English Teaching Strategies
January 25th, 2010
Most college students struggle with the vocabulary of our disciplines. In their various electronic exchanges, they do not use a lot of multisyllabic, difficult-to-pronounce words. And virtually all college courses are vocabulary rich – unfamiliar words abound. Most students know that the new vocabulary in a course is important. They use flash cards and other methods to help them memorize the words and their meanings for their exams. Two days later, the words and their meanings are gone
February 4th, 2009
Students too often write “for the teacher” instead of imagining a critical reader, who can be hard for them to conceive of and even harder to convince. I help my students to conceptualize an interested yet judgmental reader by asking them to think of that reader as being from Missouri, the “Show Me” state. This nickname originated with Congressman Willard Vandiver, who declared in an 1899 speech that “frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Vandiver’s distrust of “frothy eloquence” is shared by readers who expect thoughtful content, efficient structure, and clear sentences. I challenge my students to imagine a skeptical reader who expects them to answer five important questions that will demand critical writing and thinking. These questions can help students with a variety of writing assignments across a range of disciplines.
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