So you're taking my class?

Welcome!
First, you need to know some things about me.

I look forward to working with you, and I want to thank you for choosing to take classes with me, and at OCC. You have come to the right place; this is a fabulous college, with amazing resources and students. I think we are going to have a great semester.

I believe savvy students choose their classes and their professors wisely. So, in the spirit of that belief, here are some things you should know about me:

My chief purpose is to support your success.

Everything we do in class is designed to achieve this goal. If you're taking EGL 101 or EGL 097, my goal is to help you become a better writer. If you're taking EGL 092, EGL 094, or EGL 110, my goal is to help you become a better reader. If you're taking EDN 260, my goal is to help you become a competent reading teacher. For all of my students, in all of my classes, my goal is also to help you become a critical, independent thinker.

I've designed our course schedule, readings, assignments, assessments, and policies around these goals. Nothing is arbitrary. There is a purpose behind every choice I make. I am here for you, for your success and growth, and everything we do will support that.

This is why the next few things are true, and important for you to know about me as an instructor, if you are to be successful this semester.

My expectations are high, and non-negotiable. 

I am not what you would call a flexible teacher. That's not to say that I am strict, or mean, or impossible. Rather, I set expectations for my students that I believe will best support your growth this semester. I've detailed most of these expectations in our class syllabi, but it's important for you to know that I am not just *saying* these things because I think they look good on paper. I mean them. Every single one.

I did not begin my teaching career this way. I used to set high expectations, but then I'd allow for exceptions here and there. In the beginning of the semester, it started out innocent enough. However, after collecting data on student success, I quickly learned that the students who met every single expectation learned more, and showed more growth, and got their money's worth out of our classes; and the students who asked for extensions here and there ended up falling behind and never catching up. Sounds simple enough, right? Of course it is!

So, I changed my approach, stopped granting exceptions, and guess what? Suddenly, nearly everyone was able to meet those high expectations, every single time. My students consistently show more growth in class. They become stronger readers and writers. And they get their time and their money's worth.

It is so true that people rise to our expectations, or in some sad cases, they fall to meet them. I want you to rise this semester, so that is what I require.

I do not sugarcoat things. 

You know that friend who sees that you have a piece of spinach in your teeth, but she doesn't tell you about it? And then you go home and look in the mirror and realize that you've talked to at least twenty people with a big, dark splotch across your otherwise lovely teeth? Mortifying, right?

I won't be that person. I won't let you down like that.

When you write for me, or read for me, or teach for me, I'm going to tell you exactly what it is that you need to work on to become better. I will not sugarcoat things, or overlook them, or pretend that they don't exist. I will tell you what is going on, and how to improve it, and you will come out on the other end of 16 weeks a better student for it. That is my promise to you.

Don't take it personally when my feedback about your latest essay includes fifteen items in the "things to work on" list. In fact, you should take it personally if you're paying to take a course and your professor doesn't tell you what you need to work on, and how to do it. That's what you're paying for, isn't it? That is my job, and I promise to do it.

I am extremely organized. 

This means I can make even more promises to you:

• I will return all of your work, with copious feedback, within one week of submission. Every once in a while I will tell you on submission day if something is going to take me longer than one week to read, but it doesn't happen often.
• I write everything down. I will know exactly how much class you miss, down to the minute, as well as exactly when you submit all of your work, especially late work. I will tell you how much time you've missed, and how much work you've neglected to submit on time, when I give you progress reports every three to four weeks. 
• The purpose of this practice is to make you aware of how your behavior and choices as a student affect your learning and progress in class. I'm not trying to rub it in your face if you're absent, I'm trying to make you aware of how your absences are affecting your growth. 

I care about your success in this class. 

It takes a lot of time and energy to give you detailed, ongoing feedback, and to keep track of your progress in class. I do all of this because I care. Most professors do, of course. After all, you are our reason for being in the classroom in the first place.

That being said, I will put as much effort into your growth this semester as you put into it, yourself. You know those office hours professors post on their doors? That is time that we set aside just for you, our students. At Oakton, we commit to being in the building and available to students for at least five hours every single week. If you're falling behind in class, please come and see me during office hours! And if those hours don't work for you, contact me and let's set up another time to meet.

The worst thing you can do is to become a ghost student, just a name on a roster that your professors can't even place because you haven't shown up for class in so long we've forgotten who you are. We're only human, after all, and we are far more likely to go out of our way to help the students who show that they care about our classes than those who don't.

