Check in on Plan (5-10 min)
Open up your plan that you wrote up on your Google Doc last class.
Reflect on the following in some private writing with pen and paper or on your device:
- What did you follow so far? What on your plan did you do? How did it go?
- What did you not do so far? Anything? If so, why not? How are you thinking about adjusting your plan?
Punctuation Activity (45 min)
I’m going to break you up into 4 groups.
Team Colon
Team Em-Dash
Team Parentheses
Team Semicolon
Each group is going to review their designated piece of punctuation as well as the comma here: The Punctuation Guide.
What each group needs to do is the following:
- Explain your piece of punctuation and what it does.
- Explain what a comma does and how your punctuation does similar and/or different things grammatically.
- Explain why you think your punctuation and commas can be useful compared to other pieces of punctuation rhetorically in similar and in different ways.
- Use the sheets I’m passing out to construct two sentences with at least one instance of your punctuation and with at least one comma (one sentence can just have one comma or more, one sentence can just have one instance of your punctuation or more, or both sentences can have both commas and your punctuation). For the blank sheets, you can write new words or new punctuation (e.g., periods if you want make multiple sentences) to make your sentence or sentences more grammatical or readable. Save the rhetorical work, though, for your designated punctuation and/or commas to really stand out. For the sheets with words, you can also cross out and/or add new words to make the sentence work better for you.
- Post your group’s sentences from the sheets written out on this Google Doc.
- Pick who is presenting (but you will all have to be involved to some degree since you will stand up in front of the room holding your sheets of paper). You will present on what you talked about in the above bullet points in terms of grammatical and rhetorical functions of the comma and your punctuation as well as talk through the sentences you created and why you did what you did.
You’ll be able to tell the sentences apart by the different font. Here they are without any punctuation except for period at end:
Sentence 1: Furthermore they utilized these biases to form hypotheses and organized a study to test their ideas through questions that included different scenarios and an equation that would in theory help them accurately predict the outcome.
Sentence 2: Different apps can come with different features and functionality and finding the right one can be a challenging task to undertake.
Course Evaluations (15-20 min)
You get these for all of your classes, usually in an email. You can also access it here: Student Course and Faculty Evaluations – Enrollment Management (cuny.edu) (click on “Log in” in middle of page and use your Baruch username and password).
What do these actually do? How are they most valuable?
Let’s start with a wider contextual information that helps see flaws in this system of evaluation.
Here are some sources:
Here is a great bibliography of all research on bias in student evaluation surveys: Overview of bias in student evaluations – Google Docs (approximately 200 studies showing biases in student evaluation surveys)
And here is a popular source that sums up much of this research, especially one study that attempted to create ideal conditions in which these measures still end up being flawed: Study: Student evaluations of teaching are deeply flawed (insidehighered.com)
I offer none of this to say that *YOU* specifically are biased, but, rather, there is a lot of evidence for systematic bias (much of which may be unconscious) that tends to rate White and cisgender male instructors much higher than non-White and other gendered instructors, independent of teaching performance or course design.
All this said, these evaluation surveys are still commonly used across the U.S. and at Baruch.
Imperfect as they are, they are still used to evaluate instructors by administrators (i.e., management, bosses).
Imperfect as they are, they still communicate something and can be used by job seekers (or asked to be provided by employers) when applying for jobs or promotion.
Imperfect as they are, they can still give instructors some valuable information that might confirm or complicate intuitions instructors have about how the class went (and how to adjust for next time).
So, I would say to do the following when filling out these surveys for *ALL* of your courses:
- Do not rush through them. If you want to give a lower score, for instance, be sure you have thought it through and genuinely feel that way. Think about your rating, count to 10 in your head, and then think through your rating again before giving the rating. Since these evaluations can have an effect on evaluation decisions (e.g., tenure, promotion, hiring/firing/laying off), be sure you are assigning scores you believe in and are filling it in thoughtfully. Try as best you can to take a breath and check in with yourself on where your criticism–good or bad–is coming from in terms of concrete and specific examples of the instructor’s approach to teaching and its impact on your learning.
- In open-ended portion, offer constructive criticism. If you did like something, explain what you liked. If you did not like something, explain why and do so in a way that is helpful toward revision of the course. Finally, if you do have something to offer that you did not like, try to think of something you did like, too. (this helps! it can confirm some things that are working which is just as valuable as saying something about what is not working).
Okay, so with that out of the way, let’s take about 10 minutes in class to complete the survey. I’ll need a volunteer to come grab me when the class is finished completing the survey.
Independent Writing Time (15-20 min)
I want to come in and check in with folks. While I do that, get to work on something related to this class. Try out some punctuation! Why not!
Next Time (2-5 min)
Work on your Research Project Draft 2 and Cover Letter (due December 8)
Work on Final Reflection Assignment
Work on any Grade Boost Revisions
If you have makeup work you need to complete, do that.