What? Your Students Are Reading Their Textbooks?!

An interesting discussion has been taking place on one of the listservs I belong to, focusing on what we can do to encourage students both to read their textbooks and to make sense of what they read.  Below are a few of the suggestions.

• Try “JITTs” (Just-in-Time Teaching), an approach that involves asking deep questions or questions that you think will be hard for students to answer and ending with something like “What did you find especially puzzling or especially interesting in the reading?”  Student answers are graded (to encourage participation) and turned in before class, so that the teacher knows what to focus on in class  (Bill Goffe, Penn State University)
• Don’t like JITTS?  Try SPUNKI, which stands for questions asking what was Surprising, Puzzling, Useful, New, Knew it already,  and Interesting.  Rebecca Clemente (North Central College) has students use a rubric that involves them finishing sentences like ““When the article stated … this was surprising because …“  Then they talk over their responses in groups at the beginning of class to set the focus for the discussion to follow.
• Another way to stimulate motivation for reading recommended by Jen Lara is going through an upcoming assignment, writing important quotes down on individual note cards, and having all students at the beginning of class pick a quote that is of interest to them and then discuss it with a partner. 
• A variation of this was suggested by Jill Dahlman (University of Nevada, Reno ): “I am going to ask people to note on a piece of paper (no name!) where they had difficulty and a list of words that they didn't fully understand and turn these in. I'm going to start our discussion with going through those areas of difficulty, and then see if any of these areas spark a discussion. Reading academic language is difficult, and the more students can see that it's ‘not just them,’ then I think more people will become engaged.”
• A number of listserv members recommended online discussions as a good way to motivate students to read and clarify reading assignments.  Charles MacArthur (University of Delaware) pointed out that “one good angle for questions is about the value or meaning of the reading for students' own lives. How would you use this? How is it related to your experience?”
• Lynda Harding (CSU Fresno) assigns students to online discussion groups and gives them some credit for posting a question and some for answering a colleague’s question or for helping to select one or two questions for the group to submit to her.
• Jon Mueller (North Central College) has students write just a couple sentences about two or three questions he poses on the reading assignment.  Credit is given not for accuracy but just if the student has made a good-faith effort, so it only takes 5 -10 minutes to assign credit to a stack of papers.  He added, “I was initially surprised that virtually all of my students, including the weaker and less motivated ones, complete almost all of the assignments. They are much better prepared for class.”
• Lee Torda (Bridgewater State University) has a different approach, a “top 5 document”:  “One page. Single spaced. Top Five Things You Think Are Important for Other People to Get from this Reading. It's a living document in class. Students read each others'. They battle over their choices in a friendly way. They write back and forth about it so I don't really do a ton of evaluation of it. Mostly if they do it and it's not absolutely wrong and phony, they get the credit. And it's 15% of their final grade.”
• And finally Irv Peckham (Drexel) reminded everyone of the importance of giving reading assignments that students will enjoy reading, that they can feel connected to, since, as he put it, “Reading and writing should be a pleasure for students.”

Have you used any of these?  Did they work?  Do you have tips to add to the list? 

So here's an IDEA

IDEA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving learning in higher education. On their website, you will find a myriad of “peer-reviewed articles pertaining to the general areas of teaching and learning, faculty evaluation, curriculum design, assessment, and administration in higher education as well as shorter POD/IDEA notes on instruction and notes on learning.”  If you haven’t yet discovered this rich resource, check it out.

The following list, for instance, comes from POD-IDEA Center Notes on Learning Item #11. It suggests a series of critical thinking tasks that give students practice analyzing and critically evaluating ideas, arguments, and points of view, as well as getting feedback on their efforts.

• In humanities and social science courses, keep the reading load manageable and model for students how to read critically and to evaluate arguments in your field.
• In math, sciences, and engineering courses, encourage students participating in study groups not only to share ideas for solving problems but also to provide reasons for the problem solving ideas they advance.
• Have students respond to an editorial in a newspaper or to a review essay in a scholarly journal. For that response, ask students to identify unstated assumptions, biases, and points of views and show how they undermine the argument the author is making. 
• Teach students to use a pro and con grid to analyze ideas and points of view.
• Take time in science and engineering classes to explore the ethical considerations of research questions and experimental design.
• In organized class debates, ask students to argue for a point of view counter to their own.
• Give students “ill-structured problems” in class to work through. Such problems have no known answer or solution and cannot be solved with formal rules of logic or mathematical formulas. Ask students to come up with multiple solutions for each problem and rank the viability of each solution.
• Teach students Peter Elbow’s “believing and doubting game” which asks them to be both sympathetic and skeptical readers.
• Help students develop strategies for systematically gathering data according to methodologies in your discipline, assessing the quality and relevance of the data, evaluating sources, and interpreting the data.
• Encourage students to enter into dialogue with the sources they read; encourage them to ask questions, give assent, or protest in the margins of what they read.
• Train students to identify the author’s audience and purpose when they read.
• Encourage students to engage their critical reasoning skills outside of the classroom.

In my basic writing classes, for instance, I have students turn in a cover page with each essay that asks them to specify, among other things, the essay’s audience, purpose, topic and thesis.  I hadn’t thought of this as a way to encourage critical thinking until I read the next-to-last bullet point above, but perhaps it is a way for them to internalize those categories and look for them when they are reading, not just when they are writing.  

