978-0393617467 Lecture Note Part 14

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YOU MAY REMEMBER most vividly your upper– division courses, which

were prob ably a mix of lecture and discussion. As a new teacher of writing,

Structuring Classes

than doing any one activity for the whole class period. Your class will likely run

more smoothly and be more in ter est ing to you and your students if you follow a

predictable overall pattern during class but vary the activities within the pattern.

One pattern that works well includes these tasks:

• Review what the class has done so far.

• Clarify the relationship of students’ previous work and current tasks.

Each of these tasks may require one or more activities and take up more or less

time, depending on your purposes and your students’ needs. For advice on coordi-

eigh teen

Managing Class Activities

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Planning Class Activities

Here are some activities that successful writing teachers use to achieve their

purposes in class.

Although students working together can accomplish much, sometimes you

need to discuss each student’s writing individually. Ch. 20 in this Guide offers

detailed advice on scheduling and holding conferences.

text, editing, or narrating; lessons on topics that may give students trou ble, such

as citing websites; or lessons on speciﬁ c aspects of writing, such as using semi–

colons. Mini– lessons are successful because they are clearly focused and brief. Many

instructors start class periods with mini– lessons that focus students’ attention on

the day’s work or answer a question that came up in a previous class. You might

Pre sen ta tions using Power Point, Prezi, audio, or video often accompany mini-

lessons or may comprise longer segments of a class period. For example, you may

show a brief video clip to introduce a writing or research assignment. As always,

though, such a pre sen ta tion should have a clear pedagogical purpose. Although

students like to be entertained, they understand that what goes on in class should

assignment students are engaged in developing. To aid students’ understanding,

accompany your lecture with visual pre sen ta tions of the material.

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the way each writer expresses the signiﬁ cance of the events portrayed in the nar–

ratives and which ways are most effective. Or you might ask students to describe

a situation in their lives where they evaluated a movie or a song and then compare

that evaluation to a formal, written evaluation of a movie or a song. Having a good

Getting students to participate. Students are often hesitant to participate in dis-

cussions. They may be unsure of the reaction their comments will elicit from you

• Consider the seating arrangement. Having students face one another, in a

circle or some other arrangement, creates a better dynamic for discussion

• Begin with writing. Ask students to write for ﬁ ve minutes on the topic you

wish them to discuss. Then ask some or all students to share what they’ve

• Start with a common experience. If students can relate the topic to something

in their own lives, they’re likely to have something to say: for example, a life

• Pose a prob lem. You might pres ent a scenario or point out a contradiction

between two ideas or positions and ask students to explore ways of dealing

with it. Your challenge here is to keep the pos si ble options open as long as pos-

• Start with a group activity. Some students, indeed some classes, ﬁ nd discuss-

ing topics in small groups easier than talking as a class. If so, begin discussions

by asking students to write brieﬂ y; to share their writing with three to ﬁ ve

classmates in a group; and then to solve a prob lem, reach a consensus, or other–

• Conduct discussions online. Holding a discussion in a computer classroom

through the computers may seem odd, especially as you hear students engaged

in discussion only by the clicking of ﬁ n gers on the keyboard. However, some

students who would never contribute to a spoken discussion will reveal

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Moving the discussion forward. Once you have a discussion going, here are some

tips for keeping it going:

• Plan for possibilities, but don’t assume you can predict the shape of the discus-

sion. To prepare, know the subject as well as you can and identify your goal

• Use silence as a tool. Too often, when teachers ask a question, they don’t wait

long enough: the silence makes them uneasy, and they either call on some-

one or answer the question themselves. Don’t. The silence following a ques-

tion may make you uneasy, but it makes students uneasy, too, and sooner or

later one of them will say something to break the tension. Allowing a period

of silence following a question also shows re spect for students’ need to think

before speaking.