I love what I do.

I love this job more than I ever thought it was possible to love a job. I feel that it is a privilege to work at Oakton, an with you. I believe in the work we do in the classroom, so much so that I think reading and writing are essential skills for anyone who hopes to live a fulfilling life. In other words, I believe the work we do is transformative. I believe you will be a better person for having attended OCC. I believe your time here will change your life.

You know those people who are so perpetually happy that they're always smiling and cheerful, and telling other people to smile and be cheerful, that they are actually really annoying to be around? Well, I might have a bit of that going on. Because when I'm teaching, I'm happy. I'm in my element. I'm in the zone. 

You know the best way to deal with those annoyingly happy people? Ever heard the phrase If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? That will be your best approach with me this semester. Just go with it. Trust me. Surrender to the process, and we will have a great semester together. That's my final promise. Join me.

Help Them Read, It's Easier than You Think

Two Essential Prereading Skills:

Prior Knowledge and Setting a Purpose

It's no secret that many college students struggle with reading comprehension. We see evidence of their struggle in their inability to contribute to class discussions, their failure to pass a simple assessment, and even in their feedback: "I did the reading! I just don't remember any of it."

Now, while it is not a professor's chief responsibility to help struggling students become better readers, she can slightly tweak her instruction to help support her students' reading comprehension by helping them use a couple key prereading skills. Here's how: 

First:

Help your students activate their

Prior Knowledge

 
Skilled readers automatically activate their prior knowledge before they read.

A reader's prior knowledge consists of his knowledge, beliefs, and experiences that relate to the reading. Prior knowledge is a powerful tool for readers because it helps readers connect new information from the text to existing information, their prior knowledge. Of course, learning only happens when we connect new information to existing information, so a lack of PK will leave a reader floundering, and with no means of making any lasting connections from the reading.

How do you help your students activate their prior knowledge before reading? I'm so glad you asked! This is the easy part: Activating prior knowledge is as simple as taking two to three minutes at the end of class to introduce your students to the text you have assigned for that night. Concrete examples:

• Introduce the topic and ask your students to write down everything they associate with that topic. 
• Give your students a short bit of background information about the author, or the topic, or a particular concept introduced in the text.
• Before you assign the reading, ask your students one or two essential questions that relate to the text, and have them jot down their responses before they leave. 

See how easy it is? While these actions are small, they are lasting. Once you plant that idea in their heads, it will grow. Like a fungus.

Whatever you do, the key is to encourage your students to take a bit of time to set the mood for the upcoming reading. Just as we set the mood when we invite a date over for dinner, we have to set the mood before we read.

 Second:

Help your students  

Set a Purpose for reading

Skilled readers set a purpose for themselves before they read, and as they read they focus on achieving that purpose.

A reader's purpose can be anything: to identify the main ideas of the reading, to evaluate the major claims in the text, to record three interesting responses to the reading, or even to ask questions about every major section of the reading.

Whatever the purpose, this is powerful reading behavior because it helps readers focus on the text, self-evaluate their comprehension as they read, and identify key concepts in the reading.

Professors can help their students set a purpose in a number of ways. The most obvious is to be very clear about how you plan to use the text in class.

• Will students be expected to engage in a class discussion about the reading? If so, tell them this, and recommend that they take notes about their reactions while reading the text. 
• Do you plan to assign a comparative essay about this and another piece? Tell them,  and give them the requirements for the assignment before they read.
• Is this a major text that you plan to discuss for a number of class meetings? If this is the case, you can have some fun and give different groups of students different purposes for reading. One group can be in charge of identifying major claims, another can identify key concepts or terminology, another can ask discussion questions about the text, and another can make predictions about how the information in this text relates to other concepts they will learn in the course. 
• You can vary the purposes to meet your needs, and when the class meets again, jigsaw the students into small groups so they have a representative from each purpose in each group. This approach works well with particularly challenging texts that students must understand to do well in the course. 

For most skilled readers, these probably seem very elementary, and almost too easy to implement to actually be effective. And that's the good news: It really can be this easy. For many of our students, this small bit of guidance is all they need to help them get more out of their reading.

Believe it or not, many of them go home and read the words you assign without actually paying attention to them. That's right, their eyes go over the words, they decode them, but they don't actually read. Sometimes, they believe that the behavior of going through the motions of reading the text is enough, and that it doesn't matter if they actually understand or recall any of it.

