Teaching Series: Professional Development

Part IV: Professional Development

Professional Development in Teaching for Graduate Students

Tawnya Ravy

How can we learn to be better teachers? No matter how long you have been teaching, there is always something new to learn. Taking time to explore your teaching methods and develop your techniques is challenging and time-consuming, but also a great idea. I have not been teaching long. I started out in the fall of 2009, but ever since then I have challenged myself to engage with a variety of learning and professional development communities. Teaching is my passion, but it is not enough for me to just love it. I want to cultivate it. In this post I am going to explore some of the ways that I have workshopped my teaching methods and course materials, and hopefully provide you with a useful roadmap to similar opportunities.

 Since I teach mainly literature classes, I set out to tackle a common problem that many literature faculty have: how to balance the teaching of literature with the teaching of writing in the classroom. Luckily, GWU has a WID (Writing in the Discipline) program which shapes the instruction of writing throughout the school.

On the WID webpage you can see an example UW (the required University Writing class for all undergraduates) syllabus and helpful guides for students and faculty. Also of use for faculty, whether you are teaching a designated WID class or not, is the WID Board which is a valuable collection of writing-instruction materials. You can find materials on everything from peer review to assignment design, research and citation to writing pedagogy. WID also offers a number of useful workshops for the various faculty teaching WID classes. Starting this year WID has offered a year-long workshop for non-WID-funded student teachers which explores pedagogy, syllabus and course design, and includes a workshop component. I am currently enrolled in this workshop, and it has been a great experience. While some participants are still unsure about how exactly to achieve that writing/content balance, I find that I can now appreciate the immense importance of WID in the larger learning objectives. If you are interested in applying for this workshop, look out for information emails in August.

In recent years EGSA has tried to become a valuable teaching resource and professional development tool for our graduate student teachers. As a member of the EGSA board, I wanted to create a forum and resource list for student teachers because such a platform of information would have been very helpful when I started teaching my own classes. Last year, EGSA organized a Teaching Seminar consisting of three major areas: composition, pedagogy, and technology. Take a moment to see the generative advice, ideas, and resources that we collected from that event: EGSA Teaching Seminar Part 1 – Teaching Composition, Part 2.1 – Issues in Pedagogy, 2.2, 2.3, Part 3 - Technology. Also, check out last year’s EGSATeaching Resource List not only for the pedagogy-related links, but also course content resources like MERLOTand The Chronicle of Higher Education. I would like this list to also include: Hybrid Pedagogy – A digital journal of Teaching and Technology. I am always looking to add to this list, so please contribute! What are your teaching resources? Please feel free to share your favorite websites and archives in our comment section or shoot an email to gwegsa@gmail.com.

Last summer, I also became aware of a valuable teaching resource and professional development organization right here at GWU. The Teaching and Learning Collaborative is a faculty-driven center for teaching excellence where you can find a wide variety of teaching resources, sign up for workshops and seminars on pedagogy, and even request a consultation with a TLC instructional designer who can help you with your course materials. Their resources tab covers classroom assessment, preparing students for class, and a teaching assessment tool. This past Fall they organized a day-long conference focusing on Pedagogy which was open to the community. They are also responsible for organizing two wonderful professional development communities: the Future Faculty Program and the FLC for Junior Faculty. Both of these groups require you to apply for the sessions each semester, and the FFP is limited to GW PhD Students who are teaching. In these groups you will cover professional development techniques like presentation skills, how to teach hybrid/online courses, and course design. Last semester, I participated in the FFP which was intensive with once-a-week sessions, reading assignments, and a lot of group work. I found the experience immensely helpful in shedding light on my teaching practices including everything from the verbs I used in learning objectives to my lecture style and my course design. A bonus activity was learning how to write an effective teaching statement. This program is experimental, but if they offer it again, I highly recommend it. Both the FFP and the FLC for Junior Faculty are great opportunities to workshop your teaching methods, and gain some expertise. Good for you, your students, and your resume!

Currently I teach in two different higher education institutions, so I am offered a wide variety of professional development workshops. Outside of GWU, I have taken Blackboard courses on Blackboard competency, hybrid classroom instruction, and I am currently taking two small courses on collaboration in an online class and creating community for online courses. My recommendation is to make sure you are taking advantage of the technology workshops offered by your institution. Even if you will never teach an online class or only use Blackboard sparingly, it is a smart move to have training in these areas – not only for the benefit of your teaching, but also for your resume. Has a new version of Blackboard come out over the summer? Are you dying to use new software or technology in your class, but don’t know how? The Instructional Technology Lab at GWU is a great place to start. The ITL is there to assist you in learning to incorporate new technology into your teaching. They offer workshops on Blackboard, PowerPoint, and Elluminate Live, but more importantly, they are there to help you figure out the tech side of your teaching goals.

