Instructor Resources

Paul Smith’s College (PSC) recognizes its responsibility to provide equal access to opportunity for students with disabilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (as amended). The College will provide reasonable adjustments and/or accommodations to assure that students will have equal opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed during their time at PSC. The entire college community (faculty, staff, and students) has the broad responsibility to adhere to this philosophy of equal access to opportunity.

Paul Smith’s College has charged the Center for Accommodative Services with providing leadership for our efforts to assure equal access for our students. The college will support the authority of the Center for Accommodative Services in these efforts. The current best practices and compliance for disability support services are represented on the Center for Accommodative Services (CAS) website. The office is located in Joan Weil Adirondack Library, room 209.

To initiate recognition and consideration as a student with a disability, students should:

• Self-disclose their disability by contacting the learning specialist.
• Request academic adjustments.
• Submit appropriate documentation to verify eligibility. Eligibility is determined on an individualized basis and is based upon documentation of a disability that currently substantially limits some major life activity.

All services are completely voluntary, and it is the student’s responsibility to request them. Students are encouraged to identify themselves early to ensure timely accommodations. The first step is to submit a Disability Disclosure/Application for Academic Adjustments to: Learning Specialist, Center for Accommodative Services, Paul Smith’s College, Paul Smiths, NY 12970. Questions related to this process should be directed to the learning specialist (518) 327-6414 oraccommodativeservices@paulsmiths.edu.

You are an agent of the college and as such share the college’s obligations to provide access within all aspects of your course. Your course outline should include the following disability statements:

It is the college’s policy to provide, on an individual basis, academic adjustments to students with disabilities, which may affect their ability to fully participate in program or course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact personnel in the Center for Accommodative Services on the second floor of the Joan Weill Adirondack Library, Room 209, at 518-327-6414 or email at accommodativeservices@paulsmiths.edu to discuss their particular need for academic adjustments.

This material is available in alternative formats upon request.

Ask the student if he or she has been in contact with personnel in the Center for Accommodative Services.  If not, refer the student. You should not personally collect and/or maintain any disability documentation, nor should you make a determination as to the existence of a disability or the reasonableness of a request without consultation. Unless you are willing to provide a requested modification to all students, you should not provide it to any student without having first received a Faculty Notification from the Center for Accommodative Services.

The student must provide the Center for Accommodative Services (CAS) with appropriate documentation describing the disability and the limitations related to learning. A Faculty Notification is then developed between the student and CAS staff.  Appropriate classroom, testing and other academic adjustments are identified on the Faculty Notification, which the student delivers to each faculty member from whom he or she is requesting academic adjustments.  Please sign and date confirming that you have been notified.  If you have any questions, please call the CAS at 518-327-6414 or email at accommodativeservices@paulsmiths.edu It is the student’s responsibility to request academic adjustments directly to the faculty and the faculty’s responsibility to assure that accommodations are being met. Faculty are entitled to reasonable notice of any requested academic adjustments. We encourage the student and faculty to meet and discuss the particulars of the request.  Faculty who are unable or unsure how to provide such adjustments on their own may request assistance from the Center for Accommodative Services (x6414).

You may have to make a modification in your structure or policies. Not making an adjustment may discriminate against the student because of the disability; however, while the need for modifications and/or auxiliary aids and services in a particular case is not negotiable, there are often alternate ways to provide the academic adjustments. Academic adjustments must be sensitive to the fundamental structure and objectives of your course. If you believe that a requested modification or auxiliary aid or service will so alter your course, immediately consult with Center for Accommodative Services (CAS) personnel (see Resolution Policy below).  What constitutes an appropriate modification or auxiliary aid or service in one course, or even section of a course, may not be appropriate in another. Feel free in all cases to discuss methods of academic adjustments with the student and with CAS personnel. The college has hired you for your expertise in your field and in the classroom. You are not expected to have expertise in the field of disability and postsecondary education. Let  CAS personnel help you create the best possible learning environment for both you and your students.

