Preparation is KEY

I have a habit of asking one question nearly every class period we cover new material. After requesting that students close their eyes, I encourage them to raise their hands if they read the materials (chapter, article, text, etc.) in advance (before class).

After that, I ask which students (still by show of hands) used the SQ3R method we discussed. I may also ask for other preparation strategies, including highlighting or using chapter review questions. The point is, I like to see who came to class prepared.

Depending on the section, I have had up to about 2/3 of the class come in prepared to go. Of course, I have also had groups that less than 1/4 of students arrive prepared to discuss concepts. Why is this important?

Start with the basics: if you have ever had a conversation with someone who doesn’t know (or understand) the subject, it’s irritating and frustrating. Instead, we can invest our energy with people who DO know material. Conversations are more engaging, more energizing, and more fun with people who know the topic.

A lot of students believe that if they just listen to their peers, they can twist or turn their peers’ responses in a different way. That’s not thinking, though–it’s regurgitating. Be an individual: read the material yourself, think about it, and form an opinion. We can disagree with the interpretation of material, but we can also understand the concepts.

The other BIG reason we need to read in advance is that what we discuss may make more sense. I have been in meetings that I didn’t prepare effectively for, and I admit it: I struggled to keep up with my peers. When a particular term was brought up, or when a topic I didn’t know was discussed, I was LOST. Just reading and reviewing those concepts a little in advance can make all the difference in the world.

Try it before we get to the next chapter. See what you understand.

Bonus opportunity next week

For those of you who check the blog, this is your “heads up” for the upcoming bonus opportunity next week.

Be working intently on your research this week for your group project. You need to have some great sources planned out and ready to consider. If you have already started reviewing sources and taking notes, you’re even closer to having this bonus project done.

Keep in mind that ONLY students who are present and include their signature and printed name on the bonus assignment will be eligible for the bonus points. All other students automatically forfeit points. That said, groups CAN work together to make the assignment load quicker and easier, as long as each student takes part of the load.

You may want to review *HINT, HINT, HINT* what we discussed about Annotated Bibliographies. That could be VERY key to some of these points.

If you aren’t concerned about bonus points, let it go and forget this post!

What I wish students would understand about writing for a college class, part 5

You’ve turned in your work (hopefully on time!), and are anxiously awaiting your grade and the instructor’s feedback. Some are hopeful that their work really paid off; others dread the grade’s appearance.

Let me talk about a basic element of college grades: grades are important and determine a lot of your near future. Getting into a program, maintaining scholarships, graduation, or being considered for a job can be influenced by grades. The most important factor, however, is that a grade does not define you; it only shows how you performed in a class.

Second, most instructors have a philosophy of grades. Mine is simple: grades are earned, not given (just like respect and self-confidence). If you want a good grade, you have to work for it. That means understanding the assignment, expectations of your instructor, and how you’re being graded all play a role in earning the best possible grade (as I’ve discussed in the last few posts).

Third, and probably most essential for my students to understand: I tend to feel empathy for students regarding their grades. When it’s high, I rejoice with them. When it’s low, I feel saddened to my deepest core of self. I want students to do great things, which is why I tend to go over assignments in class and work to ensure they have access to all parts of the assignment from the first day of class.

Fourth, grading takes a while. I don’t simply look over and see if it’s “good enough.” My intention with grading is to ensure that students know why they earned the points they do (or rather, why they didn’t get all the points they wanted on something). I don’t just grade, either; the bulk of my time is spent on providing written feedback on what I liked and what I want to see improved.

Keep this in mind when you go forward with assignments: It’s not just content, as we discuss in my class: it’s how you present the message. An analogy I use frequently to remind me is that a gourmet meal sounds incredible! At the same time, if that beautiful filet of beef, blue cheese, and shrimp is served to me on a dirty trash can lid, I don’t want it. So it is with writing: you can have a brilliant idea, solid understanding of a concept, and superb analysis, but if you convey that message with a lot of spelling, grammar, punctuation, citation, and formatting issues, it influences the reader to think less of your ideas.

