Upcoming Student Workshops

Workshops are an excellent way for students to receive live instruction on different writing topics. These workshops are great supplements to the instruction they are aleady receiving from you, which means they are getting reinforcement in many cases, and in other instances, they are introduced to brand new writing strategies. Please encourage your students to attend our writing workshops, and faculty are always invited to attend as well!

Workshops this week:

     Wednesday, November 11 at 4:00 PM ET
     Advanced PowerPoint Techniques

     Wednesday, November 11 at 8:00 PM ET
     Major Writing Errors and How to Avoid Them

     Thursday, November 12 at 6:00 PM ET
     Preparing for College-Level Writing

     Friday, November 13 at noon ET
     Writing and Revising Your Lab Report, Part II

Please contact Diane Martinez (DMartinez[at]kaplan[dot]edu for a current workshop schedule and direct links to live sessions as well as archived sessions.

Synopsis – October 2009: Director Annotations > Susan Coller Carlson

Welcome to our October edition of the KU WAC Newsletter!  We are very excited about moving to an electronic format and feel it will provide a more engaging venue for exchanging ideas about writing across the curriculum.  We encourage you to explore our past and current articles, post ideas of your own, and comment on the ideas of our contributing authors—your peers.  You will also notice that, in addition to new monthly articles, we will also be posting updates on upcoming workshops at the Writing Center and other announcements as well.  You can easily subscribe to our newsletter or become a follower so updates to the newsletter will be delivered to your inbox.

Tricia Berry kicks off our October issue with Writing Well is Not Just for Graded Work.  Tricia touches on a topic that’s close to my heart as we see a number of very poorly written emails come into the Writing Center from students asking for help.  Students have attached their papers for review into an email with notes like, “Pleaz correct this for I need it bak tommorw because my grads are sufering,” or “I ned help with my APAs sitations andwords.”  It can be frustrating and time consuming for folks to decipher messages like these to say the least.  Tricia gives us all pause for thought.  We are sending our students out into the workforce, and if their writing skills are abysmal, how does this affect their work?  Their clients or patients?  How does this reflect on us as a university?  Poor writing skills come with a cost on many levels.

Chris Halem (Encouraging Quality Writing on Discussion Boards) shares some of her ideas and best practices when it comes to facilitating an engaging discussion board based on a simple equation she shares with her students: Great content + Great form = Great discussion.

In Fragments, Kella Hammond explores how writing plays a critical role when it comes to “spearheading and deepening the conversations we are currently having about what we teach.”  Students can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach to education, but Kella asks us all to consider how we can help our students see “the panoramic whole” as opposed to fragments.  Conversation is essential (and so, of course, I must shamelessly plug our new interactive newsletter format again and encourage you all to participate in an on-going dialog about teaching, learning and writing).

Red Ink and Correction by Kurtis Clements brought back memories of my experiences in high school, and so I am curious to hear how others feel about their early writing teachers.  I remember the red ink and corrections from some of my more dogmatic teachers, of course, but I also remember Ms. Isabell and her head of white hair pinned and piled nearly as high as the fluorescent light fixtures on the ceiling.  She wore pink glasses and had a smile that rivaled that of the Cheshire cat.  Everyone loved her.  Why?  Not because at the age of 60-something she was hipper than any other teacher in the school and didn’t mind if the kids played Duran Duran or Elvis Costello on the boom-box in class.  Not because she was infinitely wise or because she taught night classes at the local maximum security prison (and yes, we were in awe of her bravery).  It was simply because she encouraged us—she practiced student-centered learning.  She pulled things out of us, made us think and let us explore ideas in new ways.  She let us feel good about the things we felt and cared to write about—whether it was politics, boyfriends, deer camp, snowmobiling, art or music.  She knew how to build confidence.

Susan Hovey, in Adopting a Student Friendly Approach to Project Writing, looks at writing from the perspective of a Medical Law and Bioethics instructor.  Susan focuses on the process of writing using a "step model" with her students and explains how clear guidelines are essential when it comes to reducing a student's fear of writing.

B. Marie Brady-Whitcanack (Group and Cooperative Learning: An Information Process Model of Teaching) reflects back on educational philosopher John Dewey’s theories on the social aspects of group learning and how students can, if properly guided, become more critical and democratic thinkers.

And finally, Diane Martinez writes about procrastination … something I know many of us can relate to.  In fact, during a phone conversation this week, Diane and I spent some time talking about how ironic it is that we tell our students how crucial it is to plan ahead, prewrite, create outlines … yet we don’t always practice what we preach.  And procrastination is not always the culprit.  We all lead very busy lives and it can be challenging to carve out time to do everything we need to accomplish—and our students are no different.  Killing Spiders and Cleaning Gutters: Differentiating Between the Writing Process and Procrastination is sure to strike a cord, and Diane offers some terrific suggestions that you can pass along to your students.

Enjoy the issue and we hope to hear from you!

