A Teacher's Notebook

PBL: More Initial Questions

2006-06-27T20:46:00.000-05:00

Questions I must consider...

What is PBL?
What might PBL look like in your classroom?
What changes would you have to make?
How would the wide variety of learners in your classroom benefit from PBL?

Problem-based learning (PBL) is the use of real-word problems as a vehicle to bringing "content" to students in the classroom. It has it's origin in medical training. Howard Barrows pioneered this method with his students as a way of getting them to exercise their clinical skills of reasoning and investigating. The process starts with what is known and progresses from there.

PBL could find its way into my classroom in a number of ways. In fact, it might already be there. In my Composition II course, last year, I ran a research project that I entitled "Knowledge Quest." At the time, I had no working knowledge of PBL, but as I said before, my commitment to methods that involve student-centered learning, high-degrees of collaboration, and views of knowledge as something socially-constructed and negotiated seems to place me not far from PBL proper. In the "Knowledge Quest," teams of students define broad, topical questions around a broad subject area. I used art. So, as a class, we went through a process that yielded topical questions (as opposed to factual or interpretive questions) like "Why are human beings obsessed with creating and consuming art?", "What is the role of art in a troubled world?", "Who determines the purpose and value of art and how is that determined?", "How does art shape public policy?", "Does the artist have a responsibility to his community?", and so forth. This was the starting point. Each team (or quest) had a different question which drove them forward in their research. They had to consult many different kinds of sources, both primary and secondary, as the pursued answers to their driving quest/tion. It ended up being a pretty good project, I think. While it is not pure PBL, I think it could be easily tweaked to take advantage more fully of the PBL framework.

I'm not exactly sure what kinds of changes I would have to make to more fully utilize PBL with this Knowledge Quest project. Perhaps, as it stands now, the KQ project is more project-based learning than problem-based. As I reflect back on it, the basic products resulting in the end were very similar. In a real PBL class, the products would all be very different depending on the very different solutions the students came up with for their defined problem. Perhaps, to make the KQ project more PBL, I need to hand more over to the students, allowing them to define their own projects more so.

Given the diversity of learners in my classes, PBL could be of great benefit to learners, as they could pursue solutions to their defined problems in ways that fit their individual learning styles.

What is Meaningful Learning?

2006-06-21T00:07:00.000-05:00

I knew I should have taken that learning course in undergrad as part of my psych major. Instead, I took a course in applied mental health issues. It seemed more glamorous at the time as I had notions of one day going into clinical psychology--helping people with all their mental ailments, getting paid the big bucks to listen. Learning theory sounded just a bit too textbook-ish to me. Now, however, as part of my PBL course I am faced with questions about and references to learning theory--something I know little about.

Jonassen, Howland, Moore, and Marra do a fine job providing a survey of prevalent theories on the subject in their Learning to Solve Problems with Technology. In light of this reading, I am asked the following questions:

How do the authors' definition of learning compare with your own?
What aspects of learning theory are vital for your students?
How can technology enhance learning?

Jonassen et. al. present summary statements of 13 different established learning theories, after which they affirm that learning encompasses all the competing theories--that it is too complex to be resolved with a single idea, that all the theories describe some aspect of human learning.

I can buy that, I suppose, even though the stance lacks conviction and seems a bit too convenient. I do agree that learning is a complex process. That is undeniable. Of the theories presented, the ones I embrace most fully in my own practice as a teacher are "Learning is Social Negotiation," "Learning is Knowledge Construction," and "Learning is Distributed Among the Community." These principles as described by Jonassen et. al. are principles I espouse to my students as we engage in the complex process of making sense of things, of making meaning, of learning. I believe these aspects of learning to be closely tied to the act and process of writing (what I teach), so these aspects are most vital for my students.

How can technology enhance learning? When we learn with technology as opposed to from technology, a distinction Jonassen et. al. make (11) technology enhances learning. To use technological means as just another way to distribute "content" to students is insufficient. Rather, technology--whatever it might be--should be used as a tool to construct and/or negotiate meaning. This is how it can enhance learning. This concept makes me think about implications with online learning (the subject of my master's thesis). How can online technology be used to enhance the learning experience in an online class rather than just be an alternative way of delivering the same old content? This is something I think about often. I'm sure my practice of teaching online demonstrates some answers, but I have more work to do. Perhaps this is something I will investigate as part of the PBL course project I will complete. The wheels are turning...

