In this continuing series, I provide concrete dos and don’ts for a variety of writing and reading practices.
Do THIS Not THAT: Topic Sentences
In this continuing series, I provide concrete dos and don’ts for a variety of writing and reading practices.
Do THIS Not THAT: Theme
How Would You Teach Aesop to a 3rd Grader?
Here was my initial try…
Continue reading “How Would You Teach Aesop to a 3rd Grader?”What Two Bible Stories Provide a Great Introduction to Literature?
I’m redesigning my Writing about Lit course, and I give a preview here…
Keynote Address: Imagining Conversion
Why Individual Student Conferences in Freshman Comp Work
I just completed my second week of individual conferences, all of which were structured around providing feedback on rough drafts of each class’s first major assignment. Here were my four takeaways.
- Less is more. – It’s better to go over one paragraph with precision—praising its strengths and observing its weakness—than to make general comments about the entire paper. Coverage is a fool’s errand. Go for the synecdoche.
- Ask questions. – I always ask the student if s/he has questions, but when they go well, these conferences provoke my own questions. I end up learning more about who the student is outside the classroom when I listen more than I talk.
- Provide specific next steps. – Yes, each student had significant work to do in revision. I had made sure to highlight specific parts of the paper that needed work. However, I tried to give even more pointed advice about what each student should tackle next: a new introduction, a revised thesis, two new topic sentences, etc. This allowed each student to leave with clear marching orders.
- Find something nice to say, and say it. – No paper is entirely unredeemable. A draft should be messy. Find something in the process that the student did well, and acknowledge it.
The Purpose of Life: Romans 11:36
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:36
My semester’s theme thus far has been process over product, and this week’s verse underscores it. I can easily declare that all thing have their proper end in glorifying God. It is another to navigate the process that leads to that end result.
This passage in Romans connects the entire process — the beginning the middle and the end — to Christ. Everything starts with his word. Everything holds together through his word. Everything was made to glorify him.
I don’t find it difficult to acknowledge God is creator, and I confess with my mouth the Westminster Confession’s claim that the end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. This is very different, however, from enjoying him right now in the middle of a work week or in the middle of a difficult class or in the middle of a grading session. It is easy to say, “Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor,” but what does that mean in the gritty details of your life?
This week, I am focusing on the process as a means to help my students improve as readers and writers. If I want my students to develop their reading and writing skills, I must be willing to give them ways of approaching their tasks. What I am praying for is a greater awareness of how God informs that process. Yes, He made all things, and yes, all things were made to glorify Him, but how does that translate into my concrete teaching and something as simple as free-writing or summarizing what I just read?
One thing I am recognizing is that there are far too many parts of the process of learning and teaching that I think I can do on my own. This simply isn’t true. I pray that God gives me the humility to ask for his guidance in every part of my educational and pedagogical process.
Teaching Reflection: Week 1
I’m continually amazed by how much truth is nestled in a short student’s prayer traditionally attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas. Every semester I begin each of my classes with the prayer and have my students pick out one of the things the prayer asks for that would be particularly helpful for the course they are taking. It allows them to dwell on the prayers words for a bit longer and gives me a sense of what they think our course will be like. Last week, I was struck by two parts of the prayer and convicted by another.
Continue reading “Teaching Reflection: Week 1”What’s Love Got To Do With It? I Corinthians 16:14
Let everything that you do be done in love.
I Corinthians 16:14
Yesterday morning in chapel, we heard a powerful message on Matthew 25 where Jesus divides the sheep from the goats. The speaker’s main point was that the sheep were defined by their social love in action. They cared for the sick and helped those in need. Their loved manifested itself in concrete ways for the most of vulnerable members of their society.
As I enter this new semester, I’ve been meditating on what the most effective way is for me to love those around me: my students, my colleagues, the staff, and administration. Who are the people who are most vulnerable on campus?
In my verse for the week in Corinthians, Paul too stresses action. His admonition is not primarily about what people say or about what people write but what people do. This does not mean that writing and reading are not actions. Rather it is to stress that we should think of love as a larger category of which our words are but a small part.
The ways I have to show love typically involve words. My thoughtfulness often manifests itself in the form of notes or prayers to people to show them that I care about them and that I want them to be everything God wants them to be. I have not taken the opportunity to do anything in addition to this.
Part of this process, I know, is God opening my eyes to parts of the world that I choose not to look at or remain ignorant of. This semester, as I attempt to live out this verse, I pray that God will use the message I heard yesterday morning to make my love for others in the world a sign of God’s grace.