Thesis Statement Activity

A solid thesis statement is critical to the success of any essay, but I often find my students disengaged while I try and teach them the fundamentals. Out of desperation, I tried this activity, and it was a resounding success. I saw improvement immediately on the practice thesis statements used for the activity. That improvement then translated into their next essays. Yes, there was a bribe involved, but whatever works, right?

Here's the activity, which should be used directly after instruction on how to write a thesis statement:

1. Give the class an interesting reading or show a short video about a topic that is ripe for varied opinions. I like to show this seven-minute clip about AutoTune from Nova:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OUgXFZ_WeY

2. Facilitate a short class discussion on the topic to get them thinking about the pros and cons. For the AutoTune example, we talk about whether an artist who uses AutoTune in a live concert or on a recording is deceiving the audience. We talk about the common use, the ethics, and whether the audience should be aware of its use.

3. Ask them to write a thesis statement about the topic (as if they were going to use it for an essay). Tell them not to write their names on the paper.

4. Collect all the papers, shuffle them, and redistribute. Ask students to carefully read the thesis on the paper they have.

5. Now ask all the students to stand up.

6. One by one, go through the points of a good thesis statement. For example, say, "Does it contain a clear opinion?" Have the students consider the thesis and sit down if it does not meet the criteria.

7. When you have only a few students left standing (or have gone through all the criteria), have the class vote on the best thesis still remaining.

8. The writer of the winning thesis gets a prize! (I like to give out colorful Sharpie pens.)

I've done this for several quarters now, and the students always show improvement, I think because they are so engaged in the process, whether in writing their own thesis or evaluating others' thesis statement.

If you need a lesson for writing a thesis statements, here's the one I use. It's a Power Point presentation, along with handouts and worksheets.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thesis-Statements-Writing-a-Great-Thesis-386472?utm_source=LT%20Blog&utm_campaign=LT%20Blog%20Thesis%20statement%20activity

Encouraging Participation in the Classroom

 “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” - Chinese Proverb

Improving class participation can be a struggle. I've noticed over the years that every class has a different personality as a whole. This quarter, I've got the zombies. They look like live students, but they stare straight ahead and don't make a peep when I ask a question. Even in group work, they are reserved with each other and prefer individual work. 

However, one of the largest factors affecting class participation is the instructor, even with the zombies. Here is a list of some tips that will encourage more involvement from students in class: 

 Learn the names of your students so they feel recognized and are less likely to fall through the cracks the first or second day of class. Ask questions directed at students by name. Not only will they feel recognized, but the fear factor of getting caught unaware my encourage them to participate sooner, when they know an answer, before you call on them.  

Respond to student answers with respect, positivity, and encouragement through your body language as well as your words. If the students hasn't hit on the point I think is the best answer, I often say something like "In addition to Ashley's answer, consider....." or "Another point you want to think about is...." That way, you are not negating the student's answer, but still making your point. 

      Allow various forms of participation from students. Some may prefer writing questions and responses on notecards before sharing a response. Others would participate more in small group or paired discussions rather than with the whole class.

          Set the chairs in a semicircle or around a large table to encourage discussion.

           From day one, let students know that participation is expected and required (possibly for a grade). Structure your lessons around discussions.

      Lastly, don't be afraid of the awkward silence. With my quiet classes, I used to fill in the gaps by answering the questions rather than lingering in the awkwardness. Now, I just wait. Sometimes I will rephrase the question or call on someone by name, but usually, someone speaks up. Don't let the students get used to you always saving the moment, or they won't feel as motivated to participate.

How to Get Students to Ask for Help

When this student turned in this paper, the first thing I noticed was the scribbled out word "Confused." Since it was scribbled out, I thought, oh good, he figured it out. Then I graded it. You'll notice a slash through every answer.

Why didn't he ask me for help? I was available during class. I was available during office hours. I am available by email. I'd like to think I am friendly and accessible. There are plenty of tutors and resources.

The easy answer was that he started it right before it was due and didn't have time to get help. The harder idea to consider is that there was some reason he felt he couldn't ask.