Others have developed such strong compensatory skills over time that they've completely forgotten how to apply these simple reading skills, and so they never do.

Whatever the reason, as professors we're in the unique position of gently guiding our students into effective reading behaviors. It doesn't take much class time, and you don't even have to tell them that you're helping them become better readers. In most cases, you can help them activate their prior knowledge or set a purpose in under two minutes.

The investment is small, but it pays back in large dividends. Imagine a classroom full of students who are actively engaged in discussions about text. Imagine a stack of assessments filled with quality student responses that demonstrate true understanding and application of concepts learned from the reading. It's a wonderful feeling. I know, because it happens in my classroom all the time. And it can happen in your classroom, too.

Of course, I'm not saying these two small reading skills are all our students need to become skilled readers, but in my opinion, they're two of the most important and effective skills. Add developing metacognition to the mix, and you have what I call The Holy Trinity of reading skills.

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I had the opportunity to do a quick demonstration of the importance of PK and Setting purpose at our last department meeting. We had a great discussion and my colleagues shared some wonderful ideas for helping students apply these skills to course readings. 

 If you're interested, I've included the materials I used:

The PK passage is a fun way to show just how important a bit of prior knowledge really is:

Prior Knowledge Passage

I hand out roles to individuals, and then read this passage to illustrate the importance of having a purpose for reading or listening:
Setting Purpose Passage
Setting Purpose Roles

These are the PK and setting purpose pages from the 90-page course packet that I created for my college reading courses. They have a bit more background information about these two specific reading skills:

Packet Excerpt: Pages on PK and SP
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So please, give them a try. I think you'll see how easy it is to support student success. And really, is there any other reason we're here?

Is College Really for Everyone?

We've all seen the ads, the ones full of promises for potential students:

Earn a bachelor's degree in as little as three years!

Get a professional, high-paying job right after you graduate!

Take classes that work around your busy schedule!

Earn your degree on your terms!

Small class sizes in all disciplines!

Part-time, evening, and weekend classes available! 

Financial aid officers are waiting to help you today!

There's one important truth that these ads always seem to leave out, and that is this:

College is not convenient.

It takes a lot of work and persistence to earn a college degree, and even more work to truly become a college-educated individual. Signing those financial aid forms and purchasing shiny new textbooks is just the beginning. Showing up to class is a good start, but once there, students must also pay attention. And then they must study on their own. And complete the reading and the work assigned by their professors. And make up for any gaps in their understanding by seeking additional resources outside of class so they can keep up. And continue to attend class for the entire semester. And continue to study on their own throughout the term to gain the knowledge and master the material and skills they're supposed to be learning.

I'm not one to sugarcoat things, so I share a few facts with my students on the first day of class:

1. College is a full-time job. Typical college students should expect to study at least two to three hours outside of class, every week, for every one hour of class taken.
   
   This means that a student with a 15-hour class schedule should plan to study between 30 and 45 hours per week in addition to the time spent in class. That turns out to be five to seven hours of studying every night.
   
   Students often tell me that they have never studied in their entire academic career. They've never heard of a study group. They have never brought their books home from school. This may have worked for them pre-college, but trust me, it is not going to work anymore. (And most of the time, it didn't even work back then. If you're one of those students who has never studied, consider how much you actually learned in high school. I'm going to guess it wasn't much.)
   
   The best thing students can do for themselves is to form a study group, and meet with the group every day, in the same spot, at the same time. The study group will become a student's greatest asset in college. I had a study group in undergrad, and I don't think I could have done it without them.
   
   
2. The more classes you take, the more likely it is that you'll succeed. This sounds counter-intuitive, but it's true. Students are far more likely to fail their classes if they take only one or two courses in a semester, and far more likely to pass if they take a full schedule.
   
   This is the fact that brings out the truth about college that the for-profit institutions don't want to share with you: College is not convenient. Yes, there are people who hold down full-time jobs while attending college part-time, raising four small children on their own, and caring for their elderly grandparents; and they still manage to graduate in four years summa cum laude. I'm sure it's happened, and it will happen again. But this is not the norm. This is not how it normally works.
   
   Sometimes, it's just not the right time to attend college. Maybe a student isn't ready to handle the responsibility on his own, or he has too many other responsibilities that he won't be able to get much out of school, or he just plain can't afford it. Or he doesn't really know what he wants to get out of a college degree, so he won't take it seriously enough to make good on his investment.
   
