Re: Rx for Pharmacy writing (fwd)

[JANE NELSON <JNELSON@UWYO.EDU>]

Mieke asks how to have students writing response papers to readings and at the
same time manage the large paper load that results from a class of 70 students.

I'm chock full of ideas, but I also know that a class of 70 is very difficult
to manage.

Before I suggest a couple of ideas, I want to address, briefly, the issue of
reading.  A couple of years ago, I surveyed my freshmen students, asking them
to tell me (1) what they thought their responsibilities were as readers and (2)
what their instructors responsibilities were when it came to assigning reading. 
They all voiced their commitment to becoming good readers.  They also expressed
dismay and discouragement when their instructors assigned reading and then just
tested whether or not they had done it by asking some kind of essay question.
My students confirmed what you suggested--that students want to discuss what
they read--they want to become engaged with it.  They also need quite a bit of
help doing it.  They are NOT independent readers.  They confess that they are
not.  The don't know how to become independent readers.

So--how to use writing to help them engage with reading and to become more
independent?

1.  Short, one-page response papers are not threatening and seem to have
beneficial results.  Perhaps you could assign one every week (or every other
week) but not read all 70 every week.  Establish some kind of rotating system.
Tell your students that you will one-third of the papers every
week--eventually, you will be readaing three papers at a time, but three
one-page response papers won't take a long time to read.  

2.  Establish minimal grading for them--no more than 3 different grades.
(Excellent, acceptable, not acceptable).

3.  Have your students exchange papers and comment on them.  This works
especially well if students do not give them scores (they hate to do that) and
also if you give them some guidance on how to comment.  One good way of
commenting is to describe the differences between the paper being read and the
paper that the reader wrote.  You could have these exchanges happen before you
collect papers, so that you then have the benefit of reading student comments. 
I often will then get in a three-way dialogue.

Bottom line:  writing is enormously beneficial to students.  If you ask them to
write, then they deserve some response from you.  Since it is so beneficial, it
is worth figuring out how to make some tradeoffs--is there something you can
drop doing in your teaching in order to make room for responding to writing?
We don't often talk in these terms, but we need to start doing that.

Jane Nelson