Remember what I discussed in class regarding listening and nonverbal communication: appearance matters. We wouldn’t be inclined to take financial advice from a person begging for pocket change on the interstate exit. They could be a financial expert, but we might simply dismiss the idea because of how they look. So it is with writing, too.

All this to say, take pride in the work you submit. Know that I am rooting for you and want you to succeed! If you don’t get the grade you want, read my feedback. You can also make time to come talk to me about what you can do to improve in the future. I’m always hopeful for your improvement, regardless of where you start.

What I wish students would understand about writing for a college class, part 3

When it comes to writing more effectively for a college class, I always hope my students will surpass my expectations. In order to do that, however, true scholars know some of the poorly-kept secrets of success…

1. Writing is a process, not an event.
Unlike what you may have experienced in high school, a first draft effort probably will read to your instructor like a first draft. When we are challenging to you excel, your first effort is likely not enough.

I had to learn this the hard way in college. Even though I constantly edited papers as I went, I’d still end up ultimately sending a first draft for a lot of assignments. My instructors would blast me for it. More than once, my perfectly planned paper was nothing more than C work to an instructor. When they asked to view a draft to compare to what I submitted, they were almost identical. Sure, I had changed some grammar, a few words, but ultimately, it was the same paper. That mindset had to change.

2. Reading the instructions is essential
That assignment my instructor handed out or posted on the course system wasn’t just for suggestions or fun. College instructors EXPECT students to know what the assignment is AND how they will be evaluated.

Yes, sometimes my assignment sheets are long (a whole page–sometimes 2 pages!), but that’s to help you in the event that you are preparing the night before–more on that later–and can’t ask me questions. Everything you need to know about my expectations is on paper (or a digital facsimile of paper!).

Keep in mind that I provide a scoring guide for EVERY assignment. That means you know how much not citing a source can hurt the grade. It also means that you know where to invest your time. For most assignments, content is the biggest effort, so you need to go through ALL content.

3. Procrastination is the enemy of success.
When completing an assignment, waiting until the night before (or even a couple of days before) it’s due is problematic. Not only are you scrambling to review resources, you’re also trying to flesh out complex ideas with almost no time to process. Occasionally, you may have a good flash of brilliance, but frequently, it’s a struggle to analyze, develop examples, and refer back to concepts.

In other words, DO WHAT WORKS! Spend time going over the assignment as soon as the instructor talks about it (before, if you have access to the information). In the weeks leading up to the due date, spend time with your instructor. I’ve had no fewer than 10 students come by to talk to me about their work this semester; those students do GREAT on the assignment, generally speaking.

Another post on this topic to come soon!

What I wish students would understand about writing for a college class

As I’m grading papers this week–nearly a knee-deep stack of papers, no less–I am realizing some basic things I wish students knew about writing for college. With this in mind, I’m going to have a couple of blog posts for you about what I want, expect, and challenge my students to do.

College writing is not like writing in high school, first and foremost. That may seem obvious to some, but when you’ve been taught one way to do things and your college instructor wants something different, it’s a challenge to completely shift gears.

PLEASE KNOW, MY STUDENTS, THAT I APPRECIATE THE CHALLENGE YOU’RE FACING.

I’ve been in your shoes. My instructors in high school always commented that my work was excellent, that I had a “way with words,” and that I would be successful as a college writer. To some degree, they were accurate. However, I also struggled in some of my writing classes because my instructors wanted something different than I had done previously.

First, your instructor is here to help you. My office hours are used for a lot of different purposes: grading, editing tests, committee work, student organization sponsorship, etc. That said, my primary purpose of office hours is to work with students enrolled in my classes. Please come see me and talk with me about assignments, confusions, or other challenges you’re facing.

Providing feedback to peers: A reminder

As we went over the process of providing feedback to your peers in class this week, I wanted to remind you of the most basic principles of why I have you do this.

First, learning from others actually reinforces your understanding of who you are. By receiving feedback from your peers, you get a multi-faceted view of how others see you. This can ultimately enhance your ability to be an effective speaker if you follow their advice and input.

Second, by providing feedback in this way, you are learning how to help others become more effective. Learning how to offer both positive and negative feedback can enhance your ability to move ahead in the workplace. Lots of people in the workforce have no idea how to give effective feedback that will ultimately enhance another person’s productivity; you’re getting experience with it now!

