Reynolds ReflectorsAN INTERIM REPORT OF A FACULTY LEARNING COHORT IN PROGRESS

AN ACTIVITY SPONSORED BY THE CENTER FOR FACULTY ENGAGEMENT

Formative Assessment Asking students questions to which only they will know the answers, such as

--preferences about course practices

--reasons for participation (or not)

Format = anonymous polls and surveys.

Purpose = to use information to make mid-course corrections in course practices for the betterment of the students and for course success (more learning & more passing).

For example: A formative assessment used for the Reynolds Reflectors led to abandoning SharePoint for a Blackboard organization. (See the next page for a longer example.)

Formative Assessment Example

So Far – An Anonymous Survey for Course Practices

Which features of this course do you like? Check all that apply.

___ 1. Being able to redo work for a higher grade

___ 2. Having a detailed calendar available online

___ 3. The attendance bonus of 100 points for missing no more than 2 classes

___ 4. Both in-class and homework essays

Besides the course’s being required, what else do you wish were different about this course?

Good Practices Audits Tell a beginning practice for your course.

3 of us demonstrated pre-tests in various forms—a quiz over sample readings, a list of course concepts that also preview the final exam

Tell a practice you use during the course.

Once each week, each student emails the prof to tell how the class is going for them.

Provide an “Anticipation Guide”: A list of statements based in the upcoming reading with which students agree or disagree before reading and meet in groups after reading to agree or disagree as a group.

Have students apply programming skills in a project about themselves, such as making a web page profiling themselves.

A Sample Anticipation GuideSolo Before

ReadingStatements Group After Reading

Agree Disagree Agree Disagree

1. Fruit-flavored cigarettes are among the biggest sellers with younger smokers.2. Tobacco use by an adolescent’s favorite actor does not influence the adolescent’s smoking.3. Second-hand smoke is higher in many carcinogens than sidestream smoke.4. Higher self-esteem is a big factor associated with lower rates of cigarette smoking among adults.

Resources Revealed When we bring in samples of lessons for our Good Practices Audits, we often show each other useful webs.

PaperRater.com gives instant feedback on whether a student’s paper contains any plagiarism (copied passages), rates essay quality and provides suggestions for improvement, provides grammar and spelling checks.

Crash Course is a YouTube channel, a collection of upbeat, off-beat videos about various subjects, such as US history, biology, anatomy & physiology, chemistry, government, and astronomy.

Mrs. Cassell’s handouts is a collection of lessons/handouts on language arts and literature to help faculty not have to re-invent a wheel.

ASAP Science is another YouTube channel for off-beat videos on scientific mysteries, such as what might happen if the bees died, audio and visual illusions, and brain tricks.

National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science cases can get students reasoning about open-ended questions such as environmental toxicity, as well as the Tylenol murders.

Discussion Boards Not only do we get to answer pedagogical questions but also to ask each other for clarifications and provide feedback on each other’s notions.

On teaching logs: See a sample. Responses generally saw value in such reflections for good news/bad news, and shared information, such as Google docs may not work with cell phones so laptops or computer lab may be required. As a result, another of us learned to use Google docs.

On one change made in a class: Responses included an attendance bonus, a flipped classroom resulting in increased student engagement, minimizing cheating on a take-home test by having students work together on a take-home half so they can succeed individually on the in-class half to be done after the take-home is submitted. Another of us switched from comprehension questions about a chapter to application questions, getting results more practical for the students and more enjoyable to grade for the prof.

(continued)

More Discussion Boards On helping students to network knowledge:

Giving students solved problems can help them focus on the process used to solve the problems (rather than finding the “right” answer, which is already provided). Then give students unsolved problems to make sure they test their process.

Providing a course overview, even a visual one, can help students “make connections between the objectives, course content and assignments.” At the lesson level, giving students an incomplete outline can help them focus on content for a lecture or a text reading.

Show students a variety of work from previous students so they can see (1) how individual the work is and (2) varying qualities in the work.

Our next question: What do you do to help students overcome the "Digital Divide," the difference in access to computing that separates the students who have computers at home from the students who might not even have a Smart phone?

Round Robins We begin and end each meeting with questions like these (taken shamelessly, as is the idea of the “Good Practices Audit,” from Stephen Brookfield).

1. What am I proudest of in my work as a professor?

2. What would I like my students to say to each other about me when I’m not in the classroom?

3. What do I most need to learn about in my teaching?

4. When do I know I’ve done good work?

5. What do I worry most about in my work as a professor?

6. What’s a mistake I’ve made from which I learned the most?