assignments ENGL 144 Academic Strategies: How Am I Doing?
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 ltorda@bridgew.edu www.leetorda.com |
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Overview. One habit of highly effective students is that they talk to their professors, one-on-one. This is not something students particularly love to do--some students are OK with it, but a lot of students would just rather not. I certainly understand that.
For the rest of your time at BSU, you may or may not choose to talk to a single professor, but, in your first and perhaps most important semester, that is exactly what you are going to do. I do not mean to say that every semester you will even need to talk to every single one of your teachers, but good students go talk to teachers to find out details about assignments, to ask for extra help when they need it, to find out what went wrong on a test or paper so that they can fix it for next time. It's not like going to the principle's office.
This assignment, that helps you fulfill the requirements of ENGL 144, will be something you work away at over the course of the entire semester, and is designed to help you get over any lingering distaste you might have for talking with your faculty. To do this assignment successfully, you'll need to
For the rest of your time at BSU, you may or may not choose to talk to a single professor, but, in your first and perhaps most important semester, that is exactly what you are going to do. I do not mean to say that every semester you will even need to talk to every single one of your teachers, but good students go talk to teachers to find out details about assignments, to ask for extra help when they need it, to find out what went wrong on a test or paper so that they can fix it for next time. It's not like going to the principle's office. Here's what you need to do:
1) Determine when you can see each of your faculty members: find their office hours in order to drop in and/or email them to make an actual appointment.
2) Decide when you should go talk to your professor. Maybe you have a test coming up and you are worried you are studying the wrong stuff. Maybe you have a paper coming up, and you are not sure if you understand the appointment. Maybe you are interested in majoring in the field that this teacher is an expert at and you just want to find out more about the major and career possibilities. My point is, it's better to go when things are going well for you in a class. The other option, of course, is to go after you get a D on the midterm or a C on the first paper. That will work too, but it will be less fun. Whenever you decide to talk to them, make sure you talk to all of your teachers before the end of the semester.
3) Go talk to your faculty members. NOTE: You and I don't need to meet. We talk all the time, and, also, we will be having one-on-one conferences shortly. You need to meet with faculty who teach you in other classes. Again, you've got all semester to do this assignment. Dave and Vanessa will check in periodically to see how it is going. They can also help you contact faculty, make suggestions for what to talk about.
4) Write about what you learned in your final portfolio cover letter. On the portfolios page of this website, you will find the directions for writing your final portfolio cover letter. That final assignment is directly connected to you doing this work of meeting with your faculty member. Here is the part of that page that talks about the relationship between "How Am I Doing" and your final portfolio (this doesn't cover every aspect of what goes into your portfolio, just the cover letter):
To Write your Final Portfolio Cover Letter: Your final portfolio cover letter requires you to consider the information you gathered from your conversations with your other instructors in your other courses for the "How Am I Doing" assignment that you worked on in Academic Strategies (ENGL144). I have four questions for you to consider as you write your final cover letter:
I know--I mean I really know--that you hate that I'm making you do this. And I am making you; I'm not asking you. But here is a thing I learned, as a teacher (it was way to late for me to learn this as a student), I learned that it is very hard to give a really bad grade to a student who appears to be trying. And the best, easiest way to show a teacher you are trying is to put your mug in front of your teacher. You are no longer the kid in the third row; you are Jenn or Tom or whoever, the one who came to my office for help. Teachers will want you to succeed, and they will do what they can to help you to do so. What is more, if you go see your professor you actually are more likely to try harder--and to understand better what it takes to be successful in a particular class. Finally, and you'll just have to trust me on this, you never know who the teacher is who is going to set you on a path until you find them, but once you do, things will start to happen. I'm serious.
Again, I'm not asking you to do this by next week. I'm asking you to check in once with all of your teachers (excluding me) before the last day of classes.
Good luck.