PBL to Create Active, Accountable Learners

2006-06-20T22:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure how I developed my methods for teaching--they grew somewhat organically out of experience, I suppose, but what I've learned about PBL so far feels so very familiar to me. I understand the distinctions the authors are making between PBL and "traditional" methods of teaching, but I guess my approaches have never been very traditional. I've always advocated for active learning. I refuse to assume "traditional" roles of teacher as disseminator of knowledge and student as passive recipient. I force students to take responsibility for their own education. I have for a long time now been using collaborative learning strategies in my classroom despite their inherent difficulties. Many of my projects are "inquiry-based." I don't pretend of feel the need to have all the answers in my classroom. I don't believe in simplifying the complex issues for the sake of "easier" teaching and learning. I believe in the difficulty of complexity--in problematizing issues students are quick to oversimplify. Critical thinking is one thing I value highly in my classroom. I believe that knowledge is socially constructed and that meaning is communally negotiated. From what I read, these ideas and attitudes seem to be well-aligned with PBL. I am faced now with three questions:

How can you develop thinkers in your classroom rather than passive recipients of information?
How does PBL differ form traditional teaching methods?
How does PBL differ from other inquiry forms of instruction?

Kain offers some advice for developing thinkers rather than passive recipients. He suggests allowing students to struggle with the puzzle even when we, as teachers, know the answer. It is through the struggles that real and lasting learning will occur. I often tell my students at the start of the semester that it is my hope they will leave my course with more questions than answers, for the ability to form the questions and a willingness to struggle with the complexities of the questions is worth far more than the satisfaction of a simple answer which brings inquiry and curiosity to an end. The teacher's role in this, as I have experienced, and as suggested by William Kilpatrick (cited in Kain 2), is to provide the student with the "experiences in learning to pose the questions and to work out solutions."

Some of the ways PBL is not like "traditional" methods of teaching is that learning occurs in a real-world context, motivation is real, the focus is on inquiry more so than on verification, the learning process is valued more than the product, and the student directs the learning more than the teacher.

PBL has an inquiry-based method of instruction, but it is not the only one. Other inquiry forms include project-based learning and case study learning. While PBL has similarities to these other forms, it is markedly different as well. PBL differs from project-based learning in that the focus is more on process than product. In project-based learning all student projects will be more or less the same, but with PBL the learner defines the problem and the solution; therefore, the end product will vary greatly from student to student. PBL is also broader than the case study method in that the work extends far beyond the discussion of a narrative case study. According to Kain, "The PBL approach as presented here provides learners with a series of artifacts that are not collapsed into a narrative summary" (4). The learners themselves examine the issue, define the problem, and propose multiple, alternative solutions. After this work, the dialogue characteristic of the case study approach ensures. PBL is a broad, process-oriented, inquiry-based instructional approach.

Shadows from My Past

2006-06-20T22:23:00.000-05:00

I've been asked, "In what other settings might you consider using PBL?" Thinking back, it seems to me that in fact I have been using it for some time now, but never had a label for it. Outside of my career in education, going way back to my former life as an IT management consultant, I recall using a PBL approach to working with my clients. Articulate the presenting problem or issue (the ill-structured problem?). Engage in initial inquiry or discovery. Define the problem. Develop multiple alternative solutions. Select the best. Devise an implementation plan. Execute the plan. Measure the results. Determine next steps. From what I've read so far about PBL, it sure reminds me of the work I did with clients while consulting. I think PBL has both organizational and individual applications.

Theory Into Practice

2006-06-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

I've been digging into the reading for the PBL course and am faced with some questions. The first reading is from Problem-Based Learning by Daniel L. Kain. In his preface, he discusses how, as a teaching professional, one's work extends beyond the classroom walls. The question I am faced with initially is...

How does Kain encourage you to think beyond classroom walls and become a reflective professional?