• Use writing and groups to refocus students’ attention or jump-start a dying

discussion. If a discussion heads in a direction you don’t want—it peters out,

dissolves into irrelevancies, or becomes argumentative, emotional, or

• Make sure every one participates or has the opportunity. You may have a

couple of students who monopolize the discussion. If that happens, you may

need to deal with the prob lem. For example, you might take the monopolizers

aside, thank them for their strong contributions, and ask if they would allow

Dealing with emotional or interpersonal issues. Sometimes students become agi-

tated, angry, or upset during a discussion. This display of emotion can be a positive

sign that students are engaged in the topic, but it can also make you (and them)

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stop and write brieﬂ y on the contended topic, giving every one a chance to gather

their thoughts. Then ask the class to articulate the arguments on both sides, per–

haps listing them on the board and asking the class to look for areas of common

ground. Refer to authoritative sources to resolve disputes that have a basis in fact

or turn the dispute into a writing assignment, which can lead to a follow-up dis-

Using Class Time Effectively

Taking attendance. Most instructors maintain an attendance policy, stated in

their syllabus. You may take attendance orally, checking off each student as you

read his or her name. This method is useful at the beginning of the term, when

you’re trying to learn every one’s name, but it can be time- consuming unless you

combine it with another activity, such as a workshop “status of the class” check

(see Ch. 19 of this Guide, “Conducting Class Workshops”) or a brief written response

to a reading. You might also take attendance silently, noting who’s pres ent during

workshop or group activities. Some instructors ask students to sign an attendance

sheet at the start of every class, making the point that if their name isn’t on the

Structuring class time. Most of the time, instructors feel that class periods aren’t

long enough, no matter the number of minutes in each one. Here are some sugges–

tions for using your class time wisely:

• Take attendance as part of another activity, as described above.

• Begin each class promptly with a brief writing activity. If you do this every

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• Maintain a schedule for each class that includes an estimate of the time each

activity will begin and end. Even if you can’t keep to this plan— students are

• Have some activities on hand that you can insert if, for some reason, you

have time on your hands that you didn’t anticipate. A couple of mini– lessons,

an engaging group exercise, even an essay or a couple of children’s picture

books relating to the assignment that you might read to them can help you

• Hand back papers while students are working in groups. As you circulate,

returning their materials, you can monitor the groups’ work.

Motivating Students

Some students want to do well and consistently come to class prepared, having

read and written what you’ve assigned. Other students are less inclined to work

without prodding, motivated more by their sense of how their peers will see them

than by their desire to please you or to earn a good grade. You can help those stu-

dents by creating class activities that ask them to perform for other students. A

traditional approach is to ask questions and call on students at random for the

answers, but that method is hard on shy students and isn’t often appropriate to a

Observing Other Classes

While reading about and discussing how to design class meetings is useful, the

best way to come to an understanding of how classes work is to experience them.

Ideally, you should sit in on several veteran instructors’ classes in order to watch

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• Ask permission ﬁ rst. Some instructors are hesitant to let other instructors

observe their classes, or they may want you to visit when certain activities

are planned.

• Take your cues from the instructor. Some instructors will introduce you to

the class and explain why you’re there; others won’t. Some instructors will

• Take notes— lots of notes. Take notes on what ever you see and hear—

eavesdrop on students’ conversations to one another or in groups, look over stu-

dents’ shoulders (if you can) to see what they’re writing, describe what the

• Focus on students as well as the instructor. In a workshop class there’s a lot of

activity going on, whether or not the instructor is talking: students are work–

ing in groups or individually, and the instructor is conferring with individuals,

modeling desired be hav ior, or preparing for the next set of class activities.

Remember that a classroom is a rich milieu ﬁ lled with twenty or twenty– ﬁ ve

people engaged in a common enterprise: things are happening, even when the

room is silent and every one is working quietly at their desks or computers.

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A Sample Observation

Chris Massey, a ﬁ rst– year gradu ate teaching assistant at Wright State University,

wrote this report of his observation of a class taught by Catherine Crowley, an

instructor in the En glish department. He notes the time periodically to help him

remember the pacing of the class, and he intersperses his reﬂ ections (in italics)

with his report of his observations.

I sat in on two classes taught by Catherine Crowley, an instructor at Wright State University.

