November 16, 2007
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Blogging on a Friday night? That’s probably illegal. But I have some “cool” tidbits/thoughts/ideas/activities to record from this conference (THE COLLABORATION):
> First session on Critical Thinking: It seemed as if more time could’ve been spent on activities that integrate critical thinking into the classroom; I have their PPT slides, so perhaps I’ll make something out of them later?
> Second session: Keynote Speaker. Thinking about HOW students learn… as good teachers, we need to observe & think about the learning of our students…Who was a good teacher to you? What qualities did they have? Steve Ward would burst into the room with enthusiasm for his subject/discipline… his being excited about literature made me excited… the element of surprise; making students not know what to expect on a daily basis… then there’s Kevin Brooks and his ability, as I told Ivan, to give “gentle criticism” – criticism that still was critical, but wasn’t overtly harsh (barely felt like “criticism” yet I still wanted to improve for myself)… take students’ “existing paradigms” about whatever and create a new model (his cell phone story with his granddaughter)… if “paper = sucks,” then call it something else or use critical thinking to ask why paper writing has “sucked” for them in the past, etc… “English” = boring… maybe call papers text?… putting on the board, “Writing is like… dancing. Writing is like music. Writing is like going out for a night on the town with friends,” then asking them to identify which one is the most “true” statement – which one has the biggest connection for them?… use inductive means of teaching instead of deductive… “We learn from experience.” => “We learn from reflecting on experience.” (YEA, connects to my presentation from last week!)… “We construct a sense of reality.” … “Learn to play baseball by playing baseball.”… mental gymnastics = critical thinking… show a paper = ask, “How do we know it’s an A paper?” take questions, “it’s organized,” “how do you know?” etc…
Remember two things: 1) What big questions can my course answer for students? 2) They’re all just 5-year-olds.
Harvey says I need to read Sam Harris’ “A Note to Christian _______” … it’s from an atheist. Cool. A different perspective!
> Third session: Making lessons Stick… sticky notes… (clearly identify the idea you’re trying to teach) how create/use transitions in academic papers; (stories/situations/prompts that richly evoke core idea) PPT w/o transitions or 3 topics on the board & ask them to connect those topics or tape Letterman/Conan/Leno & show how they use transitions or take transitions out of an essay & ask if it still reads well… [idea stolen: the HUMAN MLA simulation!! Someone is a period, someone is a date, someone is a URL...] Iti’s all about the writing prompts: don’t use “what did you learn,” but “You’re paper is lacking _____. Prove to me I am wrong.” or something similar. [idea stolen: monologues about what is frustrating them right then and there. then amplify by 100%. then, as the surprise, they have to write the monologue from the opposite perspective!]
> Fourth session: Creativity in academic writing. “Writing is… thinking made visible.” YES. We created a creative intro we could use in our class(es), etc: “Your brain has no more big words. Write an essay about ____ with words less than six keys long. Your goal is 200 words.”
We have three more sessions tomorrow.