   Whatever the reason, the fact is that, despite what the advertisements say, there is nothing convenient about earning a college degree. It will take a lot of time, a lot of energy, and a lot of money. I don't know about you, but when I invest my time, energy, and money into something, I want to squeeze every last benefit I can out of it.
   
   
3. The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that you are too good for a particular class. I see this happen quite often in my developmental reading and writing courses. Students take a placement exam and place into a lower level course than what they believe they should have placed into, and they let their ego get in the way of their learning. Sometimes they attend class but they don't do the work, sometimes they don't attend at all. And when it comes time to retake the placement exams at the end of the semester, they place right back into the same exact course, and find themselves re-enrolling and paying that tuition money all over again.
   
   Sure, sometimes students are placed into the wrong course. But know this: It doesn't happen often, and when it does, most professors spot it right away. If we're two weeks into the semester and I have not yet told you that I think you don't belong in the course, you can rest assured that you are exactly where you should be.
   
   While we're on the topic of developmental courses, I want to say one more thing: These courses are the best thing that could happen to the students who place into them. If your college offers developmental courses, what they are really offering you is a chance to level the playing field before you jump into college-level work. Colleges with developmental courses are saying We care about you and your ability to succeed, and we do not want to set you up for failure by throwing you into a course for which you do not yet possess the necessary skills.
   
   I know that students often see developmental courses as an irritating road block on their path, but they are just the opposite. They are opportunity. They are a gesture of support. They are a sign that you attend a college that is not going to let you get in over your head and become so frustrated that you give up entirely and walk away. These courses are life rafts designed to prepare students for the rigors of the college-level work that is to come. I believe it when I tell my students that my developmental reading course is the most important course they'll take in college. And you know what? Many of them have come back and said You were absolutely right. I use the skills we learned in that class every single day.
   
   
4. College is not for everyone. Before you call me an elitist, hear me out: College is not for everyone because college is not always necessary to accomplish your goals. I know we live in a time and place where everyone seems to say that You need a college degree to get a good job.
   
   My question is What is a good job?
   Is a good job one that pays a lot of money? Well, a college degree certainly isn't going to guarantee that. I have multiple degrees and I don't think I earn what anyone would consider a lot of money.
   Is a good job one that makes you happy? One with a lot of autonomy? One that allows you to travel? One that puts you in charge of other people? Or large machinery? Or requires creativity? Or has you sitting at a desk for eight to ten hours a day?
   
   If you don't know what you want to do with your professional life, then I'm not sure college is the right option for you right now. Are you really willing to spend one year, two years, four years pursuing a degree that may or may not help you land a job that you may or may not consider to be a good job? I've read countless articles that quote twenty-somethings who regret attending college because they have no job to show for it. They took out college loans they cannot repay, and they realize now, after the fact, that their degrees did not help them get anywhere closer to where they really want to be. Don't let this happen to you.
   
   Now, let me get one thing straight: I do not believe that the purpose of earning a college degree is to get a good job. I was one of those crazy people who studied exactly what I wanted to study in undergrad simply because I loved the fields. (English and technical theatre, in case you're wondering.) But I did so with reasonable expectations. I knew that my degree may or may not lead to an actual career, and I was fine with that. I had that luxury, because I was willing to sacrifice my lifestyle post-undergrad for the pursuit of an education. I had wonderful parents who let me live in their home as a young adult while I figured it all out. And I took the time to do just that. And today I am happy for it. But that's me.
   
   You need to figure out what you want to get out of your college education before you attend. And if you do attend college for the sole purpose of getting a better job (which is a perfectly reasonable purpose) then for crying out loud do a bit of research and know what you hope to accomplish. What job would you like to get? Which degree or program will get you there? Do you even need a degree to land the job?
   
   If you are a traditional age student standing on the precipice between high school and college, and you have parents who are willing to provide a roof over your head while you pursue your education, take a moment to revel in this luxury and consider what it is you really want to do with your life. This is a luxury that is not available to everyone. You owe it yourself to really consider what you want to do, and to follow a path that will lead you there while time is on your side. The worst thing you can do with this privilege is to squander it and end up, years from now, none the better for having had it.
   
   
5. College can change your life. I know that now I'm starting to sound as bad as those college advertisements, but this is true, college can change your life. But as with most life-changing experiences, you have to work for it. I see just as many students go through the motions of college and get absolutely nothing out of it as I see students who take advantage of all it has to offer and come out on the other end changed. The world is filled with wasted opportunities, but only you can decide whether your college experience is going to be one of them.
   
