Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts

Monday, August 17, 2026

2026 #26 The Opposite of Cheating (Gallant/Rettinger)

 


The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AIThe Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI by Tricia Bertram Gallant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is particularly useful for early-career teachers (or on the flip side, late-career teachers who have upheld the status quo in their teaching for the last twenty years) but almost any teacher in higher ed can benefit from parts of this book. Despite the subtitle, it isn't particularly "AI" oriented, but this is somewhat understandable because it is very difficult to keep up with AI as a specific context.

The authors' primary aim is to advocate for a culture "accepting of errors." This framing of "cheating as error-making" can be a bit tough to embrace when we picture in our mind's eye the student who seems to cheat because they believe they can get away with it. Gallant and Rettinger offer that we should try, however, to bring nuance to our understanding of cheating and resist painting with too broad a brush.

To that end, the first chapter is a great overview of types of neutralizing behaviors and rationales for cheating, and looks into how "help" and "assistance" are tricky words in this world of AI (and also a variety of online "services" (legal and not)). Chapter Two's emphasis on communication is vital, underscoring that is our job to make a syllabus meaningful and relevant, and there's considerable emphasis on developing "actionable and measurable learning objectives." A later discussion of rubrics is particularly welcome: "Creating a full rubric can and should take time and effort" the authors opine, and I'm certainly glad to see this in an age of Khanmigo-generated rubrics being used by brand new faculty who aren't even sure what a rubric is. The authors do support using a ChatBot to (help) generate a rubric, but their Chapter Four should be required reading before anyone attempts using chatGPT or Khanmigo for making a rubric for the first time.

I was a bit surprised at the credit for Universal Design for Learning being given to Burgstahler and Cory rather than David Rose (and no mention of CAST's Guidelines), although their 2008 book certainly was a crucial contribution to UDL as it applies in higher ed. There is also not a whole lot about alternative grading, save for a brief discussion of mastery grading, specifications grading, and ungrading. That said, it isn't really within the scope of the book to dig in to how alt-grading might help deter cheating, but it is highly relevant to the general principles of integrity that the authors support.

I was surprised by the multiple references to "contract cheating" which made me consider that it may be more prevalent than I thought. But ultimately the book isn't about types of cheating as much as how to create a better culture within a class to discourage it, and this includes how to respond when it does happen. The authors encourage a balance between protecting assessment integrity (Chapter Six) and teaching ethical thinking to our students. I wished that the latter had more examples and case studies reaching across a broader spectrum of disciplines, but what is there is inspiring and offers interesting models to explore. Teaching ethical thinking is largely teaching critical thinking and offers a student an opportunity to examine the false dichotomy of good v. bad choice. Instead, borrowing from Rushworth Kidder, that choice is reframed into a "trilemma" and the consideration of what lies outside of the dichotomy is where the learning happens.

The book is well-researched, but more anecdotal in tone, which gives it an arguably more accessible voice, especially for those more interested in practice than theory. But the citations are there for further reading when needed.

Ultimately, the authors successfully frame academic integrity as something that needs to be injected into course design, assessment, pedagogy, institutional policy, etc. They do put some onus on institutions, and advocate that faculty should be proactive in impacting institutional policy, but there isn't a whole lot of guidance as to how to go about this. Even if an institution has "teeth" in their follow through of their academic integrity policies, the authors don't really address the very real economic motivations that are perhaps a stronger consideration at the institutional level and may be part of the issue of disconnect between academic integrity policies and what faculty try to uphold.

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Challenges 
2026 Reading Goals 26/60

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

2025 #58 Undoing the Grade (Stommel)



Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to StopUndoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop by Jesse Stommel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jesse Stommel is (and has been) one of the most important voices in "ungrading" as a practice. His insights shared on social media, various blogs, and in previous publications have done much to foster the important dialogue(s) that have multiplied over the last decade or so. There's a lot in this tiny volume that is great for excerpting, but the manifesto-like tone and compilation of previous writings (which is more of what it is rather than a book) frustrated me occasionally, especially as someone who is not new to these topics.