I read a study that said cultural background and gender factors are considerations. Sometimes members of minority groups feel isolated and are less likely to ask for help. Males are not as likely as females to admit they need help.

Both of these factors might apply to this student and interfere with engagement with his teachers. This is his second time through this class, and when I asked him why he failed the first time, he said, "I didn't like the teacher." I hear this answer frequently, and it tells me nothing, so I pressed him. "I didn't understand what she wanted. Everything just came back with a C on it no matter how hard I tried," he said. "I guess I just checked out."

Now we were getting somewhere. I reassured him that I would give detailed feedback and we could talk whenever he needed further clarification, but then he turned in this. Now I was ready to check out because it was easier to put the burden on him, but then nobody would learn or progress. I decided to try different strategies.

For this assignment, I asked him to stay after class, and we went over the concepts together. I gave him the opportunity to re-do the assignment so he would see immediate results with getting help, and couldn't disengage from me or the material.

I brought in tutors from the writing center to meet the students in person and describe how they could help. I was hoping this student, in particular, would feel a connection with one of the tutors.

We did more group work as a precursor to homework assignments. I was hoping he would ask his peers questions or pick up on their understanding.

I arranged for, and offered, peer tutoring with a student I thought he might like.

Instead of comments on his work, I wrote "See me, please" at the top of his paper. When he came forward, I talked with him about the work so he had an opportunity to engage and connect with me.

I started talking about getting extra help to the whole class as part of the writing process and made it clear that I expected them to seek help in some form. I wanted to remove the perception that only bad students had to get help.

I noticed a shift in this student, and some of the others, by the end of the quarter. Although he still didn't ask me for help in person, he did send several emails with questions, and even an extra draft of an essay to review. He passed the class, just barely, but I consider him a success story because I feel confident that he made progress in asking for help, which will serve him well going forward.

Grammar Game for Secondary Students

This game is a hit every time I use it in class. There are few ways to teach grammar and have it really stick. This is one of them. The example here is for active and passive voice, but you can adapt it for parts of speech, sentence structure (have categories for fragments, complete sentences, and run-ons), or correct/incorrect usage of punctuation marks.

1. Divide a whiteboard, chalkboard, or bulletin board into two halves. Label one side “Active” and one side “Passive.”

2.  Pass out one or two sentences to each student. Tell the students that they have three rounds to get all the words in the correct category. (I offer a small treat, prize, or bonus points to the whole class if they can accomplish this.)

3. Have the students come up to the board and place each sentence where they think it belongs.

4. When all the sentences are in place, tell the students how many are incorrect.

5. Allow the students to study the board and discuss which are incorrect. Any student can move any of the sentences from one category to the other, as long as he or she offers an explanation. As they try to sort it out, this is where the learning comes in. It's also a learning experience for me When they are satisfied, tell them how many are incorrect, and give them one more round to work it out.  The hardest part will be for you to keep a poker face!

6. You may have to set a time limit for the rounds or give a few hints, but I find it usually works out well if the students are left to their own devices.  Go over the answers at the end, and discuss any that gave them trouble.

Cell Phone Addiction in the Classroom

This is what I'm up against. The battle against cell phones in the classroom is real, and I'm losing. Not only do students routinely sneak to look at their cellphones during class, several students in one of my classes have TWO cellphones. I snapped this photo while this student was doing an important, graded in-class assignment.

Cell phone addiction is real. I've ripped up a midterm because a student was looking at his phone, despite a warning not to have phones out at all. It's a rule written on the syllabus, and I begin class every day asking students to put their phones away. I've asked students to leave the classroom if they couldn't stay off their phones.

Some might quibble with the idea of cell phone "addiction." I think it depends on your definition of addiction. Mine is this:

A persistent, compulsive need to have something in spite of negative consequences.

Is a failed midterm worth checking Snapchat? What social media post is so important it can't wait for one hour? What text could possibly have such importance that a delayed response of 15 minutes will be devastating? Is it worth losing points, getting behind, possibly having to re-take a test, or antagonizing the teacher? Never mind the distraction from learning.

