Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC). December 2006.

Some ideas on teaching English from the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC), December 2006, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Scale of the value of each idea to me, RayS.
* No interest
** I'll think about it.
*** Very much interested

How teach grammar effectively?
Says that we have yet to learn to teach grammar effectively and we need to learn how to do it because the ability to write correctly is the greatest weakness in students' learning to write. M Blaauw-Hara. TETYC (Dec. 06), 165-178. **

What is an alternative to an academic research paper?
Students research the style and methods of short story writers and then try to write a story using the methods they have learned. T Blue. TETYC (Dec. 06), 179-184. **

Why read literature?
Course is called "Survival" and the literature read on that topic is supposed to help the students who read it learn in a practical way how to survive. In other words, the literature on survival should provide models for survival. K Dailey. TETYC (Dec. 06), 196-201. **

How respond to student papers?
Author develops statistics on the various writing problems in classes, then feeds the statistics into a free graphing Web site where the software produces pie charts, bar graphs and other visual depictions of these statistics. For example: confusing sequence, tedious introduction, lack of clarity, minimal support, lack of focus. Also another group of problems: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions. http://nces.ed.gov//nceskids/graphing/. Can do the same thing by individual students who can then compare to group charts. T. Finley. TETYC (Dec. 06), 202-205. **

How teach writing poetry?
Students write a deliberately bad poem and discuss why it is bad. EA Dougherty. TETYC (Dec. 06), 207. ***

What are some interesting writing assignments?
Write a paper praising yourself. DC Elder. TETYC (Dec. 06), 207-208. **

How correct student papers?
Put check marks in the margin. If multiple errors, put in multiple check marks. M Blaauw-Hara. TETYC (DEc. 06), 175. Idea borrowed from Richard Haswell, "Minimal Marking." On their own, students will find 60% to 70% of errors because of carelessness, not stupidity. **

How help students identify problems in their writing?
At the beginning of the semester, identify nine grammatical concepts and encourage students to focus on them in preparing final copies of papers. M. Blaauw-Hara. TETYC (Dec. 06), 176. ***

Other topics: Complaint that institutions are encouraging teaching at the expense of research. [Unbelievable! Most institutions--except two-year colleges--emphasize research to the detriment of teaching. RayS.] Two teachers combine classes in literature and history. *