There’s about a month left before classes begin, and I’ve progressed well preparing for my two courses. Last year, I went into the fall with a lot of work left to do, and I paid the price all year long. Not this year.
Once again, I’m teaching Computers & Writing using a conceptual framework, and readings distributed via del.icio.us. This year the emphasis will be standards-compliant web development, though we aren’t going 100% practical. I’ve picked out two books and about twenty-five essays, and I’ve abandoned the two-project framework in favor of One Big Project.
Since I last wrote about the style topics course I’m teaching in both Macomb and the Quad Cities, I’ve picked Destiny’s Style as the flagship text. As the subtitle promises, it’s bootylicious; it’s also brilliant, because Knowles and Alexander best most style manuals by not only providing stylistic guidelines but following them, making the book its own example. On the more academic side, I’m looking forward to teaching Thomas & Turner’s Clear and Simple as the Truth, in part because like Knowles &c. they eat their own dog food. (Hrm, what adjective describes that quality?)
On the nuts and bolts side of things, two big changes. First, I plan to provide feedback to students primarily via audio files; I think that’ll help cut down my grading time. Second, I’m going to mark any student work which doesn’t meet minimum standards with a “U” and return it quickly. Hopefully the same day. I don’t expect to assign a lot of those grades–after all, I’m teaching 400-level courses this semester, not 100-level–but I think it’ll be a more effective way to handle folks who fail to take milestones seriously.