Since the fall of 2021, I’ve taught a class called English 12 Ethnic Cultures, a course designed specifically to incorporate Ethnic Studies principles into English Language Arts. After doing this work for some time, I am convinced that the Language Arts classroom is a perfect place for this kind of work. English teachers are natural storytellers, and our classrooms can be the place where students’ own stories emerge.
“Write What’s Not Fair”: On Obsession, Paradox, and Permission in the Classroom
Passionate student writers rarely lack ideas, but instructors can help them narrow those ideas down by choosing to write what makes them feel the most. Authors Matthew Clark Davison and Alice LaPlante instruct students to write what’s “not fair.” Unresolved emotions, from hatred to love, offer great fuel to new writers seeking direction.
My First Year Teaching with a Global Approach: A Few Practical Tips
In Fall 2024, I moved to a new city, started a new job, and began to teach a new set of introductory art history courses. I had to become familiar with a large amount of content fairly quickly, and figure out how much to include and what to cut out. I used Thames & Hudson’s The History of Art: A Global View textbook and found many of its features to be helpful time savers in transitioning to teaching with a global approach.
The Best of Both Worlds: Using Print and Digital Tools in your AP® Literature Course
As an older Millennial teacher, I find that I am stuck between two worlds: the one I was born in and the one in which I grew up. The one I was born in was analog: paper, pencils and highlighters, and books. The one I grew up in—although it was ever-evolving—was decidedly not analog. It was keyboards, screens, and software updates. Like me, students are caught between these two worlds.
Making More Space for Student Attitudes about AI
Generative AI is everywhere, even in places we’d least expect it to be. Read how English professor, Traynor Hansen, served himself a taste of his own medicine to better teach his students new strategies of academic inquiry against a backdrop of AI.
Curriculum Reform and The Musician in Society
In our own School of Music at Louisiana State University, a large-scale reform of the undergraduate curriculum led us to ponder what, exactly, we hoped first-year music majors would learn from an introductory course taught by musicology faculty.
Engaging Biology Students with RNA Storytelling
Thomas R. Cech, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989. His book The Catalyst (2024) is available now in paperback. You can request an exam copy for your courses at the end of the article. I’ve taught several thousand college students …
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Creating Connections: Tips for Writing Effective Test Questions
Tests are a learning experience for the test-taker. Tests are not only a way to find out how much students know, but they are also a way to guide the test taker as to what is most important about what they are learning. Whether it is for a chapter test, a semester exam, or a test bank, I write questions that focus on details and the big picture.
Bringing a Gift to the AI Party: Teaching Ethical AI Use in First-Year Composition
What role can AI play in your classroom? Instructor and author Max Everhart emphasizes the importance of bringing meaningful work to the table when working with AI. Learn how to AI can support your students while honoring their own voice and critical thinking.
Using Courseware to Gain Meaningful Insight and Inform Teaching and Learning
I have long observed in my teaching practice that the most memorable learning tends to occur after students are able to pinpoint gaps in their own knowledge or understanding of course material. Put another way: failure is an effective teacher. However, many college-level courses are delivered in a mode of instruction traditional to higher education: lectures followed by summative assessments, such as term papers or exams. The feedback students receive is delivered and received not as an opportunity for reflection or further inquiry but as a final, definitive grade.