A blog by Adam W. Christman

Tag: teaching

  • Spiritual Disciplines: Solitude

    “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” —Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

    The introverts reading this blog post may already be cheering. I’ll pretend I can faintly hear you from this distance! Solitude? Spending time by myself? “Sign me up,” you quietly say aloud as you type it out on your phone. In a busy world, we are all pulled away from this healthy practice by the demands of work, family, friends, and more. But solitude is much more than simply alone time and it is certainly different from doomscrolling alone in your bed at night.

    Two weeks ago, I defined both the spiritual disciplines and, at the same time, any good faith attempt to follow Jesus well, with the statement “following Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself.”

    (If you missed it, you can catch it at this link. Last week, our first spiritual discpline was the intense study of God’s Word.)

    There is much that can and should be said about all the spiritual disciplines, but my posts are focused introductions that spotlight our Lord Jesus. He is the only perfect person in all of human history, so those of us who know how very, very good he is desire to become like him in our character. Also, human transformation (changed lives) really can happen. I’ve seen it happen and I’ve experienced it.

    Solitude (and, with it, times of silence) is an old spiritual discipline that does connect back to Jesus’ own practices that we can see in the Gospels. Again, solitude, as a spiritual discipline, is more than being alone. Rather, solitude is a purposeful time spent with God. In many instances, you may spend that time with Christian music playing where you can hear it, even if only faintly. You may spend that time praying aloud to him. But in other instances, you might pray silently and hold back from talking out loud to yourself. (I do encourage you to consider engaging in a time of silent solitude from time to time.)

    Solitude is a purposeful time spent with God.

    Let’s briefly look at five times Jesus spent a period of time in solitude and, potentially, silence. Though each instance is a period of purposeful solitude, each instance will be for a different purpose.

    Luke 4:1-15. This passage is Luke’s account of Jesus’ famous confrontation and temptation by Satan himself. It comes right after Jesus’ baptism by his cousin John the Baptist in the Jordan river. Luke 4:1-2 say, “Then Jesus left the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry.”

    Between the account in Luke’s Gospel and the one in Matthew’s Gospel, we can see that Jesus does not have his disciples because he has not called them yet. He is completely, one-hundred percent on his own in the wilderness. He participates in this to test himself against the temptations of the Tempter-in-Chief, the Original Tempter, Satan. How well would you and I do against the temptations of Satan himself if he, personally, were the demon testing us? And what if you and I were each on our own for 40 entire days, no cell phone, and worst of all no food? I don’t know about you, but I would probably fold pretty quickly. Jesus, though, proves his character not simply to himself, but to the world!

    In Luke 4, Jesus spent time in solitude in order to prepare for a major task. Specifically, the beginning of his public ministry. As you read, you will see that his return to society leads directly into ministry (Luke 4:14-15) and, soon after (Luke 5), the calling of his first disciples.

    Jesus spent time in solitude in order to prepare for a major task.

    You and I have major tasks in our lives. We begin a new job. Or we begin a new project at work. Maybe you are about to begin the active stewardship of an aging or ailing loved one who needs regular or constant care. That’s a major task! If Jesus spent some time in solitude, it would be wise for you and I to do the same. (I don’t recommend 40 days every time, but who knows? Maybe you do actually need a period of time like that. Most people will occasionally need one to three days, in my rough estimation.)

    In the Gospel of Mark, we see another instance of Jesus seeking a time of solitude. Chapter 6 reports the tragic death of his cousin, John the Baptist. When that happens, Jesus hears about it through John’s disciples (Matt. 14:12). In this period where he would obviously grieve John’s death, as well as the manner of his death, Jesus seeks time alone (Mark 6:32), but the crowds find him. In his great compassion, Jesus puts off rest and serves the crowds by teaching them and ultimately feeding the five thousand men.1

    After the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus sends the crowds home and he also sends the disciples on to Bethsaida by a boat. Mark 6:45-47 show us, “Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After he said good-bye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray. Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land.” In other words, when the work was done, Jesus spent time alone to rest or recharge, as well as to grieve. Please do not mistake my point: not all grieving can or even should be done in solitude. Let the church help you carry your burden (Gal. 6:2)! The point I hope you are seeing is that even Jesus, the only perfect person, chose to prioritize having times of solitude to rest after hard work, and in order to grieve.

    Notice also that “he went away to the mountain to pray” (emphasis added). His solitude for rest and grief was not “alone time.” In fact, he was spending time with someone: Jesus spent time in prayer with God the Father. When was the last time you spent alone time with God instead of with your phone? I don’t mean 5 or 15 minutes in the morning before you go to work. When was the last time you took real time out of your schedule to devote it to one-on-one time with the Lord? Jesus did it. Let’s learn from him (Matt. 11:29).

