You may have noticed that I have not sent many readings your way yet this semester, aware that we are all so busy. But when Ann Taylor sent me the following Chronicle article I thought it was worthy of your attention.
The issue is transparency–how much do we share with students about the purposes behind our assignments, how much do we explain the specific tasks we are asking them to do, and how clearly do we articulate the criteria we use to evaluate their work? As some of the comments that follow the essay assert, this issue may be old news to most of us. But I think it is old news we need to regularly remind ourselves of. The longer I’ve taught a text or a concept, the more I forget how mystifying it might appear to a novice. I have to force myself into looking at the material from the student’s perspective, and I think the suggestions in this article are helpful reminders of that gap in perception:
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Unwritten-Rules-of/233245/
-Warren Rosenberg