Which of these have worked in your classroom?  What others might you add?

What We Teachers Worry About

Those of you who read Faculty Focus probably saw the following list in a recent posting. It categorizes the concerns expressed by new teachers, listed from most to least important. 

• Exhibiting command of the material (being able to answer student questions, give relevant examples)
• Balancing "teacherly" authority and student rapport
• Dealing with communication anxiety (public speaking)
• Engaging rather than boring students
• Managing students’ perceptions of teacher
• Juggling roles (teaching, research, service, life)
• Resolving grade complexities
• Being memorable
• Negotiating flexibility in policies, assignments
• Overcoming cultural differences between teacher and students

I was struck, when I read through this “top 10” list how little I worried about some of the issues but how much some of the others, after all my many years of teaching, still cause the occasional sleepless night.  I don’t spend much time anymore thinking about authority vs. rapport, for instance; my comfort level there developed over the years, as did my comfort level with student perceptions of me, whatever they may be.  Similarly, being appropriately--but not too--flexible in my demands and being able to resolve student grade protests do not cause me much concern any more; one learns from experience, I guess.  

On the other hand, despite my experience I still find myself struggling with how to get my tired, busy, adult students focused and engaged, and with each new  semester I still experience nagging doubts that I have prepared enough to show that I’m up to date and in command of new scholarship.

One item I would add to the list, that I never used to worry about, is just what my role in any given class period should be.  Am I  still, too often, being that sage on the stage even if I am standing off to the side and talking about material on students' computer screens?  Did I prepare enough material to keep the learning going?  Too much?  The wrong sort?

I’d be interested in hearing--wherever you might be in your teaching career trajectory--what worries you the most as you strive to be successful in your chosen profession. Or what you don't worry about at all.

The Joys (?) of Teaching Required Courses

All of us have felt the excitement of teaching courses in our major field to students who know why they are there and who want to learn that subject.  That’s the part of teaching that reminds us why we chose this profession in the first place (certainly it wasn’t for the pay…)  But what about when we teach gen ed or other courses to students who have to be there but don’t necessarily want to be there? 
 

Julianne Hazen, in an interesting Faculty Focus article on this topic, suggests that our goals in such situations must include  establishing value, building on previous knowledge, addressing expectations, and giving the students freedom of choice within the assignments.  She offers three guidelines to consider:

1. Use active learning techniques rather than overwhelming students with long reading assignments; students get a deeper and more engaged learning experience if they read a short article and then explore some topic in it in a short reflection paper.
2. Invite guest speakers so that students can see and interact with people who can bring the subject to life because it is part of their lives.
3. Go on field trips.  Setting foot in a museum, a science laboratory, a social service agency, a church, gets students’ emotions involved, and deep learning involves emotion.

I’d be interested in hearing from those of you who teach required courses.  Have you tried any of the three suggestions?  What else do you do that helps make your topic come alive?

Online? Hybrid? Web-enhanced?

What, from your perspective, should Lincoln most productively be doing with respect to online teaching and learning?  

• Should we be developing more totally online courses?  (If so, should they be options for our current students or just for new, non-resident populations?) 
• Should we be developing totally online programs?  (If so, in what disciplines and why?)
• Should we be focusing mainly on hybrid courses [= classes still meet face to face but some of the normal seat time is replaced by online activities]?  (If so, how do you see them enhancing student learning?)
• Should we at least be encouraging web-enhanced learning in our classes [= regular seat time but more assignments using Internet-based resources] ? (If so, what training/resources do you need to do so more effectively?)

Please add your thoughts, whether by raising additional questions or by providing your answers for any of the questions posed above.

Scoreboards and Applause: Another Role for Assessment

Assessment, as Gloria keeps reminding us, has multiple functions.  On one level it is needed to prove to ourselves and others that our students are accomplishing the goals we set for them.  On another though, as L. Dee Fink discusses in Chapter 3 of Creating Significant Learning Experiences, Revised and Updated: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses, assessment has psychological functions. As Fink puts it, students need both a scoreboard and applause.

One example of the applause side really stood out for me.  A music professor described how he uses “tribute letters” to help students focus on the skills that they already bring, rather than just explaining the skills that need to be developed. The student and the professor together write a letter, which the professor then sends, to a teacher or mentor whom the student identifies as having been instrumental in the student’s development.  Fink explains,

In addition to creating extremely good public relations between the university and the public at large, this simple device had an unusual impact on both the students and the teacher.  For the teacher, it shifted his focus from "what is not good in this student's playing that needs to be improved" to "what is good that be commended?"  This in turn resulted in a much more positive general relationship with the student. For the students, it developed a more positive view of themselves.  The more positive tone of the interaction with the professor led them to think things such as "I have a good base of learning, and from that, I can continue to build toward an even better level of performance."  This in turn created an appreciation of the people who had contributed to their own learning and - as a result of the proceeding - a more positive attitude toward continued learning.  

I wonder what effect it would have –on Lincoln’s PR and on our students' confidence—if we were to try some version of that assignment. I often have students write about a mentor but never thought of then sending out a letter of thanks to that person.  It’s something to consider.  Can you see it fitting into your coursework?