    Jesus spent time in solitude to rest and, after the death of his cousin, to grieve.

    Turning back to Luke, we find Jesus spending time in solitude before making an important decision. Luke 6:12-13 tells us about that moment. “During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.”

    We know from Luke’s Gospel that Jesus has already engaged in truth-telling and preaching. So this time of solitude is distinct from the kind where he prepared for a major task, as discussed above regarding Luke chapter 4. Rather than a major task, this solitude precedes an important decision or question: who will be the twelves disciples raised to a special level of Jesus’ investment in terms of time and mentoring (discipleship)? Time alone with God allowed Jesus the space of prayer and “unhurriedness” to come to peaceful clarity.

    Who amongst us could not use peaceful clarity when making an important decision? Do you remember the last time you were rushed into a truly important decision? It was pretty awful, right? And you might have made the wrong decision in the moment, where you selected an option that seemed good in the moment but when you had more time to consider you realize it was not the wisest or best option. Consider this. Even Jesus needed time alone with God before making an important decision. We are not better or wiser than Jesus. Surely, we need time alone with God before making important decisions, too.

    Jesus spent time in solitude before making an important decision.

    Luke 22 is a powerful and important chapter. Amongst other important parts of the life of Jesus, Luke records another time of solitude, spent for a different purpose than the others we have examined so far.

    Luke 22:39-44 reports on Jesus’ time in solitary prayer on the Mount of Olives just prior to Judas’ betrayal and the arrest of Jesus. (The entire moment covers verses 39-46 before rolling into Judas’ betrayal in verse 47.) Here are the verses: “He went out and made his way as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he told them, ‘Pray that you may not fall into temptation.’ Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and began to pray, ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me ​— ​nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

    You may already know that by this time in Jesus’ life, he is abundantly aware of what he is about to experience at the hands of the religious leaders and the Romans. He knows the Messiah is to also be the Suffering Servant, who would bear the earthly weight of physical beatings and literal bodily death. He knows the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is the sacrificial lamb, the Lamb Who Was Slain, because the wages of sin is death, which is to say he would bear the heavenly weight of the wrath of God. He would receive in his person the righteous penalty for all the sins of every man, woman, boy, and girl who would put their faith in him. He knew the burden to come. Further, Jesus was and is not just God. He was at his conception and he continues to be fully human, as well. He felt what any other human being would feel in that context. He felt stressed. He felt so stressed that the Gospel reports him sweating blood (Luke 22:44).2

    So, stop and look at what Luke is reporting to us. Jesus felt stress, incredibly high levels of stress considering his near future. What is he to do? Blow off steam with a game? Numb the stress with alcohol or mind-altering substances? No. This person is Jesus. He took that opportunity to spend time in solitude during a time of stress.

    Jesus’ solitude during this time of stress served the purpose of remembering both God’s will and God’s mission. God’s will was that he himself would bear the sins of his people. The judge would get off the judgment seat and put himself in the execution chamber to take the death penalty for the convicted criminal. God’s mission is to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). But he can’t do much seeking or saving if he doesn’t die for the sins of his people. So Jesus’ time of solitude is clearly a time of prayer (Lk. 22:41-42) and it is a time where he can clarify those two issues. There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus sought this time in order to walk with peace, strength, and dignity through his betrayal, trials, sufferings, and death.

    Maybe this example is the easiest pill to swallow. It is common practice even for people who don’t consider themselves Christians to pray to God for help during times of trouble. There is a popular song on the radio nowadays where the American theologian singer and guest wrestler on WWE Jelly Roll says, “I only talk to God when I need a favor, and I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer.” My point here is not to speak against this practice, but rather to encourage it. Pray at all times (1 Thess. 5:17). But when the times are tough, you have to turn to your Heavenly Father. If anyone has help for you and a way out, it is him.

    Jesus spent time in solitude during a time of stress (or, distress).

    We have come to our last passage. I know we have spent a lot of time in the Gospel of Luke, but go into it with me one more time. In Luke 5:15-16, we read about Jesus’ practice after ministry efforts. Those verses tell us, “But the news about him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Yet he often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.”

    I certainly hope you will notice that Jesus uses times of solitude and prayer to rest. (Notice, it shows just him, not Jesus and the disciples.) But I hope you will especially notice in this passage the powerful little adverb “often.” Jesus “often” withdrew to deserted places to pray, it says. How incredible is that? I know it can be hard to imagine or wrap your brain around it, but Jesus really did spend relatively frequent times of solitude for the purpose of prayer. We can barely squeeze in 5 minutes of Bible reading a day, while also spending countless hours listening to podcasts, debating the finer points of our favorite baseball team, or catching up on two to five hours of whatever show has our attention lately. Jesus’s frequent habit of solitude for the purpose of prayer may be a wake-up call kind of challenge, but I think it is the one we need.