Resolution Policy of Disagreement about an Approved Accommodation

These instructional and learning strategies are provided to highlight and reinforce those that are already in your repertoire. Particular attention is drawn to these strategies in order to showcase how they are not only beneficial for students with disabilities but can improve learning for all of your students. The presence of students with disabilities in your class does not require a major alteration in your teaching style.

Notes from a Great Course*

Fairness

• The memories of unfair teachers are reported by college students in great detail, even after many years have passed since those negative school experiences.
• Consistent set of principles for reproaching or correcting.
• Must be impartial and dispassionate.
• It is professional misconduct to befriend students.

Positive Attitude.

• Use “meaningful verbal praise: praise shrewd commends and accurate summaries. “I am so glad you asked that question…”
• Effective teachers are generally positive minded individuals who believe in the success of their students as well as their own ability to help students achieve.
• Flatter them into working hard; I know you can answer this question; you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t!
• Enthusiasm is key! There’s no place I’d rather be than right here.
• A teacher is happy to be in the company of learners.

Preparedness

• Competence and knowledge of the content area being taught is something that college students have always mentioned about their favorite teachers and is strongly supported by the current literature. Dramatic silences are powerful.
• Videotape yourself.
• Make them glad they were there.
• When using demonstrations: React: watch how many are copying from the board, how well.
• Do not speak to the board.

1) Talk

2) Draw on board

3) Talk

• Syllabus to email

Personal Touch

• Teachers who show interest in their students have interested students.
• Students less motivated if feel anonymous.
• Move through the classroom as you speak.
• Notice each student—helps them to focus on the task at hand.
• Fill the room from the front.
• Separate people.
• Break after 20 minutes in groups of two to discuss, take a stretch, etc.
• Do not listen to boyfriend/girlfriend problems; keep the study of _____distinct from the rest of life.
• Maintain long silences so students speak the most.
• Students are less motivated if they feel anonymous.
• Get as much 1:1 as possible; not everyone will take advantage. In a 1:1 situation there are no group dynamics and no peer pressure.

Sense of humor.

• Good teachers can provide a wonderful model for how to deal with an embarrassing situation effectively.
• Use humor in service of stimulating learning.

Teaching with PowerPoint:  Use for pictures, diagrams, etc.  what is the audience gaining in addition to my lecture? 

Willingness to admit mistakes

• Teachers who recognize their mistakes and apologize for them when they affect the students provide an excellent model to give students, and a great way to be remembered as a favorite teacher.
• Always improving. Good better best: never let it rest.  Today is good, tomorrow is better; today is better, tomorrow is best.
• Study self on film.
• Study literature on teaching and pedagogy.
• Eager to meet students’ expectations.
• Take negative evaluations SERIOUSLY: throw out the very best, throw out the very worst, take the most repeated in the middle.
• Wise enough to know what you don’t know.

Forgiving

• Willingness to forgive students for misbehavior and a habit of starting each day with a clean slate.
• A teacher worries about students’ welfare.

Respect.

• Showing sensitivity for feelings and for consistently avoiding situations that would unnecessarily embarrass students.
• Respect my knowledge, my time, other students; dress, manner, rules = boundary lines.
• Teaching is a vocation, not a job.

High expectations

• Set limits, provided structure, held high expectations and pushed them to achieve. “I did not invite you to do the reading; I required it.
• Ask them to read a passage aloud and to paraphrase it.
• Impromptu tests
• Get to know them intellectually, not socially
• Keep records from the beginning.
• “Simultaneously friendly and aggressive”
• Emphasize the differences between you, not the similarities.
• Teach your students how to learn.
• Class is not “ordinary time”, but special time. Not for eating, drinking, wear hats, etc.
• Throw out challenging questions to test knowledge.

Compassion

• Effective teachers are supportive of students in multiple ways and help to meet their needs for belonging and success.
• Good teachers want students to succeed.

Sense of belonging

• Effective teachers know well that when students feel emotionally, as well as, physically safe, they learn far better.
• Create a distinctive tone and mood, a shared emotional existence. In 1860 people did not know they were on the brink of Civil War.  Emphasize uncertainties.
• The classroom is a special place in time where special learning takes place.

