For Geology Teachers & Students

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For Teachers and Students of Geology

A Reading Assignment for Geology Students
Survival Notes for Geology Field Trips
The Reading Room

A Reading Assignment for Geology Students

Students often complain to me that they have trouble reading their textbooks, especially those in a freshman-level survey class.

As a marginal dyslexic myself (I read at about the level of a high school sophomore, which made it tough to get a B.A., let alone an M.S.), I have a lot of sympathy for this. As a professional writer, I constantly have to address the problem of making technical information easily accessible.

My solution with students is to offer extra credit reading. This may at first sound counter-productive, but here’s the trick: I assign books that are written not in techno-speak, but in prose, in the narrative, or storytelling, voice. This gives the students a way to kick back and sink into the subject as recreation, which, if you think about it, is what geology is to the average geologist. If you want to try this, here’s my suggestion:

Go to the Reading Room page on this site. Copy out some books you think might have relevance to your course and give the list to your students (or just send them to this website).

Assign a deadline for reading a book and writing a short report about what they got out of the book. Assign the range of credit they can get for the assignment (I offered a half-letter grade for a job well done. Secretly hold out the option of giving more if a student really caught fire, and not-so-secretly hold out the right to give them bubkus if they obviously just read the jacket blurb and blew smoke, or tried to write a report on some sci fi book they read years ago).

I found their reports fun to read and easy to grade because I did not ask for deathless prose, flattery, or brilliant accuracy. Instead, I asked for no more than three pages double-spaced on one of three subjects:

1) What they learned about geology from the book;

2) What they learned about how science was done; or

3) How the topic of geology presented in the book impacts their life.

In grading these philosophical gems, I looked for evidence that they’d engaged their brains and learned something.

The payoff was that some students were truly inspired by what they read, and almost all (out of 25) took geology into their hearts and minds.

One marched up to my deck before class one day, slammed the book down in front of me with both hands, looked me straight in the eye, and said, “I love this book! Where can I read more?” The book was Diamond: the History of a Cold-Hearted Love Affair, by Matthew Hart. The student was Dorit Harrari, a citizen of both the U.S. and Israel, and she had just learned that Tel Aviv was a vital center of an exciting industry based on an earth resource. Her world was more complete.

Here’s my language if you just want to swipe it as your own:

For extra credit in this course, you may do the following:

1. Read a fiction or non-fiction narrative book about a geological topic. The books recommended below all have strong narrative styles, which most people find easier and more interesting to read than textbooks, which are written in a technical style. The non-fiction books are works of journalism. The fiction books are mystery novels.
2. Write a short essay (no more than three pages typewritten, double spaced) on either:
a) What you learned about the geologic topic (i.e. earthquakes, gold mining, diamonds) discussed in the book, or
b) What you learned about the philosophy of science (why we do it, how we do it), or
c) How the subject of the book relates to your life.

3. Report must be typed, double-spaced. Grammar, punctuation and spelling are secondary in importance to evidence of your comprehension of the subject matter, but make your ideas clear.
4. The topic sentence of the report should summarize your main point of discussion.
5. Due date: ____. Late essays will not be considered for extra credit.

This project is worth ½ letter grade for a satisfactory job, and
up to one full letter grade for exceptional understanding.

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