Well, the audience for Kain's book is K-8 teachers, but his encouragement still applies to my level at the community college. He starts off by saying his book offers no answers, but rather "a framework to learn how to raise questions about issues that are important to your work as a teacher" (xiii). He says that such a framework will help one go about finding the answers. His book seems to both be about problem-based learning and use a problem-based learning approach to help the reader engage in the process itself. Kain's use of PBL in the book is not merely to present an opportunity to experience the concept in an exercise, but rather to offer readers the opportunity to shift their way of thinking about and engaging in their professional lives as teachers. This has far-reaching implications--going beyond classroom walls to include real-world consideration of policies, curriculum, politics, school structures. As teachers, we encounter problems all the time--challenges to contend with. PBL can not only help prepare our students for the real-world, it can help us as professionals operate within it.

Getting Started with Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

2006-06-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

PB-what? PB&J? No PBL--Problem-based Learning. The subject of the online course I am taking at Drake University. I've been asked three questions to initiate this week's online lesson:

Why did I decide to take this course?
What are my expectations?
What effect do I hope this course makes on my teaching?

Let's see if I can offer some thoughts.

Of all the courses to choose from to earn credit towards my promotion in a couple years, I chose Problem-based Learning because it is a concept that I have heard of--have some guesses about--but in reality have little or no formal knowledge of. I remember first hearing of PBL as a formal concept when some teachers from The Netherlands visited my college and presented on the concept, as their college's curriculum was entirely PBL. Subsequently, I learned that the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) right in my own backyard also had a curriculum entirely built on the concept of PBL. Still knowing nothing formally about the concept, my interest was sparked. I have always striven to create an environment in my classroom where students are doing a whole lot more work than I am. In other words, I have been a fan of student learning that might be called self-directed, real-world-based, inquiry-based, curiosity-driven, authentic, or maybe even problem-based. I'm not sure. I am sure, thought, that I detest lecturing to my students. I don't necessarily feel like I have a vast reservoir of knowledge that I want to impart to my students. I don't believe knowledge to be something held by the few and disseminated to the privileged. My views have always been to the contrary. Honestly, I see myself as a learner in the classroom (even when appointed as the teacher) just as much as the students are learners. I believe in the power of community to create new knowledge. I believe in the power of dialogue. I believe learning is a process of discovery that comes through interacting socially. I suppose on some level, I feel that PBL has something to do with these beliefs of mine. It sounds compatible. I guess that's what drew my to the course.

From this course, I guess I expect to learn about applying some formal structure to what I have likely practiced on and off through the years with no formal structure, training, or solid knowledge of theoretical underpinning. I'm not sure to what degree I will "formalize" my practice of PBL, but having such knowledge will surely inform my practice and will hopefully make it more effective. I expect that through writing and through dialogue with my colleagues in the class, I will come away with some good practical ideas I can use in my own teaching.

I hope that by studying the theory of PBL and by discussing it in practice with colleagues, I will be more confident when implementing such projects and will have a stock of supporting theory and practical ideas to draw from as needed.

All in all, I am looking forward to this experience for many reasons. It should be good.

Taking on a Student's Perspective

2006-06-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

After teaching online for more than four years now, I will finally be taking an online course myself. This should be interesting, as I will for the first time (I hope) really understand where my students are coming from when they comment [read: complain :-)] about taking online courses with me. The course is entitled Problem Based Learning through Drake University. It's a graduate course, which is nice as it will help me towards my promotion in a couple years. Beyond such benefits, however, I do have a real interest in the topic of PBL. It's not something I have much formal knowledge of, but I suspect it is something I have worked with over the length of my teaching career, as many of my projects have been inquiry-based, which is a buzz word I am hearing more and more when discussing PBL.

As part of the course, we've been asked to keep a journal and learning log. In fact, it was suggested that we keep this as a blog. I figured what a great opportunity to bring my "Teacher's Notebook" back to life especially since its been scarcely alive since I launched it about two years ago. So why not? Over the next ten weeks or so, I will be using this space to journal for my PBL online course and to keep my "learning log." If anyone's reading, enjoy watching me struggle as I have enjoyed (lovingly) over the years watching my own students struggle as they contend with new ideas.

You know that novel you're working on?

