Articles and resources to empower your teaching experience.
Do your students know where to look for help? As we are laying out that new class or revising a familiar one, consider the tips in this Chronicle article, How Your Syllabus Can Encourage Students to Ask for Help.
Students don’t read your syllabus? Recall this TTT deeper dive video where I give tips on getting your students to engage with your syllabus, based on a short Chronicle article.
As we look at the semester ahead, now is an excellent time to reflect on our syllabus and other materials – do they set an inclusive tone? This article from the Teaching Professor provides an easy-to-read list of suggestions to make your materials do just that.
It is also a good time to revisit this TTT piece from Kaly Thayer, our Coordinator for Multilingual Learning, with tips on ensuring our grading and expectations do not privilege one group of students over another.
As we sit down to grade that last stack of papers, did our students learn from subsequent assignments? That is, did students look at the graded work you returned and take the comments and suggestions to heart? In my experience, they more often look at the grade at the top, then move on.
In this concise piece from Faculty Focus, Julia Colella provides a self-reflection rubric she requires of her students after an essay assignment is returned.
As we head into final exams, several recent articles have reflected on the nature and need for the traditional final. In this Chronicle piece, Kevin Gannon – the tattooed professor – reflects on the nature of final exams and whether they serve the purpose we intend. In Exams Reimagined by Beckie Supiano, she shares examples of how professors are reimaging their exams.
It’s that time of year. Course evaluations are an important feedback tool that can help inform our course design. Historically, providing a set time during class provides the highest response rate. As such, if there is something I want specific feedback on, I will have a brief conversation with the class the week before. For example:
This semester, we tried <blank> which was something new for the course.
At a recent meeting with colleagues, the discussion of student workload came up. Specifically, many of us are using the best practice of creating low-stakes assignments to keep our students engaged. But if we all do this, are we overloading students?
An important distinction came up in our conversation: low stakes vs. low workload. Some interpret low stakes assignments as counting for a small percent of one’s grade.
We’re pretty late in the semester. Have any of your students drifted off more than you like? It’s still not too late to try to reel them back in. This piece from the Chronicle gives four simple ways to try to get them re-engaged.
How much time do you devote to office hours? Three times a week, for 14 weeks, that’s 2,520 minutes a semester! This very short article from the Teaching Profession gives seven concrete ways to interact with students during office hours.
How much time do you devote to office hours? Three times a week, for 14 weeks, that’s 2,520 minutes a semester! This very short article from the Teaching Profession gives seven concrete ways to interact with students during office hours.
It’s that time of year. Students are getting their midterm grades, and you’re faced with that inevitable question, “Can I do some extra credit?” This short article from Faculty Focus argues that extra credit does not treat the issue – a deficiency in understanding. If a tennis player is struggling with their serve, doing extra practice on their backhand will probably not help their serve game.
