Not enjoying the silence.

I thought for a first post of content, I'd link to this blog post by a professor at Swarthmore. It struck my interest particularly because my freshman students are positively, irritatingly taciturn. After reading this, however, it occurred to me that perhaps no one ever taught them how to talk in class:

[T]he teaching of analytic writing in college should be preceded (and accompanied) by the teaching of persuasion as an art and a way of life. Waiting until you’re in the thick of writing to talk about what makes a good argument, or how an argument flows convincingly from one point to the next, is too late.

There is a whole understory of small skills that are part of being a good college student that are even less often the explicit focus of instruction. I’ve talked about the skimming of reading assignments and searching skills before. Here’s another in the same vein: looking for something that is worth discussing in a reading assignment. [my emphasis]

What follows are six specific suggestions for what students should look for in a reading assignment--things to bring up in class discussions.

I think with a bit of editing, this could become a useful handout. I may even use it as a take-home assignment in conjunction with the readings. I am so tired of pulling teeth to get someone to SAY something, anything, in response to an assigned reading.