2006-02-11T15:38:00.000-06:00

How to tease writer... ;-)

Short Film of Updike's "A & P"

2006-02-07T22:38:00.000-06:00

I found this little 17 minute film of Updike's short story "A & P" at iFilm.com. I knew it existed, but didn't think it would be that easy to find. Updike's story is amazing in its subtleties. The film's not too bad either. And check out Sean Patrick Hayes (Jack from "Will and Grace") as Sammy.

YY-Zed and Goodle Video: How Cool

2006-01-28T16:06:00.000-06:00

Google's video search engine is quite cool. It allows you to search for free and paid content from TV shows, film, and user uploads. What I really like is the ability to copy-n-paste the source code they nicely provide to you in order to embed the clip onto your own site. This has very cool implications for teaching online. So many possibilities...

For now, a little YYZ from Rush. Check it out. I may be dating myself, but I still think they rock!

Found Photos and Distant Otherness

2006-01-21T16:40:00.000-06:00

I stumbled upon a collection of found photos from buishorange.com which fascinate me. The pictures themselves conjure dark images in my imagination, but how they were found is pretty cool too. A couple of guys apparently purchased a digital camera on eBay and when it arrived there were photos on the camera from the previous owner. The sensation of looking at these images feels oddly voyeuristic while my imagination tries to spin the tale of these unknown places, objects, and people.

Back (again): a semesterly innaugural post

2006-01-20T11:38:00.000-06:00

Hmm. It seems that there is a pattern developing here--a single post at the start of each new semester. I thought the schedule would ease up a bit the more I experienced I got, but the truth is as I am able to manage more in my schedule, I take more on. Throw a two-and-a-half-year-old into the mix and there's not much time left. It's a never ending cycle. I suppose I'll smarten up one of these days before I retire :-) So, here it is--my inaugural post for this semester.

Let's see. I'm taking on COM107, Creative Writing--Fiction, this semester which is a new prep for me, but I'm really excited about it. I've wanted for a long time to teach creative writing, but haven't until now had the good fortune to have such an opportunity. I'm teaching it both in the face-to-face classroom and online (two preps?). Needless to say, I'll be busy having fun with that. I'm also teaching three sections of COM102, Composition II (one online, two f2f) and one online section of LIT220, Intro to Fiction. It's going to be busy for sure, but the more I teach within English studies, the more I begin to see it as all the same thing really (in a good way). The interconnectedness of these "subjects" is becoming increasingly clear to me, which makes teaching these multiple "preps" that much smoother. The need to "change gears," as it were, between preps is become less and less. I'm hoping this semester, as I am teaching both Intro to Fiction (as literature) and Fiction (as creative writing), that I will be able to realize some real efficiencies in my approach. It's the same subject, is it not, only approached from a slightly different vantage point. I hope to continue to explore these relationships between courses in my department (and even connections between my courses and those outside of the department) in future semesters. For now, though, I have my hands full and I'm having a blast.

Ok, back to work. Perhaps there'll be more here later. Until then, cheers.

I'm Back

2005-08-29T00:16:00.000-05:00

I can't believe the Fall semester is underway again. I took a break from this journal not because I was in Barbados on the beach or anything, but because I was so busy this summer teaching two brand new online courses, selling two houses, and trying to move. In my down time (little that there was), I was taking swimming lessons with my two-year-old son and playing with him in the park (definitely time well spent). Anyway, I'm back and I'm just as busy. I'm going to try, however, to work this journal into my regular routine (as well as the rest of writing101.net).

I'm excited about this year. There's a lot happening. I'm teaching two online courses--Composition II and Intro to Fiction (the ones I developed over the summer). I've also taken on an interesting project: a "contextualized" composition course for automotive students. It's your basic COM101 with an automotive flavor, so to speak. Geared (no pun) to students who are enrolled in the automotive program and have to take COM101 as a part of their gen eds. Historically, it's been tough to retain these students in COM101. The solution? Voila. "COM101 auto edition." The thing is, it's just me and three other guys. That's a class size I'm not quite accustomed to, although I welcome it. I'll have to adapt to the intimate setting, but I'm really looking forward to it. The guys are an easy-going bunch. I expect will have some good fun and learn from each other along the way.

