Assignments in thinking, and a grammar test

What I've learned over the years of teaching is that my students don't learn a lot when I'm talking. They learn more when pushed, prompted, provoked into discovering new ideas.

Part of this is because the world is changing so much  and fast, that memorizing information means obsolescence before the year is out. They must learn how to think and adapt.

So it is with two classes I teach this fall, Blogging for Journalists and International Media. You can see tomorrow's  first assignments by clicking on the two class blogs I've set up, BlogblogUCO  and  Clarkinternational

However the third class, Media Writing, is introductory, and students--mostly freshmen and sophomores--will be doing some old fashioned learning about writing in there...it's going to be a class in basic grammar and sentence structure. parts of speech, diagramming, punctuation. It'll start with a grammar test. This is based on my experience that most of our students haven't had grammar since eighth grade. Regardless of technology and trends, they must know how to write a simple English sentence. 

Tomorrow I'll post the grammar test after they take it to see if you can pass it.