Creativity

• Some teachers were remembered specifically for their unique ways of motivating their class.
• Consider the body of knowledge approach versus the conceptual approach, and teach less better: review and repetition; foundation material.
• Learner-centered learning; involvement and engagement motivate

Teach the Critical Skills (Guide on the side versus sage on the stage)

Reading and Notetaking are foundational:  communication, critical thinking, decision making

Read, take notes, think  —  need willingness to work hard, no procrastinating and avoid distractions, manage time.

Keys to understanding:

• read aloud – catch the tone of voice and mood and emotional intensity
• re-reading –
• reading — is a slow pleasure, biorhythms slow down

Grade generously citations of outside reading

Read and Report

Look up words and write definitions: VOCABULARY QUIZZES

GOLD STANDARD:  Read two times!  Take Notes.  No Distractions

Read aloud

Vocabulary

Meaning (paraphrase)

Tone

Secondary meanings (irony, ambiguity)

Teachers: isolate ideas, words, phrases, implications

Teach how to take notes — Note-taking increases attention in class

Outline the lecture in full sentences – shows student most important themes.

One-paragraph summary of chapter  (1 line/page)

Collect notes at random

Encourage students to memorize

Recitation of memorized passages over and over

Recite poems  (The more you do it, the better you can do it)

Chapters, footnotes, sentences, rhetoric, what does this paragraph do?

Exams, evaluation, and Feedback

Continuous assessment

Oral exam, in class, (probably the easiest to grade), take home (grade per time spent on each question)

Reward progress:  more weight to later grades?  Greater weight to grades after midterm

Make top students compete for top grades.

Grades (projects, papers, etc.) are developmental as well as evaluative.

How to grade participation: commend the three best at each class by their peers.

Have them evaluate you at midterm.

Fools’ paradise if you do not flunk them.

Ways of Improving Their Writing

–Decide how much time you will devote to writing.

–Explain:  writing issues checklist, paragraphs, main points, organized to paragraphs, active voice, what is the function?  (describe,       persuade, explain…)

–Passive voice for Scientific Writing

First paper:

–sentences ten words or less (to think about sentence length)

–words 1-2 syllables (feeling of straightforwardness, simplicity)

–adjectives prohibited (directness comes from it)

Summary assignments:

–100 and 500 words long

–Short in-class assignments (describe something)

–Hand out 100-word statements; tell them to boil down to 30 words

–Convert a passage from passive to active

Teaching Revision and Editing

–Writing is a social activity.  Not solitary.  You must win the reader’s confidence: grammar and spelling can make a poor impression

–Look for verb tense inconsistency, number, and tense

–With rise of feminism and inclusive language, “their” may be used as a singular pronoun

–Commonly confused words (effect/affect; lead/led)

–Too many adjectives (very, extremely)

–Read aloud your first draft.

–Write second draft without looking at the first one.

–Set intermediate deadlines; evaluate very critically; then rewrite

–Students tend to change only where you marked, so correct some and tell them to identify the rest; make comments that lead to revision

Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths

Myth:                      Teachers pour knowledge into students

Truth:                     They teach how to process knowledge

Half-Truth:            Education is for Everybody

Truth:                     Mass Literacy is for Everybody

Half-Truth:            A good teacher makes all the difference

Truth:                     Student still has to do the hard work

Myth:                      Teacher who knows everything

False:                     You get what you pay for.

False:                     The best teachers are at the best colleges.

True:                       Most are completely self-taught.  The quality of the school is no guarantee of the quality of the teachers.

Half-Truth:            Uphold self-esteem at all costs

• Students should be embarrassed because they didn’t do the work.
• Be skeptical but not cynical.
• Embarrass someone ONCE, lightly. Criticize students in public for not doing the reading.  “I did not invite you to do the reading; I required it.”
• Show your students how to learn.

*The Great Courses.  The Teaching Company.

The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator

Taught by:  Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Emory University, history faculty since 1988