I've got dozens of my email correspondance with my students, in which I'm building toward this concept of an online interaction - the email is working but without permission yet, can't post but
As I’m reading and thinking about assessment, I reflect upon my own efforts teaching writing: In assessing my own efforts and the subsequent outcomes. Specifically one such cause and effect: my students’ resistance to my teaching them to think and write analytically.
I tell them each of my lessons leads to the next and we will leave nothing behind as we go through the semester but that seems to fall on deaf ears as we go from one paper to the next. One such example, I conducted an in-class writing on two days in a row, in which I got them to pick a topic they knew and cared a lot about and to write on it. It produced 300-750 words from each of them. I told them to use the results in their next paper. Almost to a person, they disregarded the in-class results and chose another topic to write about for the next paper- the persuasive essay, in which they were to argue for something they believed in. At the end of the persuasive essay lessons, I connected that paper to the next one, the big college paper- the research paper. I demonstrated how to build from their (already written) persuasive essay into the processes of research and told them that both of the assignments: persuasive essay and research paper are connected. The first is a practice run and that they would learn much about how to construct the other from it. What they learned on the first helps (and saves time) on the second. I reminded them that all of my assignments are connected, one to the next. They were told to finish revising the persuasive paper using steps I’d specifically constructed in revision of the persuasive essay into a research paper and in class, I had them write in many different ways – passages and outlines and pre-writing exercises to set up and revise the persuasive into research paper. Most ignored the content and ideas they’d created even on the persuasive revision and none evolved their persuasive into their research with the content that’d been created through exercises- for them. It occurs to me through assessing my results from my efforts that the connection between these two papers’ construction, must not be clear to them – they cannot see how to transform any knowledge from one to the other. Are they aware of gaining any knowledge? Can I help them to connect it through some kind of online reflection medium?
I’ve been thinking about this since I’ve been teaching FYC, jockeying around with a paper on it, missing so far is the assessment literature review and this week’s readings help me put it into words. The Learning Record writes, “Teachers and students work together to document and interpret evidence of student learning, based on criteria and standards established by the teacher and reflecting the collective understanding of what disciplines, fields of study, and departments believe students should know and know how to do.” Hawisher and Selfe suggest I “assess ways in which computer technology could affect my strategies for working with students.” I’m liking the idea I have to use Google Docs' online document sharing in which my students can work together in some kind of evaluation format of the day-to-day note-taking. I can start them off and they can build from there.