The two classes met on Wednesday and the following Monday during the 6th and7th weeks

of the 10– week fall quarter, as students  nished writing an analy sis of a text and began work-

Wednesday, October 13

1:30 p.m. Professor Crowley returns papers and passes around the attendance sheet.

While the students review their graded papers, Professor Crowley reviews the lesson

from Monday and connects Monday’s activities to the students’ objectives for today.

Here, she accomplishes two tasks at once— she gets “house keeping issues” out of the

way while, at the same time, bridging the gap between Monday’s lesson and today’s les–

son. I like the way she accomplishes this task: e ortlessly. The students are not even aware of

it to D2L and has printed them each a copy. I won der if I should use hard copies for my

students. I always put the assignments on D2L, but I never give them a handout. I do this to

keep from wasting so much paper, but I won der if it helps to reinforce the assignment if the

students have a paper copy to refer to later on. Moving from the next scheduled assign-

ment, she asks her students to recall speci cally what they observed on Monday: “Ste–

phen, what did we do Monday?” Stephen answers that they went outside and observed

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1:36 p.m. At this point, Professor Crowley mentions that students who use Apple com–

puters need to review their font choices before submitting assignments to websites.

She gives this information because the sheet she passes out is from her computer, a

Mac. This information is not related to the assignment, but it serves to link Professor Crowley

to her students; they see her as one of them. She becomes human. I thought this was nice of

her— students appreciate any information their instructor gives them that helps them out in the real

world. Next, she tells the students that “We need to make a plan, man.” Here, she relates

the observation in the quad to the assignment: to come up with topics for the pro le

1:43 p.m. At this point, Professor Crowley gives the students pointers for getting started

on their plans. She tells them to take notes on a piece of paper, type it, etc. She then

writes on the board: “What is your topic? How will you take your observation notes (lap–

top, pictures, video, etc.)? Remember to include the date, time, and speci c place. Who

do you plan to interview (may not know yet)? How will you make your interview (live,

contact)? Write down pos si ble questions. Create a survey?” This allowed her students to

1:51 p.m. Here, a student— Katie— asks a question: “When researching soccer, do I

research soccer in general or soccer about my high school?” Professor Crowley responds

and compliments her student on a good question. She tells her entire class the question and

responds that they should research speci c topics, not general ones. She even responds to

one student by telling him to ask his grandparents about his topic. She has a good connec-

tion with her students. . . . They re spect her and value her opinion. Professor Crowley then

logs on to the main computer console and pulls a website up: St.Anne’s Hill, a website for

the community where she lives. She informs her students that many websites are them–

1:55 p.m. She reminds them that their text analyses are due Monday. She tells them they

have plenty to do this weekend. She tells them to use their fellow students as sounding

boards: use each other to come up with ideas and comment on each other’s.

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1:56 p.m. Professor Crowley begins individual conferences with students; other stu-

dents are working on gathering information— she encourages them to talk to each

other, to utilize the class time. I really like the idea that she encourages her students to talk

to each other. It seems so simple, yet I have never used this. Good mix between individual time

and group time. This approach allows Professor Crowley to spend time with each student

while, at the same time, allowing students to work on their papers. Some students are typ–

2:16 p.m. Professor Crowley continues to consult with individual students. She asks the

class: “Is every body working on something here?” Again, nice control of the room— this

2:27 p.m. Professor Crowley reminds the students that there is no class on Friday and

tells them that she wants their topic choices. Dismisses class.

Useful Readings

Corbett, Steven J., et al. Peer Pressure, Peer Power: Theory and Practice in Peer Review

and Response for the Writing Classroom. Fountainhead, 2014.