I'm also teaching two sections of the traditional COM101, and I'm trying a few new things. Add the couple new courses that I have in the hopper for the next term and that makes me a busy guy. Oh, and we can't forget about my tenure review and other department responsibilities. I'm definitely not complaining. It's a good kind of busy. I love this job.

It's good to be back; even though, it feels like I never left.

The Five Obstructions

2005-03-12T11:15:00.000-06:00

Am I indulging my own taste for obscure indie films? My students probably think so. I showed my composition class the von Trier and Leth film, The Five Obstructions, last week and the response was largely one of drudgery. Slow moving? Perhaps. Not what they're used to? Most likely. Drudgery? Anything but. I got the impression from some of the grumbling and from a few outright comments that many found the film to be "stupid" and a few found it to be "painful." I actually had one student who chose not to return to the next class because he couldn't bear to watch the rest of the film. How strange. I remember, back in my early years of school, how watching a movie of any kind was a welcomed change and felt like some kind of special treat, so to speak. I'm getting old. Student expectations have changed.

Perhaps the film was too "intellectual" for a bunch of 18-year-olds. I try to avoid such thinking, believing that students should be invited to read (and view) more sophisticated texts in college. Too often we dumb it down or just don't give our students the chance to enjoy a text that raises more questions than answers. The sad thing, I think, is that this kind of treatment has made students comfortable with being spoon-fed simple answers and irritated and put-out when asked to struggle with ambiguity.

Ahh, I'm not taking enough of the blame here, I know. Perhaps, I should have spent more time prefacing the film--preparing them for it and setting their expectations. Perhaps, more time discussing it after viewing. Instead, I used it to set a larger context for acts of revision the class was engaged in--hoping it would help the students reconsider what revision is and what it can be. Perhaps I put too much faith in the text itself and in the student's willingness to be confused and to struggle with something they don't immediately understand. Many, however, dismissed it as being stupid or not making sense, when what they mean to say is that they didn't understand it. Again, I take the blame for this. I didn't work hard enough to assure them that it's actually good if they don't immediately understand and that that, in fact, is part of the point.

I know students would "get" the connections between the various texts, activities, and ideas I bring to class (and some indeed do), if they would just trust me and have faith in the process. It's hard though to build a class on trust and faith in things that will come in time when people are accustomed to immediate gratification. Perhaps the obstruction I offer my students is one of waiting. Wait for it. Trust it. It will come. I suppose, though, I have to figure out a way to make the waiting more bearable.

A Dark Week

2005-02-12T10:44:00.000-06:00

I've been in a funk this week. It seems like my head's been in the clouds. Many shadows are hanging over me. I suppose it started a couple weeks back when I buried my cat. Digging a grave does something to you. It was my first one. My mother is visiting my dying aunt in Washington. We get daily reports over the phone. It's a matter of time. This too hangs like a dark shadow over me. The bleak irony is that my mother's homecoming will come only with the shadow of death. I learned on Tuesday that a friend and colleague died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage. He was 32. My age. He was an amazing person filled with so much energy and life. He leaves his wife and two little girls behind. Like I said, it's been a dark week. My head has not really been in the game. Teaching is demanding. Students are demanding. I have been only half there. In LIT220 this week, we read Kafka and made some connections with the art of Edvard Munch. (How's that for a pick me up?) I find myself identifying with Munch's "The Scream." The figure screams, but I don't imagine anyone hears it. Kafka and Munch. It wasn't planned, but it was fitting. With hope next week will bring something brighter. Perhaps, I'll bring some Hallmark cards to class.

Mystery Man at Poe's Grave Provides Classroom Material

2005-01-20T08:28:00.000-06:00

How very Poesque and serendipitous for me as by chance we are discussing "The Cask of Amontillado" in my Intro to Fiction class today. This gives me a nice way to kick off the conversation.

Portfolio Assessment

2004-12-30T10:46:00.000-06:00

This last semester in COM101 (Composition I), I tried portfolio assessment for the first time. I modified the "traditional" portfolio approach some to accommodate certain departmental requirements for grading, but all in all it worked pretty well. The students still worked on four major essays prior to the midterm. Each essay passed through the class in two official drafts--one for a peer review workshop and one for my feedback. Neither of the drafts was graded except to "check it in" for some minor "formative" points. Students were then encouraged to continue working on these drafts as their time allowed. They were invited to solicit additional feedback from me through one-on-one writing conferences. Of course, they could also ask their peers for more feedback. Each of the four essays was thematically connected to the others such that the ideas built one upon another. The portfolio, then, that was assembled and submitted for a grade at midterm was more than just a collection of four papers; it was a scholarly project.

