Teaching Tips

As we near the halfway mark, consider getting mid-semester feedback from your students. Mid-semester evaluations:

1. If necessary, provide a chance to correct student misconceptions or make changes to the course schedule, activities, etc.
2. Allow students to reflect on their expectations, efforts, and learning.
3. Let students know you care about their input.

Here are some sample mid-semester evaluations you can use or adapt for your course:

• This check-off format from Seattle University makes it easy for your students to provide specific feedback and some open-ended questions.

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One of my most considerable angst for a new class is correctly pronouncing my students’ names. While my rural upbringing did not provide many opportunities to practice pronunciation (my school district was Milan, pronounced MY-lin), I do make a concerted effort to pronounce students’ names. I ask them to work with me and help me learn, just like I will work with them to learn in my class.

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As we head into the fifth week of the semester, the grading has started in earnest. Are you happy with your grading process? A group of Denison faculty created a Faculty Learning Community – Alt-Grading – to consider different approaches to grading. In part, they are exploring the many facets of the term “ungrading,” which aims to focus more on the learning process and less on points.

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With all the formalities of the first few weeks behind us, hopefully, your classes have settled into a routine of productive learning. How is the reading going? Often we get frustrated that students are not doing the reading we assign; reading that is critical to course discussion and understanding. The short articles Why Students Won’t Read—and What to Do about It by Chris Hakala and Want Students to Do the Reading?

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As we put the finishing touches on our syllabi, here is a quick list of things to consider to make your syllabus more inclusive from this short handout from the STEM Inclusive Excellence Collective at UNC:

1. Identify and eliminate or explain jargon
2. Think about tone
3. Tell the students something about you as a person or professor
4. Help students understand what it takes to be successful in your course
5. Normalize struggle and provide information about how to get help
6. Formatting and Organization

Please follow the handout link for a brief explanation of each.

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Are you interested in incorporating inclusive teaching practices but unsure where to start? Want to see some examples of inclusive teaching practices in action? Please look at the Inclusive Teaching Visualization Project website, developed by Dr. Addy and her collaborators. View examples in a social science lecture course, STEM laboratory course, or a first-year seminar.

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As Daniel Cole notes – You can’t avoid it anymore: students have submitted their papers, and now you have to read, comment on and grade them. How can you give good feedback yet, at the same time, avoid overworking yourself?

Take a look at his two-page article from Inside Higher Ed, Tackling the Stack, for tips on end-of-semester grading.

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When colleagues want me to observe their class for formative feedback, I always ask them to share two or three things they are working on in which feedback would be helpful. For example, working to involve more students, trying to summarize class in the last five minutes, organizing my board work, etc. This helps me to focus the observation and provide more useful feedback.

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I know there are only a few weeks left, and many eyes are on the exit, but this short article about improving class discussions caught my eye. There were several techniques new to me – warm calling, half-formed thoughts, and doubting-and-believing squares – and can fit in your last few classes to add some variety.

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As we near the end of the semester, many of us have projects that students present. These can be high stressors for students and a huge time sink for your course schedule. In this short two-page article, Dr. Traci Levy of Adelphi University describes a presentation format she calls the Presentation Cafe. On Presentation Cafe days, she divides the class into presentation slots, scheduling three or four groups to present simultaneously depending on class size.

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