Elbow, Peter. “Collaborative Peer Evaluation by Faculty.” Embracing Contraries: Explo-

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WORKSHOPS PLAY AN IMPOR TANT ROLE in most writing courses. In

fact, workshops are often the predominant use of class time. Most sim-

ply, a workshop includes any activity in which students write or respond to others’

writing, providing them the opportunity to give and receive focused response to

Getting Started

You may offer workshop time as a regular feature of your course, so that during a

workshop your students are engaged in vari ous activities at once: generating ideas

and text, drafting, conferring, evaluating, revising, editing, or proofreading. You

may want to structure workshop times to focus on a single set of activities, such as

Deﬁ ne workshop tasks clearly. Students should know what you expect them to

do during workshop time and what to produce by the end. You may begin the work–

shop with a brief lesson outlining the tasks and the reasons for doing them as well

Establish rules of be hav ior. At a minimum, you should expect students to come

to workshops ready to do the assigned tasks. If you want students to follow speciﬁ c

Hold students accountable for their workshop time. If students are working in de-

pen dently, you might take a few minutes to conduct a quick “status- of– the- class”

nineteen

Conducting Class Workshops

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check by asking students to state what they will be working on during the work–

Sample Workshop Intentions Form

Class: Section: Week:

Student’s Name Focus

Monday Wednesday Friday

Connor, Siobhan Work on draft

Allow for some chitchat. Students forming groups often need to establish a social

connection before they can get down to work. To do that, they may talk informally

Circulate and monitor. Workshops work best when students are given tasks that

they complete in de pen dently, using you as a resource when necessary. Give

them space to do that by staying at your desk for a few minutes after getting them

started. Then circulate around the room, pausing to answer questions or listen to

Model writers’ be hav ior. Just as students beneﬁ t from seeing your writing, they

beneﬁ t from seeing you write and share your work. You might spend classroom

workshop time working on a draft of something you’re writing— a piece you’re

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Conduct conferences or small- group mini- lessons. You may schedule individual

conferences during workshop time, speaking softly to students at your desk while

Selecting a Workshop Format

Here are some common formats for writing workshops.

In de pen dent workshops. In these workshops, students work on their own writ–

ing assignments, so in a class of twenty– ﬁ ve students, ten may be writing drafts,

eight may be revising, ﬁ ve may be doing research on computers, and two may be

editing a ﬁ nal draft. Have students declare their intentions through a status– of–

Whole- class response workshops. In these workshops, the entire class discusses

one or two students’ drafts. Establish rules: the writer provides a draft a couple of

days ahead of time, either bringing copies for every one or posting it online, where

the other students must read the draft before coming to class. In class, the writer

Group- response workshops. Students work in groups of three or four in these

workshops, responding to one another’s drafts. In one method, students take turns.

The writer reads his or her draft aloud, while the other group members listen, tak–

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simply reporting their reactions to the draft. The writer then decides how to revise

based on the vari ous responses. Here are some variations:

• Students trade drafts and read them silently before responding as described

above. If left to themselves, some groups will decide to follow this procedure to

• Students read their drafts aloud to a group, which listens but does not

respond, except with applause (which may consist of ﬁ n ger– snapping, to

Focused- activity workshops. The instructor deﬁ nes a par tic u lar task for individual

students or groups of students to complete. These tasks might include asking stu-

dents to work individually on any of the pro cesses of writing as part of their work

Online groups. In online courses, groups may still work together in discussion

forums within learning management systems or through email. They can respond

Useful Readings

Barkley, Elizabeth F., et al. Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for Col-

lege Faculty. Jossey- Bass, 2005.

Brooke, Robert. Writing and Sense of Self: Identity Negotiation in Writing Workshops.

NCTE, 1991.

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Lunsford, Andrea, and Lisa Ede. Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Prac-

[ 260 ]

INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES WITH STUDENTS to discuss their writing are

time- consuming but can be very effective. If your school has a writing center,

you can also refer students to work with the tutors there, but in ﬁ fteen or twenty

minutes, you can establish a personal relationship with a student and offer

• Provide one- on- one help

• Listen and respond respectfully to students’ writing, working with the text

they have—or discussing the text they don’t have

What ever you do, avoid taking over the draft or telling the student what to write.