I discovered some tremendous benefits in portfolio assessment this past semester. For the first time, I feel that I was really able to teach revision in an effective manner. I actually witnessed students engaging in the revision process with success. This by far was the greatest benefit. Revision is so central to the writing process, and yet it is often something more talked about than practiced in a writing classroom. Time constraints and so forth tend to limit the possibility of engaging in real revision. The portfolio approach helped to overcome this limitation. Other benefits included an authentic sense of student accomplishment. Rather than falling into the old "one and done" method of writing where students write papers at 3am the morning before they are due, get a mediocre grade, and then retire the paper to the trunks of their cars or the bowels of their bookbags, students actually worked toward something much larger. They engaged in actual scholarly work. They wrote a lot and began to take some real pride in the work. It was cool. Sure there will always be those who don't do what they are supposed to do. Those who don't have faith in the process and effectively disengage themselves from the class. But the majority, I would say, did follow along with the process and reaped the benefits.

The downside for me as a teacher was the workload. While portfolio grading allowed me to suspend actual grading until the portfolios came in, once they did come, I was buried. This was tough but seeing the results was worth it. I'm convinced that portfolio assessment is best for the students--especially in a writing course--even if it can get a bit overwhelming for the teacher.

A Post Already

2004-12-05T01:35:00.000-06:00

Thought I ought to post something, so folks didn't think I abandoned this site. Same old same old. It's just a busy time of year. One week left before finals week begins. This semester has gone fast. I think I've been surviving my first one at MVCC pretty well. I've been teaching my classes with decent success, I'd say. Three classroom observations done, three sets of student evals conducted, goals accomplished, self-evaluation narrative submitted, and now just my evaluation team meeting next week. Whew... It's been crazy. I think I've weathered it though. We'll see how the meeting next week goes.

Gotta get to bed now. I'll get back to regular posting soon I hope. More later...

Choose or Lose : Vote or Die

2004-10-01T22:19:00.000-05:00

Today in class I made the mistake of asking my students if they watched the presidential debates last night. I was only mildly surprised to hear the majority of the class grumble and roll their eyes, as if to say, give me a break. I half expected that. I even half expected a general sense of indifference across the group, but for some reason as the class heaved their collective sigh of "oh here we go again with more talk of the stupid election," I became quietly enraged. I do remember being 18; I really do. (It really wasn't that long ago.) But I can't remember being so completely indifferent to the world around me. Especially nowadays when literally there are people dying in other countries of this world for their right to vote, and my students sit their and say, "Hey, it's America. We don't have to do anything we don't want to do." No, you don't have to vote, but you should want to. It's a privilege, for God's sake, not a burden. Not to be overly Orwellian, but I truly believe if this level of apathy continues to spread amongst young people, there may come a time when blowing off the vote will be a moot issue, as it will no longer be an option. If you don't choose, others will choose for you. If you don't care to think, then others will certainly do it for you.

The only saving grace today on this front was a student who approached me after class to say that she votes and, in fact, registered to vote when she was 16 (even though she wouldn't receive her card for two more years). She told me about a film she just finished watching about the women's suffrage movement and about how it pains her to see young women--her peers--not care about voting after so many women before them have suffered and fought for the right to vote. It's sad. I encouraged her to speak out to her peers on this matter, as they might be more likely to listen to a peer than a teacher. She was hesitant, but perhaps she will.

God help us all come post November and in the years to come.

Live From Miami, a Style Showdown

2004-09-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

An exercise in oratory--in classical rhetoric. My students can learn a thing or two about confidence in delivery, whether in speaking or writing. It's not about arrogance; it's about decisiveness.

