Commentary: What My Struggling Students Wanted Me to Understand

I haven’t taught a developmental course at SHU, but when I teach freshman writing, I often encounter students who struggle with the transition from high school to college writing. Those who were praised all their lives as good writers can tell good personal stories, and they can deploy accurate summaries of non-controversial, “correct” facts. I give…

Columbia Journalism Review

Sorry, Wrong Number

Numerical errors usually occur for one of these five reasons: A journalist mishears a correct number given to them by a source and fails to double-check it. A source unwittingly provides a mistaken piece of information and the journalist fails to verify it. A source deliberately fudges the numbers and the journalist fails to verify…

Journalism by the Numbers (a pedagogical play in one scene) #math

(Lights up on a college journalism classroom. The professor enters, surveys the room.) Professor: Math! Students: (Shocked reaction.) Professor: Math!! Students: (Scattered cries of “No!”) Professor: MATH!!! Students: NO!!!   (Blackout.)   (40 minutes later.)   Professor: So, at the very least when you encounter numbers in your reporting, contact sources who can help you…

A student just booked an appointment to discuss picking up journalism as a second major. Excellent choice!

Similar:Today I didn't save the world, but I did help a student while power-walking at the mall.Quick visit to see my mother and siblings.The daughter missed her graduation ceremony because she was performing in Kinetic Theatre'…This was a rough term. Still have a winter term course to publish before midnight but time…Couples in successful relationships…

A new study shows that students learn way more effectively from print textbooks than screens

Saving this for next term’s “History and Future of the Book” course. Students said they preferred and performed better when reading on screens. But their actual performance tended to suffer. For example, from our review of research done since 1992, we found that students were able to better comprehend information in print for texts that were…

Liberal Arts Classes Could Teach Neil deGrasse Tyson a Thing or Two about the Path from Data to Wisdom

Your mileage may vary, but I immediately thought of Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, who states this problem in negative terms. Yes, she’s a made-up character delivering a line in a movie about an imaginary ring from a fantasy book, but anyone who really understands Tolkien’s story will have reflected on the…

‘These are all fake news,’ said the honor student. He was wrong.

Kim Ash teaches the Newseum’s “Fighting Fake News” class. Whereas teachers once feared that teenagers would fall for everything they read online, now they’re concerned young people won’t believe anything they read. —Washington Post Similar:Today I didn't save the world, but I did help a student while power-walking at the mall.The Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch…

Classroom Vignette: MLA Style

Student (shouldering backpack and heading for door): Why does MLA Style have to keep changing? Me (checks clock): Well… Similar:Today I didn't save the world, but I did help a student while power-walking at the mall.Quick visit to see my mother and siblings.The daughter missed her graduation ceremony because she was performing in Kinetic Theatre'…This…

Shakespeare on Eclipses

Prepping for tomorrow’s first meeting of my Shakespeare class. In 1598, during Shakespeare’s lifetime, England experienced a total solar eclipse, with the path of totality tracking from Cornwall in the southwest up to Aberdeen in Scotland. As we in the twenty-first century prepare for the Great American Eclipse on Aug 21, let’s look at three of the…

Laying out our anti-socialization defenses & cleaning out the penitence shack for another year of homeschool.

Visiting Fort Ligonier. When the girl sat at this table in the officer’s barracks, I started humming the “Bilbo writing at Bag End” music. “Stop that,” she said. “You’re making me cry.” Similar:Today I didn't save the world, but I did help a student while power-walking at the mall.The Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5,…