    Jesus often spent time in solitude in order to pray.

    “But this is Jesus we’re talking about,” you object. You would be right in that objection if you mean we cannot achieve perfection through our efforts. Jesus, however, calls us to “learn” from him (Matt. 11:29). And we can become like him if we will continue to “follow Jesus in the overall style of life he chose for himself.” He did it. We can do it. Let’s do it!

    Allow me to close with one more question and response. Are any of the situations I described in this post unique to Jesus? Of course not. We all prepare for major tasks, return from hard work, grieve losses, prepare to make important decisions, experience stress, and need to pray. None of us are immune from these areas of life. If we will spend time alone with God, he will guide, encourage, and provide for us like he has done before.

    Sometime soon (maybe today) turn off your phone. Put away the work project. Ask someone to watch the kids for a little bit. And find time to be genuinely alone with the Lord God. He wants you to spend time with him. He wants you to know him better. He wants you to take up his yoke and burden. He wants you to learn from him! He wants to bless you. So take some time very soon and spend it alone. Spend it alone with God and spend it purposefully, for the sake of the richness of your life in Christ.

    Come back next week for another post on a different spiritual discipline.

    1. The Bible reports a count of 5,000 men and mentions that there are women and children, too. We don’t have numbers for the women and children, but it is a safe assumption to estimate Jesus fed anywhere from 18,000 to 25,000 people through that miracle! ↩︎
    2. This occurrence is a real physiological phenomenon. You can read about it in multiple sources, but I was first exposed to this information in an incredible book called The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. I highly recommend it to you. ↩︎

  • On “Filler” and Consistency

    This round of blogs is a series aimed at students who engage in academic writing. In all, the series will constitute a kind of primer on academic writing for students. Each post will tackle a problem I’ve seen in papers from my classmates, my students, and myself.

    Today’s post is the final entry in this series on paper writing, and it is another Tips from a Tutor two-fer! First, I discuss “filler words,” and then I finish with my thoughts on consistency.

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    What you have to understand is that all of the problems I’ve discussed in this series have plagued my own papers at one time or another. One problem that is hard for me to shake is that of filler words.

    In spoken conversation, many of us employ filler words for a variety of functions. This “um” might give me time to figure out how I want to finish this sentence, while that “uh” with a circular hand gesture might indicate that I just started thinking about my answer, and so on. When you’re hanging out with friends and family, filler words are irrelevant. The setting is informal and is based on a loving familial or friendly relationship. But should you use a lot of “ums,” “uhs,” or “well…” when you meet someone in a professional context, or when you apply for a job, or when you talk to your boss?

    A research paper, at every level from high school to professional, is a formal presentation that needs the right presentation. An outfit of a t-shirt and jeans is fine for a cook-out with your family, but it does not work at a black tie function. Similarly, you must edit out filler words before you submit your paper. Look at the expensive graphic below for examples of common filler words in academic writing.[1]

     filler words

    Remember this post on assuming words and overused adverbs? What I’m telling you about now overlaps with that idea. Edit these words out. Sometimes you can find a better word, but most of the time you will simply need to find a better way to phrase the sentence without the filler. If you can do this, you are on your way to writing better papers.

    (P.S., I do think the word “therefore” can be used as a filler word. Don’t spray this all over your paper. You’re not Paul the apostle!)

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    The final topic I tackle in this series on Tips from a Tutor is the idea of consistency.

    You will find two benefits from reading something that is consistent. First, the reading experience will be more enjoyable because you will be better poised to understand what the author means. Second, you will find that this is how the best professional papers are written.

    What exactly do I mean by “consistency”? Good question, dear Google bot. You might think I mean your paper must be logically consistent. That definition is not the focus of this post, though logical consistency is of obvious benefit to your papers. Without it, you are lost.

    What I mean is be consistent in the writing, itself. This can often be most easily addressed by answering certain questions beforehand. In what format are you required to submit your paper? Turabian? Chicago? (Modified Turabian for GGBTS?) Within some formatting styles, there is a flexibility on how to present citations of various kinds. How are you going to cite your sources? In-line citations, footnotes, or endnotes? How are you going to cite the Scriptures? If you abbreviate the titles of the books of the Bible, how will you do so? If you quote from multiple translations of the same text (such as the Bible), how will you indicate to your reader(s) what translate you are using? What terms will you use to discuss your topic? For example, if your paper is on the offices of the church, you must define “elder,” “pastor,” and “bishop” for two reasons: it is for meaning (theology) and for communication to carry that meaning to your reader (paper-writing, sucka!). In the example of the offices of the church, you have to define your terms even if you believe they are three designations of the same office. By providing one central definition for all three terms, you reader(s) will be able to follow your meaning.