Just the other day I was admonishing them against the dangers of hedging in their language. This made me thing of that:

Syntax Soup Both candidates have syntactical minefields, now very familiar to voters, that they must avoid. Mr. Bush sometimes mangles the language, while Mr. Kerry has a tendency to ramble, when an audience wants punchiness. He also uses what George P. Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, calls "hedges," words and grammatical constructions that imply uncertainty or qualification.
"There are certain forms of grammar that don't commit you, phrases like `I believe' or `I think,' " Mr. Lakoff said. "Kerry has to learn not to do that."
"It is possible to be decisive and not sound decisive," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "People who speak in sentences that contain parenthetical phrases, people who begin a sentence and then deflect to add a series of illustrative examples before they end the sentences" do not seem authoritative, she said. "The language of decisiveness is subject, verb, object, end sentence."

The New Faces of Reality TV

2004-09-26T10:23:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought we couldn't go any lower.

Performance Anxiety

2004-09-17T13:55:00.000-05:00

My dean observed my class today as part of my tenure review process. It's funny how different a class can go when you feel the weight of being evaluated. It wasn't terrible. (I think I'll still have my job tomorrow.) But I wasn't right on, either. Sigh. I'm tired. I'm going home now. I've got to prepare for another class and another observation on Monday. Tenure seems so very far away.

Discussion anyone? Talk to Me!

2004-09-17T13:21:00.000-05:00

Getting students engaged in a discussion of reading is always a tremendous challenge for me. Even if I succeed in getting them to actually do the reading, getting them to think about and have ideas about what they read is another challenge altogether. It's tough.

The other day, I wanted to just have an open discussion in class about what we had all read for that day in order to walk away with a fuller understanding of what the text might represent, to hear different perspectives on it, and so on. Of course, I go into these situations with too much idealism. I often think we can all sit around in a circle and muse philosophically over the text and everyone will be enraptured by the whole thing. Doesn't work that way. The funny thing is I walk into the class half knowing that it won't work, I just don't want to believe it. Needless to say, with only a plan for open discussion on the text in class that day, it bombed big time (well it wasn't horrible, but not good.) I learn quickly though.

The next day, I had the same objective to accomplish in a different section of the course. I wanted students to get engaged with the material, to talk about it in specific ways, and to hear others talk about it. I tried something different. I had them get into small groups. Each group had one "Question for a Second Reading." They were to compare their notes on the question, discuss it, and then prepare a 3-minute presentation to give to the course offering their perspective on the reading based on the question they pursued. It's a simple plan really, but the results were so much better than the previous day.

The lesson learned? Perhaps, I should curb the idealism a little in the interests of better serving the students. Because I enjoy sitting around in a circle sipping coffee and talking about text, doesn't mean my 19-year old students will necessarily. A little nudge never hurt.

Robert Coles on Fact and Fiction

2004-08-31T21:46:00.000-05:00

In his essay entitled "Tradition: Fact and Fiction" Coles struggles with this idea of representation. The documentarian's aim is to represent "human actuality," he contends, but how can such a representation be attained through the subjectivity of a human lens? Coles says that his students just don't get it. They emphaize the responsibility to fact when doing documentary work and speak of the alternative as fiction, as if the two are clear-cut opposites of one another. They fail to acknowledge the subjectivity of the choices made by the documentarian--the writer, the photographer. Despite the best of intentions to represent that which is "actual," the representation will always be influenced by the subjectivity of the writer or photographer.

Events are filtered through a person's awareness, itself not uninfluenced by a history of private experience, by all sorts of aspirations, frustrations, and yearnings, by those elusive, significant "moods" as they can affect and even sway what we deem of interest or importance...

We are subjective human beings. To ignore that and carry the pretense of objectivity is a futile effort.

Commonplace Books

2004-08-31T21:31:00.000-05:00

I have asked my students to keep a commonplace book--a sort of scrapbook for language--wherein they capture snippets of language as they read it in the texts we are working with in the class and as they hear it in the lives they live and then respond to those snippets in writing. The idea is that they will be working with challenging texts and seeking to understand them by writing about them. At the same time, they will be raising their awareness of language and how it operates on many levels to affect us all as readers and as consumers of texts.

So, I thought I might offer a few commonplace book entries of my own in this blog. As I read the texts of the course along with my students, I will try to make entries into this blog about what I've read and what sense I can make of it and how it is affecting me. More soon...