Susan Coller Carlson is the Director of the Writing Across the Curriculum Initiative and Writing Center at Kaplan University.

Writing Well is Not Just for Graded Work > Tricia Berry

Last month, Dean Betty Vandenbosch wrote that writing is more than just mechanics, and she described the process of helping students focus on their audience, structuring the message, and telling a story.  Betty provided a wonderful structure that can easily be used across all disciplines in a wide variety of formal coursework.  Students should also be encouraged (and, in my opinion, required) to use the same process with less formal written communications such as email. Students often appear to feel that writing rules and mechanics apply only to the work they submit for a grade.  Below are fragments of emails I have recently received from students:

I appologize for the latteness of my background check paper I will be faxxing it over in the next 20 mins.

If i have a job i would have to quit so i can do my clinicals becuz I didn’t realize I wouldn’t b getting paid for it.

Is their drs offices I need to talk to exactly?
   
Do I need to get the list of shot I need I have not and also need to know what else so I many start on time please send me an email?

    These examples are not isolated incidents, but rather common occurrences during my day-to-day interactions with students.  If just reading these does not create cause for concern, then consider it from this perspective:  As a part of the clinical requirements of their academic program, each of these students was either currently representing Kaplan University at a medical facility or was within a few weeks of doing so, yet none of them had a clear understanding of how important the rules of writing are every time you write.  Does it make you wonder what they might have been writing in a patient’s medical chart?

When I receive emails like these, my response to the student usually includes a note about remembering to use appropriate grammar, punctuation, and spelling in all written communication.  In many cases I receive a return response that says something along the lines of “I’m sorry.  I always make sure to use correct grammar in assignments” or “I didn’t know it mattered in an email.”  Considering the amount of email communication that goes on in most professional settings, those kinds of responses set off alarm bells.  It is important that we prepare our students to write well in a variety of formats so that they can be successful in the transition to professional interactions, and it is important students understand that the rules of writing must be applied outside of “just assignments.”

Chan (2005) stated that email has become the predominant communication method in the workplace, but points out that poorly planned messages can have unintended consequences.   Email does not carry the social cues that face-to-face communications do, and thus it is important that writers become much more intentional about the construction of their message.   As Betty suggested in her article last month, a writer must carefully plan the message.  According to Chan, consideration of the reader’s point of view is a critical element in the planning process and should influence the tone of the delivery.  Chan provides additional suggestions for business email etiquette:

1)    Always use a salutation and closing.

2)    Use appropriate sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation (and avoid the use of “texting” type communications in an email).

3)    Deliver a concise and focused message.  Email is meant to facilitate quick communication.  Important points in lengthy messages may get overlooked.

As educators, our goals and responsibilities extend beyond teaching the content of a specific academic discipline.  We must teach, and role model, the skills our students need in all aspects of their professional lives.  One part of that responsibility is to guide, encourage, and support students as they learn to communicate in a variety of written formats.   If we do not provide them with those skills, who will?

References

Chan, J.F. (2005). Email: How to write and manage email in the

     workplace.  Oakland, CA: Write It Well.

Did you know...

... that Tricia started teaching part time as a hobby when her first baby was born, and never intended to make a career of it!

Tricia Berry is the Assistant Dean of Clinical Placement and oversees the process of making sure HS students have clinical sites for hands-on learning.

Encouraging Quality Writing on Discussion Boards > Chris Halem

In her 2003 book, Discussion-Based Online Teaching to Enhance Student Learning, Tisha Bender  tells this story:

In one of the first online classes I taught, I had a student with whom I had spoken on the phone at the beginning of the semester, and was immediately struck by how articulate, enthusiastic, and intelligent she sounded. Yet five days elapsed and there were no online responses from her. Surprised by this, I called her again. She explained her silence by saying that she thought she had to write something very formal for the online discussion, complete with an outline and footnotes. I told her that the time for that sort of polish was in the written papers and exams. The online discussion, I informed her, was just that—an opportunity for bouncing intelligent, informative ides off each other in a spontaneous stream of consciousness. (pp. 58 – 59).

I have to say that I disagree with Dr. Bender. In fact, the thought of reading 20 or more stream of consciousness discussion posts each week is rather frightening. On the contrary, while I don’t think that discussion board posts have to be as formal as essays, I do believe that they should adhere to the practices of good writing. Discussion board can be an opportunity for us to teach and for our students to learn and practice good writing skills. This is the equation I share with my students: Great content + Great form = Great discussion.