Finally, I am going to close by saying that the most important factor in professional development in teaching is your own initiative. This semester I set out to improve my instruction in specific time periods for a survey course that I teach regularly, and some of my colleagues have kindly agreed to let me observe a couple classes so that I can see their approaches to the same material. My previous experience with class observations was great and extremely useful, so I am confident that I will come away from this semester inspired with new ideas. I realize that with everything else tugging at our time (course work, dissertation, publications, conferences – not to mention a personal life?) that spending a significant amount of time on professional development opportunities like this can seem daunting, especially if your teaching days are a few years off. But let me say that I have found the time spent on these activities rewarding and motivating; not to mention incredibly beneficial for my future job prospects. Consider taking some time, even a small amount, to cultivate that passion you have for teaching. And please share your experiences with our community – some of the best ideas I’ve ever used in my own classes came from informal conversations with colleagues.

Tawnya Ravy is currently a PhD student at GWU in the English Department. She is the current EGSA President. Feel free to contact her for advice, comments, or to share resources at gwegsa@gmail.com.

Part 3: Using Technology in the Classroom

Part three of our online content from the Teaching Seminar focuses on how we use technology in the classroom and for teaching. We focused primarily on how English teachers can use this technology, and we discussed a range from basics about Blackboard to incorporating digital humanities.

1) Blackboard - Many of us wish that we had an alternative to blackboard because it is a challenging system to use effectively for teaching. However most students expect teachers to rely on this tool to some degree. Check with your school's IT department and see if they are offering workshops on Blackboard. They can teach you tricks and tools that would be hard to learn on your own. If you intend to use blackboard in your course, make sure your students are, in fact, familiar with the system. It may be useful to set an initial discussion board assignment or a class writing submission in the first week so that you can be sure they know how to use these blackboard functions. Familiarize yourself with the Grade Center! This can be one of the most helpful tools in blackboard because it gives your students a clear idea of their current grade all term and helps clear up grade confusion. Use the Course Documents tab to post all handouts and assignment sheets that you give out in class. This allows students to find copies of them if they lose the hard copy, and takes away the excuse if they miss a class. Finally, try out the External Links function - this can be extremely useful if you want to keep links to the Writing Center or Library on your campus, or if you want students to view a youtube video or author website before class.

2) Dropbox - many of you may be familiar with this tool, but let us reiterate how amazing this file system is. Dropbox allows you to store files on a server that you can access on any computer. You can also download the "box" on any computer that you use regularly so that saving and accessing files is as easy as pie. No more keeping track of a USB drive or emailing files to yourself. It also allows you to share files easily with your colleagues or students. Watch the tutorial here and sign up asap!

3) Powerpoint or Prezi - We often wonder if using powerpoint presentations would be useful for lectures, especially for literary lectures. Can they really be useful in this context? Well an interview with one of our speakers made me a believer. This faculty member uses powerpoint presentations not only to show his class useful images such as maps and historical pictures, but also to perform in-class close reading. In one example he showed me how he highlighted a passage in the powerpoint and explained the way in which his class unpacked the quote. For certain parts of the quote, he was able to flip to another slide to contextualize the word, listen to a sound clip, or see a revision of that quotation. In this, he avoids the problem of lecturing with slides and an inattentive audience. The way he uses powerpoint encourages his students to engage. We also want to mention Prezi here because it is an alternative to Microsoft's powerpoint. It is a unique program to construct presentations, and you can open a free educator's account with them. So check it out here.

4) Alternative Course Management System - You may feel that Blackboard is simply too limiting to manage your course (many of us are in agreement). So one of our speakers addressed an alternative system which allows him to use technology creatively in his classes. This particular system relies on a website called Wordpress (one of many blog/web page options, but this does not require that you know html). Setting up the course here allows him to do many of the traditional Blackboard functions such as post documents (which he grabs from his dropbox files), post external links, and moderate a discussion forum. It also allows him to use technology creatively for his course. For example, he blogs after each class what the main discussion points were, any questions for future readings, or any announcements such as changes to the syllabus or assignment deadlines. He also utilizes the blog function as a writing assignment tool - requiring his students to post in-depth blog posts (including embedded art or music and close reading), and for students to respond to each other's posts. Even though this takes a bit of work to build and maintain, it seemed to be a great alternative to blackboard course management. Check out the Chronicle for articles which detail ACM systems and how to start one of your own.

