Susan M. Ward, Ph.D., is a professor of communication studies at Delaware County Community College, where she also serves as the faculty fellow for Quality Matters. Her disciplinary background focuses on rhetoric and persuasion, including participating in competitive debate. She has been involved in course design for both face-to-face and online courses for more than 20 years …
Category: In the Classroom
From Spectators to Participants: Using Videos to Promote Engagement in the History Classroom
Malia McAndrew is an educator based in Cleveland, Ohio. She has taught introductory history material to a range of audiences, including middle and high school students, undergraduates, medical students, and incarcerated women. Malia believes that studying the American past can help us to think about the future we want to co-create together. Malia McAndrewImage Credit: …
Active Learning in the Online Classroom: Apply Knowledge Activities
Dr. Julia M. Gossard is associate dean for research in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, associate professor of history, and distinguished associate professor of honors education at Utah State University. Dr. Gossard is a proponent of high-impact, innovative teaching, and her teaching portfolio at the graduate and undergraduate levels is expansive with specialties …
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Social Studies: Four Big Questions to Connect Then and Now
This post is adapted from a chapter in Laurel Schmidt’s book Social Studies That Sticks: How to Bring Content and Concepts to Life. Laurel Schmidt is also the author of Classroom Confidential: The 12 Secrets of Great Teachers, Gardening in the Minefield: A Survival Guide for School Administrators, and Seven Times Smarter: How to Develop the Seven Intelligences in …
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Building Community in the New School Year
Suzanne Caines has been teaching high school English in public school settings in New Jersey for thirty-four years. She grew up on the West Coast, graduated from the University of Oregon, and later earned a master’s degree at Montclair State University, where she wrote her graduate thesis on using mindfulness and meditation to improve learning conditions …
Overcoming Obstacles: How to Help Incoming Freshmen Transition into Sophisticated Learners
In my younger days, I aspired to be a professional tennis player. Though I was pretty good regionally, when I started playing against world-ranked players, it was quite the eye-opener. I quickly learned that the approach I’d been using up to that point wasn’t going to succeed at this new level. Fortunately, I had great coaches who shared tricks on how to succeed on this new stage.
Best Practices for Teaching and Improving Success Rates in Developmental English Writing Courses
John Hansen received a BA in English from the University of Iowa and an MA in English literature from Oklahoma State University. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Summerset Review, One Sentence Poems, The Dillydoun Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Eunoia Review, Litro Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, The Banyan Review, Drunk Monkeys, and elsewhere. He has presented on a variety of topics …
Show Your Work: Using Reading Annotations to Activate Students’ Engagement, Curiosity and Growth in First-Year Writing
Amara Hand is an instructor of first-year writing and a writing center consultant for historically Black universities. She received her B.A. in English from Norfolk State University and her master’s in rhetoric and writing from Monmouth University. Amara began teaching as an adjunct at her undergraduate alma mater in 2016 and became qualified for online …
Lessons Learned in a Pandemic—Supporting Students Who Are in Distress while You’re Teaching Remotely
Colleges across the nation have put a significant amount of effort into helping students be more resilient. This effort, as well as need, has only grown since COVID-19 struck. How can faculty support their students’ well-being and resilience while teaching remotely? Dina Radeljas is an associate professor of sociology at Mohawk Valley Community College, in …
Setting Up First-Generation Students for Success
As I’ve observed my students over the years, I’ve often thought of the privilege masked as cultural knowledge—what my sociologist colleagues would call cultural capital—as something that some students have and others don’t. But does that theory hold water when we take a closer look? And what assumptions did I have to unlearn as I tried to better serve my students?