At the Mid Point

Yes, I am the evil teacher who assigns her students work over spring break – but I don’t feel too bad because to this point in the semester the work load has been entirely manageable.  They’ve mostly been doing short reading responses and reflections.  Unfortunately, the major portion of their grade will be earned during the second half of the semester.  I did this by design, however, as we have been building toward the one research essay to be completed in this course.  I decided to tackle academic research in stages this semester by showing them how to implement reading strategies and then moving them into analysis and finally into research.  The spring break assignment is, in fact, to create a research plan.  I even provided them with a sample plan.

I too will be doing school work over the break.  Following a mid-semester course evaluation that I administered last week, I am faced with implementing some changes that I believe, in the long run, will go a long way toward making the class better.  For ideas see https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/mid-semester-evaluations.  The students were asked to answer four questions:

What’s going well?

What needs improvement?

What can the students do to improve the class?

What can the instructor do to improve the class?

As most of the students identified that improvement on their part would involve participating more (I agree 100%), I decided to partially turn the class over to them, at least when it comes to discussions that follow assigned readings.  Since participation counts for 10% of their grade, it seems fairly important to give them an opportunity to earn this grade, as they’ve made limited effort to do so thus far.  So here’s my simple idea – to divide the class into six groups, having each group assign a reading from our text along with a discussion question.  Groups will be tasked with deciding how to best lead the rest of the class in a discussion.  At the very least, this forces every student to participate on one side of the equation.  Although I can’t predict whether the students will be more likely to engage in a discussion led by their peers, I believe it’s worth a try. 

I think what’s important here is not so much whether the students actually participate in the above scenario, but that I am creating an opportunity for them to do so.  In other words, I am responding to their suggestions.  I am showing them that I care about what they are thinking.  I am taking their evaluations seriously.  So now it’s up to them to make the most of this chance to engage with the material and with one another.  I hope they rise to the occasion...