In my last post, I talked about how I used question papers to motivate my students to speak in class. Another method I’ve used in a variety of classes is to provide a list of “questions to consider” when doing readings. In this case, I provide the discussion prompts, and I expect students to write […]
I tend to be fairly skill-development-focused in my teaching, and this has led me to make a number of my classes writing intensive (WI) or speaking intensive (SI). Most schools have some kind of writing intensive equivalent, but the speaking intensive designation is more rare. It means there are a certain number of required oral […]
“I hate group work!” This is not uncommon to hear from a student. It comes up every time I teach Research Methods or Psychology of Women – the two courses that have several group assignments. I have empathy for students. Group work can be challenging. The truth is group work requires particular skills – skills that are […]
I don’t love silence. One of my biggest fears as a new teacher was that I would ask students to engage with a topic and have a discussion and there would be silence. Birds chirping. I know it’s good to have a little silence to let people think, but I’ve spent a lot of time […]
Last year, I had the opportunity to participate in a multi-day workshop on intergroup communication using the model developed at the University of Michigan [CHECK THE DETAILS ON THIS]. It was an incredibly impactful experience, but one thing that really stood out to me coming off a challenging semester of teaching was our discussion early […]
