students especially since it is a great speaking and listening activity.
Response: I think that college English classrooms sometimes don't address all aspects of language learning. Many times, speaking and listening skills are not developed, which I think is a shame because stronger listening skills, lead to stronger speaking skills, which lead to stronger writing skills. If we want our students to write well, we need them to listen and speak more. I also have noticed a tendency with some of our late-arriving immigrant students: they generally have stronger spoken English than written English. Capitalizing on their language strengths is very important in the writing classroom, when many students who are ELL students feel unsuccessful. I also noticed that students were more comfortable sharing with the class after they shared with a partner. One struggle I had is that I felt like I couldn't absorb all the information about the students in the class.
Ideas/Next Steps: I felt a noticeable positive shift in the energy of the room after we did this activity. I have noticed a trend that the energy level of the room tends to go up after activities where 100% of the students are engaged. I have seen this pair-share strategy used frequently with younger students and I love that it gets everyone talking. I would like to learn more about other structures that get the whole room engaged and talking in small groups or partnerships all at once. I also think an additional perk of this activity was to allow students to be able to start forming comfortable relationships with their classmates, which is an essential foundation for a class in which peer review will happen. I think I might try and facilitate that more by doing a Google form with students so that I can share basic information about them that they might have in common. I might also make a list of student emails if they feel comfortable. I want to find ways to encourage my future students to make friends in my class. I think that's a great dynamic to have in a writing class to balance out the criticism that students may be receiving. I want to think about this more. I have frequently reflected on my relationships with my students, but I haven't really given much thought to how to establish a camaraderie within the cohort of students I have. I think this is especially important on a commuter campus like City College's. Building community is very much a crucial part of teaching.
Books
Description: Professor Gleason brought copies of the books to class to show students. She also told them the price of the books in advance and in the syllabus. She chose to photocopy a part of the book so they were able to do the reading even if they didn't have a chance to purchase the book by the next class.
Response: Unfortunately, I don't think it occurred to me how important it is to choose affordable books for students. I realize this now and I want to consider it in the future. I also would definitely make copies of the first section of the book in the future. I think many students struggle to get the books on time for a variety of reasons, so it saves headaches on both the students' and teacher's parts to have part of the book available early.
Ideas/Next Steps: I would like to see what other affordable memoirs there might be. I think memoir is a great genre to read when writing essays.
Student Resources
Professor Gleason mentioned to students in her syllabus that they are eligible for a free six-month Amazon Prime membership and a free New York Times subscription.
Response: I didn't even know about these resources! I am definitely going to take advantage of them. When I took Basic Writing Theory and Practice, Lynn Reid emphasized that when you work with basic writers or a mainstream composition class, part of your role is to introduce students to academic life and culture.
Ideas/Next Steps: I would like to ask around to learn more about the resources and services students at CCNY have available to them and include them in future syllabi of my own.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of thoughtful comments here.
I agree that pairing students up and letting them talk with each other is extremely valuable.
I would caution you about sharing one student's email with any other student, even when that student gives you permission. You cannot possibly get to know all of your students well enough to know how they will use each other's emails. One student could mis-use another student's email outside of class. Students themselves cannot imagine all the problems that might ensure if they share their private emails with a whole lot of other people who are essentially strangers.
What I would do is to collect students' private emails and create a private email list that I would never share with students. And the reason I would do this is to create a Plan B for how to contact students if the CCNY email system fails. For that same reason, I would collect students' phone numbers (only with their agreement). And I would use those phone numbers only in an emergency. This semester I did not collect students' phone numbers or private emails, but in the past that is what I have almost always done, especially in the years following 9/11.
When you first enrolled as a new graduate student in L&L, it would have been helpful for you to know about the New York Times subscription and the free Microsoft Word subscription for CCNY students. I have been informing new L&L students of those resources in orientations and introductory letters for a long time: I don't know if I offered those bits of info. when you arrived in the program. But even if I did tell you about these things, you might not have absorbed that information because there was so much other info. for you to absorb all at one time. I have concluded recently that it really is desirable to hold an exclusive orientation for new L&L students and to articulate a lot of information orally that was also expressed in writing to new students. In fact, I should use PPT slides to introduce some of this info. at the orientation.
There is a parallel between helping undergraduate read a syllabus and helping new graduate students learn about resources and protocols in an orientation. It all takes time and I need to repeat the same info. in multiple formats to make sure that every student gains access to this information.
--Barbara