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September 13, 2006
Teaching Mr. Kuechenmeister (Discourse Chronicle)
[Teaching my freshman composition students proved especially difficult for me this week because I noticed many of them are unable to remain interested during a full 50-minute period. Many students lose interest, fall asleep, or show visible signs of boredom about halfway through a period. Looking at such a situation as an instructor who is passionate about English studies (particularly rhetoric and composition), I instinctively blame myself and my presentation style, which leads me walking out of my class feeling less confident and that lack of confidence infects everything else I do. I feel like a failure at something I wanted to do since I can remember.
I imagine freshman students having a much harder time understanding rhetoric compared with me during my third year of undergraduate when I learned about it. Therefore, I spent one week on learning about rhetoric and the rhetorical situation; one week on reading visuals and argument; one week on basic composition and drafting; and then next week I plan on devoting one period to MLA citation and one period to peer review before my students turn in papers next Friday.
I hoped my students learned how to identify parts of the rhetorical situation, move from identification to explanation using sentences, change those sentences into an introduction, and then apply concepts of argument to develop body paragraphs analyzing details from their visual before providing a conclusion. I notice most of them succeeding at these tasks in their homework, but not in class. Maybe I am asking for too much or not guiding them enough...I feel like I failed teaching this unit. How will I teach my students to write the other three papers if I failed at the first one? BK]
Posted by kuechebj at September 13, 2006 06:54 PM
Comments
Bob, bob, you can't reach every student. Teaching is not only presentation but reception of the material. If the students don't want to learn, they won't, even if you are the best teacher in the world. I find that if I'm reaching a majority of the students then I'm doing my job. Plow ahead and do the best you can.
Posted by: ted at September 14, 2006 07:28 AM