Helping Students "Do the Reading"

Several years ago, I interviewed Jenae Cohn for my old podcast about her book Skim, Dive, Surface: Teaching Digital Reading. I remember Jenae sharing how the kind of reading skills she developed as an undergraduate student didn't always serve her well in graduate school. As an English major, she had time to read the novels and other books she was assigned quite closely, but as an English doctoral student, she had way too many books to read to practice that kind of close reading. She had to learn new ways to read to keep up with the volume of reading she was assigned as a graduate student.

Jenae's story came to mind recently when I interviewed St. Ambrose University philosophy professor Jessa Roisen for my current podcast. Jessa teaches intro to philosophy courses with challenging primary readings--Plato and Kant and the like. In her interview, she shared how her students really struggled with those readings. They might be able to identify key passages in a reading, but they often had a hard time explaining those passages during class discussion. Whatever academic reading skills Jessa's students had developed prior to college, they weren't up to the task of the readings that Jessa assigned.

Watching her students struggle to "do the reading" has motivated Jessa to change her approach to teaching these courses. Jessa now provides a lot of support and scaffolding for her students and their reading, especially before class. She uses the Top Hat platform to break the readings into smaller pieces and to embed questions throughout the reading. These questions help students make sense of the reading as they're engaging with it, and they provide insight to Jessa about her students' perspectives on the texts. She no longer hopes students can "do the reading" before class--she teaches them how to read the kinds of texts she assigns.

This week on the podcast, I talk with Jessa Roisen and with Donna Battista, managing director for learning solutions at Top Hat. Donna partners with educators across higher ed, helping them use the Top Hat platform to address the teaching challenges they face. In this week's episode, which was produced in partnership with Top Hat, Donna and Jessa share their perspectives on the challenging of teaching students to read hard things, offering responses to that challenges that are both philosophical and practical.

​You can listen to my conversation with Jessa Roisen and Donna Battista here, or search for "Intentional Teaching" in your podcast app.

It's time to move past the notion of AI as an answer machine.

Sometimes you just need to get 1700 words off your chest. I spent last Friday morning writing a blog post titled "It's time to move past the notion of AI as an answer machine." The post was inspired by a conversation with Leon Furze for an upcoming podcast episode. I've been in many conversations over the last few years about the metaphors we use to describe generative AI, but Leon used the term mental model instead of metaphor, which activated all the How People Learn parts of my brain.

I started connecting a lot of dots, from the recent study "Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Offloading and the Implications for Education" by Jason Lodge and Leslie Loble to a recent post by Mike Caulfield to my very first Intentional Teaching podcast episode on AI which featured a conversation with Robert Cummings recorded before ChatGPT was released in late 2022.

Here's the last paragraph of my 1700 word post:

​You can read the rest of the post here.

The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching

My new book, The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching, co-authored with Annette Vee and Marc Watkins, is now available to pre-order! The ebook is expected to be available July 1st, and print copies are expected to start shipping on September 24th. Here's how you can get a copy:

1. Our publisher Norton is pleased to offer the guide as a free ebook for all instructors currently using a Norton textbook. If that's you, you'll receive access from the Norton team when the ebook is available July 1st and can contact your local Norton representative with any questions.
2. If you would like to pre-order the ebook so that you have it July 1st, you can now do so through Amazon and Barnes & Noble and perhaps other retailers.
3. If you would like to pre-order the paperback version of the book, you can now do so through Norton, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and likely other retailers. If you go through Norton, be sure to use the code AIFREESHIP at check out to get free shipping!
4. If you would like to order multiple copies for a campus reading group or some other faculty development effort, Norton has an option for you: On orders of 10 or more print copies, we offer 50% off the list price and free domestic shipping. (Such orders must be on a nonreturnable basis.) To take advantage of this offer, contact Peter Wentz at pwentz@wwnorton.com with subject line “Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching.”