    *          *          *

    And with that, I bring this series on paper-writing to a close. I hope it was beneficial to you. If you think you missed any entries in the series, feel free to click on the tags at the bottom of this post, or search my blog for either “how to write a paper” or “Tips from a Tutor.”

    I am currently in the process of turning this series into a concise pdf that you can download and refer to whenever you are in the throes of writing your papers. Once it is finished, it will be available as a free download right here at adamwchristman.com, and I will make an announcement about it.

    See you next week!

    [1] BONUS TIP: Don’t EVER use the word “thing(s)” in your papers for ANY REASON. Come up with something better!

  • No Foolin’: Assuming Words and Overused Adverbs

    This round of blogs is a series aimed at students who engage in academic writing. In all, the series will constitute a kind of primer on academic writing for students. Each post will tackle a problem I’ve seen in papers from my classmates, my students, and myself.

    This week’s Tips from a Tutor focuses on two topics. The first is a serious problem in paper-writing. The second is more of a gentle suggestion that should help clean up your papers and make them stronger.

    And…no. This is not a bad April Fool’s joke. I mean every word in this entry!

    *          *          *

    The first problem to discuss today is the misuse of what I call Assuming Words ™. (No, not really trademarked.)

    Many students fall into this trap. Let me give you one example of how you might use this particular bad habit. Maybe you heard your professor argue for a particular understanding of an issue repeatedly over the course of the class, so now that it is time to write your term paper, you incorporate that argument because it is relevant to your topic. Except many students have introduced their professor’s preferred argument with words or phrases like “it is clear,” “obviously,” “of course,” and other words that presume that the following is unquestionably the only way to view it.

    There are two reasons why this is a problem in academic writing.

    To begin with what might be the most pedantic item in this list, your term paper is supposed to convince your reader of your position. If you utilize Assuming Words casually, especially if you use them throughout the paper, you will not convince most readers. Instead of listening to winsome evidence and the logic of your argument, they are hit over the head with your presumptions.

    The second reason comes out of the first. If you use Assuming Words casually, you miss an opportunity to flex the evidence you need (and may even have found in your research). This results in a weaker paper because it relies on your Assuming Words to move the paper along rather than evidence and analysis. At best, casual use of Assuming words is a wasted opportunity to convince your reader(s). At worst, it is laziness and (spoiler alert!) your teachers were once students, and as teachers they read a lot of papers, so for those two good reasons (and more), they recognize lazy work when they see it.

    *          *          *

    The second topic on the docket today rests on adverbs of manner, circumstance, and degree.

    Words like “easily,” “simultaneously,” and “very” can be helpful. I don’t mean to warn you off them entirely. (Ahem.) Instead, I would caution you to avoid using them too much. I cannot tell you how many papers I have read where any given page is littered with words that end in “-ly.” This is clutter akin to a public speaker uttering the “um” noise after every clause.

    In addition, the use of the adverb “very” should be limited. If you modify one or more verbs in every paragraph with “very,” then how is your reader to know the difference in value between your various points? Everything cannot be “very important,” for example. Some things are less important.

    I suggest you purchase a good thesaurus or visit thesaurus.com to find ways to better communicate that same idea without a constant stream of adverbs. I point you to the almost-cliche KISS acronym. Keep It Simple, Sam! (Note: This proverb is not only applicable to people named Sam.)

  • The Passive Voice Was Being Used

    This round of blogs is a series aimed at students who engage in academic writing. In all, the series will constitute a kind of primer on academic writing for students. Each post will tackle a problem I’ve seen in papers from my classmates, my students, and myself.

    This week I am discussing passive voice. (If you caught that and the one in the title, you probably don’t need to read this post. Bonus points to anyone who finds irony in other parts of this post!)

    The active voice is the normal form of a verb, where the subject performs the action of the verb. This is most easily seen in the proper English word order of Subject ̶ Verb ̶ Object. For example, “Sam hits the ball.” So, “Sam” is the Subject, “hits” is the Verb, and “ball” is the Object. The verb “hits” uses the active voice in order to communicate that it is Sam who performs this action on the ball.

    If we took that same sentence and put the verb into the passive voice, it would read, “The ball is hit by Sam.” This is the best use of the passive voice; however, that does not mean it is the right choice for academic writing.

    Many students weaken and mar their papers with a poor use of the passive voice. I have seen papers use it from start to finish, thereby spoiling what might have been an interesting, strong voice on their subjects. The passive voice often obscures the meaning of the subject, object, or both.

    Many times, when you add “to be” to a verb that does not require it (most especially if you change the main verb into a gerund, which adds “-ing” to the end, also called a participle), you cast the sentence in the passive voice.

