In my last post, I explored how to employ social reading in the online classroom using Perusall, Padlet, and other digital tools. In that application, my main goal is to ensure students are reading critically. By that I mean not just scrolling through a textbook, but actually engaging with it. I want them to consider…
“But how much is that in today’s money?” Anyone who’s taught the US survey has heard this question dozens of times. It a completely understandable one, and often impels students to seek out online calculators that claim they can “convert” old timey money into today’s currency. I usually try to answer this question by talking…
The day after the 2017 Boston Marathon, the marathon’s sponsor, Adidas, sent an email to participants who completed the race. The subject line read, “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon.” On the surface, nothing appears wrong with this line; however, given the events at the marathon on April 15, 2013, when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonated…
Chances are, you already know about Ben Franklin: inventor, diplomat, postmaster, bespectacled genius. But Ben Franklin, failure? It’s true. The Founding Father struck out at one of the goals he set for himself – to become a champion chess player. Why he failed in this endeavor, but attained such greatness in others, is instructive for…
I’m not sure if it’s because we’ve just passed through midterms at my university, or because I’ve been working on course (re)design as part of my teaching center duties, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of alignment lately. Those familiar with the methodology of “backward design” will recognize alignment as the glue…
In an April 9, 2017, article in Salon, Martin Harris explored the potential implications of the rise of social reading and story creation. He proposed, “Our stories are going social and, as new platform technologies remake the reading experience into something increasingly interactive, we now must ask what we’re giving up in the bargain.” With crowdsourcing…
As both a high school and post-secondary teacher, I have struggled with how to foster an inclusive classroom discussion without resorting to punitive measures. Certainly teachers would rather use “carrot” methods of incentivizing over the punishing “stick,” but often resort to the latter. This begs the question: what, in fact, is the carrot of classroom…
A few years ago, a grad school colleague of mine told me the technical term for what we were asking our students to do in many of our assignments. “Putting things in historical context,” she said, could also be expressed as “Identifying and applying relevant information.” That phrase has helped me understand just how and…
Over the past year, I have constructed various projects for my literature survey courses. Last fall, I had students define a term related to Early American literature and present what they learned. In the spring, I had students read a novel or play by an author we were looking at in the course and present…
Even though I’m teaching the Ancient World instead of my usual US courses this semester, I’ve found that both my philosophy and general approach toward the survey course have remained consistent, despite the vast chronological and geographical distance. I remain committed to active learning approaches, though I find that occasional nuggets of expository lecture (5-6…
