Kerrie's Reading Notes #2

The readings for this week gave good advice that is beneficial for any teaching, not just college courses. I found the topics on technology to be very informative along with the chapter on teaching a large enrollment course. As an aspiring college teacher, the thought of teaching a large enrollment course is a little scary. Making certain that each student learns while not overwhelming oneself as a teacher may be more difficult in a large enrollment course. Chapter 14 in Tools for Teaching gave many tips to be successful as a teacher of a large enrollment course.

In On Course, Lang discusses that Marc Prensky feels that skills we now teach such as reading, writing, arithmetic, and logical thinking are “legacy” content that will eventually give way to “future” content (pg. 44). Lang’s view on the issue is that they will preserve due to their importance. I have the same standpoint as Lang but am curious to other viewpoints. If the content we are currently teaching does not preserve what will the “future” content be? This is a topic I would like to discuss further in class.

Another topic I would like to discuss in class is different ways to organize topics in a meaningful sequence. The six types Davis discusses are topical, causal, sequential, symbolic or graphic, structural, and problem-solution (pg. 137). I would like to discuss when use of each of these is appropriate and whether you should stick with one type in a course or can vary throughout the course.

A strategy Davis gives for teaching large enrollment courses is to stagger due dates for essay or research papers (pg. 145). He suggests giving groups of students different due dates for the same assignment. The students would not receive their topic until two weeks prior to their specific due date. This allows the instructor to read each paper without having to read 200 at one time. I like this idea and think it would be very helpful for the instructor. My only concern is that students will still complain even though it seems fair. A complaint I foresee would be that their paper is due on a busier week than some of their classmates or that it is due during a holiday week so they did not get as much time to work on it. I am wondering what everyone else thinks about this strategy for a large enrollment class. I think it is something I would maybe try as an instructor.