5) Social Media - We also discussed how various social media can be employed as a teaching tool. Twitter, for example, has been featured on The Chronicle as a potential tool for teaching (click here for an example of this), although it is debatable how handy it actually is. We also discussed Facebook as an option. One of our speakers uses Facebook a few ways to engage students - creating a group for the class which allows the professor to post class updates or links. Students can also create fan pages for certain authors, allowing for some creative research opportunities. Using this, as our speaker pointed out, integrates academic work into their normal lives (social networks).

6) Digital Humanities - We also briefly discussed the growing field of Digital Humanities. While this subject is too involved for this small blog post, I do want to mention the specific focus of digital archives coming out of the field of Digital Humanities. Our speaker mentioned the Mark Twain Project as a great example of how digital humanities can be useful not only in research, but in teaching text. Another example is the Global Shakespeares Project which provides open access to film adaptations of Shakespeare, as well as an opportunity to see how scholarship can develop in a Digital Humanities context. If you are interested in exploring this further, check out this text The Youtube Reader recommended by our speaker.

7) Online Presence - As professionals, we need to be aware of what is out there online for our students, colleagues, and prospective bosses to see. I regularly google myself just to see what comes up. However, it is not enough to prevent embarrassing things from ending up on the internet. One of our speakers suggested that we take some time to cultivate our online presence as part of being a professional. Join LinkedIn or Academia.edu (a professional social network for those in Academia) to collate your professional information. Create your own webpage and purchase the URL (for an example, click here).

This concludes the information from our Fall 2011 Teaching Seminar. We are contemplating a spring Teaching Seminar as well, and we want your ideas and feedback! Was there a topic not covered in this series that you would like to see in the Spring? Please email us or leave a comment below. Also, please take a minute "Like" us on Facebook to see upcoming events, advice, and links. Finally, remember that you can now subscribe to this blog via email using the bar at the right (if you have trouble with this, delete your cookies and try multiple browsers until it works). Thanks, and stay tuned for upcoming Spring professional development events, including EGSA's Symposium (February 10 - see our Facebook page for details).

Part 1: Teaching Composition

We return with information from last semester's Seminar on Teaching. The first session covered Teaching Composition, and we explored methods for teaching a writing component in a literature class, traditional composition classes, and business writing classes. This session ended up being more of a round-table where we exchanged ideas and went over previous teaching experiences. Much of this advice will depend on your individual campus, department, and course goals.
Some Starting Points:
1) Familiarize yourself with the course descriptions of the classes that you will teach as well as any department policies regarding those courses.
2) Familiarize yourself with the requirements and standards of the prerequisite classes for your courses - it is helpful to know what your students may have covered before coming to your class (but this is not a guarantee).
3) Examine available resources. For example, we have posted a long list of teaching/writing resources here. Additionally, ask around - your fellow graduate students and faculty most likely have helpful resources saved that they would love to share with you. Finally, look to your campus - what resources does it offer? Get to know your writing center director (how can you encourage your students to utilize this valuable resource?); check out the library for applicable workshops or library introduction programs; check with your campus writing program to see if they offer workshops for writing teachers or if they can give you access to their databases. If you are a GWU teacher and would like a copy of a very useful writing handbook (with helpful handouts and advice on teaching writing, please email us and we will pass it along).

