Teaching Tips Archives - Page 2 of 24 - Denison's Center for Learning and Teaching

Running an Effective Classroom

Posted on November 4, 2025 by dalkej

Explore the following resources that offer general classroom advice:

Teaching Newsletter Archive from the Chronicle of Higher Education
The Little Orange Book: Short Lessons in Excellent Teaching (downloadable PDF) from The University of Texas
How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive Advice Guide by Viji Sathy and Kelly Hogan
How to Teach a Good First Day of Class Advice Guide by James Lang
6 Research-Backed Ways to Break Up Your Lectures by Youki Terada
Unlocking Learning Potential with Concept Maps by Michele Poulos

Getting Students Invested in Thinking in our Classes

Posted on November 4, 2025 by dalkej

In our Denison classes across campus, we often face the challenge of connecting with students across experience and interest levels all in a single classroom in ways that generate thinking and discussion. J. Muthoni Mwangi shares the concept of the “parking lot” (the low-tech version involves sticky notes and a manila folder) as a way to invite questions, create student investment in class, and break down barriers across knowledge and experience levels.

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Identifying Unsupported Claims

Posted on November 4, 2025 by dalkej

In my W101, I am using AI-generated writing to teach students two things: (1) the pitfalls of submitting unrefined AI output in their assignments and (2) how to evaluate and revise writing. For example, I developed this group activity to help students learn how to identify unsupported claims.

When prompted to write a college-level essay, AI tends to generate a lot of unsupported claims.

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The Challenges of Slowing Down and Thinking Hard

Posted on November 4, 2025 by dalkej

One of the themes emerging in my conversations with departments and programs across campus this semester (17 so far!) is our commitment, as teachers and scholars, to helping our students embrace the challenge, satisfaction, and necessity of thinking—deeply, creatively, productively.

Faculty across campus articulate this goal in a variety of ways: Teaching students to value slow thinking in untangling math and programming problems, rather than speed in getting to an answer.

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Learning Goals and Course Objectives

Posted on October 30, 2025 by dalkej

Below are some resources on learning objectives and course goals.

Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Writing Learning Objectives from AAMC
University of Illinois Chicago
Graphic Display of Student Learning Objectives by Billie Hara
How to Write Learning Goals from Stanford Evaluation & Research
Articles that have been shared in CfLT newsletters over the past five years using “learning goals” in the search box.

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Ask Your Students Why They Use AI

Posted on October 28, 2025 by dalkej

When it comes to learning and teaching, AI is not a standalone issue. It intersects with many of our longstanding topics of discussion and concern at Denison, from helping our students persist through challenging work to figuring out how to best teach and support students who come from a wide variety of high school experiences.

Ernesto Reyes reflects on how transparent conversations with students about their own AI practices can help us understand the variety of motivations and find ways to address those issues proactively and productively.

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Two Truths and a Lie

Posted on October 23, 2025 by dalkej

Looking for something different at mid-semester to get your students thinking and your classroom energy flowing? “Two Truths and a Lie” may seem a little worn out as a first-day ice breaker, but Stephen L. Chew has a great idea for how to use the same game to engage students with key concepts in your course materials.

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Characteristics of Good College-Level Writing

Posted on October 23, 2025 by dalkej

In my W101, in most class periods, students do a graded in-class writing (ICW) assignment. A few weeks ago, I did an experiment: I required students to use a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT or Gemini to do the ICW.

I gave them the following instructions: “Use an LLM of your choice to write a response to the ICW prompt.

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Taking a Midterm Moment

Posted on October 23, 2025 by dalkej

As faculty, we are not generally in the habit of taking time to pause and appreciate our accomplishments. There is always the next class meeting to plan, the next set of grading to finish, the next book order to submit. And those are only the things on the “classes” section of our to-do lists.

So let me take a post-fall break minute to say congratulations and well done on making it halfway through the fall semester! On

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Mixing it up at Midterm Time

Posted on October 14, 2025 by dalkej

When October fatigue hits us and our students at the same time, occasionally it is tempting, against all of our better Denison instincts, to take the path of least resistance and just provide information and hope that students are listening. For days when you feel yourself working to resist that impulse, “3 Ways to Liven Up Your Lectures” has some great tips and reminders for small changes to help keep your students (and yourself) engaged with the material and one another.

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