Stommel makes a convincing case for "why" we shouldn't grade, for the most part, but the "how to stop" part could be a bit more robust in terms of nuance and detail. That said, there are some really important take-aways, even for those who might not want to adopt a complete "ungrading" approach. Stommel writes, "My goal in eschewing grades has been to more honestly engage student work rather than simply evaluate it" (2). This is a key factor and should be an overarching pedagogical objective for anyone looking into alternative assessments (I use the term in acknowledgement of its problematic aspects). There are also some really wonderful pithy quotes: "Grades are the bureaucratic ouroboros of education" (11) sums up the raison d'etre for Stommel's work, in that it isn't just about grading/not grading/ungrading, etc..., but looking at the larger structural failings of education. "Ungrading" (broadly interpreted) is one way to fight back, and it can be done without necessarily jeopardizing one's gainful employment, especially if it is grounded in sound pedagogy and includes student dialogue and buy-in. That's not to say everyone will have the academic freedom to do so, but as more and more educators make "plus 1" changes (to borrow from Behling and Tobin's Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education), the tide may eventually turn.
 
Stommel's indictment of relegating "pedagogy" to the LMS is spot-on, although I'd push back a bit at his disdain for rubrics. I appreciate and agree with his criticism of "overly mechanistic" rubrics that are more focused on "efficiency in evaluation" (29), but I gently part company with him when he says: "...when rubrics are given in advance to students, they are likely to close down possibility by encouraging students to work toward a prescribed notion of excellence." (30). While I can see that, I would offer that the right rubric can be an excellent tool for transparency of expectations (especially if those expectations are cultivated through dialogue with the students, as Stommel advocates). With LMS incorporating AI more frequently to assist with things like making rubrics, I fear rubrics are being defined, especially for new faculty, as mechanistic tools for evaluation rather than realizing a fuller potential that they could have as a pedagogical implement for engagement and transparency.
 
In "How to Ungrade" Stommel says, "If you're a teacher and you hate grading, stop doing so much of it." (68). He helpfully differentiates the conversation from one about "efficiency" (a word I'd like to see removed from pedagogical spaces, at least until we regain some balance as far as AI is concerned). I think there's a lot of joy to be had from engaging with student work, and this might shift the conversation a bit: rather than aiming for "less grading" it might be about spending that energy cultivating relationships and I think Stommel makes a strong and impassioned case for doing just that . Overworked and underpaid teachers are (rightfully so) often leaning into "easier said than done" because they are exhausted. So, I'd encourage those who are new to the ideas of people like Paulo Freire and bell hooks to use Stommel's book as a starting point for inspiration, and try out some of the concrete examples for alternative assessment in Chapter 8.

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Tuesday, December 30, 2025

2025 #57 Failing Our Future (Eyler)

 

Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do about ItFailing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do about It by Joshua R. Eyler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great primer for those uninitiated to the idea of alternative grading, or those who need a baseline rationale. Beautifully researched and convincingly argued, Eyler demonstrates, on multiple levels, the actual harm of grading as a system, without resorting to heavy-handed rhetoric or sanctimonious finger-wagging. Eyler's audience should be parents, educators, and administrators, and there is wisdom here for both K-12 and higher ed. For the purposes of this particular book, his grouping of several alternative grading models under "Standards Based Grading" (SBG) makes sense, but it means that this is not the book if you are looking for nuanced explanations of the differences between, for example, SBG and Specifications (or "Specs") Grading. For that I recommend Grading for Growth by David Clark and Robert Talbert -- a book Eyler cites. Some of the stats and case studies make for tough reading, so consider this a content warning as he does briefly mention suicides at particular institutions (hopefully that doesn't shock anyone working for more than a few years in higher ed). Eyler covers a lot of ground in terms of providing both background and practical advice, and the rich bibliography is a fruitful place for further exploration.

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Monday, March 27, 2023

2023 #11: Small Teaching Online (Darby/Lang)

 

Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online ClassesSmall Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes by Flower Darby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a useful book, packed full of good tips, but could have been a bit more concise in places. I found myself wishing for a bit more empirical evidence that these things work, but I understand not all of them are tried and true (yet). For skeptics, some of it may seem idealized, but one can push past the sunny language and see the point Darby makes. For example: "When they see the relevance of coursework, the thread that ties everything together, students are more wiling to complete activities and assessments in a way that promotes meaningful learning. (23)" Well, we know that's not always the case, but Darby pushes us to honor the highest potential. I very much appreciated the application of "small teaching" approaches and the advocacy that online teaching can be (and should be) meaningful and interactive. At this point, even those who had to "emergency pivot" to online teaching during the pandemic should have figured out that it requires pedagogical considerations and isn't just a 1:1 transition. From that perspective, I found some of the cheerleading excessive, but not to the detriment of the book's value as a whole. Darby offers specific ways to implement UDL (Universal Design for Learning) practices (i.e. "Provide multiple topics and questions in online discussion prompts" and "Let students sign up for groups based on a topic they want to delve into"). There's a lot of general wisdom as well, that isn't just applicable to online teaching: "Giving the students something to do while watching a mini-lecture video, for example, encourages active listening and attentive processing of new information." (187). That seems obvious, perhaps, but I think there are times in my own teaching when I've just dialed in the lecture or the listening assignment, without really connecting it to its own specific learning outcomes. To be sure, it can be tough to give that extra 10% sometimes, but the idea of "small teaching" is based upon making these small changes, one at a time, for greater cumulative effect down the road. Darby makes sure to reiterate this in the final pages when discussing how we approach challenges. And perhaps the most important question Darby asks is: "How will you keep yourself motivated? How do you plan to assess the impact of your efforts? (225)". THIS is the missing piece. Teachers can read books and attend conferences, filling their hearts and minds with myriad exciting ideas...but what happens when those experiments fail? Do we just assign "x idea" to the scrap heap, or do we sit down and assess what went wrong and what are the adjustments that need to be made? That's where the space/time is really needed, and perhaps institutions of higher ed would be wise to consider pedagogy-specific guided sabbaticals, increased PRODUCTIVE and CONSTRUCTIVE faculty reviews, and mandatory (and compensated) faculty peer groups. Darby's offerings are helpful for the already-motivated teacher, but should also be embraced by administrators.

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Thursday, June 3, 2021

2021 #8: Radical Hope -- A Teaching Manifesto (Gannon)

 

Radical Hope: A Teaching ManifestoRadical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto by Kevin M. Gannon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first became aware of this book via a UDL (Universal Design for Learning) podcast. Kevin Gannon seemed to balance the feel-good hopefulness with both pragmatic and practical information, and this proved to be true in this teaching "manifesto." In truth, the "manifesto-ish" parts could use a sharper editorial pen in places, but there are so many worthwhile pull quotes, I can forgive the bits of er...emphatic repetition. The real overarching concept here is that education should be transformational, not transactional. Is that revolutionary thought? No, of course not. But what Gannon so skillfully achieves is helping the interested teacher remember WHY that's important and to help that teacher feel motivated to make it happen--otherwise known as HOPE.

There is a lot of radical hope in this book--for students, for teachers, for education as a field. But it isn't all about inspiration. Gannon substantively brings in pedagogical theory, addresses praxis (a la Paolo Freire, and offers opportunities for reflection (freewriting, journaling) as well as suggestions for real-life application. Chapter 1, dramatically titled "Classrooms of Death" (I may have rolled my eyes), explains that a pedagogy of radical hope includes a "moral imperative to create the type of inclusive and equitable learning spaces in which our students become critically conscious and actively engaged in their own education"(23). I always cringe when I see the words "moral imperative" because as most of us know, that is hardly a monolithic concept for us humans. But I think Gannon's use of such weighty language here serves its purpose--this isn't just headwork, but instead also very much heart-work. This is work that asks for a reinvestment and a revitalization of student-centered pedagogy. Middle chapters provide information about UDL and how to implement it, as well as constructing "a syllabus worth reading" (Chapter 7). Chapter 8, however, is where I really started to connect. Even just the chapter's title -- "Pedagogy is not a weapon"--really grabbed me in some visceral way. It isn't that I should need a reminder of that, but it did drive home how easily weaponized pedagogy can become. The chapter focuses on the purpose and value of the transformative work. Particularly helpful is Gannon's discussion of "Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings", which he more aptly advocates as brave spaces and content warnings. He invites the reader to consider these things as "pedagogical tools that allow for genuine engagement and confrontation with ideas and material" (113) and posits that they are a necessity in providing the required structure and support for that engagement and confrontation. One of my favorite quotes? "You may think you're being clever by utilizing shock value as a teaching tool, but more likely you're just being an asshole" (113).