I understand the draw of constantly checking a phone. I am not an out-of-touch technophobe with a flip phone in my purse for emergencies. My phone is my constant companion; I run my online business on it, I check in with my master mind group on Google Hangouts, I text regularly with family and friends, it tracks my workouts and diet, and it contains priceless pictures, and a whole library of podcasts that provide the background narrative of my life. I fight the urge to check it during class time even when I'm teaching. I understand the urge. I do.

Here's the difference: I don't check it during meetings, during church, while driving, rarely after 9:00 at night, and in many other circumstances. I can leave it behind on a vacation (well, I'll keep in my purse for emergencies). Sometimes I completely forget about it for hours at a time when I'm engaged in a project. I seriously doubt some of my students can say something similar. I am not saying I have some sort of moral high ground. I'm saying there is a difference between regularly utilizing a phone and an an addiction. I have assigned many essays on technology and social media, and combined with what I've read there and their behaviors in class, I can confidently say that there are some who have a true addiction.

Some admit they sleep with their phone so they don't miss any late-night or early-morning texts. Most admit to texting and driving (but I can multi-task!), and in one memorable class discussion, most said if they had to choose between food or their phone for one day, they would choose their phone. I have witnessed the withdrawal symptoms. I used to be able to judge when it was time for a break by the smokers getting antsy, but now that I work on a smoke-free campus, I can judge break time by the sneaky reaches into the backpacks and the anxiety and agitation.

Labeling something as an addiction, however, does not mean the rules should change or that the behavior is somehow more acceptable. When students show up drunk or high, I show them the door. I don't care if they are addicts, it's not acceptable in the classroom. If you take your phone out during a midterm, you will still fail.

Time Saving Tips for Grading Assignments Part 2

Last week’s blog was about strategies I already use in the classroom to save time grading homework, quizzes, and in-class assignments. See it here. The following are strategies I’m going to implement this quarter. I’ll let you know how they work!

Have students turn in multiple assignments at once:  A friend of mine has students keep all their in-class assignments in a folder and turn them in at mid-term and at the end of the quarter. He claims his grading time is cut by a third, simply by streamlining the process (No collecting/returning papers, keeping track of late work, shuffling papers around at home…). I will be using this method just for the 30-minute response papers we do in-class. My concern with this method is that recognizing a students who are struggling or need to improve their work might be too late in coming, or a student might not have an opportunity to improve after realizing a problem. I will be spot checking some assignments just to be sure. 

Ditch the rubrics:  Look at any article with advice for grading efficiency, and it will invariably say, “Use a rubric!” At the beginning of my teaching career, I worked for a university that required rubrics for every assignment, so I got used to using them, and would have certainly parroted this advice. Although I still believe that a rubric is necessary for grading essays and large group projects, I’ve learned the value diminishes with other types of assignments, so I’m getting rid of most of them. The time saved is in less detailed notes, creating new rubrics, adding up points, less copy making, stapling, etc… Sometimes it OK to just slap a grade at the top of an assignment!

Representative grading:  I’ve read about teachers implementing forms of representative grading, but I dismissed it, thinking it wasn’t necessarily a fair way of grading. Over the years, though, I’ve noticed that students are fairly consistent in the quality of their work. I won’t do this at the beginning of the quarter, and I will only do it with selected assignments (not writing assignments), but it works like this: The teacher time stamps homework to show it was completed on time, but the student keeps the work. Students collect all their work for a given time period (say every two weeks) and staple it together. Then the teacher asks students to circle or highlight designated questions that are a representative sample. This is different than the selective grading that I’ve been doing because it involves grading far less on each assignment, and even skipping whole assignments.

Assigning work that multi-tasks: Last quarter, I assigned a 30-minute response paper in class and asked the students to hang on to it rather than turn it in. The next class period, we were working on a writing introductions, and instead of the assignment I had planned, I asked the students to get out the response paper and work on a new introduction based on what we had learned in class that day. Over the next few class periods, we did the same thing with other concepts, using the same response paper. When it was time for grading, instead of multiple assignments and papers from each student, everything was in once place. As a bonus, I could see their editing process. I plan to do these types of assignments more frequently and thoughtfully this quarter.