New Faculty Teaching Newsletter # 4 (August 28, 2009)
When Ed Koch was mayor of New York, he used to yell to crowds, "How'm I doin'?" And of course on “Friends,” Joey’s famous line was “How YOU doin?” In their own peculiar ways, they were just practicing good pedagogical strategy.
Early Feedback
Don't wait until midterms to let students know how they're doing. And don't wait until the end of the semester to find out what they think of the class. This week, we'll focus on finding out how students are doing and letting them know how they're doing. In a couple of weeks, we'll talk about getting feedback from them on the class.
"Early feedback" should be a two-way street. You want to find out from students what they're learning. But you also need to let students know how they're doing in the class. This is particularly important since some classes have very early drop deadlines. Students should be able to make informed decisions about whether to stay in your class, but too often they report that the first mid-term is the earliest time they receive feedback or a grade in a course.
A thorough discussion of both of these points can be found in "Suggestions for Early Feedback" and the Report of the Early Feedback Working Group. Here is a very short summary of some of the ideas.
Finding out what students know.
It's important to know whether you're reaching your students, whether they're getting concepts that you're conveying. You can gather this information easily in a number of ways:
At the end of class, have students write down what they think the most important point of the day was. (They can use cards you provide or scratch paper, and students generally do these anonymously.) Skim their responses before the next class, and report to them, e.g., "Most of you thought X was the most important thing. Good. If you didn't, you might want to review the material, and if you're still confused, see me in office hours." Conversely, you might say, "Most of you thought Y was the most important thing. That was not my intention. So I'd like to take a few minutes and reiterate my main points from the last class."
An excellent new way to do this is through the Poll tool in bspace. You can ask a question of your students (multiple choice or yes/no) and get responses overnight.
Also in bSpace using the Discussion tool, you can ask them to post, either regularly or at certain times, their understanding of the important points.
You can also stop class in the middle, or after an important point, and have them perform the same exercise. Or you can, even in a large class, have them form into ad hoc groups, discuss what the important point was, and then have each group report.
At the end of a week or a section of the syllabus, ask the students to list the key concepts and ideas from that section.
Have students paraphrase (orally or in writing) a reading assignment.
Ask the students to write a paragraph explaining a key concept to a parent, a younger sibling, a roommate in a different major.
Letting students know how they're doing.
Any of the above exercises are excellent ways of letting students know how they're doing—as long as you make that feedback an integral part of the exercise. Here are two more things:
Give a short quiz at the end of each unit of a syllabus. Students can grade it themselves in class.
Needless to say, more about this on your home away from home, teaching.berkeley.edu, where you will also find a whole page on the wonders of using 3 x 5 cards.
As pointed out above, you can encourage those who are confused to come to your office hours. In addition, you can vary any exercises and from time to time ask them to put their name on the card, which will help you identify those at risk. Any of the above exercises will let students know whether they're absorbing what is necessary in order to succeed in the course.
Campus Tour of the Week (an occasional tip for sightseeing in your own backyard) :
Head for the Eucalyptus Grove, down by the main entrance to campus. These Tasmanian Blue Gums were planted in 1882 as a windbreak for an old cinderblock track. This is the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America and the tallest stand of this type of Eucalyptus in the world. You can find more info on the wonderful Strawberry Creek tour .