Presents a lesson on Betsey Sompayrac, a free woman of color living in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Focuses on her will and its contents and historical issues surrounding the will. Students transcribe the will and write a paper, drawing conclusions from the document. Includes a transcription of the will and the document assignment. (CMK)

Presents a lesson about frontier life in Texas and is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration file "Castolon Historic District" and other source materials about Castolon and ranching in the Big Bend region. States that the lesson could be incorporated into units on westward expansion or U.S. geography. (CMK)

The Monte Carlo Quiz (MCQ), a single-item quiz, is so named because chance, with the roll of a die, determines (a) whether the quiz is administered; (b) the specific article, chapter, or section of the assigned reading that the quiz covers; and (c) the particular question that makes up the quiz. The MCQ encourages both punctual completion and deep…

Conversation is a basis for critical thinking. It is the thread that ties together cognitive strategies and provides students with the practice that becomes the foundation for reading, writing, and thinking. In recent years, proficient reader research has yielded information about what good readers do as they comprehend text. This article provides…

We describe the use of a career exploration portfolio in an Industrial/Organizational psychology course (n = 22) to address students' career needs and to develop academic competencies. Students independently completed a series of assignments outside of class, which led to the construction of a personalized career development portfolio. Evaluations…

Because students are highly motivated to read texts online rather than in traditional form, McNabb argues, schools should encourage students to use the Internet for academic and pleasure reading. However, hypertext has unique features that make comprehension monitoring while reading challenging. Strategies that work for reading passages of printed…

This article reviews the findings of a small-scale investigation into the criteria used by a number of SACWG departments for assessing final-year project modules in business and history and other written history assignments. The findings provide the basis for a broader discussion of the issues relating to the formulation and use of assessment…

Although many of us would like to get beyond lecturing, we often lack concrete strategies for doing so, particularly in our larger classes. This paper suggests one such strategy for creating a discussion-based course. The success of such a course is predicated on students reading and thinking about the course material (receiving "first exposure")…

In the process of collecting assessment data in the author's introductory sociology course, he made a startling and disappointing discovery. For the most part, students simply were not bothering to read the basics version of the introductory survey textbook that he assigned. This discovery presented him with two related challenges. First, he had…

Integrating "The West Wing" in public relations courses can effectively dramatize the concrete and abstract dimensions of public relations. In turn, students see public relations in action (albeit fictionally so) and learn much about it through structured lessons. From individual writing assignments about situations in "The West Wing," to the…

This study categorized writing assignments required in undergraduate and graduate business courses and examined the characteristics of as well as skills needed for completing the assignments. Data sources included 95 course syllabi and handouts on writing assignments, 12 student writing samples, and six interviews with business faculty. Data…

In spring 2003, the Distance Education Network (DEN), Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC), had 860 students and more than 1,000 enrollments in 70 courses toward 10 different degrees. Typically, for assignments in engineering courses, professors require students to show how their answers are derived so that…

The course syllabus is a contract between instructor and students, a schedule of course assignments and activities, and a roadmap delineating objectives and checkpoints in the course. It is also a planning and reference tool for both students and instructor, and it models professors' expectations for their students. This study investigated whether…

The distinction between revising and editing is a hard one for middle schoolers to grasp. Bruce Saddler knows that students must understand that writing means making meaning, and making meaning requires revision. Internalizing that concept and the steps that help achieve it requires a process characterized by peer conferencing, revision guides…

There is clear evidence that increasing numbers of deaf students are now beginning to enter higher education (http://www.natdisteam.ac.uk). However, it is also evident that many of these students enter university presenting at below national norms in terms of their literacy. In short, many pre-lingual deaf students face an incredible language…