by Paul Dosh, Political Science Encouraging diverse forms of participation began on the first day of class with the tone that I set and the grading system I presented...[and] required persistent and explicit efforts throughout the semester.
by Andrea Zemgulys, English The skill of analytic writing is not only difficult for students to learn, but difficult for the teacher to communicate without suggesting that students douse their work with high-faluting or apparently argumentative words (such as "hence"). My aim is to show students how the thoughtful use of simple language can transform descriptive sentences to analytic ones.
by Brian Current, Music We recreated the ambient sounds I recorded by "performing" the piece as a class. Dividing the parts up as one would for a choir, we assigned some students as the "chair-squeakers", some as the "sighers", some as the "inhalers", and one...as the "pencil-clicker". With myself as conductor, we proceeded to perform our twenty seconds of music, producing a sound world not unlike that which I had heard the week before...I asked them: "Is this music?"
by Steve Dawson, Astronomy Any physical problem, as well as all of the associated formalism, can be rendered not only intelligible but even pleasurable if the student first achieves a gut sense of the physical situation. Put plainly, all of the math in any science class makes sense if the student first has an intuitive mental picture of exactly what is going on.
by Kate Elkins, Comparative Literature In presenting a very "postmodern" novel, I wondered what approach to take to ensure that students did not become frustrated. One of the challenges in teaching composition classes is that students bring to the classroom a wide variety of interests and backgrounds. Few will go on to study literature, and many embark on the study of literature with a fair amount of skepticism. I therefore hesitated to approach the work using a standard "literary approach."
by Anne Marie Richard, Education I...[had] students divide into teams and create a children's book that reflects the issues and concepts of one of the topic areas of the course. Each group was thus challenged to convey complex theoretical issues in simple and practical terms through developing a story (either fiction or non-fiction) that included a plot and illustrations.
by Edan Dekel, Classics A sensitivity to the oral aspect of the language not only reinforces material learned through traditional means, but also opens a window into the sublime quality of Latin which can serve as motivation for further study. With an eye towards the latter benefit especially, I have included an oral component in all my introductory Latin classes. This consists specifically of the study and practice of Latin poetic recitation.
by Alexander Kauffman, Integrative Biology As the semester progressed, a larger and more general issue became clear to me: different students learn in different ways. This idea applies not just to students with learning disabilities, but to all students...Presenting the same information in different ways...allows for better teaching...[and] allows students with diverse learning abilities to access and understand what you are trying to teach.
by Terry O'Brien, Integrative Biology In my experience, no matter how much students practice...skills, few are able to develop a clear conceptual matrix for those skills without significant guidance from the instructor. A direct approach to this problem means that the instructor first provides students with the scaffolding of concepts for each skill.