Difficulty with school fatigue
Introduction
It is human nature to experience fatigue with anything one has been involved with for a long time and I believe it is my role as the educator to find ways to keep things fresh and challenging for the students.
Many (but not all) students in college prep English have been in school or
upgrading for years. I think it is my role as educator to try to make each course as distinctly different as possible, to encourage continued engagement with learning and to foster an understanding of how learning is scaffolded in post-secondary institutions.
Strategies to Address this Difficulty
- Whenever possible, I use the relevant course textbook’s way of describing writing strategies since each author describes things slightly different. This requires more preparation time to make sure each class and lecture remains different for each level even when teaching the same writing strategies, but I think it is worth the extra effort to keep students engaged.
- I use different Rubrics for each class to better communicate to the students the increase in academic rigor as they progress through their courses.
- I use different assessment and evaluation techniques for the marks assigned for critical reading and critical thinking skills.