Re: fun and effective

[Stephen Newmann <newmann@msmary.edu>]

Sure, students express the view that they should or need to be 
entertained if they are to learn what we have to teach.  Heck, they've 
grown up with t.v.  I sorta take the stance that no matter what I do (if 
I just stood in front of them for 50 min.) I'd be more entertaining that 
t.v.  But I head this view off early on.  We spend some of our first 
couple class sessions in the semester talking about expectations (theirs 
AND mine) and about goals (theirs AND mine).  Then as the term progresses 
I ease them into the notion that they are no longer being "force fed" 
education.  They don't have to be in my (or anyone else's) class.  I 
suggest long about mid-semester that maybe the onus of being interested 
in what's going on is as much their own responsibility as it is mine.  
Then usually toward the end of the term my students "discover" that when 
they've read the assigned material in prep for the class discussion the 
class actually is more entertaining than when they do not.  Of course, by 
then it's too late to do much about it.  :)  --stephen

On Fri, 2 Feb 1996 writingctr@kean.ucs.mun.ca wrote:

> 
> This used to be part of the "turf wars" strand, but Lynne and Stephen
> are talking about things that are both effective and fun, and taht'
> (oops) that's what I want to ask about.]
> 
> For those of you who teach in classrooms: how many of you have had
> students who clearly believe that your responsibility as their
> teacher is to make them feel entertained enough to learn? The first
> semester I taught Frosh composition, I made the mistake (I guess) of
> neglecting to work jokes, etc., into my lesson plans, and trying to 
> be merely ENGAGING -- which is not the same thing as ENTERTAINING --
> and I had students say on my evals, "She's nice and all, but she
> isn't very entertaining," or words to that effect. At first, all
> I could do was laugh. But I tried, the next semester, to "work the
> room" (is that comic-speak, or only cocktail-party-speak?), and I'll
> be durned -- those complaints about me not being entertaining were
> absent from that semester's evals.
> 
> So, I'm wondering if the expectation of being entertained is very
> widespread, or if it can be attributed to the fact that most of my
> students were fairly pampered kids, or what. Anyone had similar -- or
> markedly different -- experiences? 
> 
> Jacqueline Howse
> Coordinator, Writing Centre
> Memorial University of Newfoundland
> writingctr@kean.ucs.mun.ca
>