   And really, in the beginning, that's all it takes: A decision. You have to make it for yourself, but once you do, all of these other things I've been jabbering away about will seem small obstacles, and in time, they'll feel like nothing at all. Because the bottom line is that nothing gets in the way of someone on a mission. The time, the money, the effort, it all becomes a part of your grand plan to create a life for yourself that will be worth living. Any investment you make will seem like time, money, and effort all worth the spending. But before you dive in, make sure that you're jumping into the right body of water.
   

If I were to revise those college advertisements, I'd want them to look something like this:

Unemployed? College could be your next full-time job!

Before you enroll, know that it is going to cost you a lot:

Time!

Energy!

Money!

You may not be completely prepared, but we'll get you there with extra classes!

Just make sure this is the right choice for you!

College: It can change your life, just make sure it's a change you really want or need.

I could not be more grateful for the opportunity I had to earn a college degree as a traditional undergraduate student. It was a life-changing experience for me, and I cannot imagine where I would be today if I hadn't done it. The decision to attend college was easy for me, and while it took a lot of work, and many years to pay back my loans, those four years were transformative for me. But I knew--I knew before I attended, before I filled out my first application, before I got my first brochure in the mail; I knew what I wanted to get out of college, and I knew what it was going to take to make it happen.

And now, so do you.

Go make it happen, whatever it is. The only bad decision you can make here is the one you don't make for yourself. Good luck.

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Things I Bet You Don't Know (or Just Plain Forgot) About Reading

Reading is a simple thing, right? You learn to read in grade school, and that's that. Some people are born good readers, and others are born bad readers, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Right?

Wrong. 

Reading is a skill that develops throughout our lives, and it has as many layers to it as any other skill. Here are some things I bet you just plain forgot about reading over the years.

1. Reading is the great equalizer. It doesn't matter where you come from, or what you have, or what you know--as long as you can read, you have access to all the same knowledge, information, and worlds as the richest woman on the planet. And if you live in a town that's blessed with a library, then you have FREE access to all of this amazing information. It doesn't get better than that, does it?

We live in a time and place that allows us to get our grubby little hands on nearly any book that has ever been written. If you choose not to take advantage of that, you are missing out.

2. You should read different things at different rates. This is something that really surprised me early in my reading specialist career--many readers, especially struggling readers, read every single thing at exactly the same rate. They read the back of the cereal box with the same intensity as a complicated bioethics textbook. This is just plain silly.

Let's pretend we're on a hike and we come to a fireswamp. The place is filled with firespurts, quicksand, and Rodents of Unusual Size. (The Princess Bride, anyone? Anyway . . . ) We definitely aren't going to walk through the fireswamp as quickly and easily as we can walk down an empty sidewalk. Think of your most difficult texts as fireswamps, it takes great care to navigate through and end up on the other side with a solid comprehension of the material. On the other hand, it would be ridiculous to walk down an empty sidewalk using as much caution as you would in a fireswamp.

3. Don't bore yourself when reading silently. This is another thing that really shocked me when I first started working with reading students--some readers bore the heck out of themselves while reading silently. They read with no more expression than Ben Stein used as Ferris Bueller's teacher in the movie. (Side note: Students, if you haven't seen Ferris Bueller's Day off, please do. And don't tell me you haven't, it just makes me feel old.)

So, when you read silently, do yourself a favor and read with expression. I consistently find that students who read with expression have an easier time comprehending the material. This seems like such a no-brainer that I always feel silly discussing it, but the truth is that so many of my students lack expressiveness and phrasing while reading. (These things are called prosody, by the way. Just in case you're wondering.)

Bottom line: Don't be boring. Pause at end stops and commas. Raise the tone of your voice when you get to an intense or important moment in the text. Bring some emotion to your reading. You'll thank me, because you'll understand more and you won't bore yourself to tears in the process.

4. Reading is an invention. (The greatest invention in history!) Unlike speech, which is a natural process, reading and writing are human inventions. This means that we won't naturally develop our reading and writing skills without putting some effort into the process. So if you find yourself discouraged by the fact that you aren't reading or writing as well as you'd like, take comfort in this: You can always develop these skills. Think of the effort you put in to learning to draw, or cook, or drive, or play an instrument or sport. It requires the same kind of effort to become a skilled reader and writer.

