Dear Shirley and Samia,
I know what you are talking about and can certainly relate. It is all about communication. What I find interesting is that while we often have a lot of communication with our students, often students do not have as much communication with each other. For example, with group projects students tend to ask me a lot of the questions that they should be asking each other in their groups. It would be great to get the students to check their peers' work for spelling and grammar, and communicate effectively. However, many times this does not seem to happen a lot.
Tomi
Chander,
What a great strategy. YOu do have to make sure they know the expectations and know you intend and do hold them to the expectations.
The fact that you understand and address their uniqueness with a note at the end of the week is so smart.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Peter,
Great strategies. You have to hold them to the standard. Do you have students do peer review? I also use YouTube clips and find them so helpful. there are some really good ones. You make a great point, waiting until the last minute can cause your problems with APA!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Lori,
You have great strategies for a five week course. You could lower your expectations but you don't and that is impressive. Many times you can address the whole for reminders of the sins of the few but I don't like to do that because it makes me feel like I am punishing everyone.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Sueanne ,
You have some good strategies. It is such a great idea to show them how a good paper looks. Also, redundancy is such a great tool.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Tomi,
You have good strategies. You have to provide students examples of expectations. You have to hold them to it!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Tomi,
You make a great point. I thought I was repeating too much and stopped once in my teaching. Students then blamed me for not keeping them on track. I do create a calendar and refer them to the calendar repeatedly. I also send text but those are only for really important messages.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Tomi,
You make a great point. I have a questions discussion board that students MUST use when they have a question. If students answer the question correctly and quickly, they get points. It is participation. This also keeps my emails down.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
It is important to draw a relationship between the world of theory and then the world of application or what students will call "real life". Carrying on with this point, I find it important to remember that my students are coming from trade or hands-on programs. They go to ground classes and learn how to take blood pressure, set up a crime scenes, how to properly hold an animal, etc. It is very much action learning. Then they get put into an ethics course and are asked to think on a philosophical level. It's like asking them to go from a nice warm room and dunk themselves into a lake in the middle of winter. So the closest I can simulate or relate philosophy to their lives the more success I am likely to achieve.
Now if the students are doing the reading, they are able to approach the question philosophically and, when prompted, many do. But I think the tendency is to try it the easiest way possible and see if that works. It's a learning process. My goal is that the students will start with their own beliefs and experiences in Week 1 and be budding philosophers by Week 6 (emphasis on the budding). There have been only a couple discussion questions I have come across that I felt were completely beyond the students' conceptual reach. In these cases, I often provide a lot of extra hand holding. But otherwise, it is usually a matter of not having done the reading. And at that point, the best thing I have found is just to prompt them with a question that will send them back to the book or online lecture.
Christina,
What a great post! Your students need success at the beginning to build confidence and that is what you are doing. it is a strategy that does work.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Wilkinson,
The different ways that I help students improve their reading, writing and communication skills is through example. I try my best to keep the communication channels open in my classroom by being accessible and visible in the courseroom. I do this by being visible in the discussions, posting numerous and various office hours and hosting a weekly lab session.
In regards to their writing, I try my best to lead them into what I need for them to do. For example, I often include examples of APA style writing and examples of research papers showing proper citations and quotations in which the students can mirror in their own writings. There are also various websites or even Microsoft Word which the students can utilize to check their spelling and grammar. All of these are encouraged to improve their writing skills in assignments and discussions. For reading, I refer to the old method of summarizing the material they read. I let them know that while highlighters are useful, they may not always be essential. What is essential is being able to gain the main idea of what they read to be able to translate it into a discussion or an assignment.
Cheers,
Su
Su,
You have so many great strategies regarding writing. You do have to first model the behavior you want them to exhibit. You also hold them to a standard and that is important regarding basic communication skills.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Can you (or anyone else) recommend a good online writing guide?
I work with a similar population. What strategies to you go over with your students in an orientation session?
True. We had two students plagiarize in one course. The teacher spotted the plagiarism and through discussions with the Dean, we realized that we hadn't emphasized what is plagiarism and how to avoid it in orientation. The teacher turned this in to a "teachable moment." He rewrote the school's plagiarism policy with examples of what not to do and the Dean decided to include the revised policy in the syllabus of every class. Thus, students will be reminded before every class what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Both students rewrote their papers with no plagiarism. Thus, they revised their work based on feedback. The incident improved the school's communication and policy making.
Chana,
We actually created our own writing guide by using APA. I know others use the Online Writing Lab from Purdue at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I usually supply the students with scaffolding tools. I try to give them a clear explanation of the expectations as well.
I help students by using the tools the school offers, examples and references which would allow them a visual.
Chana,
I usually provide specific expectations regarding communication and technology these tend to be the first barriers.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Chana,
What a great post and an important lesson in assessing policy before passing judgement on the student. Plagiarism is nothing to ignore but ignorance of students is not what we want. We want learning.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
