Michael Rowley

1. What class are you using TJP in?

English 1312.  I teach 2 courses taught as one section for more dialogic interaction among my students.

2. What are some of the goals/purposes for the class?

The class tries to teach critical thinking but there is a large research component so I am using TJP to create a space where students can do exercises from CTRW (a university reader), discuss essays from that text, and also where they can discuss methodology for paper development (précis, note cards, analysis paper, short researched argument, and an entire drafting process) without having to take up class time which is often used for research, peer review, or certain discussions on MLA, drafting process etc.

3. How are you using TJP in/out of class? A specific exercise?

First exercise: Students discussed their precises and their particle problematics with cluster groups.  They compared and I'm trying to get them to offer suggestions to each other.  They also answered each other's logistical questions, both by example and by response.  Because these interest groups are often made up of 4 students or 8, I have been creating clusters with groups of 2 or 3 and asking students to comment on all the students in the group, e.g., my business students comment on comments from other students in the following clusters: business 1, business 2, and marketing.

4. What percentage of the grade do you give to the journal and why?

20% because this is where the real thinking goes on.  Students get to try stuff out there before they hand it in to me or they get to cover topics that we didn't have time for in class.

5. How does TJP help fulfill those goals?

I try not to lecture and my class is activity driven after the first couple weeks, so I often end up with only a few minutes to tell students what I'm expecting on a given assignment or to discuss how certain concepts from a CTRW chapter relate to what their doing.  The Journal Place is my way of cheating the students into continuing the discussion in a more cogent manner after class.  That way I am able to respond presently there and ask further questions.  I find that they have to start it and they get more of my help if they simply begin writing because it gives me something to respond to.  When I'm running out of time on the assignment explanations or on a concept in CTRW, I simply say: include this is your 500 words, and they know what I mean. 

Often, even with an activity, students don't grasp what we're talking about until much later.  TJP lets them demonstrate that they have grasped a chapter concept, or a method, and it allows me to have them cogently apply such a concept or methodology.  I can ask for an application entry of 500 words on how ethos, and logos, are going to be applied to one of their quotation note cards or quotation paragraphs and they can show me.  

6. What special insights would you like to share with a reader/fellow teacher?  That is, any special way that TJP has helped or opened the class up.

Because my students are working on disparate projects, TJP allows me to have a recorded method for the précis that allows me to compare it to other students and to assess how a student progresses with her/his understanding of the created problem over the semester.  I know that my students need to have a certain understanding of the problem in week 2, and that in week 4 they need a certain understanding, and that in week 7 they need an understanding that is approaching a thesis statement.  The journal place helps me monitor that growth.

Beyond that, the students have two interactive groups.  They've got the local classroom interaction group (for peer review, social interaction, etc.) and then they've got the field interest group (their cluster or group of clusters).  These groups overlap but wholly.  This creates interesting class dynamics.