One way I've encouraged students to be more independent is to reflect it on my grading rubric. Did they need much assistance on their project? Some? Little or none? The better they worked indepenently, the better their score for that section. I give leeway for students that are in my class for the first time and giving this project their first try, but after that they should know how to do it without too much assistance.
I agree. There seems to me to be a disconnect within this module. One one hand, the module insists that we recognize that we are in college, not high school, but on the other hand talks about rewards and pizza parties and so on, which are all SOOOO high-schoolish. Similarly, some of the specific suggestions on these boards may be appropriate for middle or high school, but not at the college level, and especially not in this context. Students aren't going to be acknowledged daily, or subject to "a daily plan of awards" (as the module puts it) once they are out on the job. Credit where credit is due is fine, but let's not over-do it.
Hi Mark,
You make a number of good points about treating students as adults. This is essential but as I teach from 4 until 10 pm my students come to me tired and hungry. I have found they really appreciate encouragement from me and treats to get their energy up. I also play games with my students such as Jeopardy when reviewing. They really get involved due to the competition. Maybe it is the type of students we have at our university but the above mentioned efforts really help to keep the students engaged and focused. The key is to "read" the students so you know how to plan for their instruction as well as support.
Gary
Reply to John Bryan's post:
Well John, they may not have signe up to relearn English; but do they know the part of the English that invlovles speaking and writting? What do I mean?
Any lanuage, not just English, I'm sure is considered an art form used in communicating. Without the tool of communication the human family would probably not be able to exist. I've recently learned that words can be used in so many different ways and in general, folks sometimes speak incorrectly. Parsing words is new to me and when I learned about it; it blew me away. getting to the root meanings of words and being able to "see" what words mean is awesome. and yes, this can be applied in many scholols of discipline.