    In academic writing, this use of the passive should be avoided or edited, and the active voice should always be preferred. Sentences such as the following dilute your message.

    “Paul is commanding the Galatians to…”

    “The Philippians were told…”

    “Joshua is portrayed as a new Moses.”

    “Hosea had been saying…”

    Instead, these sentences become stronger when cast in the active voice. Consider the following revisions of the four examples.

    “Paul commands the Galatians to…”

    “The letter to the Philippians says…”

    “The author of the Book of Joshua portrays this Joshua as a new Moses.”

    “Hosea preached about this previously when…”

    These sentences are much stronger and would serve well in an academic or professional paper.

     

    Next week is a Tips from a Tutor Two-fer! See you then.

  • Run-on Sentences: What Are They?

    This round of blogs is a series aimed at students who engage in academic writing. In all, the series will constitute a kind of primer on academic writing for students. Each post will tackle a problem I’ve seen in papers from my classmates, my students, and myself.

    This week’s topic is the run-on sentence. I give a definition and reasons to edit these out. Shall we begin?

    *          *          *

    A run-on sentence is a sentence in which multiple independent clauses are placed together in a kind of string without punctuation or proper conjunction. When sentences run on in audible conversation, they can be ignored or forgiven or clarified there in the moment. When sentences run on in academic writing, the paper comes across as sloppy, unedited, and (perhaps) as something submitted without much thought given to it. For a clearer, stronger paper, hang in there with me as I explain run-on sentences and how to fix them in your editing process.

    If you read Greek, look for an example in literally almost any sentence written by the apostle Paul.

    If you’re limited to modern languages, here are two examples.

    “I could not find the book on the bookshelf where is it?” or,

    “The apostle Paul was a Hellenized Jew raised under Roman rule who studied under Gamaliel he was a great example of a young Jewish man before his conversion to Christianity.”

    Both of these examples include at least two independent clauses, but they are jammed together without punctuation or proper conjunction. Independent clauses are units of thought in a sentence (or that make up an entire sentence) that could be a separate sentence if put on their own. Look at a snapshot of one from the second example. “…he was a great example of a young Jewish man before his conversion to Christianity.” The italicized unit of thought is an independent clause because you could write that as a stand-alone sentence and it would make sense. If you took “before his conversion to Christianity” on its own, however, it does not make much sense. It could confuse the reader regarding to whom you refer. It is an adverbial clause that clarifies, and should remain with the independent clause to which it is connected.

    Back to the primary issue of run-on sentences. Let’s fix these examples, and hopefully benefit your paper writing.

    Example 1 is, “I could not find the book on the bookshelf where is it?”

    This example is a bit easier. Simply put a period after “bookshelf” and begin a new sentence. This separates the independent clauses.

    Fixed Example 1 is, “I could not find the book on the bookshelf. Where is it?”

    The second example is a slightly more complicated.

    Example 2 is, “The apostle Paul was a Hellenized Jew raised under Roman rule who studied under Gamaliel he was a great example of a young Jewish man before his conversion to Christianity.”

    This run-on sentence has two clear independent clauses, with two dependent clauses that you may want to change into independent clauses (and, therefore, independent sentences). Let’s begin with the simpler work of breaking this long example in two. You could place a period after Gamaliel, making it, “The apostle Paul was a Hellenized Jew raised under Roman rule who studied under Gamaliel. He was a great example of a young Jewish man before his conversion to Christianity.” While a little awkward, this edit will work.

    Better work, however, would break this down into three or four sentences. This would change it to something like the following. “The apostle Paul was a Hellenized Jew raised under Roman rule. He studied under Gamaliel. Paul was a great example of a young Jewish man, but his conversion to Christianity changed all that in the eyes of the Jewish leadership.”

    Run-on sentences muddy any academic work. Avoid this problem by breaking them into separate sentences. In doing so, you will have clearer and more precise papers.

    Come back next week for keeping the passive voice out of academic writing. Until then, excelsior!

  • Contractions and More! A Tips from a Tutor Two-Fer

    This round of blogs is a series aimed at students who engage in academic writing. In all, the series will constitute a kind of primer on academic writing for students. Each post will tackle a problem I’ve seen in papers from my classmates, my students, and myself.

    If you are having trouble writing strong papers for your classes, then read on in this Tips from a Tutor Two-Fer!

    *          *          *

    The second topic I’ve selected won’t surprise you if you’ve read many pap’r’s.

    Contractions!

    Contractions are shortened forms of a word or a group of words with the omitted letter typically replaced with an apostrophe. So, you get “I’ve” from “I have,” “won’t” from “will not,” “you’ve” from “you have,” and “pap’r’s” from “trying to be funny.”

    We all use contractions in everyday conversation. Many of us utilize contractions even in professional settings. When speaking out loud, they are often, though not always, appropriate.

