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Starting a thread of lessons we HS teachers need to be communicating to our students so they stop driving the college instructors crazy.
1. No work = bad grade. (This seems obvious, but clearly is not getting through to kids somewhere along the line.)
2. How to avoid looking dumb in an essay
(Continued essay issues)
3. Teach students how to independently communicate with adults—how to send a proper email, how to sign up for an appointment during office hours.
4. Students need to enter conversations with their research, not just copy and paste it.
5. Citations are for more than just avoiding plagiarism; they’re for building your own credibility and joining a larger conversation.
6. Teach students how to choose the appropriate citation style and where to find information about the various styles.
7. Teach students how to research, not just Google.
7. Teach students how to research, not just Google.
8. Teach students about connotation and clarity. Not every synonym is truly interchangeable. Value clarity over complexity or “sounding smart.” (P.S. The ACT follows this rule in the English section.)
9. Teach active and passive voice, and when and how to use each of them. (Also teach them how choice of voice can be a rhetorical strategy.)
10. Teach students how to build on the simple structure of the five paragraph essay to create something more sophisticated and thorough.
11. Teach students how to be good students.
12. Teach students about deadlines and consequences.
13. Teach students how to ask the right kind of questions to get help. (Follow the steps in this tweet. Pair this lesson with the one on appropriate communication.)
14. On that topic, teach students to try solving their own problems—try more than one solution, google it themselves, check the syllabus—before asking for help.
15. Sometimes the formal rules you were taught in an earlier class aren’t the best rules for a later situation. Teach students how to choose appropriate style.
7b. More tips on good research:
11b. More “how to be a good student” tips:
15. Teach students that self-plagiarism is an actual thing. (And remind them that TurnItIn will catch them if they try to submit the same paper twice.)
16. Teach students how to question and challenge respectfully.
17. Teach students that sometimes there isn’t just one right answer, and topics can be complex or ambiguous or unknown and still have value. (English teachers, we can especially help here.)
18. When in doubt about style, ask your professor. Preferably during an appointment during their office hours which you set up through appropriate communication. 😉
19. Another lesson in appropriate communication: timeliness
20. Know your rights, be proactive in arranging necessary accommodations, and communicate them with your instructors.
21. Know what academic services your university provides—tutoring center, writing center, etc.—and use them. You’re already paying for it anyways.
22. Require students to face their fears sometimes. Require individual presentations in front of peers. Give students strategies for speaking well in public when nervous.
23. Teach students the value of being present (physically and mentally). Structure your class so that students come to understand what they lose when they aren’t there.
24. Teach students (and ourselves and our administrators) that the test isn’t the thing that legitimizes our learning. Learning is valuable in and of itself.
25. Hold students accountable for reading the assigned material. Teach them how to read and learn independently of the instructor, and how to contribute to a class discussion with their reading.
26. Teach students to receive feedback (even negative feedback) graciously and thoughtfully. Teach them to use it for self-improvement. (The go gradeless movement has thoughts on this.)
27. Assign difficult reading. Teach students the skills for getting through it. Teach students how to take effective notes on what they read. Teach them to enter conversations with the text.
28. Teach students to manage their own time and keep track of due dates without constant reminders. Teach them how to use a planner—paper or digital—and plan out their work.
29. Teach students to pursue their own learning. In college, they’re (presumably) taking classes to move them towards a career they want. Help them see that it’s on them to get there. Professors are just the guides. (Try inquiry projects in HS for this.)
30. Teach students how to calculate their own grades. (Math teachers, this would make an excellent multi-step/multi-variable equation. Computer teachers, could students develop a spreadsheet to do this?)
31. An A is not the height or end goal of learning. Working your hardest sometimes only results in a C, but you still learned, and it’s still valuable. Care about learning, not the number. The learning lasts longer.
31b. Because this person says it better than I could:
32. Another oft-overlooked rule about academic citations: acknowledge ALL the authors who contributed to the source, not just the first.
33. Teach students to probe their own biases and tendencies, then to react thoughtfully. This applies to curriculum, content, and instructors.
34. Teach students to follow directions. Yes, even the seemingly trivial or nit-picky ones. They exist for reasons.
