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| As we head into the final weeks of the semester, many of our classes are busy with group presentations and team projects. If you find yourself getting preemptively frustrated with the challenge of grading a team project, take a minute to read Lauren Vicker and Tim Franz’s suggestions about transparent rubrics, mid-project feedback, and opportunities for peer evaluation. |
Teaching Tips
Articles and resources to empower your teaching experience.
What is an Exam Wrapper and Why Should I Care?
As we head into the final weeks of the semester and focus on making it through the end of the syllabus, with all of the class prep, assignment organizing, and grading that entails, remember that your students are also facing the pre- and post-Thanksgiving deluge of work and stress. It’s never too late to try a new way to check in with them and help them think through their own learning process, especially at a time of the semester when they may be focusing only on deadlines.
In-Class Assessment Strategies
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What a great turnout at last week’s (11/6/25) Teaching Matters morning coffee! Sixteen colleagues from across academic divisions and offices joined us to wrestle with the challenges–new and old–of designing and implementing effective in-class assessments. We talked through some of our reasons for using in-class assessments, including long-term pedagogical practices and more recent AI-related concerns. In the process, colleagues shared a variety of approaches that are working in their classrooms, including:
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Mentoring Students
These resources address ways to connect with our students as mentors:
- Constructing Your Personal Advising Philosophy from Denison’s Center for Learning and Teaching
- Advising Students Through Challenges from Denison’s Center for Learning and Teaching
- The Wellbeing Enhances Learning (WEL) Model from University of Minnesota
- Mentoring Students Can Make a Difference by Camey Andersen and Kenneth Alford
- Mentoring Undergraduates by Maryellen Weimer
- Using Interviews to Assess and Mentor Students by Barbara Gardner & Kenneth Alford
- The Benefits of Student-Faculty Mentoring Relationships from Watermark
- How to Get the Most Out of College from The New York Times
- Students Think Faculty Should be Mentors.
Engaging Students in Classroom Learning
These articles give ideas on student engagement during class time:
- 15 Tips to Align Your Teaching With Brain Science by Youki Terada
- 10 Studies Every Teacher Should Know About by Youki Terada & Stephen Merrill
- 3 Ways to Liven Up Your Lectures by Kristi Rudenga
- Six Powerful Ways to Cultivate Student Attention and Promote Student Success by David Pratt
- How I Used the Parking Lot to Turn Quiet Rooms into Engaged Classrooms by Muthoni Mwangi
- Why One Professor Fosters Friendships in Her Courses by Beckie Supiano
- Speed Dating Activities from Harvard Center for Teaching and Learning
- Think-Pair-Share from Harvard Center for Teaching and Learning
- Overcoming Student Fears Surrounding Class Discussions by Brent Saccucci
- How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging Advice Guide by Sarah Rose Cavanagh
- How to Hold a Better Class Discussion Advice Guide by Jay Howard
- Want to Engage Students and Strengthen Your Teaching in the Age of AI?
Helping Students do Hard Things
We can help students engage in the hard sustained work of learning; these articles have some useful insights:
- A writing professor’s new task in the age of AI: Teaching students when to struggle by Kristi Girdharry
- How AI Is Exploding Our Illusions of Rigor by Szymon Machajewski
- Throwback: Rigor by David Clark & Robert Talbert
- ‘I Did Feel Seen’ How creating ways to meet students individually can help them buy into a course by Beckie Supiano
- More Than a Name: How Assignment Labels Influence Student Learning and Performance by Salina Randall and Julie Ann Stuart Williams
- Beyond Behaviorism: Why Motivation Matters by Katie Muenks and Carlton Fong
- Learning Lessons How professors are encouraging students to buy into the project of learning by Beckie Supiano
- How One College Aims to Help Students Fail Better by Ashley Mowreader
- Unpacking Complexity from CfLT Archives
Supporting Student Reading
These articles give some good ideas for supporting our students with reading:
- How to Improve Student Comprehension of Difficult Texts by John Orlando
- True, Students Are Reading Less But that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it by David Kirby
- Searching for Wonder: Teaching Literature with Student-Selected Texts by Mary Isbell
- To get students reading, let them pick the texts by Beckie Supiano
- Assigned Readings: Questions to Ask Yourself by Nicole Donawho
- How to Use a Course Workload Estimator with Betsy Barre
- Reading Assignments, Activities, and Approaches to Promote Learning by Maryellen Weimer
Managing Student and Faculty Anxiety
Both students and faculty feel anxious sometimes; here’s some articles exploring ways to manage or relieve anxiety:
- How I manage my anxiety as an educator by Lauren Jewett
- Instructor Strategies to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety among College and University STEM Students by Jeremy Hsu and Gregory Goldsmith
- The Wrong Way to Motivate Your Kid by Russell Shaw
- Helping Students Overcome Presentation Anxiety by Traci Levy
- Implementing Meditation in the Higher Education Classroom by Steven Haberlin
- Building a Learning Sanctuary: Fostering Resilience in Our Students by Mays Imad
Navigating Change and Avoiding Burnout
These articles include ideas for teaching success and avoiding burnout:
- How to Get Through the Year and Maybe Even Thrive by Sarah Rose Cavanagh
- Teaching Toward Slow Hope by John Warner
- After a Tough Year for Classroom Innovation, It’s Time for a Reset by Sarah Rose Cavanagh
- When disruption is perpetual, it’s time to think differently about work by Beth McMurtrie
- The Self and Syllabus with Christopher Richmann Do Students Meet “You” in Your Syllabus?
Running an Effective Classroom
Explore the following resources that offer general classroom advice:
- Reaching Not Just Teaching Today’s Students by Laura Miller
- The Case for ‘Slow Teaching’ by Pamela Scully
- Clarity: An Important Pedagogical Tool by Regan Gurung
- 5 ways students can think about learning so that they can learn more- and how their teachers can help by Jerrid Kruse
- I Made My Students Write by Hand.