Most of the time, instructors and tutors make no marks on students’ drafts, leaving

that job to the students themselves. The best conferences consist of conversations

How often should you schedule conferences? The simple answer is, as often as

pos si ble; working one– on- one with students allows you to tailor your instruction

to each student’s needs, making conference teaching “the most effective— and the

twenty

Working One- on– One with Students

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approaches for turning an entire course into a series of conferences. Before you

structure your course that way, however, you need to know your school’s policy on

How long should a conference take? Conferences can vary from ﬁ ve minutes for

a very focused conference on a limited topic to a half hour or more. If you’re teach-

How should you schedule conferences? If you’re holding twenty– minute confer–

ences for twenty– ﬁ ve students, your conferencing time totals eight hours and twenty

minutes. You should schedule four conferences in a row, followed by a twenty-

minute break, to allow for conferences that run long (some will) and to give you

What if students can’t meet during the times you’ve scheduled? If attending a

conference is a course requirement, you have the obligation to make the require-

How can you hold conferences without spending so much time on them? You

can schedule briefer conferences of ten to ﬁ fteen minutes each. When you’re

crunched for time, you will need to be more focused, but most instructors ﬁ nd that

At what point in a sequence of assignments should you schedule conferences?

The glib answer is, anytime you want. Students will beneﬁ t, no matter when they

have a conference with you.

What should students bring with them to a conference? Depending on the nature

of the conference, in general it’s useful to ask students to bring something in writ–

ing: a thesis statement, a rough draft, an introductory paragraph, a set of ques-

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Should you read students’ drafts ahead of time? Inexperienced instructors who

haven’t read many student essays may feel more conﬁ dent in their ability to give

good advice if they collect drafts and read them ahead of time. Most instructors,

though, ﬁ nd that they can answer students’ questions or deal with the conference’s

What if students come unprepared? Some instructors turn away students who

come to a conference without a thesis statement or a draft. If students come unpre-

pared, then it might mean they’re genuinely stuck: they can’t think of anything to

How do you start a conference? What do you say? Invite students to sit, and make

them comfortable with a few words of welcome. As Murray points out, you may

not need to say anything, or you may begin the conference with a question like

“Well, what questions do you have?” For students who don’t know what to say, ask

some general questions like these:

• What’s the strongest part of your draft? What makes it good?

• Where do you think you need more information?

If students come without a draft, these questions won’t work, of course. Then you

need to shift gears with questions to generate ideas for topics:

• What interests you?

How can you use Every one’s an Author effectively as you confer with students?

Because the book is or ga nized for easy reference, you can quickly ﬁ nd the advice

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you need at the time you need it. When you hold a conference, you might keep the

What should students do while you’re reading their drafts? You might give stu-

I had the students bring two copies of their draft to conferences with them. I

found it to be extremely helpful because we both were not trying to  ip through

the same document at the same time. While I read through each draft, I had the

students  nd speci c points in their drafts that they wanted to talk about and star

them; some even jotted down little notes in the margins to explain to me what they

think works and what doesn’t and why they think it does or does not. I really found

this to be helpful. It helped those students who even after writing a self- assessment

How should the conference end? Each student should leave the conference with

a clear sense of what to do next. It’s a good idea to ask students to state their plans

in writing before leaving the conference, as the act of composing it together forces

How should you handle students who don’t show up? You want students to take

the conference seriously, so you might consider a missed conference as equal to

while out of it, so I have made myself a promise that I won’t say anything in the next

class about how it made me feel, being stood up that way. As a matter of fact, now

that I think about it, being stood up is exactly what it felt like.

How can you use your campus writing center to the best advantage? First, make

sure your students know the writing center exists and encourage them to seek

help there with their writing, whether they’re seeking a topic or polishing a ﬁ nal

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they have copies of the textbook you’re using available for tutors. The more tutors

know about your course and expectations, the more they can help your students.

You may be able to require some students to get help at the writing center, but check

with the center’s director ﬁ rst since some centers have limited scheduling ability. If

Useful Readings

Boynton, Linda. “See Me: Conference Strategies for Developmental Writers.” Teach–

ing En glish in the Two– Year College, vol. 30, no. 4, May 2003, pp. 391–402.

Harris, Muriel. Teaching One- to- One: The Writing Conference. NCTE, 1986.