It's Midterm Time (not "T Shirt Time")!

It's midterm and we are having conferences, real conferences! I am taking the luxury of at least one half hour with each student, first and foremost, because I believe in longer conferences, and second, our small class size makes it manageable. I am delighted that I can continue to do this next semester because Ann (Russell), bless her heart, has had our classes capped at 18. In the past I have taken only one day for ten minute conferences, but I am taking two days this time because the use of our e-tools allows me to do so. Students continue working quite independently researching and reading, posting their time and activity in a blogger like this one.

I should probably explain what we have been doing thus far. We have posted introductions on Blackboard and in Google sites being used as on-line portfolios, used wiki workspaces to collaborate on a research project to produce a Power Point (revised by each student), written letters of proposal for individual research essays, used Delicious to keep annotated bibliographies and started research journals posting time/date/activity to produce argumentative/persuasive essays. An overall reflection is posted for the entire portfolio and our activities thus far, as well as short introductory reflections for each activity in the portfolio. All of this, except Delicious, is kept in the portfolio. I should also mention that we had an informative research module conducted by one of our librarians so that students are more comfortable using databases for research. And I taught APA for the short research piece.

When I confer with each student, we look closely at all the material that has been produced, and I ask the important question (stolen from Ann), "How would you describe your own work?" There are three basic answers:

A/B range

Revised assignments are excellent/good

All assignment are complete

Attendance/participation are excellent/good

C range

Most of the above requirements are met

I (incomplete)

Missing assignments

Work does not reflect your best effort

Absent/tardy

I ask about revisions, point out areas for improvement, give suggestions, etc. The wiki and the blog are particularly useful to us because they track the effort, participation and time spent on assignments. Finally, I ask what areas students would like to work on in the final portfolio, and their plans for the final research project. Of course, students can revise any piece further for the final portfolio, and there will be another opportunity to use a wiki workspace with the group. This was the area of greatest weakness for the majority of the class, but they recognize its value and are enthusiastic about improving as they learn about the possibilities for using this tool. It was also surprising to me that so many students did not know how to write a formal letter.

At this point, I think my students are more involved in the writing process and the work they produce feels less artificial than writing three essays based on readings I have assigned. I feel like I am giving them tools, but they are doing the driving, making the choices and, with my guidance, going in directions that are of interest to them and their peers. As a result, there seems to be more actual interest in the quality of the work, improving the use of the tools as well as producing writing and projects that they take pride in. I see more independence and interdependence, less hand-holding on my part. Everything feels more organic to me. And organic is good isn't it? Healthy? Onward to Animoto!