FYC's the Day

A new quest for the especially adventurous:

1. Make a paper airplane.
2. Stand at the very top of CIS and throw it down toward the ground-floor elevator.
3. Make sure the paper airplane HITS the elevator door (or, if open, goes inside the elevator).
4. Capture this entire stunt on video.
5. Post the video here on the Tumblr site.

If you do this successfully, you’ll earn three stamps.

Your friend,

Kyle

Skiba, Richard. “Code Switching as a Countenance of Language Interference”. The Internet TESL Journal. 3.10 (October 1997): 1-6.

This article discusses code-switching and how students will switch languages in the classroom. Richard Skiba believes that switching is common among all age groups and bilingual speakers. Skiba gives two reasons for the most frequent code-switching,

The first of these is the notion that a speaker may not be able to express him/herself in one language so switches to the other to compensate for the deficiency. As a result, the speaker may be triggered into speaking in the other language for a while. This type of code switching tends to occur when the speaker is upset, tired or distracted in some manner. Secondly, switching commonly occurs when an individual wishes to express solidarity with a particular social group. (2)

He also notes that code-switching helps to develop to language acquisition (6) and should not be discouraged, because as students become more comfortable they will likely switch languages in the classroom less often. 

Allison Gibbes

FYCs The Day Quest

USF Orientation

Academic Article Summary

Baldwin, Tamara, and Nancy Blattner. “Guarding Against Potential Bias In Student Evaluations: What Every Faculty Member Needs to Know.” College Teaching. 51.1 (2003): 27-32. Print.

Summary:

Universities are placing a growing importance on the results of the student evaluation of instruction (SEI) assessment instrument. According to the article, instructors must take measures to avoid poor evaluations due to student bias. Many of the factors that influence student opinion are not issues that are reflective of the competence of the instructor, such as the time of day of the class, a student’s personal lack of interest in the subject matter, and strong gender biases. Students also admitted that they often did not approach the evaluation seriously, and some are resentful for the fact that they must complete these tedious forms for several different classes. In order to combat poor evaluations that can cost an instructor further opportunities and even the ability to procure tenure, the article recommends the addition of further and less subjective modes of assessment.