Teaching Ideas from Past CEI Conferences

  • Advertisement Analysis Project
    • This classroom application of authentic, problem-based learning was presented by Tami Sloane Thrasher, English instructor at Piedmont Community College at the North Carolina Conference of English Instructors' Fall Conference 2001 at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, on October 29, 2001. This presentation provides practical examples of collaborative activities for ENG 111 using real-world writing. Assignments are designed to integrate higher-order abilities (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) and multiple assessment strategies.
  • Climbing Mt. Sinai in English
    • "A wall of mountains rose around us, black as night itself, their tops only faint lines against a paler sky. Somewhere in the darkness was Mt. Sinai, which we would climb at midnight, hoping to reach the summit by sunrise." So begins this essay in which the author attempts to climb Mt. Sinai...but discovers on the way that her English composition class is in her pack.
  • Film Report
    • "Film Report Assignment: Plot, Structure, and Meaning" by Rick Lewis of Sandhills Community College describes an assignment for students to look for different types of film narrative patterns and use those to find the meaning behind the conflicts and resolution in a film. The assignments includes evaluation criteria and resources for researching a film and narrative patterns used in films. Writing About Film
  • The Freshman Course Novel
    • "The Freshman Course Novel: An All-campus Read to Create Community" by JoAnn Buck explains how Guilford Technical Community College created community within its college and the Greater Greensboro Area through involving students and community in the study of one novel and its author.
  • I Hate English
    • Do you remember your first days as an English teacher? Can you remember the first time you heard a student say, "I hate English"? Award-winning author and English Professor Barbara Cole remembers her early days as an English teacher and remembers also why she became an English teacher in the first place.
  • Real People, Real Writing: Learning Theory and Applications
    • Tami Sloane Thrasher, English instructor at Piedmont Community College, presented a demonstration of authentic learning, or problem-based learning, at the North Carolina Conference of English Instructors' Fall Conference 2001 at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, on October 29, 2001. She provided learning theory and practical examples of collaborative activities for ENG 111 using real-world writing. She designs all her assignments to integrate higher-order abilities (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) and multiple assessment strategies. Group Form Peer Analysis
  • Statement of Principles and Standards for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing
    • In October 1989, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) adopted this statement on commitment to educational quality, professional standards that promote quality education (tenure-line faculty, graduate students, part-time faculty, and full-time temporary faculty), and teaching conditions necessary for quality education.
  • Throw Your Students Out of the Classroom!
    • This teaching assignment was presented by Clemellyn H. Welch, lead English instructor at Central Carolina Community College at the North Carolina Conference of English Instructors' Fall Conference 2001 at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, on October 29, 2001. The presentation is a three-phase English 114 assignment during which students move beyond the college setting to explore their chosen careers. The project requires students to accomplish multiple tasks: setting up and conducting an interview, preparing a written report of interview results, and making an oral presentation of these results.