    However, this blog is written for the student working on an academic assignment. For you, contractions are anathema. Steer clear of them! They are informal, and seem sloppy. Instead, write your contractions out while making sure to avoid the passive voice. (For the post on passive voice, stay tuned!)

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    If you still struggle to avoid contractions (or the 1st and 2nd person), this can be caught through careful editing. Ding ding! Our second topic of the post.

    I cannot emphasize enough how important editing is to turning in a good paper. Whether you have someone else do it or you learn how to do it yourself, you have to get your papers edited before you turn them in.

    Would you want to live in a house where the architect took one shot at the blueprints? Where nobody checked over that work, so the construction crews built it exactly to the design? I seriously doubt that you would. Then why would you want to earn a grade based on a paper that had not been picked through carefully?

    When editing your paper, work backwards from the end, paragraph by paragraph. Try not to take your words or sentences for granted. In this way, you will pick up on your mistakes of spelling, grammar, etc. And then you edit it again! Never give a paper only one pass at editing. You will miss something, whether that is a misspelled word or a hole in your argument, so multiple passes are highly preferable.

    That’s all I have to say about that for now, though I may revisit the topic of editing in the future. Come back next week for more Tips from a Tutor!

  • 1st & 2nd Person Pronouns in (out of!) Academic Writing

    I’m bringing (my) blogging back!

    To kick off this new round of blogs, I have prepared a series of short blogs aimed at students who engage in academic writing. In all, the series will constitute a kind of primer on academic writing for students. Each post will tackle a problem I’ve seen in papers from my classmates, my students, and myself.

    If you are having trouble writing strong papers for your classes, then read on!

    *   *   *

    The first topic I have selected is on the use of 1st person and 2nd person personal pronouns in academic writing. These are words like “we,” “you,” and “I.” It is my understanding that there are also others.

    STOP USING THEM.

    In academic writing, your goal is to sound objective and convince your audience of your hypothesis with the strength of your evidence and argument. You will not accomplish this if you write papers like you write blogs (!) or sermons.

    This is a common mistake, but if you are not sure how to go about writing papers in light of this information, I’m here to help!

    The academy’s preferred, “objective,” voice sounds something like the following, when referring to the second person. “One would do well to consider how to write academic papers. If one were to ignore practices such as these, worse grades will become reality.” Referring to “one” rather than “you” is far more objective, and always sounds better in academic writing.

    When you want to refer to yourself, the author, there is a simple tip I can give you. Don’t.

    It will not help your paper. If you absolutely must refer to yourself because, let’s face it, your ego is as big as mine, then refer to yourself as “the author of this paper” or “this author.” There could be a problem with this approach, as some students have tried to use it and wound up confusing the professor regarding the author to whom the student refers. Do you mean the most recently-referenced source? Or do you mean yourself? If you use this approach, be very clear.

    That’s all for this week’s Tips from a Tutor. Come back next week for more paper-writing help.

  • Kinesthetic Learning and the Forgotten Learners

    We Know Better

                Teaching is more than standing at the front of a room and talking. Every teacher knows this, intellectually, but how many do something about it? How many of us engage with kinesthetic learning week to week, or even any kind of consistent basis? We’ve all read the books on learning styles. We’ve all heard the admonishments against neglecting kinesthetic learning. Kinesthetic learning is a valid and necessary method for adults as well as children. LeFever sums up the problem nicely, “Movement in a class setting is great if you happen to be in preschool or in the very early elementary classes. But as classes begin to get more and more traditional, these realistic, practical, matter-of-fact students may be lost.”[1]

    Practical Tips for Biblical Studies Courses

                Baptists, and I am one, consider ourselves “people of the Book.” Those of us who teach the Bible to adults become very focused on literary techniques and verbal-based elements. Our teaching reflects this focus, as our primary resources is a book, rather than rocks in geology or chemicals in a chemistry class. If we are lazy, this is the only area from which we draw teaching techniques, thus leaving kinesthetic learning by the wayside. In order to encourage you towards incorporating kinesthetic learning in Biblical studies courses, I have compiled the following, which is like an annotated bibliography, but it consists of examples applicable to Biblical studies.

    Have your learners create an in-class drama or video presentation on the life of a biblical figure discussed in your class. Do your learners often have trouble understanding exactly how the Davidic monarchy fell apart? A dramatic video presenting the dissolution of the monarchy might go a long way in helping them put together who did what to whom and why.

    Divide up the history of your entire course so that each learner is assigned one piece (whether that’s the length of a single king’s reign, or a century, etc.) and has to create a detailed visual timeline of that period. For example, one learner creates a timeline for the life of David up until the murder of Uriah and abduction of Bathsheba while another creates a timeline for the life of David from the Uriah/Bathsheba episode until David’s death. When your students turn in their timelines, display them on the walls of your classroom such that they can look at the whole timeline, from beginning to end.