What is great discussion board form? I recommend this to my students:

Greeting (“Hello, Classmates and Prof,” e.g.)
[space]

1st paragraph with your 1st idea
[space]

2nd  paragraph with your 2nd  idea
[space]

Use as many paragraphs as you have separate ideas
[space]

Signature (Your first or your first and last name)

I believe that there are several advantages to this format. First, it follows the form of an essay thus giving students practice with writing essays. Second, it’s an organized way to approach the discussion question and as such can assist students in organizing their thoughts and the points they want to address. Third, as an organizing method, it can help students address all parts of a multi-part discussion question. This prevents them from losing grading points because they didn’t fully address the question. Fourth, when students start to think of discussion questions as formal pieces of writing rather than stream of consciousness, anything goes, off-the-cuff responses to a question, they become more thoughtful in their responses and increase their learning and that of their classmates. Firth, and this is an advantage for us, it’s a lot easier to read and understand organized discussion posts. That makes us better facilitators of the discussion.

I teach both first term students and those who are close to graduation. With first term students I introduce the concept of discussion board as a mini-essay from day one. It’s part of what I discuss in my first seminar, and I post the suggested form on the first discussion board. I find that it takes a unit or two to get everyone on board, but everyone eventually follows the form.

Depending on their prior classes and professors, students who are close to graduation may never have thought about discussion board as a miniature writing project. Nonetheless, when I explain the form and the reasons for it, most of them start to use it and report that they find it an effective and efficient way to approach discussion questions.

In the online environment, I tell my students, “We are what we write.” Given that, it’s essential that everything we write represents us at our best. Discussion board postings are no exception.

References
Bender, T. (2003). Discussion-based online teaching to
     enhance student learning. Sterling. Virginia: Stylus
     Publishing.

Did you know...

... that Chris Halem is an amateur potter?

Chris Halem is a professor in the Department of Professional Studies at Kaplan University and teaches Academic Strategies, Advanced Career Development Strategies and Career Development Strategies.

Fragments > Kella Hammond

"Fragments of specialized knowledge in sealed, disconnected boxes…Synthesis are often a Cinderella in our classrooms and curriculum." -Professor Pan Papacosta, Columbia College

It’s after midnight in St. Louis, Missouri, and this is what I’m meditating on: “Specialization has weakened our ability to see interdisciplinary connections.” These are the words of Professor Pan Papacosta, a man born in Cyprus and educated at the University of London in Physics and the History of Science. He teaches physics to non-science majors in Chicago. I have transcribed Mr. Papacosta’s Association of General and Liberal Studies’ plenary speech in fits and spurts in a spiral-bound notebook with a kaleidoscope cover in aquamarine, crimson, mustard yellow, and olive green.

In this colorful book, I note Papacosta’s thrilling charge, and then sketch,

• A lump of coal that a grade-school teacher created a single year-round course around, from the Industrial Revolution and clean energy to organic chemistry and art.

• A Baudelaire quote in my best cursive, “Modernity … to extract from fashion the poetry that resides in the historical envelope, to distill the eternal from the transitory” (qtd. by Carter Goebel, 2009).

• Double stars next to Papacosta’s call to action, “We need to start talking with each other. Not chit chat… real, meaningful conversations about what we teach and the bridges we want to build” (2009).

While writing down these fragmented thoughts, I begin to consider how writing at our university plays a crucial role in spearheading and deepening the conversations we are currently having about what we teach (aka, our content areas in addition to general-education literacies such as communication, research and writing) and how our students benefit from an interdisciplinary approach.

As a relative newcomer to Kaplan University, I am impressed by the fact that writing courses here are, for the most part, geared towards a student’s major field of study, that the rhetorical situation is customized by each departments’ unique yet uniform standards, and that our learning institution truly values the notion that “real knowledge is not how much we know, but how much we use and integrate that knowledge into our lives” (Papacosta, 2009).

I am thrilled to see theoretical knowledge and real-life examples come together as an integrated whole because we know students will benefit from this marriage, and meaningful, authentic writing often connects higher-order concepts to concrete examples, humanizes audiences beyond the professor’s comment boxes, and requires students to consider their voice and its effect on future employers, colleagues, and professional communities.

That’s the great news.

What I contemplate at this late hour is how writing plays an essential role for students who are struggling to make sense of disparate, disconnected information (Papacosta, 2009). For instance, recently I received an e-mail from a disgruntled student who bemoaned, as she saw it, the over-emphasis on APA guidelines above writing and the invention of engaging, informative viewpoints. I assured this student that most, if not all, of us are concerned not only with her ability to write for a professional audience in an agreed-upon style (and the importance for writers to be informative and credible at the same time), but we’re also excited to see her thought processes and the ways she connects readers to her ideas based on evidence, insight and analysis. She wasn’t buying my assurances.

Which makes me wonder how much more work needs to be done across KU departments and schools to help our students see not just one aspect of the writing process, but rather the panoramic whole? What can we model in our instruction, curriculum, departmental collaboration, tutoring services, workshops, reference materials and tutorials, and writing feedback that reinforce the notion that while APA is incredibly important, it’s not the forest, but the trees.

