Resources
Click Here for Book Review Abstract: You're finishing your first year of teaching. It's been exciting and gratifying, but there've been some wobbly episodes too. How will you carve out a space to flourish? You're feeling secure in mid-career, with some accomplishments to be proud of. But what should success really look like? You're nearing the end of your career, and sometimes apprehensive about the blank slate of retirement. What might it look like to finish well? In Mapping Your Academic Career Gary Burge speaks from decades of teaching, writing and mentoring. Along the way he has experienced and observed the challenges and tensions, the successes and failures of the academic pilgrimage. Now, with discerning wisdom and apt examples, he hosts the conversation he wishes he'd had when he started out as a college professor, identifying three cohorts or stages in the academic career and exploring the challenges, pitfalls and triumphs of each. Wherever you are in your teaching life, this is a book that will reward reading, reflection and discussion. (From the Publisher)
When teaching diversity courses that discuss sensitive issues, such as racial, gender, sexuality, religious, and ethnic discrimination, it is possible to encounter student resistance, which can subsequently prevent students from comprehending the content. While teaching an introductory course on African American history in a Black Studies Department at a predominantly white institution of higher education in Middle America, I experienced such resistance. This article discusses how I initially taught the course, evaluated and then restructured my active learning approach to include reflective learning and Black Studies techniques to address that resistance.
Emphasizing both reading and writing, The Elements of Difficulty helps readers to confront the challenges of interpreting difficult texts and to see those challenges as paths to knowledge, rather than impediments. This short, economical paperback enables readers to acknowledge, name, and assess the nature of their difficulties in reading and interpreting complex texts, with the ultimate goal of transforming confusion into understanding. (From the Publisher)
Annotating a text can be a powerful strategy to comprehend difficult material and encourage active reading. High school teacher Carol Porter-O’Donnell provides several activities and tools to help students learn to purposefully mark up what they read.
A simple and short chart that provides  a few simple strategies for making lectures more interactive. 
Georgia State University associate professor of religious studies, Molly Bassett, writes about a dual-level course she's teaching for a third time this fall titled "Religious Dimensions in Human Experience.” Part 2, is a reflection by one of her former graduate students, Sarah Levine, who took the course the first time Bassett taught it in the fall of 2010.
An overview of research in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and teaching science. 1) note taking strategies used by students; 2) the different factors involved in comprehension through note taking; 3) “writing to learn”; 4) the learning contexts that allow effective note taking.
Reviews research on the impact of notetaking and how the review of notes affects student learning. The paper also explores the role that instructors can play, suggesting several specific strategies to support students. 
Short, accessible, review of several recent studies showing that lectures are a pedagogical technique that “favor some people while discriminating against others, including women, minorities and low-income and first-generation college students.” All the more reason for adopting active learning strategies that have proved to be more effective for ALL learners.
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Sarah Farmer, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Wabash Center
farmers@wabash.edu