Teaching
Style:
In my experience, learning
is most effective when ideas collide with life.
I use a combination of teaching methods, assignments, and activities
to drive home course principles. I
am high energy and verbal.
Students in my courses encounter lecture-laced
discussion, small groups, a quantity of writing
in various forms, a range of reading from user-friendly
to downright challenging, and so on. They might also be assigned
independent field trips and film-viewing, depending
on the course.
I believe that learning--even difficult
learning--is fun, and I approach
it that way in classes and assignments. I also believe in giving
choices as long as course goals are being actively pursued and
met. In my experience, most students surprise themselves by how
well they can do with a combination of hard
work and a supportive, yet constructively critical, environment.
In grading, I have developed an interesting
method that both challenges and rewards people for improvement. I allow revisions of formal essays. Because of this, I can critique vigorously--giving
you your money's worth! Expect plenty of corrections and comments,
along with suggestions for improvement, including where in the
grammar handbook to find help with the issues in your paper.
Then you get to revise, incorporating the handbook guidelines
into your corrections (by writing them) and end by revising the
whole thing. The rigor of the process motivates most students
to "get it right" the next time.
By the end of the course, you might
see improvement you've despaired of in the past! For many students, adult and otherwise, such
growth is dramatic and may even be permanent.
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