COCC150 Common Syllabus, 2004-2005

About Class Visits

Each semester, members of the composition faculty will visit your class to give you suggestions and constructive feedback about your class. If the time scheduled for your visit is not convenient, please look at your syllabus and suggest an alternate class session. Please feel free to stop by and discuss your class plans before the visit.

Guidelines for a Successful Class Visit

Although there is no one "best way" to teach a class, the composition staff believes that the following guidelines will enable you to teach more effectively. As you practice each of these strategies, however, keep in mind that your overall goal is to create a community of writers in your class. As a community of writers, your students need some shared information about rhetoric and writing, but they also need an environment in which they can give and receive focused and constructive help with their writing.

• At the beginning of class, indicate or write out the goals, activities, and the assignment for the class. This brief preview should not take more than a minute or two at the beginning of the class, but it will help students see the goal of the class and understand how the separate activities relate to each other.
• Clarify the sequence of the activities and use transitions as you move from one activity to another. You should have a logic behind the sequence of class activities. During class, it should be clear why you did the first activity first, how the next activity relates to it, and how it fits in the sequence for the class.
• Know your students names and use them during class. Calling on students by name, encouraging them, and responding to them by name makes any discussion more effective.
• During class discussions, ask your students follow-up questions to develop their responses. Encourage students to discuss issues with each other. Involve as many students as you can. Don't call repeatedly on just your reliable students.
• When you use small group or workshop activities, put your instructions on a ditto, at the board, or on an overhead. Specify purpose of activity, roles for group members, time limits, and especially the purpose and outcome of the activity. Students need to be able to refer to your specific instructions during each workshop activity.
• Connect your class discussions, activities, or workshops to the students' own writing (CSOW). Discussions or activities should be followed by an opportunity for students to prewrite, plan, discuss, or revise their own or their peers' writing.
• When appropriate, ask students to do a brief Write-to-Learn activity to encourage the participation of the whole class. Write to learn activities often prepare students for better and more thoughtful discussions about the issues or about their own writing.