Monday, April 29, 2013

Tech in the Classroom: PB Works

This is part of a series of reviews of websites, platforms, and social media sites. Some are useful for teachers in a SMART classroom (with a teacher-station computer, internet connection, and projector). Others lend themselves more to a lab where each student has her own computer. Hopefully these can help us communicate with our students, present information effectively, and encourage collaboration, feedback, and active participation. See our previous review of Wordpress and Facebook.


Here's a review of the very first content management platform I ever used: PB Works. 

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Assignment: Group Grammar Worksheet

Grammar worksheets have always been a point of contention in my teaching. When I hand them out, even students who do well on them seem unable to explain the rules they're using, which then means they have trouble applying them in their own writing.

I began to think that grammar worksheets were a waste of time.

I decided to try something new last year,and since then I have used it several times. It has worked really well, and I think it could be adapted in several ways to encompass a variety of grammar lessons.


Monday, April 15, 2013

Tech in the Classroom: Facebook Review

This is part of a series of reviews of websites, platforms, and social media sites. Some are useful for teachers in a SMART classroom (with a teacher-station computer, internet connection, and projector). Others lend themselves more to a lab where each student has her own computer. Hopefully these can help us communicate with our students, present information effectively, and encourage collaboration, feedback, and active participation. See our previous review of Wordpress.

You might be most familiar with Facebook as the distraction that keeps pulling your students' attention away from their work in computer labs or even on their phones. You also might also know Facebook as the distraction that keeps pulling you away from your own work as you're supposed to be grading papers or lesson planning. It has a pretty bad reputation as being a procrastinator's swirling vortex of material, with people going so far as to create apps that block it from computers for specified lengths of time so that they aren't tempted to "like" their friend's latest dinner pic when they're supposed to be writing a term paper.

Setting aside that bad reputation for a moment, though, there are some creative ways to harness the usability and ubiquity of Facebook to be a classroom tool rather than a classroom menace.

facebook_logo

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Tech in the Classroom: Wordpress Blog Review

This is the first in a series of reviews of websites, platforms, and social media sites. Some are useful for teachers in a SMART classroom (with a teacher-station computer, internet connection, and projector). Others lend themselves more to a lab where each student has her own computer. Hopefully these can help us communicate with our students, present information effectively, and encourage collaboration, feedback, and active participation.

When I first began teaching in a computer-mediated room, I thought the height of technological advancement was that I could load a typed lesson on the overhead instead of scratching it in chalk on the board. Now, of course, there are a multitude of technologies for the writing classroom. 


At my college, students sometimes struggle with access to computers. More often, they struggle to get internet access. It's getting easier and cheaper to get both at home or on their phone; they're catching up with their digital-native peers. Despite the challenges, students seem to understand that technology is an unavoidable part of school, and are more than willing to learn and practice.


Wordpress Blog Review:


Saturday, April 13, 2013

Assignment: In-Class MLA Explanation Exercise

Since I'm teaching exclusively developmental writing classes, I don't spend a lot of time talking about citation styles. My papers don't generally require outside sources, and I tend to work individually with students who want to use them to get the citations right.

Style guides come up, though, because students know that they are out there, but they generally don't have a very firm grasp over what they are or how they work. I do require some familiarity with MLA style because I require its formatting for paper headings and things like margins and spacing. I make formatting a (small) part of my grading criteria, and there are inevitably several students who lose a few points for not double spacing their lines or not putting a title on their papers.

Students don't like this. They think that it's nit-picking and frustrating. It's not "real" writing; it's just annoying. I know what they meant, they insist, so I shouldn't take the points off.

To help demonstrate why paying attention to these details is more than just a place for me to penalize them, I remembered an activity the SLU Writing Center had used when I worked there. I adapted this activity for my developmental writing students, and I was happy with the results.

I divide my students into two groups and then tell them that we're going to have a contest. They need to imagine that they've just entered a busy restaurant.

3 cheese & chiles vegetable soup with salad

Thursday, April 11, 2013

CFP: Gateway Writing Project Fall Conference 2013

The Gateway Writing Project is pleased to announce its 2013 Fall Conference, to be held at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, October 23, 2013.

In keeping with the Writing Project's core beliefs, GWP Teacher Consultants will offer engaging presentations on promising practices in today’s writing classroom. We would love for you to join them in presenting a session at this year’s conference.

Consider which facets of your writing classroom you are excited to share with other teachers, and submit a proposal to present a session using the enclosed form. If you know other TCs who would make excellent presenters for our conference, feel free to send a copy of this form to them.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Education News Links


Teacher Knows if You’ve Done the E-Reading (NY Times, April 8, 2013)
You know if they've done the homework, but now you can see if they even cracked the (e-)book. Teachers already having mixed reviews to this CourseSmart feature.


Rigorous Schools Put College Dreams Into Practice (April 9, 2013)
What catching up with their peers looks like at Bard High School Early College. No review or remediation for these students.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Welcome!

Thanks for stopping by Something's Developing!

This site is in its very early stages, but our hope is that it can serve as a place for us to share ideas, assignments, and research. There are several ways that you can get involved as a reader, a contributor, or both!

Become a Reader

We hope to update this page regularly with assignments, readings for students, resources for the classroom, and discussions about our profession as writing instructors. If you want to make sure that you keep up-to-date with our updates, please consider following us on any (or all!) of these social media sites.

You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

As you read, please join the conversation. Leave comments on posts to give us your opinion or experiences. If you use an assignment or presentation for your class, we'd love to hear how it went or what adaptations you made to make it work for you.

Become a Contributor

Please see our post on submissions if you have something you'd like to share. We are looking for assignments, reading suggestions, and guest blog posts.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

When Students Say, "You don't like me"

Last week, one of my students, when confronted with a bad grade, asked me why I don’t like him. In 8 years of teaching college writing, I have had several students ask some version of the question, “Why don't you like me?” They have asked with genuine confusion, hurt, and disappointment, either about a bad grade or my refusal to excuse a late paper.

I have genuinely liked all of these students, and many ended up acing my class. But the question from last week and semesters previous has me wondering: what does my students’ perception of my liking or disliking them have to do with their grades, meeting expectations, my role as a teacher?



Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Submission Guidelines

As an interactive resource guide for developmental writing teachers, we invite you to submit writing assignments, textbook reviews, and guest posts. Please see the guidelines for each below.