Biweekly Game Based Learning in English 101 Research Question: What is the effect of holding biweekly game-based learning activities in English 101 and what can these activities tell us about the comprehension levels and preferred learning methods of collegiate students? Scholarly Discourse in Writing Studies: Game Based Learning has recently made a come-back in academics. […]
Author: Samantha Bibeau
“A Complicated Geometry: Triangulating Feminism, Activism, and Technological Literacy”
Blair, Kristine. “A Complicated Geometry: Triangulating Feminism, Activism, and Technological Literacy.” Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies, Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central. Web. 63-72. Summary: The main objective in this article is to tie together, or triangulate, the three aspects of feminism, activism, and technology. Blair states in her essay […]
Game Based Learning Experiment in English 101
The Effects of Game Based Learning and Comprehension: What role do game-based learning activities have in the collegiate classroom and what does this tell us about comprehension skills and preferred learning styles among English 101 students. I plan to do my pedagogical research study on game-based learning and how GBL effects the class ecosystem and community learning […]
Who Should Determine Course Curriculum?
When I ponder what it means for students and teachers to be adversarial, my mind immediately jumps to the topic of curriculum. Students and teachers can debate all day long over what topics, subjects, texts, etc, should and can be included in a course curriculum, but it is ultimately up to the professor to decide […]
“Toxic” or rather, Annoying Behaviors in my Classroom
There are only two types of toxic behaviors that have disrupted my class’s ecosystem so far this quarter. For one, my students have a bad habit of doing their homework or other class work while I am talking. I begin each class with a general agenda powerpoint slide and run-down for the day’s activities. These […]
Feedback on Student B’s Gratention Essay
I read Student B’s Writing Emotions Essay, here is the feedback I would give to this student: “Hey Student B! For starters, I love your creativity in the emotion you came up with: Gratention. I think we can all agree that writing an interesting hook or pulling your audience into your essay from the first […]
Teaching Writing in a New Way: Unlearning the Rigid Rules
Many of my students undoubtedly consider themselves to be bad writers. They have little to no confidence in their writing abilities and second-guess every sentence they create. As Mike Rose puts it, they have “a growing distrust of their abilities and an aversion toward the composing process itself” (389). Thus, alongside their small confidence levels, my students […]
Teaching Lazily Efficient Writers
If I could classify my students with a few words, it would probably be “lazily efficient.” My students always try to accomplish their assignments, homework, and class activities as quickly as possible, and this might be a projection of my efficiency, but nonetheless they tend to finish their work so quickly that they neglect to […]
Passions First, Writing Second
For first year writing courses, I don’t care if my students leave with a love of English. I want my students to leave impassioned by something, impassioned by anything that they care about. The first step in enjoying reading and writing, in my opinion, is finding a topic or interest that one is invested in. […]
Student Worldviews as the seem…
From the Project 4 research proposals that I’ve read through thus far, many of my students wanted to ask political driven questions along the lines of, “How does your news source reflect who you vote for?” For one, I made all of these students re-write and re-focus this question, because they wanted to ask a […]
Disciplines in Dialogue: Finding Connections in other Courses
Hallstead, Tracy. “Disciplines in Dialogue: A Learning Commons Perspective.” Double Helix 3:1(2015): 1-7. Web. Summary: The article opens with a common scenario at Universities, a student sits in the Learning Commons, or Tutoring center, and struggles to make connections between the class work she was forced to take, and the class work that she is […]
Different by One Degree
One of the differences that I’ve really relied on when teaching English 101 is my education; I might only be a few years older than my students, but I’ve obtained my Bachelors in English (Summa Cum Laude in fact), and thus consider myself qualified to teach them. I’ve struggled to overcome the age issue, given […]
“Utilizing Critical Writing Exercises to Foster Critical Thinking in Diverse First-Year Undergraduate Students and Prepare Them for Life Outside University” by Sandra Abegglen and others
Abegglen, Sandra, Tom Burns, and Sandra Sinfield. “Utilizing Critical Writing Exercises to Foster Critical Thinking in Diverse First-Year Undergraduate Students and Prepare Them for Life Outside University.” Double Helix 4:1 (2016): 1-11. Web. Summary: This article begins with a background from the authors stating that this essay was written from London Metropolitan University, where the […]
Fun, Passionate, and Practical Learning
One of my most prized teaching approaches and beliefs is the idea that learning can be fun. Obviously, this is a difficult, and sometimes seemingly impossible, but in actuality I really just mean that I prefer more activity-based lessons over lectures. I’ve always enjoyed classes that incorporate more engaging and hands-on activities, and I’ve noticed […]
Fueling my Students’ Vehicular Bodies
Before reading the McRuer essay, I didn’t put much thought into the metaphorical idea of my student’s (dis)able-bodies. From first meeting my students, I couldn’t tell from outside appearances if any of them were disabled, but I was aware that one of my students is registered with disability services, and really struggles with grammar […]
ENG 101- required or optional?
I think English 101 functions at Western as a sort of introductory course to college. As a mandatory course, students are introduced to the realism of college and “adulthood” writing, and especially for Fall Quarter, English 101 is a nice transitionary course for first-year college students, allowing them to ease into a new type of […]
Curing Writer’s Block and NOT Leaving Yourself out of Your Writing
The first chapter I choose to read was Writer’s Block Just Happens to People by Geoffrey Carter. Carter begins this essay by emphasizing he inevitability of writer’s block, and then introduces his readers to Edmund Bergler, the first person to invent the term “writer’s block,” and who was also an assistant director to Sigmund Freud. […]
English 101 Town
My classroom consists of a multitude of moving parts, and I often act as the Mayor of English 101 Town, assigning small projects and jobs to my many wonderful citizens who then complete these jobs in small groups, or individually. I think of myself as the mayor of this town because I try not to […]
Creating Fun Classroom Enviroments
My expectations in teaching writing this quarter derive largely from my past experiences in English courses; I hope to take the best aspects of each of my individual English classes and combine these with my personal sense of relaxed, fun, and productive learning. I strongly believe that students who look forward to class, who engage […]