5. Your reading level varies based on what you read. Yes, educators often use reading assessments to identify a student's reading level, but know this: Your interest in a text, your motivation to read a text, and your perception of how relevant the text is to your life all affect your reading level. This means that the things you bring to a reading (interest, motivation, perception) greatly affect how we perceive your reading ability.

I've met many students who are labeled as struggling readers, and they do struggle with reading books for school, yet they read constantly and with great success outside of school. How can this be? Clearly, they have the motivation and interest needed to read those books outside of school, yet they can't muster up enough interest to read well in school. The good news is that you have control over these things. If this is the reason you struggle with reading for school, it's time you reconsider the way you think about the things you read. I believe some would call this an attitude adjustment.

6. Reading is not rocket science. This is good news for anyone out there who is struggling to become a better reader. As with most things, it might seem an extremely difficult task to improve your reading skills once you've fallen a bit behind, but the fact is: You can do it. People do it every day. I've seen students transform from struggling readers to stellar readers in one short semester. It takes a lot of practice, yes, but it isn't impossible. In my opinion, the one thing that most often stands between a student and her goal to become a better reader is plain and simple: time. If you're willing to put in the time, to read daily and to apply the skills we learn in class, you will become a better reader. Guaranteed.

7. Forget the labels. If someone has labeled you a struggling reader that doesn't mean you can't read, and it definitely doesn't mean you'll never be able to read at grade level. Sometimes, educators assess students' reading levels and then label the students based on the results. If you've ever been labeled as an at-risk, remedial, developmental, or below-grade-level reader, know this: The label doesn't matter. What matters is your decision to become a better reader. You always have a choice to prove them right, or prove them wrong. Which will it be?

8. You are never too old to read a book. Ignore those signs in the library: if a book interests you, read it. I read more novels labeled young adult than anything else, even though I no longer fall into the young adult age group. I also read middle grade novels, and children's books, and anything I can get my hands on that looks interesting enough to read.

In fact, I've always felt that books for children and young adults are the greatest books out there. Children and young adults are pickier, they don't waste their time slogging through books that are anything less than wonderful, and so they hold their writers to higher standards. In my opinion, of course.

9. Reading is one of the oldest hobbies on the planet. Remember when I told you that reading is an invention? Well, it was invented around 6,000 years ago with the invention of writing in the 4th millennium BC. As a reader, you are partaking in one of the oldest hobbies on the planet. Talk about having a cool connection to the past.

10. There is no magic bullet. This may sound repetitive, but if you want to become a better reader, there is only one way to do it: READ. Read often, read regularly, and read widely. I will give you the tools you need to improve your reading, but they won't mean anything if you don't actually use them. A hammer that sits in a toolbox is worthless, right? So is a reading skill that is never applied to actual reading. Remember that.

11. Reading is magic. You've probably heard some variation on this theme before, but I'm here to tell you that it is the truth. If you haven't experienced the magic of reading yet, then you just haven't done it right. Magic exists, and it exists in books. I have traveled through time and space, to the past and the future, to worlds unknown to modern science, and I have done it all through reading. I have escaped dark times in my own life, and accomplished previously unheard of goals for myself, and I have done it all through reading. You can too. It starts with picking up a book.

12. Reading is a process. As a process, it involves several steps or actions on the reader's part to actually happen. There is no such thing as a bad reader, there are just readers who haven't yet practiced enough. It is so important that you understand this. If you continue reading for the rest of your life, you will be a different reader in one year than you are today. You hone your skill with every new piece you read.

13. Speaking of processes, there are five components to the reading process: Comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, phonics, and phonemic awareness. If you're reading this, you have already mastered the last two--CONGRATULATIONS! If you find yourself struggling as a reader, keep in mind that the three remaining components work together in a beautiful, fluid orchestra of skills to allow you to read. If you want to become a better reader, work not only on your comprehension, but also your fluency and your vocabulary. This is the only way. If you're in my reading class, we are going to spend the next semester doing just that. Lucky you.

Winter Break Dreams

Ah, winter break. The next few weeks spread out before me like yards of fabric purchased for a brand new quilt: so vibrant, so full of promise and potential. I have so many plans for you, my sweet days of the in-between. Long ignored projects will be completed. Books will be devoured. Real breakfasts will be made and eaten with proper utensils. For one month, I will actually get my money's worth out of that gym membership. 

