Request for Feedback: Composition Practicum
As part of my new position as a first-year writing director, I will be teaching the composition pedagogy practicum this fall. I already have a lot of ideas for readings and such, but the practicum meets once a week for 75 minutes, so I need to be judicious about how I use the time. In no particular order, here are some topics I'm thinking about covering. How would you rank these? If you could reorder these based on importance (1 most important, 18 least important), how would you do it?
POTENTIAL TOPICS TO COVER:
1.syllabus design
2.assignment design
3.eliciting class participation/discussion
4.activities for class (exercises)
5.grammar (when to bring it in and how)
6.grading papers – norming, time management, techniques
7.class observations: why they're done, how they're useful, etc.
8.classroom management, teaching persona, authority
9.teaching philosophy statement
10.teaching portfolio
11.how to teach argument, logic
12.ways to use technology in teaching
13.watch Take 20
14.responding to student writing (not grading)
15.plagiarism, citation, authorship
16.how to organize peer review activities
17.designing short, informal writing prompts (minute papers, weekly posts/responses, etc.)
18.student evaluations: how to interpret the numbers, departmental mean, how they're used, mentoring procedure in case numbers are very low, how to put them in perspective, etc.
Comments
Re:Rank
I tried to do this as spontaneously as I could, for what it's worth.
8.classroom management, teaching persona, authority (i.e., ethos, performance)
4.activities for class (exercises) (what will we do immediate/present?)
2.assignment design (what will we do over a longer span?)
3.eliciting class participation/discussion
14.responding to student writing (not grading)
1.syllabus design
15.plagiarism, citation, authorship
6.grading papers – norming, time management, techniques
12.ways to use technology in teaching
11.how to teach argument, logic
5.grammar (when to bring it in and how)
16.how to organize peer review activities
17.designing short, informal writing prompts (minute papers, weekly posts/responses, etc.)
7.class observations: why they're done, how they're useful, etc.
13.watch Take 20
9.teaching philosophy statement
10.teaching portfolio
18.student evaluations: how to interpret the numbers, departmental mean, how they're used, mentoring procedure in case numbers are very low, how to put them in perspective, etc.
Hmm
I pretty much agree with Derek's order. I think what's going on with the local program also makes a difference.
For example, at Washington State, our new TAs didn't teach in their first semester, so they weren't as concerned with responding to papers and managing their time (they didn't feel the pinch yet). But the university was in the midst of plagiarism hysteria, so that was high on the list.
At UNH, assignment design might be the highest, due to a recent curriculum revision. Classroom management / authority might be a bit lower, thanks to the fact that our students tend to be pretty well socialized into the school game. And there would be an additional item -- conferencing -- which is huge at UNH.
Yeah, it depends.
http://www.freshcomp.net/
I don't have any specific
I don't have any specific suggestions about ranking. However, I will say that it took me a full year of teaching to realize that these two things need to be weaved together:
4.activities for class (exercises) (what will we do immediate/present?)
2.assignment design (what will we do over a longer span?)
I know it seems ridiculous, but this was a real epiphany for me when it came to teaching. For some reason (probably because I was frazzled and, like all first time instructors, experiencing trial by fire), it took me a while to realize that day-to-day activities need to build toward something...a paper, a project, etc.
That being said, the biggest need in our practicum (according to those taking it) was day-to-day activity ideas. Without a repertoire or "bag of tricks," it can be really difficult to come up with daily activities that fit the course/unit/assignment.
Also, I'd like to plug Blogging Pedagogy as a resource for your new instructors. We'd love to have those folks post (maybe even as part of their practicum?), and we even have a category called day-to-day activities.
Ranking Versus Sequencing
Mike G's point about what's going on when -- the context of the practicum -- is an important one. I'm one of the people designing our new faculty orientation and our teaching practica this summer, so I'm thinking about some of the same stuff.
The first things for our new teachers are the big overarching concepts: the rhetorical situation and the writing process. Then we move to generating writing, since that's what they'll be doing next, and it's also kind of another term for the activities/assignments interrelationship Jim talks about. Then we'll talk about effective feedback, both in terms of peer response and teacher comments, and conferencing. Then on to editing and proofreading, to include discussions of conventions and error. After that, we'll discuss the uses of reflective writing, student-self-evaluation and portfolios. Then we'll talk about grading, with a couple norming sessions. So the whole thing kind of mimics the steps and sequence of the writing process.
For us, teaching with technology is a department-wide concern, so it's not just something the composition people handle.
--
Mike