    Do you find it difficult to lecture on the Tabernacle or Temple and their rituals? Re-create one or both of these structures in the classroom. One way to do so is to simply tape off the room or another space such that you can walk from point to point while your students watch or walk with you. You get to show them exactly what is going on, and you get to make the subject more immediately relevant. Another way is to bring materials for the class to work together to build a model to scale.

    Here is an idea you can use with any subject. Have your learners create a quiz on the day’s subject. Have them model it after the way you typically write your own quizzes. Then, have them offer their questions aloud and have class discussion over them.

    Create a sign-up list for a “Visual Aid Assistant” with one opening per class session. Set up in the room early, connecting a laptop to the internet and projector. When that session’s “VAA” arrives, he or she is responsible for looking up your lecture topic, characters, books, places, tools, weapons, etc., on Google or Flickr and sliding that picture from the laptop over to the projector as a kind of running visual aid commentary.

    As I wrote about on previous posts, utilize gaming in your classroom to break up the lecture and give your students something to do. Have them rearrange the chairs around tables, have them get up and sit in a new place, then set up the game and let them have at it. Games should probably last up to 45 minutes, at the most.

    Be creative! Don’t rely on monotony, and don’t neglect kinesthetic learning. Do Google searches for creative/kinesthetic learning methods. Your classes will be better for it!

     

    [1] Marlene D. LeFever, Learning Styles (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook Publishing, 1995), 58.

  • Fun in the Classroom: How Dare You

    Some Problems

                You may not have noticed, but excellent teaching is hard work. In case that obvious statement needs clarification: adult learners get bored when you drone on simply lecturing for 3 hours a week. Even adult learners are limited to 25 minute attention spans before you lose them.[1] Lecture-only tendencies fail other learning styles. Lecture-only techniques typically require the learner to create his own motivation. It is like offering a spoonful of rice to a starving man. Sure, the rice is healthy, but with only this much to offer, his starvation continues. Utilizing games in the classroom is one way educators can vary their approach, reach more learning styles, and motivate learners. Herodotus wrote a history of the Greeks that recorded a certain period of famine and the populace’s response.

    “For some time the Lydians bore the affliction patiently, but finding that it did not pass away, they set to work to devise remedies for the evil. Various expedients were discovered by various persons; dice, and knuckle-bones, and ball, and all such games were invented… The plan adopted against the famine was to engage in games one day so entirely as not to feel any craving for food, and the next day to eat and abstain from games. In this way they passed eighteen years.”[2]

    So, during a time of literal famine, the general populace took to games to improve their lives. Educators can and should utilize games in teaching in order to reach more learners with better quality teaching.

    But What is the Value of Games in Education?

                Google phrases like “games for personal and social change,” “positive impact games,” “social reality games,” “serious games,” or “leveraging the play of the planet.” Visit websites like Game For Change, or Serious Games Interactive. No, go ahead. I can wait.

    The men and women working on these sites, programs, and initiatives are on the leading edge of utilizing gaming for education. Granted, the majority of what you will find in these searches are video games, and you should know that there is nothing wrong with that.

    Don’t be afraid. You don’t need to become a visual artist or programmer to use gaming in your classroom. Teachers have used games for millennia, and not just to educate children. Jane McGonigal rightly asserts that games will “satisfy our hunger to be challenged and rewarded, to be creative and successful, to be social and part of something larger than ourselves.”[3] You can use traditional classroom games that have been around for decades, board games, card games, simulation games, video games — the sky is the limit.

    Games empower the learners. They learn skills, they engage with the material, and – with some work – you can tie many game elements to your teaching material. With this increased investment, the learners will care more about your subject, which will fuel further learning.

    Examples for the Classroom

                Consider using a roleplaying game. Marlene D. LeFever gives a good, easy system for a game like this called “Guidance.”[4] In addition, more popular roleplaying systems are available, including Dungeons & Dragons,[5] Pathfinder, and Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. Roleplaying games can be carefully crafted to interact with specific material in your class, whether it is a psychology, sociology, counseling class, and more. It allows the learner to step into different shoes and gain new perspective on your topic.

    Consider developing your own. I, myself, have begun work on a simulation/strategy game that teaches the socio-economic context of the Roman Empire. Consider what you want to teach, the values of the best games (see McGonigal, above), and how you might go about doing that. Start building rules and test it until it’s where you want it to be!

    Finally, I suggest visiting your local game store to ask if they have anything that relates to your topic. In addition, consider searching BoardGameGeek.com for games related to your topic.

     

    [1] Freddy Cardoza, class lecture, “Teaching Adults,” Spring 2014.

