November 19, 2007

• Ken Bain rocks my world. In an academic way, of course!

  Last chunk of notes from THE COLLABORATION sessions on Saturday…
  How to give better feedback- use Factual Evidence (“You have five topics in one paragraph.”) versus Guidance/Advice (“Put in more commas.”) or just Praise (“Great paragraph!”) because factual evidence causes students to self-assess (“Why is having five topics in one paragraph not good? Oh yea, they should each have their own.”) and learn on their own. They won’t learn if you mark up their papers & put the commas in for them; they have to learn WHY a comma should go where you are putting it. This just reminds me to have longer writing conferences; it’s a hint I got from another conference session awhile back.

  The Promising Syllabus (by Ken Bain – same guy who gave an awesome keynote on Friday):
  If a syllabus didn’t exist, how would you invent it knowing what we know about human learning? Three parts to the Promising Syllabus: a) The promise (You will walk out of my course able to _____.) and the questions (Can writing be more than just text? Can writing be more than what I’ve learned already in high school? Can writing be more than the five-paragraph essay? etc); b) The beginning to a discussion of what they’ll do to achieve the promise (a.k.a. assignments, avoid language of “requirements, connection between assignments & promise should seem obvious); c) The beginning of a conversation as to how we will come to understand the nature and progress of students’ learning (a.k.a. grades/assessment).

  My promises & questions: You will leave my class able to write well, think differently, and read critically. OR You will never look at writing the same. Or, with World Literature: You will learn what it is like to be human all over the world. Are the great thinkers of the world (Einstein, Plato) also the greatest writers? Is writing a task or a skill? What are students already interested in in your field? (Facebook, multi-media/YouTube, MySpace, email, IM, texting, etc)
  
  *Start with their existing paradigms and revise/move/carry those paradigms to a new place.

  • 11:58 am
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