Finally, by participating in this at an early stage of class, you have the bulk of the semester to become more self-aware and develop your skills as a presenter. I want you to be the BEST speaker you can be. The only way to become a better speaker is to practice and get feedback on how to make what you do better.

Keep working and being effective! I’m proud of you!

Helpful tips… Study guide-ish-thing-somewhat

Here’s my plan for the coming week’s portion of my FACE TO FACE classes. My hybrid section has a whole different package, due to the nature of their course. While the formats may slightly vary, they will have similar principles, in terms of material coverage.

That said, I would STRONGLY recommend that learners read every section of the chapters, because a section not included here may contain information that helps you respond more effectively and accurately on another multiple choice or extended response question.

After the first test…

We are now 1/4 of the way into the term, and have had our first unit test of the semester. One of the things that I always try to do with my students is make them more reflective, not only of their communication skills, but also of their study habits. With this in mind, I often ask my students to share with me whether they believe they were effective with the first test.

Keep in mind the key factor: effective. I don’t ask students if they scored 100%, but have them focus on whether they regard their performance as effective. I may alternately ask if they accomplished their goal for the unit. Regardless, the priority is THEIR definition of success.

After this, they are asked to explain why they believe they were successful, or why they may have missed the mark. Part of this is to ensure that students take ownership of their actions, but also because it allows me to determine if I need to recover a concept more fully.

There are enough semesters behind me at this point to help me say that the responses are pretty consistent. The students who believe they succeeded are likely to have

• Read the textbook fully (reviewing each chapter in the unit)
• Taken effective notes (often asking questions about the material AS they study)
• Ask questions in class (to ensure that they “get it”)

Conversely, students who struggle with the material, those who do not see themselves as successful jump to a couple of alternate conclusions:

• Didn’t study enough/right material
• Avoided discussions in class or participating in discussions
• Opted to not read the textbook or utilize the review questions

I want students to be effective in this course, not just by the grade they earn, but by actually feeling confident in the material they have been learning. Sometimes, that does require understanding and using terminology effectively. But it can also be that students need to simply know the process of asking for clarification or more information.

The next test is late this week. I am very hopeful that their effective reading will be reflected in the responses they give to extended response questions.

Preparing for Unit 1 Test: Extended Response

One of the things that students get most nervous about when it comes to my tests are the extended response questions. These are tougher, students contend, because of the fact that they must make connections. They must be able to spell terminology, provide reasoning, organize their ideas, and present a coherent, succinct message.

My first tip is always to think about Cousin Bubba. I talk about Cousin Bubba (CB) throughout the course; rather than getting caught up in the more technical definitions, I want to see that students can understand and share information at a base level. Explain it to me as though I have never heard of the topic before. You might be surprised how much simplifying an explanation can fully enhance your understanding. Sometimes, we think that if we talk in the elevated terminology, it means we got it. But the more we keep it simple (while actually maintaining the accuracy of the response), the more likely we are to be able to retain the information in our long-term memory.

My second tip is to always use full sentences, unless explicitly instructed to do something else. If we only use bullet points, we may be missing the best chance for us to share information clearly with our audience. They may need a full description, rather than a couple of key words.

My third tip is to answer the question as it is asked. If you are told to give a definition and explain something, then provide those responses. Help yourself (and your instructor) by following directions. With that, if you are asked for examples, tell the instructor how the example connects. Don’t simply state “ex) ____;” rather, Phrase it as a sentence and offer a little connection (help your instructor follow your thought process!).

Finally, I suggest that you make major connections between concepts and ideas. Use the terms from the text, the ideas or concepts we discuss. Then, show how that information relates to other components or topics. Compare and contrast, provide examples (see above). For example, a common thread through our course is the idea of “frame of reference.” If you can connect it to your current response (while still answering the question at hand), then do so. Show how that concept relates to whatever you are discussing.

In our unit 1 test, you might think about how concepts like perception checking, self-concept and self-esteem, ways to respond effectively when listening, or how nonverbal communication alters our messages. HINT. HINT. HINT.

Happy studying!