I may even go so far as to style my hair. (Stop laughing, thoseofyouwhoknowmeinreallife. It could happen.)

Everyone else has their New Year's Resolutions, but those of us who engage in the triathlon that is teaching, we have our Winter Break Dreams. All throughout the fall semester we have ferreted away tiny shimmering hopes and sparkly big plans for the snowy interval that is, truthfully, sometimes the only thing that keeps us going through the midterm doldrums. 

The first day that The Pile* becomes too heavy to lug home, we tuck away another Winter Break Dream. When students lose their initial determination and homework completion suddenly drops from 95% to 50%, it is the promise of that future respite that keeps us from weeping alone at our desks during office hours. Upon receiving the first student email of the term with both "Ima" and "ain't" in the body, do we drop to the ground and throw a tantrum? No. We retreat into ourselves and smile. For winter break is coming, and we are going to do big things during winter break.

And now, here it is. I could fill an entire roll of Quilted Northern with an itemized list of all my Big Plans for this year's respite. Twelve weeks ago I was certain that this would be the year that I cook a Real Dinner every single night of my vacation. And start taking all those fitness classes at the gym. And read the entire pile of books I've set aside just for this sweet time. Was it only two weeks ago that I bought all of those knee socks, convinced that I will whip them into handmade sock monkeys in time to give them out as Chanukah gifts?

Now, as I sit on the precipice of this long-anticipated interlude, all I can think is:

What the hell was I thinking?

What am I, some kind of superhero? Will I never learn? At this point, I'll be lucky to get out of bed before ten, let alone muster up the energy it takes to purchase all the items I'd need to make myself a proper breakfast. I've been running on Clif bars nibbled at stoplights on the drive in to work for so long that I'm not sure I can even stomach a real meal before eleven. And sock monkeys? Am I some sort of masochist? We all know the kids are going to get the usual stack of (delicious) books, purchased en route to the Chanukah party, and wrapped by those volunteers who sit at a table in the front of the store and wrap gifts for donations to the local animal shelter. 

This is my eighth winter break as a teacher, and not one to break a perfect record, my eighth year of setting ridiculously unreasonable expectations for my Winter Break Dreams. Every year it is the same sad story. All semester long I buy crafty things and store them in the spare bedroom with a whisper, a promise: "I'll turn you into something adorable during winter break." I look at my husband over yet another Chipotle burrito and say "It's going to be so nice when I can cook for us every night." (To his credit, he just smiles and nods.) I choke down a Clif bar and tell myself "Soon enough. You'll be eating eggs Benedict with a side of breakfast potatoes in ten short weeks." And the books! About four weeks out from the blessed break I begin stacking them high on my nightstand until it looks like I'm playing a strange game of Jenga. 

And time marches on, December sweeps in, the finals frenzy hits, and it happens. I find myself basking in the light at the end of the tunnel that seemed so far away for so long. My Winter Break Dreams, once the lifelines that pulled me through the depths of mid-semester perils, now press in on me with a threatening weight. Their sparkle fades, replaced by thorns and foul odor. Because I know the truth. It's always the same. I am too damn tired to get to any of them, and in these next few weeks I will engage in a game of catch-up and preparation for the spring that leaves little time for my precious dreams. 

I will spend my winter break making up for lost sleep, lost nutrients, and lost time with friends that I have neglected all semester long. I will likely pull out the knee socks, make half an effort to turn them into something that resembles a monkey, and then stuff them back into their bag with a huff of frustration. I will cook a meal or two the first week, and then an incident with either the stove or another customer at the grocery store will rattle my resolve, and it will be back to take-out for the Osters. I will pull the tags off of my new workout clothes, wear them to a class or two, and then they'll wait out the rest of the winter break untouched, folded neatly in a drawer next to last year's shiny new workout clothes.

But all is not lost! Because summer is coming. And summer is longer than winter. Summer is better than winter, for we teachers don't merely dream about summer, we fantasize. Summer is for Summer Fantasies. Summer is when I will get everything done. All of it. I will tie my Winter Break Dreams up in a bow and pack them in with all of the Summer Fantasies I will make throughout the spring semester. And then, then I will get to them all. This summer will be The Most Productive and Fulfilling Summer in the History of All Summers. This summer will be the best yet. I just know it. 