The more we listen and talk to one another and our students, truly converse about how writing and research skills help or hinder us in the here-and-now and beyond, the better the chance that students like the one I mention above will begin to see how and why APA matters in addition to feeling listened to and respected for putting new, often unformed and emerging, ideas on the page. The goal, I believe, for a successful WAC program to grow and flourish is to promote the synthesis of writing skills by honestly talking about the perceived and real fragments in an otherwise solid curriculum.

References
Carter Goebel, C. (Plenary speaker). (2009, October 1).
Bridging the cultures: Humanities, science and art.
Plenary speech at the annual meeting of the Association
for General and Liberal Studies.
Papacosta, P. (Plenary speaker). (2009, October 1). Bridging
the cultures: Humanities, science and art. Plenary speech at
the annual meeting of the Association for General and
Liberal Studies.

Did you know...

... that Kella Hammond once sold baked goods at a farmer’s market in Liberty, Missouri? She also made cinnamon rolls, scones, and cookies at 5 am before she went to market at 8. Yum!

Kella is a Resource Specialist at the Kaplan University Writing Center.

Red Ink and Corrections > Kurtis Clements

This fall marks the first time in seventeen teaching years that I did not wend my way through the halls of an on-ground academic institution, where I would dutifully teach some version of freshman composition to college students who would rather not be there at all. One of my standard first-day get-to-know-each-other icebreaker questions was this: What do you remember most about high school English?

I asked, at least early in my teaching career, because my own high school English experience had been so miserable that I had concluded it must be an anomaly, and I wanted my students to set me straight. What I discovered soon enough, though, was that my experience was not at all atypical, that my students and I had had similar experiences and that they expected that I would be like every English teacher they had ever had. Sadly, what students remembered most about high school English was red ink and corrections.

Most of my high school years are more a haze now than they were then, and the only high school English teacher I have any concrete memory of was a man dubbed Sleepy Willets for his propensity to fall asleep during class at any time. While other teachers were notorious for nodding off showing movies in dimmed rooms or during prep periods, Sleepy Willets could nod off standing in front of the class, chalk in hand. He looked like a caricature of Edgar Alan Poe, his forehead too big for his narrow jaw, eyes enormous black orbs beneath heavy eyelids. These facts alone did not account for my miserable experience. As it turned out, Sleepy Willets also had a fondness for the red pen, and he would use it indiscriminately on my papers, slashing words, phrases, sentences, even entire paragraphs. He’d scratch comments between lines and in the margins and sometimes draw arrows and shapes to more comments squeezed in at the top or bottom of the page. His favorite mark of punctuation was the question mark, and when he wasn’t filling my paper with comments, he left thick red question marks in the margins. Once, my writing got the better of him, and Sleepy Willets was reduced to tears (I am imagining this part) and could muster only heavy red upper case letters like A-W-K and D-E-V, whatever those meant.

In Sleepy Willets’ class, I learned to fear writing papers much the way I feared all bodies of water the summer I was eleven when, without my parents’ permission, Danny Leonas and I snuck into the Empire Theater and watched Jaws on the big screen. That entire summer, whenever I saw water, I heard scary music in my head and was sure something terrible lurked beneath the surface, just waiting to get me. Sleepy Willets was my shark.

What is so ironic about my experience in Sleepy Willets’ English class is that I loved words and I loved to write. I wrote all the time – amusing little anecdotes about teachers (some habits die hard), movie reviews for the school newspaper (though I can’t prove it, I originated the “thumbs up” approval for movies well before Siskel and Ebert), and, my proudest accomplishment at the time, an unauthorized mimeographed serialization of the heroics of a group of hobbit-inspired beings who lived in the woods behind my high school. In the yearbook my senior year, my “Personal Quote” was “Better a word man than a bird man.” I loved to write and I had always loved English classes, always, yet Sleepy Willets’ red ink and correction marks were unintentionally driving me away.

I say “unintentionally” because I believe in his heart, Sleepy Willets was trying to help just as I imagine teachers today who use red and mark every error are trying to help. In fact, over the years, I’ve heard many well-meaning teachers of all levels explain and sometimes defend their use of red and the frequency and aggressiveness of their correction marks and comments, usually in some incarnation of this:

1. I use red because it provides the best contrast.
2. If I don’t point out every error, how will students
    know what to work on?
3. My teachers used red and it never bothered me.
4. It is my job.

To all of those responses, I say, politely, Phooey!

First off, it’s not about what the teacher thinks is best; rather, it is about how best to help students. Put another way, it is the difference between teacher-directed learning and student-centered learning. Students learn best by doing, and if the color red and pointing out every error discourage students from doing, how will they learn? Let’s face it: quite often the majority of comments point out grammar, usage, and mechanics errors. If composition theory has taught us anything in the last thirty or forty years, it is that pointing out grammatical errors does not help students become better writers nor does such feedback help students not make those errors in the future.

What, then, should a teacher do? For starters, stop using red. Use purple or green or pink or blue. Use any color except red. Stop pointing out every little error and, instead, focus on patterns of errors that hamper meaning. After all, is there any difference in meaning between example one and example two?