    [2] George Rawlinson, trans., with Henry Rawlinson and J. G. WIlkinson, The History of Herodotus: A New English Version (New York: D. Appleton, 1861), 181-82. (http://archive.org/stream/historyofherodot01herouoft#page/182/mode/2up, accessed 4/26/2014.)

    [3] Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken (New York: Penguin Press, 2011), 10.

    [4] Marlene D. LeFever, Creative Teaching Methods, Revised Edition (Colorado Springs: NexGen, 2004), 142-66. This classic book has several other examples worth examining, too. See also Robert Heinich, Michael Molenda, and James D. Russell, Instructional Media, 2nd Edition (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1985), 304-25.

    [5] If you’re wondering, no, the Devil did not create this game. Maybe another blog post for another time…

  • Incentivized Learning: Beyond the Grade

    Elizabeth Barkley succinctly asserts the following as almost a passing comment, “significant learning starts with the learner’s active engagement with a problem.”[1] Maybe you, the educator reading this blog entry, are the absolute best lecturer in the history of mankind. Maybe your paper assignments have the best written instructions since the IKEA assembly instructions guy got started. Maybe your students paid for a full seat in your class, but they only need the edge! Or, like me, you are one of the rest of us, educators looking to create engagement with your material in ways that will motivate them and stay with them when the semester is over.

    What I Mean by “Incentivized Learning”

                I do not propose merely a new way to think about teaching to all learning styles. Rather, I use the term “incentivized learning” to refer to methods employed by the educator to motivate learners to engage with specific material, whether that is one assignment, a part of a lecture, a module, or an entire course. Granted, you might think the incentive for learning the material is simply in the final grade. It’s nice to get an A, after all! But there is more to learning than a letter on a piece of paper, and that comes through dynamic learning techniques that engage with the learner in a way that motivates them and stays with them.

    Incentivized Learning is Valuable to Both Child and Adult Learners

                Teachers who focus on children have been utilizing incentivized learning for years beyond count. My 4 year old daughter attends an excellent preschool. Her teachers have a point-based system (using star stickers) to add new points for good behaviors or other learning. When the child has reached a certain number of stars, she can pick a prize out of The Prize Box. I’ve seen multiple children pull such an item from their backpacks at the end of the day to show their mommies or daddies, and they have such smiles on their faces! Not only are these children learning good behaviors such as cooperation, leading, and responsibility, they also have concretized incentives they can point to and say, for example, “I got this out of helping my friend calm down after she fell and hurt herself.”

    Adults, of course, are not always impressed by star stickers or used toys. The path of incentivized learning for adult learners seems daunting. “What could I use to incentivize this material without treating them like children?” I admit, it will be difficult to determine what works and what does not. But anything worth doing is usually difficult. I suggest looking to resources such as Barkley’s Collaborative Learning Techniques, Hin’s online article,[2] Svinicki and McKeachie’s McKeachie’s Teaching Tips,[3] or LeFever’s Creative Teaching Methods.[4]

    An Example of Incentivized Learning

                There are a variety of methods with which to incentivize learning. You may already use one or more. But part of aiming for excellence in teaching is to increase one’s repertoire, to put more tools in the tool belt. Ask around your faculty or with others who teach adult learners to see what variety of methods they use to motivate the learners to take to the material beyond threat of a bad grade. I suggest here one of many you should consider adapting to your own classes.

    If your students have trouble with analysis, or they need practice with analysis before they begin work on their major project for your class, consider Structured Problem Solving.[5] In theological education, you could use SPS as an opportunity for groups of students to analyze, e.g., a biblical passage. You provide them a problem and the series of steps to follow to try and solve it. At the end, they can present their solution (incentive: a chart or powerpoint they can use to teach someone else about this issue), debate their solutions with other groups (incentive: winning a debate), and receive positive feedback on the strengths of their assignment (incentive: increased emotional investment in the course).

    In my next blog, I dive deeper into another example of incentivized learning: fun and games in the classroom. Can they be used for education? Does it have to be “Monopoly”? Come back next week for more.

     

    [1] Elizabeth F. Barkley, K. Patricia Cross, and Claire Howell Major, Collaborative Learning Techniques, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

    [2] Brian Lee Chin Hin, “Effect of Incentivized Online Activities On E-Learning,” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 28, edited by Halil I. Yalin, et al (2011), 211-16.

    [3] Marilla Svinicki and Wilbert J. McKeachie, eds., McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, 13th edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2011. See esp. chapters 14, 15, and 19-21.

    [4] Marlene D. LeFever, Creative Teaching Methods, Revised Edition, Colorado Springs: NexGen, 2004.

    [5] The name is borrowed from Barkley, et al, p. 188-92. See this reference for examples within two different disciplines of the same technique.