Saturday, October 23, 2010

Deep Roots

Clearly I remember hearing the word "pedagogy" at least once during my final semesters as an undergraduate.

Never did I ever dream I'd be using it in every day conversation.

What does it mean?

Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching.

The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction.

I am taking two classes that deal specifically with various theories and ways of teach (composition and creative writing). *Whew*

A lot of my day has been spent reading a book about Grading--the theory and practice of it. Thus far I've learned about the origins and evolution of grading student writing at the college level in America.

During colonial times, college students did not receive grades of any sort. They were evaluated at the end of their years of study with a oral examination that certified a level of intellectual and moral righteousness worthy of a college graduate.

I can't help but imagine that scene from Babe with "the boss" tells our hero, "That'll do pig, that'll do."

Then there came the written exam in the 1830s...Yale and Harvard had a ranking system by numbers and points (1-4) expanding to 20 points and 100 points (students like cars).

Fifty years later we had Freshman Composition classes as a fundamental part of the general education (at Harvard) and numerical ranking became based on five letter grades (A-E).

I will stop there.

So with a swim-my head, filled with all this information and ideas to consider...I will finish a syllabus for my creative writing class (I "made" a poetry writing class)...and instead of being rooted in academia tonight, I will be firmly planted in downtown Milledgeville.

Music stage...music stage...music STAGE!

~~J

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