1. The sky is falling. I should go inside.
2. The sky is falling, I should go inside.

In both examples, the sky is falling and someone has the wherewithal to think about going inside. Whether we like it or not, the comma splice in the second sentence (I know some of you wanted to leap all over that error!) does not interfere with the meaning. I am not saying go out and create comma splices, but I am questioning how necessary it is to mark such an error, especially at the expense of comments that could actually help students become better writers by encouraging them to think beyond sentence-level errors to matters of content and meaning. In helping students discover and clarify what they are trying to say in their texts, the more likely students are to take ownership of those ideas and to care enough to polish their writing, perhaps even eliminating some of the sentence-level errors commonly marked. I’d rather have a piece of substantive writing with a few comma splices than a “Dick and Jane” piece of writing without any comma splices.

Limit the number of overall comments to two maybe three content-driven comments per page at most: Less is more. Think about the global, big-picture matters, not the picayune. While we may think we are offering great feedback – and the comments may, indeed, be excellent – the reality is that too many comments will overwhelm a student. Instead of reading and thinking about the remarks, they are ignored. Imagine the right-hand margin of a paper with one bubble comment after another – you should think about...what do you mean by...the sentence structure here is...the marked sentence is an example of...how does this content connect with…. Get the picture? Too many comments on a paper is akin to being in an overcrowded elevator – unpleasant and worth avoiding. Some students, upon seeing comments jammed together shoulder to shoulder would, like Sleepy Willets, be brought to tears and reduced to communicating in big capital letters: OMG!

Accentuate the positive. Students learn better when they are encouraged and feel as if they have the support of others, especially their teachers. Whatever happened to, You can do it! You’re getting the hang of it! Way to go! You’ve got it! All right!? Cheerleading gets results. Students want to improve, but they want to feel the teacher is rooting for them, so teachers need to embrace the It’s-Not-What-You-Say-but-How-You-Say-It philosophy.

Look at the difference between A and B:

A: Your discussion here is not developed thoroughly enough for your audience. Readers will not understand the good point you are trying to make unless you take the time to sustain your writing. You are on the right track, but you need to think about what you are trying to say and what your audience needs to understand that message.

B: The discussion here raises a good point! I wonder, though, if the development is thorough enough considering the audience? Would they need more specific information? Give this some thought and revise accordingly.

Which comment would you rather read on a paper you worked hard on? B, right? Of course! While both comments express the same basic idea, the second one does so in a way that encourages and challenges the student. Moreover, the comment is a reaction to the writer’s ideas, not a top-down directive. Comment A points out the student’s shortcomings by using the second person (you, your); the tone sounds accusatory. And how sincere is the “You are on the right track, BUT [emphasis added]” remark? You are qualified for the job, BUT I am hiring someone else. I don’t want to give you a speeding ticket, BUT I have to. It’s my job. Please!

In the end, we can all learn from Sleepy Willets. In his own way, he has taught me much more than he could have possibly imagined, and I carry his unintended lessons with me right in my shirt pocket next to a purple pen. But it’s not easy. While I strive for a pedagogy that matches my practice, I sometimes have to pinch myself to remember that I don’t want to be like every English teacher my students have ever had.

Did you know...

... that Kurtis Clements’ house in New Orleans survived Hurricane Katrina but a section of the roof of his new house in Maine blew off in what New Englanders call a Nor’easter?

Kurtis is a staff member at the Kaplan University Writing Center.

Adopting a Student Friendly Approach to Project Writing > Susan Hovey, RN, MSN

As an instructor for HS 101, Medical Law and Bioethics, one of the first classes students take in Health Science, I have adopted the philosophy that writing is a process and that writing skills are developed through practice.  This has proved to be a successful philosophy for my students and for me as well.  Since this a first-term course, many of my students are novice writers, reporting that they haven’t written a formal paper in years.  One of my goals, therefore, has been to reduce their stress by teaching a writing process that gradually builds on writing expectations from one assignment to the next.   
   
To begin with, I post project guidelines (expectations) for each assignment outlining what I will focus on during the grading process.  Communicating and providing written expectations for the writing assignment reduces stress for students. Those that begin writing assignments without direction spend time thinking about what the instructor wants instead of content. This preoccupation distracts them from their task at hand.

My grading focus with the first assignment in Unit 3 is on content, sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. I ask students to attempt to organize their paper in APA format but stress that they do not have to be proficient. My expectation is that they include a title page and reference page, but I do not ask for citations within the text. Students receive credit just for including title and reference pages. I do not spend a lot of time grading the reference page, but I do make suggestions for future writing assignments. Prior to initiating this step process, I found that with the first project papers, students become so focused on perfecting APA format that they forget about the writing process and developing their content.

I add to my grading focus with the Unit 5 project. In addition to content and structure, I ask students to spend time choosing appropriate references and typing them on the reference page in correct APA format. I introduce citations and ask that they include a few within the text, but again, I don’t expect proficiency in this area. Students receive credit just for including a few citations. While grading this assignment, I do make suggestions on where citations could have been included and on the correct format of citations.

