INLS 889 Seminar in Teaching Practice

term: Spring 2010
time: Friday, 1:30-3:00 (1/22, 2/26, 3/19, 4/23)
location: Manning Hall, Room 214

instructor: Diane Kelly, Ph.D., Associate Professor
email: dianek [at] email [.] unc [.] edu
telephone: 919.962.8065
office: Manning Hall, Room 204
office hours: Tuesday, 12:30-2:00, Wednesday, 11:00-1:00 and by appointment
home page: http://ils.unc.edu/~dianek/
readings directory

Course Description: Prerequisites: doctoral student status, INLS 888. For doctoral students currently involved in teaching activities; regular seminar meetings to discuss relevant literature and aspects of the teaching experience.

Schedule

Jan 22

• Introductions: Who we are, what we teach and what we'd like to teach in the future
• Course Plan and Selection of Topics
• Introduction to journaling

We agreed to practice professional 'journaling' this month in these ways:

1. Keep a log of how you spend your time. This should be fairly detailed, where you'll want to record how much time you spend each day engaged in professional work (whether it is teaching, research, email, etc.). You will not be required to turn this in (it is mostly for your benefit), but you should do an analysis of your log before our class meeting and be prepared to talk about what you found and what you might want to do differently in the future. I am keeping my log in Excel, but you can use whatever tools (including paper and pencil) that work best for you.
2. At the end of each class you teach (or observe), spend about 5 minutes engaged in freewriting about your impressions of the class: How did it go? What should you change? What worked well? You can also record any other issues that have arisen for you with regard to teaching and classroom management: How do I deal with requests for extensions? How do I handle a disruptive student? Should I discuss grades via email? Review your entries before our next meeting and identify 2-3 things that you'd like to put forward as in-class discussion items. You are also not required to turn-in your entries.

Feb 26: Journaling as a Classroom Assignment and as a Reflective Professional Practice

• READINGS: Stevens, D. D. & Cooper, J. E. (2010). Journal keeping: How to use reflective writing for learning, teaching, professional insight and positive change. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. (select portions)
• Be prepared to report on your time log and freewriting entries (Journal Reports)

March 19: Grading Rubrics

Keywords from discussion: how to create them, standardization, generalizing, whole class vs. individual assessment, how much structure to provide on written assignments,tests, methods of assessment

• READINGS
  • McKeachie, W. J. (2002). McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (11th edition). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
  • Chapter 1: Introduction
  • Chapter 3: Meeting a Class for the First Time
  • Chapter 6: Assessing, Testing, and Evaluating: Grading is Not the Most Important Function
  • Chapter 8: The ABC's of Assigning Grades
  • Chapter 13: Teaching Students to Learn Through Writing: Journals, Papers, and Reports
  • Chapter 23: Teaching Students how to Learn
  • Chapter 12: Counseling, Advising and Educating
  • Review grading approaches from Stevens and Cooper
• Bring an example rubric or syllabus or assignment description that you think is good to share during inclass discussion. Print enough copies for everyone in the class.
• Journal Reports

April 23: Integrating Discussion and Participation into Classroom Activities

Keywords from discussion: how to lead the discussion, how to facilitate group work, styles and types of inclass activities, evaluating participation, different expectations about participation

• READINGS
  • McKeachie, W. J. (2002). McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (11th edition). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.
  • Chapter 4: Facilitating Discussion: Posing Problems, Listening, Questioning
  • Chapter 5: How to Make Lectures More Effective
  • Chapter 9: Motivation in the College Classroom
  • Chapter 11: Problem Students (There's Almost Always at Least One!)
  • Boice, R. (2000). Advice for New Faculty Members: Nihil Nimus. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
  • Chapter 3: Prepare and Present in Brief, Regular Sessions
  • Chapter 4: Stop
  • Chapter 5: Moderate Overattachment and Overreaction
  • Chapter 6: Moderate Negative Thinking and Strong Emotions
  • Chapter 7: Let Others Do Some of the Work
  • Chapter 8: Moderate Classroom Incivilities
  • Section I Summary and Extension
• Bring an example 'blurb' from a syllabus that discusses expectations for participation and how it will be assessed as part of the final grade (if at all). Feel free to bring examples that you think are inadequate. Print enough copies for everyone in the class.
• Journal Reports