Modeling

One of the biggest challenges faced by teachers in the new world of teaching is modeling assignments for their students. I'm not referring to using prior students' papers, rather using our own work to help clarify our expectations. I think there are a few reasons for this:

1. Are we providing too many answers and too much support? (Coddling)

2. Is showing our work demonstrating an unfair expectation given that we are at a different stage in our lives and education? 

3. What if the students don't think it's good? Will I lose credibility in the classroom? 

I think all three reasons are credible excuses, but usually the benefits of modeling outweigh the negatives. Perhaps the only time I wouldn't provide a model is for a creative assignment, as creativity is more subjective, and I actually think students can exceed their teachers creative abilities if given the opportunity. Maybe I will change my mind about that. We will see. 

Here is an assignment that I recently modeled for my students. 

Read the following article and included excerpt.http://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137522219/what-does-a-post-american-world-look-like

Assignment: Fareed Zakaria wants to publish an update to his book “The Post American World” He makes many claims in the first chapter of his book and in the NPR article. Choose one claim and recommend to the author what changes or additions should be made to provide an accurate depiction in 2016. This is an independent assignment and should be completed individually. If you need help, please seek out the instructor (me!).

Paragraph 1: State the original claim in your own words.

Paragraph 2: Update Mr. Zakaria on whether his claim has stayed the same or is different. Use and reference (talk about) three sources that support your update.

Paragraph 3: Conclude with your recommendation on what the text should say.

Here is my model! I hope I get a good grade....

Honoring the Notetaker

As much as we encourage our students to take notes during class, some students just will not, no matter how many times you suggest it.  I do believe that although we should never stop trying to teach study skills, in the end, there is value in honoring personal choice and emphasizing personal responsibility.

However, often times we are focused on what our students don't do and don't take the time to recognize those who are employing techniques in a productive manner. This is one of the reasons why, occasionally, I will publish a student's notes on Moodle and Tweet the publication.

I also do this to demonstrate "model" note taking to other students and emphasize the importance of a particular lesson.

There is also something more populist and authentic about reading your classmate's notes rather than the teacher's lesson plan.

I'm including two examples. One is from after they received the results from a test with an in-class essay. Click here to see how it looked after Tweeting it. The other is from studying the characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray. There are some misspellings, but I didn't correct them, because I want students to see you don't need to write perfectly to take high quality notes.