from VCCA Journal, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring/Summer 1988, 34
© Copyright 1988 VCCA Journal
The selection of appropriate techniques from those described in the Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum workshops presented me with some difficult choices. With the amount of material we are required to teach in Veterinary Technology, the techniques had to take very little time but needed to encourage students as they wrote and to enhance their understanding of what they learned.
Two techniques proved especially useful. The field trip summary--in which students react to observations made on the trip in a personal manner, ask questions, or note something that especially affected them--has convinced me that the students see and assimilate much more than I had thought. Also, the use of a class journal is a method that allows students to explore topics introduced in class and to more thoroughly understand them through writing. Both have increased students' understanding of complex, sometimes overwhelming, material and allowed those who rarely participate in classroom discussion to express their ideas.
Reading and reacting to the journals has improved my teaching; it rekindles my enthusiasm to find that students were stimulated by a lecture or topic and helps me explain material better that may not have been completely clear the first time around.