Christie's Reading Notes

When I receive a syllabus I rush to see what kinds of assignments we are going to be asked to do. I immediately feel anxiety when all I see are exams. When Lang mentions using different types of assignments (pg. 130) I was very happy to read this because it gives students an opportunity to showcase what they might be best at or most comfortable with. We have discussed at length in class offering a variety of teaching methods and I think this is another way to show that as a professor we are trying to accommodate different types of learners. Later down on page 131 Lang mentions to also think creatively about assignments and again I am very glad that he brings this up because variety challenges students to be creative with the material which is one of my goals in my teaching philosophy. Some of my best assignments as a student were ones where I got to be really creative and interact with the material in a medium of my choice. The list provided on page 133 was very helpful in giving more creative ways for students to tackle the material. It makes me admire and respect the professor more for coming up with a different way to craft assignments.

I am a procrastinator. I have convinced myself that having pressure makes me write better. However it is much easier and much less stressful when I have to have drafts for class to discuss with classmates a lot like we did today. It forces me to fight my way through material and then makes the final draft much easier and generally better. Davis mentions giving student’s opportunities to talk about their work in progress (pg.307) and I really feel that this might be away to see where the class is at with assignments but not creating more grading for yourself. I also think it helps to build good habits going forward as a student. Has anyone else found this to be helpful? If you have teaching experience is this something you used and did it work well when compared with assignment’s where this was not done?

I am most interested in discussing how to evaluate student’s written work. I think it is important because writing is such a valuable tool and I want to help my students to be better at it. In a perfect world I would like to read all the papers first and then go back through and grade them after to see what the general level is for the class. Given the fact that time is so precious I do not think this will be feasible at least not for all assignments. I am really concerned with how to assess where students should be for whatever class I am teaching. How much do you compare students work? Can you compare work from previous sections of the class that you have taught? Davis mentions to avoid split grades (pg. 330) one on writing and one on content, this seems like a good idea to me do you think that perhaps a teacher could split the grades for themselves then assign an overall grade?