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* Teacher Jargon Explained 

The Pile - The ever existent stack of grading that takes residence on every teacher desk around the second week of the term and doesn't disappear until after final grades are in. Teachers often drag the pile back and forth between home and work under the guise that they will actually read through the stack at night. This, of course, is only an illusion perpetuated to keep ourselves sane. More often than not, the pile remains untouched for days, and sometimes weeks at a time, like that pair of all-weather pants you always pack but never actually wear on vacation.

If You Must Lecture . . . *

Image found here

Lecturers seem to get a bad rap these days. Now that registration for the spring semester has begun, it's not uncommon to hear students discussing the relative merits of taking one professor's course over another. One of the most common questions I hear is "Does she lecture?" If the answer is yes, it's usually followed by a groan, and I can only imagine, the student's decision to register for someone else's class. 

When I was an undergraduate student myself, I often lamented the fact that so many of my professors required hundreds of students to sit in uncomfortable splintered wooden seats at what seemed like an uncivilized hour at the time, only to watch them read dense information off of their lecture notes. Why not just send out the written lecture itself and allow us to read it, to mark it, and to reread as necessary?

I've always preferred reading to listening, and it seemed a cruel punishment, this forced activity in furious note-taking while the expert read off of a sheet from the podium up front. In fact, some savvy individual made a business out of this practice by selling lecture notes to students. The fact was that no one student could be expected to get every little bit of information out of the lecture, and so we flocked to the note-sellers and paid our $4.50 for the information we were certain we missed.

This anti-lecture sentiment isn't limited to students, by the way. One of the first phrases I learned when I started teaching at my current college was "Death by PowerPoint." It is a great phrase, and I'm not above admitting that I suffered many small deaths by PowerPoint when I was a college student, myself.

Now, it would be easy for me to wholeheartedly agree with these anti-lecture sentiments and to raise a flag calling for the end of the lecture as we know it, save for one niggling fact: despite my own negative experiences with many lecturers, I've been lucky to sit in on some amazing lectures in my time. I've heard lectures that changed my entire perspective on a body of literature in under an hour; transformed my approach to personal finance two hours' time; and once, I was moved to tears by a lecture on a particular piece of literature that, up until that day, I thought I loathed.

So herein lies the question: What makes the difference between a great lecture, and a tedious one? It can't just be listener interest in the subject, as evidence by my own positive experiences with lectures on subjects in which I had no particular interest. It has to be something else, and it is. I had my own ideas about what makes a great lecture, but I sought out some reassurance from my favorite linguist, David Crystal, and sure enough I found his answer to this question:

Great lecturers understand that a lecture is more than the oral presentation of a written piece. A great lecture is spontaneous speech that brings an expert together with her audience for a session of shared revelation on a topic. 

When a lecturer engages her audience in a spontaneous speech about a subject, she has to construct her ideas as she goes along. This element of spontaneity ensures that she will not move too fast for the listener, and she is more likely to repeat key concepts throughout her speech. The lecturer is now thinking along with her audience, and therein lies the key: With spontaneous speech, the lecturer is free to connect emotionally with her audience, to look for recognition and response in their faces, and to keep a pace that her audience can follow.

This results, of course, in the transfer of ideas from lecturer to listener--a far cry from the mere transcription to which so many undergrads resort when they suffer at the hands of a professor who merely reads from her prepared speech. The written word is so different from the spoken word that it seems silly for anyone to expect students to get anything of value out of a pre-transcribed lecture on a topic. On this subject, David Crystal writes:

"If someone says, 'I dare not talk. I must write it out.' I am tempted to ask, 

'Then why lecture? Why not send a written account to your friends 

and let them read it comfortably at home; instead of dragging them all out 

to a lecture hall to listen to your reading the very same thing?'" (293)

I propose we throw out the prepared lecture notes. I propose that we trust ourselves to deliver relevant, meaningful content through spontaneous speech on the subject at hand. I propose we give our students a reason to come to class by engaging in a transfer of ideas from expert to student, the experience of which cannot be replicated through shared notes, pre-prepared speeches, or PowerPoint slides.

We teach in an age plagued by a constant doubt of the value of higher education. I propose we show up and we answer the question "What is the value of a college degree?" by engaging our students in the critical discourse that ought to exist in any college classroom. I propose we give them something they can never get out of books, or notes, or PowerPoint slides: the human element, the process of discovery that is at the heart of what we do as academics. It's time we let our students in on the greatest secret of all: That a real classroom is filled with magic, spun by words, spoken by people, heard, understood, considered, and shared.