For the rest of your time at BSU, you may or may not choose to talk to a single professor, but, in your first and perhaps most important semester, that is exactly what you are going to do. I do not mean to say that every semester you will even need to talk to every single one of your teachers, but good students go talk to teachers to find out details about assignments, to ask for extra help when they need it, to find out what went wrong on a test or paper so that they can fix it for next time. It's not like going to the principle's office.
This assignment, that helps you fulfill the requirements of ENGL 144, will be something you work away at over the course of the entire semester, and is designed to help you get over any lingering distaste you might have for talking with your faculty. To do this assignment successfully, you'll need to
- figure out when your professor offers office hours,
- contact them by phone or email,
- write an email that doesn't sound like you are texting your friend about lunch plans,
- think about what sort of questions to ask when you are in a meeting with a professor,
- think about what to do with the information that you learn from that meeting.
For the rest of your time at BSU, you may or may not choose to talk to a single professor, but, in your first and perhaps most important semester, that is exactly what you are going to do. I do not mean to say that every semester you will even need to talk to every single one of your teachers, but good students go talk to teachers to find out details about assignments, to ask for extra help when they need it, to find out what went wrong on a test or paper so that they can fix it for next time. It's not like going to the principle's office. Here's what you need to do:
1) Determine when you can see each of your faculty members: find their office hours in order to drop in and/or email them to make an actual appointment.
2) Decide when you should go talk to your professor. Maybe you have a test coming up and you are worried you are studying the wrong stuff. Maybe you have a paper coming up, and you are not sure if you understand the appointment. Maybe you are interested in majoring in the field that this teacher is an expert at and you just want to find out more about the major and career possibilities. My point is, it's better to go when things are going well for you in a class. The other option, of course, is to go after you get a D on the midterm or a C on the first paper. That will work too, but it will be less fun. Whenever you decide to talk to them, make sure you talk to all of your teachers before the end of the semester.
3) Go talk to your faculty members. NOTE: You and I don't need to meet. We talk all the time, and, also, we will be having one-on-one conferences shortly. You need to meet with faculty who teach you in other classes. Again, you've got all semester to do this assignment. Dave and Vanessa will check in periodically to see how it is going. They can also help you contact faculty, make suggestions for what to talk about.
4) Write about what you learned in your final portfolio cover letter. On the portfolios page of this website, you will find the directions for writing your final portfolio cover letter. That final assignment is directly connected to you doing this work of meeting with your faculty member. Here is the part of that page that talks about the relationship between "How Am I Doing" and your final portfolio (this doesn't cover every aspect of what goes into your portfolio, just the cover letter):
To Write your Final Portfolio Cover Letter: Your final portfolio cover letter requires you to consider the information you gathered from your conversations with your other instructors in your other courses for the "How Am I Doing" assignment that you worked on in Academic Strategies (ENGL144). I have four questions for you to consider as you write your final cover letter:
- How successful, academically, was your first semester of college, why or why not?
- What did you learn about how to be a successful student from talking with your professors and from being a part of this class this semester?
- What will you try to do (maybe differently, maybe more of, maybe less of) in the coming semester to continue on or get on a successful academic path?
- What have you learned about reading and writing in this class that you will take with you into other classes during your college career?
I know--I mean I really know--that you hate that I'm making you do this. And I am making you; I'm not asking you. But here is a thing I learned, as a teacher (it was way to late for me to learn this as a student), I learned that it is very hard to give a really bad grade to a student who appears to be trying. And the best, easiest way to show a teacher you are trying is to put your mug in front of your teacher. You are no longer the kid in the third row; you are Jenn or Tom or whoever, the one who came to my office for help. Teachers will want you to succeed, and they will do what they can to help you to do so. What is more, if you go see your professor you actually are more likely to try harder--and to understand better what it takes to be successful in a particular class. Finally, and you'll just have to trust me on this, you never know who the teacher is who is going to set you on a path until you find them, but once you do, things will start to happen. I'm serious.
Again, I'm not asking you to do this by next week. I'm asking you to check in once with all of your teachers (excluding me) before the last day of classes.
Good luck.