With the final project, I ask students to pull everything together to create a paper that incorporates all of the writing concepts, which include content, structure, and APA format. I do keep in mind while grading the final project that I am still grading papers written mostly by novice writers.

In addition to setting guidelines and expectations, I spend approximately 10 minutes in each seminar discussing the writing assignments. I introduce the writing projects during the Unit 1 seminar to prepare students in advance that project writing is a requirement of the course. During the Unit 2 seminar, I show the Writing Center PowerPoint and introduce the many services provided by the Writing Center. At this point, I strongly encourage students to take advantage of the services provided and remind them that they are not alone when working through the writing process. During my 10 minute seminar presentations, I generally focus on one area of the writing process. Sometimes, it is just a question and answer session so that I am sure to touch on all topics of interest. 

My experience has been that providing written expectations and using a step model to build on project writing creates assignments that do not seem so overwhelming to students. They can narrow their focus; therefore, they feel a sense of accomplishment when completing assignments. It also benefits the instructor because you have an area of the writing process to focus on while grading, instead of trying to incorporate it all in every project.  I think one of the main things we want to consider is that our students are learners.  They won’t get it all right the first time, and with a step process like the one described above, you can actually help them learn because you are managing the information they have to deal with and incorporate with each project they write for your class.  

Did you know…

That Susan is a bit of a fast food and soap opera junkie?  Sometimes when she is feeling overwhelmed, she sits on the couch, eats McDonald’s, and watches soap operas. After a day of watching the troubled lives of Erica Kane or Victor Newman, she usually feels better.  And the junk food helps too, she says.

Susan Hovey is a professor in Health Sciences and teaches Bioethics and Medical Law.

Group and Cooperative Learning: An Information Processing Model of Teaching > B. Marie Brady-Whitcanack

Group and cooperative learning strategies organize students and help them respond cognitively and socially to the tasks of information processing. The overall findings and conclusions regarding cooperative learning indicate such teaching techniques positively affect academic learning, social development, and the self-esteem of the learner (Kagan, 1990). Recent cooperative learning strategies have been successfully incorporated into electronic learning circles and classrooms (Riel, 2004), such as with visual and audio learning styles accommodated through Kaplan’s audio seminars. Cooperative learning is not a new teaching method, however. Foundations in group learning were developed by the great educational philosopher John Dewey (1919).

Dewey stated: “Group investigation should be the basic model for social and academic learning in a democratic society” (Joyce & Weil, 1995, p. 74). Dewey fostered such ideas as “cooperative sets” in dyads and triads. The basic philosophy is to begin instruction in straightforward and familiar activities, then move to more complex models of information processing, instructing students on methods of how to work with other group members as a means to introduce the group investigation (Slavin, et al., 1985).

The process of learning to study and work together on assigned tasks is the basis of cooperative learning. Joyce and Weil (1995) identify one of the tasks of cooperative learning as building cooperation and a sense of learning communities and social context for students. The goal of working together while growing and learning as individuals is seen as a process as well as a product of group and cooperative learning.

Cooperative learning provides an environment of peer collaboration as a means of development of social and cognitive skills. It is defined as: “a teaching strategy involving children’s participation in small group learning activities that promote positive interaction” (Lyman & Foyle, 1991, p. 14). Each person is expected to contribute to the group’s success and is recognized through the group’s reward. Individual students are assessed for participation in the group process and on group performance in cooperative behavior (Lazear, 1992; Lazear, 1997).

Cooperation is a fundamental social process in human interaction. Modern living requires emphasis on a citizen’s skills in relating well with other races, nation-states, and sexes. The future move toward globalization and multiculturalism will require increased skills in interpersonal, inter-societal, and intergroup conflict resolution and tension reduction (Sharan & Shachar, 1988). Group and cooperative learning theory focuses on cooperative and learning strategies in not only learning cooperation, but also the necessity to cooperate in order to learn.

The history of cooperative learning has evolved from the work of John Dewey and his research and theory on the social aspects of learning and the need to train learners to be future democratic thinkers. The following is a breakdown of the components for a group and cooperative learning model.

A. Purpose
     1. Generate motivation that exceeds individual competitiveness
          and build connectedness.

     2. Students learn from one another.
     3. Student interaction results in more cognitive and complex
          learning than occurs in isolated setting.
     4. Can result in positive group identify
     5. Can increase individual self-esteem.
     6. Can increase social and work skills.
     7. Group cohesion, cooperative behavior and improved intergroup
          relations increases group cohesion. (Kagan, 1987)

B. Assumptions
     1. It is assumed cooperative learning will result in cooperation
          instead of competition.
     2. Cooperative learning combines other learning models, such as
          information processes and social learning models.
     3. Cooperative learning will result in immediate effects, such as
          social support and cognitive complexity.
     4. Cooperative learning will reduce incidents of disruptive
          behavior and off task behavior.