We all seem to collectively agree that being an asshole is not sound pedagogy, yet--there's a lot of asshole moves out there in the teaching world. Sometimes it is a lack of recognizing the immense privilege we might hold in teaching spaces. Sometimes it is brought on by the "performative aspect of academic conversations" (133) and severe cases of imposter syndrome. But whatever it is, ultimately Gannon says teachers must see themselves as collaborators, rather than occupying "opposite points of some academic spectrum" (146).

The pandemic has many teachers feeling beaten down after what has inarguably been an extremely challenging and tiring year. Exhaustion rarely leads to active and inspired change. But Gannon manages--in a mere 152 (small) pages--to not only light the spark, but offers ways to take steps forward. "Manifesto" is perhaps a disservice here because what Gannon really provides is a hand, a ready assist for those who may feel a bit lost when charged to "decolonize" or "diversify" or "unlearn". These are valuable aspects of the work, yes, but all too often radicalized to the point of becoming just another academic, performative contest. The real radical idea, it turns out, is in the hope that "eschews despair, but does so in a way that often relies upon the faith that our current thinking and actions will create a better future--even without understanding what that future will look like" (4). Radical hope means we see teaching as a lively, dynamic commitment to the ongoing and sustained work of student-centered praxis, naming and demolishing systems of inequity, and employing an "emancipatory pedagogical vision" (150) in what is routine and mundane, as well as that which is unexpected and extraordinary.


Friday, May 21, 2021

2021 #6: Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies (Packansky-Brock)

 

Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging TechnologiesBest Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies by Michelle Pacansky-brock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is highly informative, engaging, and also balanced--even for skeptics like myself. If you are a teacher adamantly opposed to social networking or any web-based and public applications, you may want to skip this one. However, even those who are cynical about good old Web 2.0 might find value in the broader take-aways regarding student engagement. As Pacansky-Brock stresses in the introduction: "The point here is that "online" is a culture to young people. Yet to most colleges, it is a delivery method" (7). It will be interesting to see what impact the pandemic has on the third edition of this book. Indeed, a "next edition" there must be, because not all technologies can be still considered emergent, and some, of course, have probably faded away into the ether of "cool and awesome" apps. This second edition is from 2017, and while I have not conducted an audit of all the sites and apps she mentions, I'm reasonably confident not all of them are available anymore.

Pacansky-Brock most strongly advocates for using VoiceThread, and to be sure, she is at an advantage teaching art history, which is easily curated and viewed by students online. Her aim is true -- these are tools to help build community, and to that end, they should be used thoughtfully and carefully, without burdening students.

The other big piece of this is accessibility. Pacansky-Brock's work has been touted by UDL (Universal Design for Learning) advocates, and as many of these emerging technologies do allow for greater access and different modalities, it is easy to see why. I struggle sometimes with the concept that using multiple modalities is ALWAYS a road to greater accessibility, particularly if they are engaged simultaneously (for example, I have a very difficult time listening in a Zoom meeting AND reading what shows up in the chat). She advocates for a "backchannel" (e.g. live Tweeting) as a form of participation and as Derek Bruff would have it, a form of "active" listening. My own experience is different --- I find that I listen perhaps more selectively (rather than actively), hoping to have a good sound byte to comment on or share with the world at large. Other suggestions for participatory learning activities I've found to be very useful, such as collaborative slide decks. And it is this spirit of collaboration that seems to drive most of Pacansky-Brock's suggestions: "...these learning activities in Voice Thread are peer-to-peer, so the students are doing more than submitting an assignment; they are working together to create content from which the group learns" (129).

What was one of the more compelling and interesting ideas for me was connected to DS106, an open online course through the University of Mary Washington. Evidently the course includes an "Assignment Bank" to which students submit ideas for assignments and class participants may rate the difficulty of the assignment by giving it one to five stars. Then, for a particular section of the course, participants are asked to complete x number of stars-worth of web assignments. I'd really love to know more about how this works out in terms of equity in workload --are ten 1-star activities truly equal to two 5-star activities? (152 -153). Are the learning objectives balanced out? I have lots of questions and Pacansky-Brock does not necessarily provide answers.