Two of the biggest questions that our participants had were - How do you balance teaching "big picture" (structure, argument) writing skills with "small picture" (grammar, MLA) writing skills? How do you incorporate teaching a writing component in a literature class effectively?
Some thoughts:
1) Whatever class you are teaching, approach writing with your students as a "process" and not an end goal. Some ways to do this is to design your course so that your writing assignments build off of each other or toward a larger writing project. For example, you could assign a shorter close reading paper that they must revise and expand into a research paper.
2) Get to know your students' writing strengths and weaknesses - some teachers like to evaluate them right away with a writing sample on the first day.
3) Be clear about your expectations - for example some teachers draw up a list of their "zero tolerance" writing mistakes and then graduate to more complex writing concepts as the semester continues. One professor uses the first formal assignment as a "test drive" wherein all errors are highlighted and students have an option to revise and resubmit to avoid a grade penalty. Whatever you end up doing, consider carefully both your expectations for students and their current writing skills.
4) Drafts - Should you have rough drafts? How many? Should  you do peer review? Some of these questions can be answered by the policies and course goals of your particular class, but you still must decide on the most effective way to deal with these questions. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish by allowing rough drafts or by mandating peer review. A few of us considered how to use peer review without sacrificing a whole class - using blackboard is one option here. One teacher offers an unlimited draft option up to the due date - the idea being that if students plan ahead, they can revise until they are satisfied with the final product. Consider these questions carefully, and trial and error will help you shape your draft/revision policy.
5) Peer Review - What makes an effective peer review session? How should you incorporate it into your class? If it is a literature class, should you sacrifice one whole session for peer review? All of our speakers had different approaches to peer review, and most of them agreed that it can be a helpful exercise. However, most of us have had trial and error experiences with using peer review because each group of students is different, and each approach produces different results. One suggestion was to create "stations" in the classroom for revision - students go from station to station to focus on specific aspects of the writing process. If you do a more traditional peer review session, you could match two students together or create small groups. You could have them focus on "large picture" issues or "small picture" issues. Another approach is to save the class period and perform the peer review over blackboard - pairing students up to review each other's work. Some inevitable difficulties arise: students give "incorrect" feedback on a student's paper, a student feels the review is useless because they are not paired up with a student who can help them,   and/or students bring incomplete drafts. There are different ways to handle these, but keep them in mind as you design your peer review approach.

A few closing thoughts on composition-based classes:
1) Be clear with your students about the applicability of their writing skills and assignments. They will take it more seriously if they know they can use these skills in their majors or these documents in their academic careers.
2) Consider your primary texts - what textbooks does your school want you to use for these comp classes? How useful are they? While you should always consider the expectations of your department carefully, do not feel like you are trapped in a bad textbook either. You may have to do some research to find alternate materials or come up with them on your own, but do not feel bound by one single text.
3) Take advantage of networking opportunities. As a new teacher or a teacher new to composition, it can be tough making these decisions without support. Sometimes you just need to vent or ask for an example handout - find out what opportunities for networking your campus offers. Some campuses have teacher brown-bag presentations (try to attend!), some have social events or happy hours (try to participate!). At the very least cultivate a relationship with a mentor or colleague - they can be life-savers.

If you have additional advice for composition classes, please email us or leave a comment below - this is just a starting point, and we would love to learn from your experiences as well.

Teaching Resources

Here is part of our online content from the recent Teaching Seminar. If you have additional resources, please share them with us! Also, take a minute to follow this blog, or subscribe via email - we have many more exciting posts planned.

Teaching Resources

Learn about our school's Writing in the Discipline Program, and use the new WID Board to find helpful writing resources:

GW WID Program - http://widstudio.wordpress.com/

WID Board (find handouts, advice, hot topics in teaching writing) – http://widboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?

Consider encouraging your students to use these campus resources:

GW Writing Center - http://www.gwu.edu/~gwriter/

GW Gelman Library - http://www.library.gwu.edu/

General Writing Resources for Students and Faculty:

List of Writing Resources for Students - http://www.nvcc.edu/annandale/lrc/writing/links.htm

Dr. McClennen’s Close Reading Guide - http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/s/a/sam50/closeread.htm

Even if you do not teach an online class, this site can offer guidance in using course management and incorporating technology into your curriculum: 

Online Teaching Resource - http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Good Resources to list on your syllabus:

MLA Resources – www.mla.org and http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ and http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocMLA.html

Teaching Students with Disabilities - http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/disabilities.html

GW Disability Support Services (Faculty Resources) - http://gwired.gwu.edu/dss/faculty/

GW English Department (Undergraduate Information) - http://departments.columbian.gwu.edu/english/undergraduate

Explore the possibilities for digital humanities, using technology for teaching, and alternative course management systems:

Digital Humanities - http://www.judaica-europeana.eu/digital-resources.html and www.digitalhumanities.org

Dr. Alex Huang Projects and Resources - http://alexanderhuang.org/

Dr. Jonathan Hsy's Course Management Blog: http://eng3420.wordpress.com 

For ideas, developments, and issues in pedagogy, subscribe to news updates at the Chronicle: 

The Chronicle of Higher Education – http://chronicle.com/section/Home/5