Defining Learning: Bits Flashback for May 23

The LearnStreaming blog posted 50 Quotes About Learning last week. The quotations are sometimes familiar or predictable: “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”~Clay P. Bedford. That’s just an ambling restatement of the “give a man a fish” aphorism.

I disagree with some: “You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.” ~Lyndon B. Johnson. Fiddlesticks. Learning while talking is sometimes the point, especially in the socially collaborative classroom. I smiled at others: “If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.” ~ Mark Twain. Yes. Absolutely true. A life lesson is described right there.

As I reviewed the list, I began wondering how I might use the quotations in class. I admit that I didn’t fact-check or authenticate the quotations, so one activity might be doing so and hypothesizing where errors came from. Another activity could be arranging the quotations into categories (e.g., those about experience) and then comparing all the quotations in a specific category. The simplest activity perhaps is asking students to each choose a quotation that fits some experience from their lives, and then tell that story so that the quotation is the conclusion—a sort of moral at the end of the fable.

According to the site list, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, “Man’s mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.” Consider expanding the dimensions of your mind by checking out the ideas in these Bedford Bits posts from last week:

• Do you explicitly teach reading and vocabulary? Holly Pappas shares Thoughts on Vocabulary (with Questions).
• Andrea Lunsford offers Tips for New Teachers #3: A Word in Praise of Textbooks.
• Jack Solomon reminds us of the importance of seeing the reality between social constructions like cultural mythologies in Of Myths and Memes.
• How do you handle Plagiarism? Barclay Barrios discusses the tensions of responding as a teacher & as an administrator.
• Are e-books gaining momentum & reaching a tipping point? Steve Bernhardt considers how students influence the answer in Whither e-Books.
• Is There Any Way to Streamline the Grading Process? Traci Gardner shares some strategies to a smoother assessment.
• Do you remember who spoke at your college graduation? Jay Dolmage explores the genre of The Graduation Speech.

A Few Extra Links

• Catch up on what happened at the Computers and Writing Conference 2011 with the Ephemera collected on the Collaborvention site.
• Are we outsourcing our brains to the cloud? The New York Times explores The Twitter Trap, and Gizmodo responds with New York Times Editor Is a Horrible Troll Who Doesn’t Understand the Modern World. Pair the articles for a lively class discussion.
• Sign up for our Ink’d In newsletter and request free professional resources today.
• Have great assignments or student essays to share? Jay Dolmage is Looking for Essays and Assignments and paying up to $100 for works chosen for publication.
• Kairos is is seeking submissions for two sections: Reviews and Interviews.

Let us know what you want to know about teaching writing or about using digital tools in the composition classroom by leaving a comment. Your response will help shape upcoming posts.
 

[Photo: cat tail by blhphotography, on Flickr]

I’m Late! Bits Flashback for April 17

I’m late! I’m late for a very important date! No time to say “Hello,” “Goodbye.” I’m late, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!

There’s no way around it. I’m late on posting last week’s summary of posts from Bedford Bits. Fortunately the posts are still fresh and ready for readers. No stale or moldy content here! Read on for details on all of the new entries posted last week:

• Holly Pappas explores why students have trouble understanding in-text citations and then shares some explanations & remedies in Learning to Question the Answers.
   
• Andrea Lunsford reflects on the presentations she saw at CCCC 2011 and considers the challenges we face as we hold on to and teach the very best of the old literacy while offering students an opportunity to embrace the best of what the new literacy presents.
   
• Liz Wardle considers how communities like writing centers help students learn transferable writing-related knowledge in Writing About Writing, Ecological Models of Writing Development, and Writing Centers.
   
• Barclay Barrios talks about his plans to use an iPad for teaching and shares his plans for teaching an all-iPad class in Ipad-ucation.
   
• High School Bits blogger Carol Jago explains why she’s excited about the coming of the Common Core and the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) in The Common Core/Uncommon Sense.
   
• Traci Gardner asserts that the acceptable range of behavior in the classroom is changing and asks in response, What If We Allow Cell Phones in the Classroom?
   
• High School Bits blogger Jesse Tangen-Mills prepares students for the AP exam by teaching That Irksome Augustan-Era Lit: That Irksome Augustan-Era Lit.
   
• Susan Naomi Bernstein discusses The Anxiety of Organization: The Gritty Specifics of the Writing Process, in response to a comment from reader Aaron Kerley.

A Few Extra Links

• Sign up for email updates about what we do for teachers and request our free professional resources today.
   
• How would you illustrate the “Language” section of The Everyday Writer? Submit your idea in the Idea Survey.

Let us know what you want to know about teaching writing or about using digital tools in the composition classroom by leaving a comment. Your response will help shape upcoming posts.

[Photo: Rabbit Clock by chuckyeager, on Flickr]