Self-Assessment for February 17th

Self-Assessment Questions: Please comment on the following areas:

1. Your presentation of concepts in areas of of morphology and word formation processes. What worked well? Where is improvement needed?

I thought opening the class with a discussion of nonce words was useful in leading into a discussion of morphemes and connecting the conversation to "truthiness" was a useful way to contextualize the discussion and provide a constant referent for processes we were discussing. Similarly, the handout with word formation processes was also useful as a reference tool and allowed students to transfer examples that they and I thought up to the page.

However, I did a poor job differentiating between inflectional and derivational morphemes, and I should have had examples for each process of word formation on hand instead of trying to recall what I had read. I need to emphasize more the point that we have different prefixes and suffixes in English that allow us to create different class words, resulting in people who have never met each other possibly ending up creating the same word (though possibly with a different usage)

2. The homework assignment. What worked well? Where is improvement needed?

I did not assign homework, but I did ask students to come in having read a number of articles. Only about half the class did what was asked. And while I was not dependent on the readings, I think that had they did read they would be able to put the information in a context that would allow them to comprehend more of the lesson.

3. Your communications with students: What worked well? What areas need improvement?

I felt that students were participating and asking many questions, and that when I did call on them, they were not cut off or corrected, though I did pose additional questions to them and challenged them on their statements. What I wish I had not done was dismiss without following up the question about allamorphs. Also I expected too much that students would give me the answers I was looking for and so I was not well prepared to deal with answers that were tangentially related.

4. Your use of the computer and internet: What worked well? What areas need improvement?

I wanted to use the computer to look up on the OED, but that was met with technical difficulties. I did explain how to get on OED, but that would have been better accompanied with visuals. I also got wrapped up in answering questions and discussing morphology that I never actually showed the Colbert clip. I think that a visual would have broken up the dynamic of the lesson in a good way and allowed for the students who had not seen the clip or read the article I provided, to get a sense of what we were talking about.

5. Your one-page flyer on word formation processes. How effective was this flyer for presenting the concepts to students? Could the flyer be improved? If so, how?

The one page flyer was useful in giving students a referent for the information. I originally thought about adding examples for each process, but I do not think that would be a good idea. I think it's better to have the students think about examples and then use the space provided to write them down. This way they are actively engaging the material but there is information on the page that is acting as a guide also.

6. Additional materials that you might have prepared for this lesson. Would you prepare any additional materials if you could teach this class again? What would they be?

Yes, I would prepare a list of nonce words which would both help students to see what such words look like and provide a generated list of words to play with when we start discussing processes for word formation.

7. Student learning: How can you judge student learning during this session? Could anything be added to the lesson to help you assess your students' learning? Or to help them assess their learning?

When students gave examples and asked questions following up on what I had said, I could see that they were listening and that they were responding to the information that I was providing. If I had given them a worksheet where they would have to look at words and see which process for word formation is taking place and then collect it, I would have a better sense of what still needs clearing up for each student.

8. Student participation: How would you rate student participation and engagement in this session? What worked well? In what areas is improvement needed?

Many students were participating. But I wish I was not going to the same students for answers. I did sometimes ask students who were sitting quietly but for the most part, I went to the ones who were raising their hands. I need to make all students feel that they need to be listening and ready to respond, and the way I see to do that is to ask those who are trying to avoid the discussion by sitting behind others, or sitting in my periphery.

8. Overall assessment of the class: How would you evaluate your lesson overall? Which areas are you most satisfied with? Which areas are you least satisfied with?

I thought the structure of the lesson was good and allowed for ample opportunity to interact with the class. I do wish I could have better assessed the class by having them complete a worksheet (maybe I should have assigned that as homework since the lesson was not designed for group work, which is what I would have set up if they were to do such an assessment in class). In the future, I need to be better prepared to answer questions about peripheral morphological terms that might be brought up, and I should better differentiate between inflectional and derivational morphemes, maybe by creating a handout on them. What I fear is that students became confused by my lesson, though I believe if there is a positive to this lesson, it is that the students had an opportunity to talk about words at their inception, and to think about words in terms of trends and not as ever present in our dictionaries.