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| I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the process of August—moving ourselves from summer schedules and priorities back to the rhythms of the semester. For me, August inevitably involves reminding myself that perfection is not a thing in teaching or course design. Every class involves some element of experimentation and uncertainty. No matter how a course worked before, something will be different this time. |
Teaching Tips
Articles and resources to empower your teaching experience.
Grading and Assessment
Here are some resources about grading and assessment:
- The Return of the Oral Exam by Beth McMurtrie
- Assessing Student Learning with Oral Exams by Horane Diatta-Holgate and Melissa Scheve
- Two Truths and a Lie as a Formative Assessment by Stephen Chew
- AI-Resistant Assessments: A Practical Guide for Teachers by Med Kharbach
- 4 Ways to Better Grade Team Projects by Lauren Vicker & Tim Franz
- Test Analysis Worksheet Encourages Student Metacognition by Ashley Mowreader
- Use of Exam Wrapper Metacognitive Strategy to Promote Student Self-assessment of Learning by Kristen Sethares & Marilyn Asselin
- What I Learned from Giving 71 Oral Exams in 12 Days by Jason Linn
- The Value of Structured Think-Aloud Methodologies in the Age of AI by Rachel Ebner
- AI Is Not Replacing Learning- It’s Exposing Where Learning Was Thin to Begin With by Xinyao Yi
- How Are We Grading Now?
10 Studies Every Teacher Should Know About
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| The Edutopia website comes through again with the science of learning in a nutshell: 10 key studies on 5 teaching strategies. While part of the article is pitched to K-12 teachers, the strategies and science behind them all have relevance in our Denison classrooms. Whether you’re looking for affirmation that your approach is evidence-based or want some new ideas to mull over this summer, this quick review is clear and invaluable. |
Synthetic Socrates, Teaching Assistant
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| WAIT. Before you scoff at the title of this article, let me tell you why we’re sharing it. In this essay on his philosophy class at ASU, Jimmy Licon shares the way that he has combined some AI-based assignments with redesigned in-class writing and oral exercises. His AI assignments are carefully thought out to give students practice developing their own thinking and critiquing someone else’s arguments. |
Being curious, not judgmental
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| Someone in my house just finished their semester at OSU and is celebrating by watching the first 3 seasons of “Ted Lasso” for the umpteenth time. The other day I took a break from grading to watch my favorite scene from season 1, when Ted gives a folksy comeuppance to the insufferable Rupert, beating him at darts and teaching him to “Be curious, not judgmental.” |
Grading for Growth!
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| This update of David Clark and Robert Talbert’s 2021 essay on what “rigor” means (and doesn’t mean) in our grading practices provides a useful summary of the principles underlying the discussion at last Thursday’s Teaching Matters discussion on “How are We Grading Now?”
Clark and Talbert say: “Here is, ultimately, the problem: Rigor is a wildly overloaded word. |
How Are We Grading Now?
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| Last Thursday, Hoda Yousef rounded out 3 years of rich Teaching Matters programming with her final topic: “How Are We Grading Now?” The discussion provided a bounty of thoughtful ideas about alternative grading approaches that work for our Denison students. Emily Nemeth (EDUC/QS/BS) started us off with a reminder of the Four Pillars: clearly defined standards, helpful feedback, marks that indicate progress (vs “absolute” grades) and reattempts without penalty. |
Talking with Students about AI
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| At “Talking with Our Students about AI,” our three presenters shared their different approaches to incorporating AI into their teaching and students’ learning.
Rhodora Vennarucci (AGRS) explained that her thinking is grounded in the issue of the “digital divide” within her own field of archaeology and her concern to provide all of our students with the tools they will need to navigate professional lives after Denison. |
Teaching Students When to Struggle
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| This essay from The Conversation, “A writing professor’s new task in the age of AI: Teaching students when to struggle,” reflects many of the conversations happening across our campus about the need for our students to develop their own thinking and knowledge before they can evaluate AI output effectively. It’s especially worth reading for the connection it makes between the focus on grades and outcomes that our students learned in high school and the reasons they might choose to rely on AI: “[M]any college students I meet arrive already anxious, already performing, already optimizing for the grade rather than the learning. |
Making Reading Matter
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| Three faculty members–Heather Rhodes (HESS), Andrew McWard (Politics & Public Affairs), and Matthew Smalley (English)–shared some of their goals and practices around assigning reading at a recent Teaching Matters session. Their comments naturally coalesced around the pedagogical purposes of assigning reading: as a way to encourage depth, challenge students to think in different ways about the material at hand, and inculcate reflective habits of thinking. |