Teaching from Day One

By Gayle Golden
  
The first week of classes brings an onslaught of details for instructors. Teaching can sometimes get lost in the procedures, especially that first day as we are sorting through rosters, reviewing syllabi and checking off wait lists. But even on Day One, you can begin to lay the groundwork for a successful teaching relationship with your students.  HSJMC Professor Kathy Hansen, who has been teaching large and small classes in the school for more than 35 years, offers some strategies for meaningfully instructing students from the start.

 A syllabus test? 

Your students are eager to connect with you the first day of classes. They’ll be watching for your style, including how organized you are and how clearly you present the overall course flow. In turn, the first week is a chance for you to see how attentive they are. Hansen knows busy students don’t always read in depth the syllabi we carefully create. So when she hands it out, she also passes out an “open-book” syllabus quiz with basic question such as "How many points can I get in this class" and "If I come in 15 minutes late can I get class participation points?"and gives students a few minutes to answer the questions. She collects the quiz but doesn’t apply a grade (although she doesn’t tell them that up front unless they ask). The test is a tool for students to engage with the important class contract. Hansen also takes time to point out the course learning goals in the syllabus and asks students think of something they can do outside class to practice those skills, whether it’s working for the Minnesota Daily or helping with a newsletter for a club or activity.

Connect the curriculum 

Hansen says it’s also important connect your HSJMC course to others in the curriculum. Our courses are strongly interrelated, especially the skills courses – many of which our adjunct instructors teach. Your students certainly learned skills in previous courses that they’ll need in your class. For example, students who took News Reporting and Writing (Jour 3101) need to carry skills lessons of AP style and news writing into Intermediate Reporting (Jour 3121) and beyond. Students in Digital Strategy in Strategic Communication (Jour 3275) will not only need the research skills taught in Information for Mass Communication (Jour 3004) but should also be deft at video and audio editing they learned in Multimedia Production and Storytelling (Jour 3102). To make sure our students carry skills forward into your courses, here are a few simple steps you can take your first week:

• Review your course profile for prerequisites to your course
• Check the course profiles of those prerequisites for the skills those courses taught
• Ask students during the first class to identify skills they learned in those courses
• Remind students those will continue to apply in your course

Bond meaningfully, not randomly

We know all instructors are eager to get to know individual students. By all means, please do all you can to help students feel comfortable and connected. The student services staff has already sent instructions for finding your class photos, which will help you put name to face – something your students will definitely appreciate. Realize, though, it will take some time for names to sink in. And remember not to force a personal connection. A semester is enough time to establish good rapport without a lot of fuss at the start.

Hansen, for instance, doesn’t use touchy feely approaches to student engagement, such as asking random questions about favorite foods or summer vacations. “They’re adults,” she says. “They’re in class to learn.” Instead, she will ask them substantive questions designed to reveal their academic motivations, such as: What led them to study this field? Or what will help them succeed in this course? The answers to the latter question, she says, can vary from the profound to the mundane. Some students say it will help them to get to know other students. Others say they want grades posted to Moodle or a chance to ask questions before tests. In the end, the answers are often less important than the fact that Hansen is asking for input.  “It signals to them that I care about why they’re here and that I care about helping them to do better,” she says.

If you have any thoughts or questions about the first week of classes, please share in the comments below. If you have questions or topics you’d like addressed for future blog entries, please post those. Most of all we want a conversation and continued engagement around excellent teaching. Welcome again. We love having you part of the HSJMC team.

Gayle Golden (G.G.)