C. Training for Cooperation
     1. Provide students with guidelines for efficiency, such as
          project grading rubrics.
     2. Monitor group size, such as working in dyads to triads
          or larger.
     3. Gradually increase the complexity of the group task.
     4. Monitor or increased efficiency as the complexity of
          task is modified.

D. Example of Group Investigation

     1. Use of democratic process education:
          a.  This process is dependent upon an integrative
                organizational behavior of the group.
          b.  Use specific research tasks, such analysis as Plato’s
               Republic.
          c.  Use the cooperative teaching model to improve
               citizenship.
          d.  Examples include the application of concepts of ethics
               and the ideal citizen who lives in and enhances society
               and self.
          e.   Promote the use of methods of scientific inquiry,
                such as critical thinking.
          f.   Promote the use of critical thinking in problem solving,
               social and interpersonal conflict resolution.
          g.   Promote experience based learning scenarios.
          h.   Clarify basic concepts of the democratic model of
                cooperative learning (Joyce & Weil, 1996).
                     i. Social inquiry: Identification of a problem
                        that leads to the social process of inquiring
                        toward problem resolution that leads to further
                        inquiry.
                     ii. Search for a solution, or puzzlement, as to
                         how to resolve the issue: This questioning
                         stage of identifying a potential problem leads
                         to awareness of self and personal reasons for
                         the inquiry as both a participant and an
                         observer.
                     iii. Self-awareness: The participants identify their
                         role in the situation and its resolution.
                     iv. Methodology: Identify what method of
                         research or fact finding is appropriate and
                         possible for the situational inquiry.
                     v. Reflection: Conduct and after action form
                         of reflecting thinking about the conclusions
                         and consequences of the learning process
                         (Joyce & Weil, 1996)

A. Phase One: Encounter a question or puzzling situation.
B. Phase Two: Explore reaction to the problem of situation
C. Phase Three: Formulate the study task and organize the study:
    a. Define the problem or issue.
    b. Define what information is needed to resolve the problem
        or issue.
    c. Assign member roles and responsibilities.
D. Phase Four: Identify conclusions and consequences of findings.
E. Phase Five: Analyze the process as well as the process of the group activity using the grading rubric.
F. Phase Six: Repeat portions or recycle the entire activity for a new topic of situation


The concern for social skills development as a necessary response to multiculturalism in the electronic classrooms requires modification of teaching methods (Jacobs, Lee & Ball, 1997). At Kaplan University, we have classes made up of a diverse student body; therefore, it is worthwhile to consider our approaches to teaching in order to reach as many students as possible. The learning models in this article are just two examples of how this can be done.

References

Dewey, J. (1919). Chapter Seven: The Democratic Conception in 
     Education. Dewey: Democracy and education. Retrieved from
     http://www.ilt.columiba.edu-ILTweb-Publications-Microsoft
     InternetExplorer.

Jacobs, G., Lee, G. S., & Ball, J. (1997). Learning cooperative 
     learning via cooperative learning: A sourcebook of cooperative 
     learning lesson plans for teacher educator. San Clemente, CA:
     Kagan Cooperative Learning.

Joyce, B. & Weil, M. (1996). Models of teaching (5th Ed.).
     Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Kagan, S. (July, 1990). Cooperative learning resources for teachers. 
     San Juan Capistrano, CA: Kagan Cooperative Learning.

Kagan, S. (1987). Cooperative learning: Student teams (2nd Ed.). 
     (1992).Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Lazear, D. (1997). Seven ways of knowing, teaching for multiple
     intelligences. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Learning Center.

Lazear, D. (1992). Teaching for multiple intelligence. (Library of 
     Congress No. 92-61017). Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa
     Educational Foundation.

Riel, M. (2004). Cooperative learning across classrooms in electronic
     learning circles. Journal of Instructional Science, 19, 445-466.
     Doi: 10.1007/BF0019390.

Sharan, S., & Schachar, H. (1988). Language and learning in
     the cooperative classroom: Recent research in psychology.
     New York: Springer-Verlag.

Slavin, R. E. (1988). Cooperative learning. New York: Longman 
     Inc.John Hopkins University.

Slavin, R. E. (1988). Cooperative learning: Theory, research and 
     practice (2nd Ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Slavin, R. E. (1988). Cooperative learning: Student teams (2nd Ed.).
     Washington, DC: National Education Association Professional
     Library.

Slavin, R. E. (1991). Student team learning or practical guide to 
     cooperative learning (3rd Ed.). Washington, DC: National
     Education Association Professional Library.

Slavin, R. E. (1988). Student team learning: An overview and 
     practical guide. Washington, DC: National Education
     Association.

Did you know... 

I don't think many people know I started my academic career at the University of Hawaii as an opera, voice major, while also singing for Don Ho's backup band. Many twists and turns to finish with a PhD in Education.

