Re: student evaluations

["B. Silk" <bsilk@titan.iwu.edu>]

On January 22, Stephen Newmann wrote:

I think that the sense of personal connection to the ideas they
are writing about makes it easier for the students to express their ideas
and feelings more clearly.  The more involved the students are personally
in what they have to say the more (it seems to me) that they are able to
write grammatically "correct" essays.
______________________________________________________________

What Steve points out is certainly consistent with what we know about the
way in which the brain learns.  "New" knowledge (if it remains at all) is
nested or embedded in what the learner already knows.  As teachers we can
encourage this by making cognitive links between material we presented
yesterday and what we're presenting today, but think how much more
effective it is when students make personal links, using the symbologies
of their own brains rather than first translating from consensual 
symbologies (such as mathematic notation, computer language, or 
written/spoken language). 

Recently I heard two of my colleagues in English complain bitterly about
the number of students they had this semester who didn't seem to be able
to do anything more with literature than link it to their own lives. 
Frankly, I think this is a wonderful first step (which I hope the students
move quickly beyond).  And it is a process that is likely to keep
literature a "living" course of study. 

However, I have seen an instance in which linking took a truly peculiar 
turn.  I was one of only a few students taking a graduate seminar in 
Restoration Drama with a very distinguished professor.  One member of the 
class was a "non-degree" student, which can sometimes really liven up a 
dull class (because such a student doesn't have a grade to jeopardize).  
During discussions of plays, this student found it necessary to 
articulate her links orally and at length.  Unfortunately, her links were 
to soap operas:  "God, this is just like on _The Young and the Restless_ 
last fall when everyone thought Paul was gay........"

This was one woman who needed to write herself into being--to write more 
personal essays so that she could begin to HAVE an embodied life other 
than what she saw on tv or read in books.

  --Bobbie


   Bobbie Silk
   Illinois Wesleyan University
   P.O. Box 2900                  
   Bloomington, IL  61702-2900     
   (PH:  309/556-3085)
   email:  bsilk@titan.iwu.edu