Ultimately that's ok, but it does get tricky to "experiment" with these emergent technologies if one wants to also build a solid foundation (the guidance of Chapter 1). My sense is that Pacansky-Brock would recommend only trying one or two tools for a class at a time and she does recognize that packing a course with these participatory activities can have the exact opposite effect. The book hovers between a survey of technologies and a "best practices" manual, the latter of which needs to be extracted a bit with a step back from the myriad apps and case studies that the book offers. Chapter 2 is probably the most valuable in this regard ("Toward Participatory Pedagogy") as it highlights theoretical foundations that can be applied in moving from a general "Instruction Paradigm" to a "Learning Paradigm" which borrows from the work of Barr and Tagg in a 1995 article published in Change Magazine. Generally speaking, Pacansky-Brock's work is balanced in terms of experiential and theoretical knowledge, and some instructors may find it possible to skim through basics of the "essential toolkit" and the like. While I remain skeptical of technological saturation, I do feel it is responsible pedagogy to know what tools are out there, and Pacansky-Brock's work helps provide a glimpse into possibilities for both online and blended learning.

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Saturday, May 16, 2020

2020 #4 Learning Across Cultures (Eds. Mikk/Steglitz)

Learning Across Cultures Locally and GloballyLearning Across Cultures Locally and Globally by Barbara Kappler Mikk
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While this book is geared toward international and study-abroad programs, there are many essays within that will be helpful for anyone who teaches international students. There are places where the prose could have been curtailed and occasionally the boos seems like a thinly veiled advertisement for NAFSA (Association of International Educators--and the publisher of the book).

Depending on the needs of the reader, mileage will vary in terms of the relevance of each chapter. Jeremy Geller's "Terminology and Intersections" is a good primer for those new to the concept of interculturalism. Geller's parsing of "international" vs. "global" is a useful mindset for considering approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. Shanton Chang and Catherine Gomes offer valuable insights in their contribution, "International Student Identity and the Digital Environment." In addition to an overarching application of "mobile" and "interesecting" identities, the authors make several sound recommendations for how best to approach integration and use of digital platforms with a student cohort. This particular essay has immediate relevance to our current situation in 2020. Most importantly, the authors remind us that a student's self-identification in terms of culture (broadly defined) is central, and that even seemingly innocuous terms like "international student" can mean something different to the student than those who use the terms most frequently. Katherine Punteney introduces the concept of "intercultural competence" and continues some of the threads implied in the previous essay. As with the Shang/Gomes essay, Punteney's "Social Psychology in Intercultural Contexts" offers strategies and recommendations, notably four "essential strategies for creating safe and inclusive learning environments" (based upon Marcia Baxter Magolda's work).

While Yuliya Kartoshkina's "Neuroscience Behind Intercultural Learning" is interesting, it does seem to be a bit of an outlier in the collection. She takes a pro-learning styles approach and advocates for an understanding of neuroplasticity as an educational goal. Also valuable is the note that people with a shared culture often display shared neurological patterns.

Tara Harvey's "Design and Pedagogy for Transformative Intercultural Learning" is one of the more robust essays of the book, both in its clear delineation of best practices, as well as a 7-step adaptation of Dee Fink's backward course design principles. This would be a valuable essay to share with anyone involved in a curricular review process, and would offer a clear-cut and specific approach to "reverse engineering" (or backward design) for instructors, rather than just a general philosophy of considering "learning outcomes when constructing your syllabus". Barbara Kappler Mikk and Thorunn Bjarnadottir's "Intercultural Facilitation" is likewise a very useful offering for teachers. There are also helpful ideas about facilitation that could be implemented by students themselves in discussion-based classes and seminars.

"Mindful Reflection in Intercultural Learning" by Linda Gross and Michael Goh presents a few helpful models, specifically IDEO/Tim Brown's "T-shaped" competencies model, and Ash and Clayton's 2009 DEAL model for critical reflection. The former needed a bit more contextualizing, particularly in terms of distinguishing between disciplines and systems. The essay, however, provides a meaningful prelude to the work of James Lucas and Scott Blair that follows. In "Learning Outcomes and Assessment" the authors clearly differentiate between assessment and evaluation--something that is often overlooked in higher education. The subtext here is that if "grading" is assessment, it deserves to be inextricably tied to learning outcomes but should also be done in such a way that the feedback is geared toward continuous improvement in the student. What the authors don't say, but is implied, is that instructors should consider their own ability to give *timely* feedback when considering what is assessed in a course. There's a clear intention to align Bloom's taxonomy levels in learning outcomes, assignments, types of evaluation, and types of assessments.