Marie is a professor in Health Science at Kaplan University.

Killing Spiders and Cleaning Gutters: Differentiating Between the Writing Process and Procrastination > Diane Martinez

I had a writing assignment to do over the weekend, and so I did what every good writer would do, I cleaned out my hallway closet. My hallway closet is an unplanned community that houses every imaginable household object that has no other place to reside including my exercise ball pump, an air mattress with a hole in it, old computer disks, cell phones, and eye glasses. There are boxes of files from my high school teaching days that hold every file folder for every class, book, or lesson I ever taught. All of this had to be sorted through; I couldn’t write a single word until this nagging chore was taken care of. After the hallway closet was cleared and organized, there was no way the garage was going to get away with being in the shape it’s been in for the last three years. I organized every nut and bolt, swept away cobwebs, killed some awful-looking spiders (I’m not the catch-and-release-type of person), and hung up all lawn tools. Next, it was my clothes closet where I had to try on every item of clothing I own in order to decide whether it would go in the Goodwill bag or remain on my shelf for another year (yes, I know those jeans are still too tight, but I just know I can lose those nasty 10 pounds). This is all very important, you know, and takes a great deal of time…time I should have spent writing. In fact, at the end of the weekend, try as I might, I could not find another thing to clean or organize in lieu of writing my assignment.

I have no idea how I actually have become a professional writer with these kinds of “prewriting” habits. I convince myself that such organizing and cleaning activities give me a chance to think through my topic, angle, and construct original ideas, but the truth is, I’m simply procrastinating…and I love to write! If a lover of writing and language like me puts off the pain and agony of staring at a blank screen or piece of paper, can you imagine the brutal self-flagellation that those who hate writing go through? When I see how much energy I actually put into avoiding writing, I have to sympathize with students who say to me “I hate writing,” or “I am terrible at writing; it’s so hard for me.”

When I present writing workshops, I am constantly reminding students to use the writing process in order to do their best work. I tell them how I am one of those people who say I do my best work under pressure, but that’s not really true, especially when it comes to writing, which demands thoughtful presentation of ideas and skillful use of language. Can you really do your best when you press yourself up against an immovable deadline?

Many of our students avoid writing papers until right before they are due because they are petrified, extremely busy, or they just plain hate writing and they’d rather clean their gutters than sit down and write an essay; the process seems so long and involved for them. So how can we help students who have these habits that we all know too well ourselves?

Students, especially those who have a difficult time writing, will actually write a better paper if they use the writing process as well as the writing resources at Kaplan University. The writing process actually breaks up the overwhelming chore of “writing an essay” into several easy-to-manage tasks that can be done in 30 minutes to an hour each day. A few things that instructors can do to help students use the writing process to their advantage and prepare for an upcoming assignment are to:

• Announce the assignment at least two weeks in advance. If you think about it, it is very difficult to do a week’s worth of reading, post on the discussion board, and write an entire essay in one week. While we do not want to encourage students to work ahead, they can take a sneak peek at projects that are coming up in order to start the prewriting part of the writing process. Furthermore, they can take the assignment and their initial ideas to a live tutor in the Writing Center and ask for help brainstorming.

• Encourage students to break down the assignment into steps or parts and show them how that’s done. Break down one assignment for them and suggest ways to use the Writing Center, Library, or meetings with you to firm up their ideas. For instance, after they have an idea of what topic they want to write about, encourage them to start preliminary research and suggest they read a few articles from the online databases in the KU Library.

• Compose a working thesis statement. Students can take that working thesis statement to a live tutor in the Writing Center and ask for feedback on that as well.

• Ask them to write a first draft, as opposed to a rough draft, which many interpret as being all they need to do before they turn in the next draft, which is their final paper. The paper review service is most helpful to students when they submit a first draft because tutors offer holistic feedback, which means students are expected to revise and rewrite based on the comments (not simply edit and proofread). The revised draft is their second draft. This is a good time to meet with you, too, in order to discuss the comments received from the paper review tutor, as well as issues regarding content.

• Explain the difference between editing and proofreading so that they can spend time on the editorial aspects of their paper before turning in the final copy.

Our students are often so busy or intimidated about returning to school that they don’t always think ahead about their school work. A little reminding from you, however, can go a long way. When students are given reminders to break up their homework assignments into more manageable steps, they are more likely to succeed. This success is seen through what they learn about the subject or content of their paper because they are more thoughtful about the ideas they are working with. They also are more successful as writers because they have learned how to manage the assignment, structure and organize their thoughts, and considered the language they use. They have also learned to use the best resources available to them – the faculty and staff at Kaplan University.

Did you know...

... that Diane is a cake decorator? She has been asked to decorate her friend’s wedding cake this summer when she gets married at Lough Cutra Castle in West Ireland (http://www.loughcutra.com/).

Diane is a Writing Specialist at the Kaplan University Writing Center.