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Ways to Save Time (and Teach More Effectively)

Process Writing pedagogy has caused most instructors to cut down on the number of papers they assign and do more work with the writing process. Though this means less final drafts, many agreed that we get lost in the paperwork of process: peer responses, journals, prewriting.  "So many things that are passing through my hands," as Allison said. In addition, conferences, commenting on papers, and general office organization issues came up as other sources of burn out.  We shared the following tips:

Cutting Down on the "Baggage" of Process Writing

• Larry asked a good question, posed to him by a Chinese instructor: "Do we have to read everything they write?  Is that really a good use of time or instruction?"
• Have students help out each other: play off their strengths and struggles. Pair students who are strong in using commas with students who are weak in this area (Angi)
• Have students teach each other the lessons in order to demonstrate and reinforce the lesson (Bryan)
• Use other instructors' handouts -- as a department we might develop a "handout bank" on the web (Susan R.)
• Consider weaning yourself of handouts. Ruth effectively taught a handout-less course in China because she didn't have a copy machine...are we needlessly dependent on reams of handouts?
• Teach to write their own hand-outs in order to cut down on handouts as the quarter progresses (Wendy)
• Have students exchange and grade each others' journal entries, peer responses, etc. -- don't take everything home yourself  (Debby)
• After you present and discuss a concept, have students write in class to apply it -- make them write a new intro in class after you've discussed better intros;  have them write a new paragraph for their first draft in class.  Students love this, and their drafts look better because they directly apply concepts to their writing (Wendy).  No need to collect these short writing exercises-- tell students to keep them and use them for their essays.
• Use on-line discussion webs as ink-saving strategies to gather responses from students -- gets students away from the idea that everything has to be commented upon by the intructor with hard copy comments. Note from Allison: Not all students know how to use the internet, so we need think of this while setting up on-line discussions and we need to provide appropriate support. Bryan can help anyone interested set up a web-discussion page.

Conferences

• Cancel class to meet one-on-one with students (Debby)
• Conference in the classroom during classtime while students workshop (Susan L.)
• Use a timer to keep yourself on track when conferencing (Susan L.)
• Have students to come to conferences with specific concerns about their papers or come in with a self assessment of their writing (Larry, Susan L)

Commenting on Papers

• Have students turn in their papers with written self-assessment. Use a cover sheet with questions like "If you have one more day to work on this paper what changes would you make?"  – If you require students to do self-assessment for each essay they turn in, they become better at it and begin to know how to read the criteria for each project.  Also saves on commenting because if they're right about their essay in their own assessment, you can just check their comments, rather than repeating them.  (Susan L, Susan R)
• "Front load" your course and critique earlier essays more thoroughly than later essays -- tell students that you are in effect weaning them to revise their own essays and become less dependent on you (Susan R.)
• Type your comments for papers. Angi types as she reads then prints, cuts, and pastes in strips onto student papers.  Debby types and keys numbers to comments on draft.
• Use macros (set up your computer so you can press a function key and get a pre-typed comment)--      Bryan or Stephanie can do a workshop for anyone interested on how to creat "macros" for commenting.
• Use "visual keys" or stamps in place of written comments. Draw a little eye in the margin for places where students need make you "see" the experience. Lisa may have directions for this "visual key" model and will send them around if she can locate them. 
• Don’t comment on the first draft --use peer response and workshops with sample drafts to show revision expectations and students can meet w/ you if they need to.  If final draft is handed in on-time, then they can revise with your comments if they choose. Don’t comment on late papers. (Allison)  
• Don't get so caught up in editing and revision comments that you forget to respond as a reader to students as communicators (Allison)
• Use a voice-activated tape recorder to make audio comments on papers (have students turn in a cassette with their papers for this purpose).  Contact Wendy if you want a good brief article on using this technique.
• Make fewer comments -- students get too overwhelmed with lots of comments.
• For very problematic papers, write "see me" rather than elaborate commenting. Sometimes the student has to come in to talk -- there is no way to comment enough to help the student (Allison)
• Choose three things the student needs to work on and notes those three rather than noting every error (Susan R.)
• Give quizzes to students so they will understand concepts before essays are written, easier to correct a quiz than to deal with the error on an essay (Susan R.)
• Use a rubric to save time on commenting (Wendy)
• Limit the amount of grading you do with a midterm and final portfolio.  On drafts throughout the quarter, just provide comments-- on a midquarter and final portfolio, provide a grade without comments.   Putting time into commenting OR grading (instead of both) means much less stress and less deliberation time. (Lonny, Wendy, Angi)
• Give yourself a workable commenting limit and stick to it.  For example, comment only on grammar errors in the first paragraph of the essay -- the student should correct the rest. (Susan L.)
• Helpful links:

• What Highline tutors say --if you want a realistic glimpse on how students use our comments
• Tips on commenting from the WAC website .

Organizing your teaching and paperwork load

• Keep notes on course revision. In a notebook or a wordfile that you use throughout a given class, keep notes on what works well and what doesn’t work well, so you can teach the course more effectively the next time.  Wendy writes quick little course revision notes in her weekplan word document between the weekplans as she drafts them.
• If you can, do only one new course a year.  Teaching a new course every quarter means a lot of time spent prepping.  Give yourself a break and work on refining the courses that you repeatedly teach -- make them more creative and interesting and efficient.
• Avoid the "book switching" syndrome.  ("The grass would be greener if I used that better textbook that I just heard about").  New textbooks mean new prep time.  Unless you're horribly unhappy with your current textbook, explore a variety of ways you can use a textbook by using it repeatedly over several quarters.
• Handle each piece of paper once and ask yourself throughout the day "What's the most important thing that I should be doing right now?" (Ellen)
• Rip up and recycle extra handouts at the end of each class.  If students miss class, make them responsible for getting missed paperwork from fellow students (Wendy)

Time Wasters:

• Technology can waste time: sometimes technology doesn’t work, internal system may make the computer go crazy, a great deal to learn about technology, takes a great deal of time, some people like paper better
• Miscellaneous department, division, other shared governance responsibilities
• The erroneous belief that more margin comments causes student improvement. Students are often confused when we make too many comments on their essays
• Conferences that spill over into your prep time.  If a student shows up and you have 45 minutes free, you shouldn't spend the whole time with that student if you don't need to.
• If you comment as you read, you might make too many comments rather than prioritize
• Organizing all the paperwork, email, and wordfiles.

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