Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

I have a question to pose based on one of the passages I underlined in my copy of the book. Read the below and then respond to the "Q:" below if interested... In Chapter 7, "Motivating," Lang discusses the importance of getting to class early. While you obviously don't want to be late, he also stresses another reason of showing up a bit ahead of time: "[a professor] had shown up to every class session 5-10 minutes early and--even though she found it a struggle--spent a few of those minutes approaching individuals in the class and engaging in casual conversation. She did so in a carefully planned way, enusring that she approached every student at least once over the course of the semester: "Even that stony-faced kid sitting in the back row--I made sure I spoke to him, too" (180). This professor claimed that student evaluations rose and expressed how much the students appreciate this  one-on-one attention.  Q: Does anyone else do this? I initi...

Does anyone use this activity in their classes and/or want to try it? I am going to try this in my British Literature to 1800 class (we're currently reading Twelfth Night) to help students make connections between Elizabethan poetry and the ideals of the Renaissance that Shakespeare is repsonding to. After I do it, I'll repsond to this as a comment. If anyone else wants to try, respond as a comment and let me know how it went. I realize this is geared toward literature/humanities in his quote, but I think it can be used in a wide variety of classes--but let me know if you see obvious limitations.  Here's the relevant passage: "My single good idea consists of a game called the minute thesis, and it represents in some ways the germ of this book, in that it constitutes an ideal small teaching ac tivity: free, easy, and capable to use in any size class, for any length of time as you wish, from 10 minutes to the full class period...I wrote the name of the seven novel...