HOW WE CAN HELP
 For
many of us it is difficult to
break it to the class that they must
write 4000 words
Get rid of
the
Gordon
rule
How
Many
Words
?
Why do we
have to do
this
Professor?
 Don’t
you love it when they all give
you their papers late???
 What do you feel like doing next???
I CAN HELP
QUESTIONS I WILL ANSWER





Who was Gordon?
How can I score essays quickly and
effectively?
What innovative strategies can I use?
Is the rule statistically effective?
Questions???
WHO IS GORDON
Senator Jack Gordon

He served
as a
Florida
State
Senator
from 1972
until 1992

Prior to his election to the Senate
in 1972, Gordon was a MiamiDade County School Board
member from 1961 to 1969.

During his tenure, he was
instrumental in initiating
the desegregation of
Miami-Dade County
schools.

He was known for his advocacy for
issues affecting education, health
care, civil rights and other social
issues facing the state.
HOW CAN I SCORE ESSAYS
QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY?
The Rubric
What is it?
Refer to you packets
HOW CAN WE MAKE
IT INTERESTING?
Innovative strategies
for the Gordon Rule
One page summaries of text
book chapter
Outlines
Revisions
 Outlines
 Papers
Article Summaries
 Bick, M. (1998). Teaching Improvisation Outside of Jazz
Settings. Music Educators Journal, 84(4), ?
 This particular article dealt with the way that teachers introduce
improvisation to their students. The most typical way for
teachers to do this is through jazz. The author of this article,
Micheal Bitz, believes that jazz is too complex an art form for
students to learn on, and gave suggestions of more appropriate
ways to teach improvisation. He suggested the use of more
popular forms of music such as rock, rap, blues, and ska. He
explained the lack of complexity these genres had, and how
they could be used to help the students learn. The article also
talked about how the students should be allowed to improvise
in groups, especially at the beginning of instruction so that they
don't have to begin improvising in front of large groups. Mr. Bitz
explained that through this process, teachers would eventually
have much better improvisers in their jazz bands and much
better students in all aspects of their music program. This
article was very convincing. BT
SQ3R
 Survey
 Question
 Read
 Recite
 Review
 SQ3R was invented during World War II
(1941) by Francis Robinson, a
psychologist, to help military personnel
handle accelerated university courses.
Benefits of SQ3R:
 Students will learn to pick out the
important ideas quickly because they
have idea of what they need to know
BEFORE reading!!
 Students will understand difficult material
better.
 Students will be able to remember more
of the material longer.
 Students can review quickly and easily
without going back to re-read the text.
 Students will read faster without wasting
time.
Power point fill-ins
Memorized Delivery: Reciting the
Text from Memory.

The memorized mode of
delivery____________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
Cooperative group
assignments
 Make test questions
 Group paper (Intro., Body, Conclusion)
STATISTICS AND THE EFFECTS
OF THE RULE
Article 1
Journal-New Directions for Community
Colleges v16 n4 winter 1988
 External Influences on the Curriculum.
New Directions for Community Colleges
 Author-Wolf and Zoglin

Gordon’s belief

Gordon didn’t believe that common
examinations were a good means of
determining a students readiness for the
junior year.
Gordon Rule

He went to the state board of education,
which consists of the governor and six
other officials who are elected statewide,
and petitioned the board to adopt a rule
that would require every student in the first
two years of college to take twelve hours
of course work in English and or the
humanities, provided that each of the four
three hour classes require written work of
six thousand words, and take six hours of
college math.
His work before the rule

Gordon found that it was possible for a
student to travel the academic curriculum
in some institutions without writing an
essay
Article 2
An Assessment of the General Education
Curriculum in State Universities and
Community Colleges.
 Report and Recommendations of the
Postsecondary Education Planning
Commission 1989 Report 4

The Florida State Postsecondary
Education Planning Commission

It was directed to assess the general
education curriculum in the states public
community colleges and state universities
with particular regard to state board rule
6A 10.030 (Gordon Rule)
Who was surveyed
100 students from two state universities
 150 from three community colleges

Question 1
Have you completed a Gordon
Rule assignment?


68.8 % of 250
students yes
The students that
answered yes
completed the entire
survey
80%
70%
69%
60%
50%
yes
no
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
21%
Question 2
Is the faculties opinion on the Gordon Rule
requirement positive or negative?
56%
54%
54%
52%
50%
48%
46%
46%
44%
42%
positive
negative
positive
negative
Question 2-B
Students perception of faculty opinions
regarding the Gordon Rule
80%
65%
70%
60%
40%
30%
35%
20%
0%
positive
negative
univeristy
30%
70%
community
college
65%
35%
univeristy
community colleg
Question 3&4
Did you enroll in courses to meet
the Gordon Rule requirements that
they would not otherwise have
taken?
60.00%
51.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
33.00%
courses you would
not normaly take
math courses you
would not normaly
take
Question 5
Have courses imposed by the
Gordon Rule affected your grade
point average?
hindered
grade, 35%
improved,
20%
not affected,
45%
not affected
improved
hindered grade
Question 6
Does it interfere with your regular
school work?
universities
80%
65%
70%
60%
40%
30%
35%
20%
0%
yes
no
universities
65%
35%
Community
Colleges
30%
70%
Community Colleges
Question 7
Has the Gordon Rule improved
your writing skills?
80%
69%
70%
56%
60%
50%
universities
44%
40%
31%
30%
20%
10%
0%
help
not help
community
colleges
Gordon Rule community colleges
vs. state universities
Community college students felt it was not
a major problem and viewed instructors as
having a positive outlook on the rule
 state university students who believed that
it did not help their writing ability, nor did
their instructors have a positive outlook on
the requirement

What we discussed
Who was Gordon?
 How can I score essays quickly and
effectively?
 What innovative strategies can I use?
 Is the rule statistically effective?
 Questions???
