August 28, 2007

• Through the total reorganization of my office, I found a book that I jumped right into last year/semester (with many flagged pages of material to use and consider):

  {page 53} “A common theme emerged – [students] were angry with us not because we expected a lot from them, but because they did not understand how to be successful. Frank explained… ‘Do you really expect us to work hard in here if we know that we are not going to do well?’ … Our students were telling us that they wanted to know exactly what we expected of them sooner. They did not appreciate or appear to benefit from the drama of training for a goal without know what the goal was.”

  {page 145} Idea: Create an assessment stamp for papers/assignments…

  {page 153} “For a long time, writing was arguably the only area of instruction that benefited from the first wave of computers.” “Writing itself has changed and continues to do so with the ongoing integration of technology into our lives.”

  {page 154} “The trick is never teaching the technology for technology’s sake, but teaching writing as it can be done with the technology. So even something as simple as cutting and pasting [...] should be thought of not as a skill, but as a writer’s tool.”

  {page 155-6} “PowerPoint offers both students and teachers a useful means of presenting (as a means of teaching and publishing) to an audience. Students benefit from learning to write in the more telegraphic style and organize their ideas into bullets to convey ideas. In addition, they learn (if taught and required) to organize information by different means: comparatively, sequentially, chronologically. Finally, such multimedia writing further teaches them to incorporate not only words but also images, sounds, and video to convey their ideas in the most effective way.”

  {page 156} Web Site: www.inspiration.com/ – helps visual learners…

  {page 158} “Teachers of writing should be writers themselves. And as teachers, it is our responsibility, among so many others, to assume also the role of learner. The very instant a teacher ceases to recognize the need for continuing education, in any form, is, sadly, the same instant that teacher should retire from the profession.”

  = Those who can, do. Those who can’t, shouldn’t teach. =

  • 12:06 pm
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