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As an instructor, you have many options for guiding your class. You will probably try some tactics or activities that aren’t successful and will vow never to try those things again. That’s normal—part of your growth as a teacher. The longer you teach and the more groups of students with whom you interact, the more sure you will be of how to proceed.
You’ve probably heard the advice that a teacher should be “the guide by the side” rather than “the sage on the stage.” That’s excellent advice.
When you think back to the most potent learning experiences in your own life, you probably remember times in which you were actively engaged in the learning rather than simply listening to explanations or lectures. The more you can steer your students toward active involvement with class concepts, the more they are likely to change and grow in a permanent way. A communications class is the perfect setting for such active involvement. Students must be engaged and productive—not simply passive and receptive—in order to write and speak.
You’ve probably also heard that learning should be “relevant,” or relate to real life. Write for Work is set up to facilitate relevance. Students can create company profiles and then complete e-mails, memos, and letters that involve their companies. Even speaking assignments can be tailored to the students’ companies.
Maintaining Class Energy
No doubt you will sense when (and if) too much is too much for your students. Don’t feel obligated to review every item on a page if the students’ energy level has dropped. When the class energy ebbs, change the pace by changing focus. For example, vary individual work with group work. Or try a pre-test before working with material in class or a post-test of something discussed in an earlier section (these tests could be “just for fun”: self-graded, not turned in). You might incorporate occasional exercises in which students move from their seats (to share their work, to join a group, to act out a scenario, to explain a concept from the front of the room, etc.).
Don’t march ahead to “cover” the material at a moment when student brains are numb. Even simply stopping a lesson to take a few deep breaths, increasing oxygen flow to the brain, can reduce fatigue.
Employing Peer Responding
Peer response to writing or speaking can be an invaluable learning tool for both the reviewer and the producer of the work, and it has the added benefit of broadening the audience for written work beyond teacher eyes only.
Putting students into pairs or groups of three or four, have them discuss each other’s work. Many students will object that they are not English teachers and thus can’t provide helpful feedback to their peers. Let them know that their responses are valid and useful because it’s always good to know a reader’s impression, whether that reader is an English teacher or not. Encourage group members to point out specific areas that are confusing and specific areas that are especially effective to them.
One way to help students work successfully in groups is to make use of the many “checklists” included in Write for Work. In addition, consider modeling effective group responding by role-playing the part of a group member before the entire class. (Ask one or two of your strongest students to join you in the role-playing).
Encourage variations of group response. For written assignments, one variation requires each student to bring several (three?) copies of his/her work; students then staple a standard cover sheet to each copy, and write responses on the cover sheets and within the assignments for as many classmates as time allows. Students tend to enjoy this kind of responding; it allows them to get up and move around a bit, and it gives them access to many papers as well as responses from many peers.
No matter how peer responding is structured, you should encourage students to be specific in their peer-review responses. They should avoid “Good job,” “Nice paper,” and “Interesting speech” as reactions. It is much more helpful for them to name particular phrases, sentences, facts, organizational approaches, delivery styles, and other elements that are memorable, correct, interesting, or confusing. For written work, be sure to encourage revision (ideas, organization, and voice) before editing (correct use of conventions).
Inviting Guest Speakers
The sample syllabus given in this manual schedules a classroom visit by a career counselor just before students write résumés and cover letters. The school’s counselor is only one idea for a guest speaker. Your community probably has many business professionals who could impress upon your students the value of competent writing and speaking in the workplace. Usually such people are willing to share their thoughts and experiences at no charge to your school; it’s just a matter of your making the contact and setting things up. Like the company profile approach, business professionals as guest speakers will make your class seem relevant to your students.
Before a speaker comes to your class, prepare students for his or her appearance. Consider asking students to research a speaker’s company or to prepare questions to ask following his/her presentation. After a speaker’s appearance, you could ask students to write follow-up thank-you letters enumerating what they learned from the speaker (to be used as an assignment and/or to be actually sent).