How do we overcome the age-old “why do we have to learn/do this” classroom objection? By turning our classes outward, becoming all border.

As feedback providers, we must see work & goals through students’ eyes & help them create their best work. Grades can come later.

The obsession w/ standardized, “objective” tests has created an unhealthy focus/reliance on grades. Can classes improve if we remove grading?

I propose giving FYC students authority of assessment, control of content, and freedom of product in their second-semester research classes. Crazy, right?

Changing our curriculum to include more-visible student writing presents pedagogical challenges of scale and continuity. Here's how it could work.

Understanding threshold concepts can better prepare us to teach students, especially in introductory or entry-level courses. Here's how it works.

If we can’t continue teaching when the power fails, we’re doing it wrong. If our teaching has to fundamentally change when our classes get plugged in, we’ve been doing it wrong.

Students believe our expectations of their writing have not changed since they were in elementary school. Assessment created, and can repair, this problem.

We owe our students the respect, credibility, and feedback that comes with proper assessment. That often looks different in a writing classroom.

The student/teacher dynamic in computer-enhanced classes should be "everted," turning traditional power hierarchies and content relations inside-out.