Curzan/Damour, Rogers, and a little more Bean

First, the Bean. I love this: under the heading "Ask Students to Question Your Lectures" (172), he sums up by saying "The point is to help students see your lectures as arguments rather than as mere information." I agree with this mindset whole-heartedly, and I think it dovetails nicely with the what I took from Curzan/Damour and the articles by and about Rogers.

In their discussion of class preparation, Curzan/Damour discuss facilitating student notes by putting "an outline of the major points on the board so that students know where you are going" (34). I think doing a hand-out would help even more--Dr. Looser does this for 8240 (when I attend, any way) and I love it--she also includes "announcements" covering the "bureaucratic details" that Curzan/Damour point out need to be considered (36). In general, I think pulling back the curtain and letting students seeing "the man" that is our pedagogy and ideology can be productive in facilitating their critical thinking, reading and writing.

The articles by and about Rogers speak to this orientation, as well (for me, any way). The central idea of creating better communciation through writer/speaker first stating their understanding of the reader/listener's position compliments how teachers and students can facilitate learning by first stating and engaging each other's positions, both in terms of "meta-learning/teaching" of everyday discourse in the classroom (what's included above) and also in terms of assignments--what the teacher is looking for in terms of assigning grades to student writing, what the student in turn means in what they write and how they perceive that it approximates the teacher's expectations, etc.