Lucas and Blair echo the work of the others in describing the features of a global (rather than "international") focus, and perhaps the most salient is that the global:
conceptualizes culture from multiple perspectives and layers, with culture becoming more than race or nationality and involving a knowledge of self, one's place in greater society, and the biases, privileges, and implications of that place. (208)

As a whole, the collection admirably keeps this larger understanding of culture as a thread throughout the essays and has a transparent agenda in that regard. Most of the readings are accessible to those who are not entrenched in pedagogical theory, and each essay offers extensive bibliographies. The Appendix condenses the "take-aways" from each chapter, which is helpful for future reference and potentially for sharing out the information in a concise way across faculties and other cohorts who might find it useful.


Friday, August 30, 2019

2019 #8: ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors (Bruce/Rafoth)

ESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center TutorsESL Writers: A Guide for Writing Center Tutors by Ben Rafoth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an invaluable resources for ANYONE teaching L2 learners at the college level. I finished this book over a year ago, but have returned to it many times as a reference.

There are several essays that have been most helpful to me in my writing classes and as a writing center instructor. Leki's "Before the Conversation: A Sketch of Some Possible Backgrounds, Experiences, and Attitudes Among ESL Students Visiting a Writing Center" is invaluable reading for instructors who are working with L2 learners for the first time. The review of different types of second language acquisition in Tseng's "Theoretical Perspectives on Learning a Second Language" has helped me recognize individual challenges. Matsuda and Cox challenge instructors (readers/tutors) to be more aware of different reader stances: assimilationist, accommodationist, and separatist. The authors recognize that context can require some malleability and movement between the categories, but propose that the assimilationist stance is seldom helpful or effective. Staben and Nordhaus provide useful strategies for getting students to take a more holistic approach to the editing process (rather than "please fix my grammar"), and this pairs well with Linville's essay "Editing Line by Line" as well as Deckert's essay that both dig in to word- and sentence-level errors and how to explain them. Bouwman's contribution, "Raising Questions About Plagiarism," underscores the importance of *teaching* paraphrasing, and provides helpful questionnaires that can be used with ELLs.

Kevin Dvorak's "Writing Activities for ESL Writers" has been for me, the most valuable essay in the anthology. I use his "25-minute draft" exercise in my Writing About Music classes with my grad students, as well as in Writing Center. This has been invaluable in getting students over the hump of "getting started" with a term paper. I also occasionally use his "Alphabet Exercise" to help students think about topics for their papers.

Part 3 is dedicated more to writing centers and international experiences, but is a valuable read for anyone who wants to have a more global awareness of how language is used and taught.


Friday, June 26, 2015

2015 #8: Teaching With Writing (Toby Fulwiler)

Teaching with WritingTeaching with Writing by Toby Fulwiler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While somewhat dated (the book was published in 1987), Fulwiler's book is full of good lessons and exercises for teachers who wish to engage more with writing in their classes. It is essentially a teacher workshop in book form, and each chapter has pre- and post- journal writing exercises.

The handouts that are included at the end of each chapter are particularly helpful. I will be using many of them in my classes next semester. The handout on "Following Directions" at the end of Chapter 8 is fantastic as it serves as a reminder that prompts are as important as the assignments we receive. The handout breaks down the nuanced differences between words like "analyze", "compare", "contrast", "justify", etc. for our students and in turn makes us more conscious about what we ask them to do.

Admittedly, Fulwiler's scenarios are a bit rosy at times, and he doesn't address working with ELL students in any kind of meaningful way. Many of these activities fail when there is not a uniform level of English ability in the classroom. Chapter 7 on "Research Writing" spends a lot of time on conducting interviews as a major source of research. That's likely to be more helpful in some subjects more than others, and the chapter really doesn't offer ideas for motivating students to do other kinds of research, although it recognizes that as a major problem. Fulwiler also encourages collaborative editing and proofreading among students outside of class, saying "Such cooperative work does not amount to cheating; virtually all serious writers rely on outside editorial help." There's the problem, however--it isn't really "outside" when you're talking about students in the same class. It can open the door for plagiarism, even if it is not intentional.

Overall, however, Fulwiler's book is still a very relevant resource for any teacher in any subject who wants to integrate writing as a tool for learning, not just evaluating.