Re: Extra Credit (was Where Have All the Boys Gone?)

[Joel Rauber <Joel_Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>]

Dan & Jim & Others,

I didn't mean to sound as down on the idea of group discussions, and
socratic method methods; I know it appeared that way. Mostly I was just
doing a little venting and attempting to express some agreement with what
Michael was saying in "quasi-defence" of lectures.

> Whoa, I agree w/Jim Green on a pedagogical issue :^)  World
> ends at 5. :^)

Glad I could provide some fodder for agreement betwixt you and Jim; next I
think I'll try the Mid-East  ;-)

> I'm writing about this right now, so I apologize for the length of
> the attached description (hot button issue).

Cool! I have a few questions about your experiences.
> I use what I call Reading Summaries (see below) to eliminate reading
> the text in class.  If you don't read the text, derive equations or do
> demos that are cool but contribute little to students' active
> engagement
> (note you CAN do demos to engage) then lots of time becomes
> free to engage
> students more meaningfully.

Derivations are a bit of a hot-button issue for me.  I believe that one
shouldn't have students do tasks for which they won't be made possibly
responsible for later.  Derivations are a good example of this (whether
done
as part of lectures or in some sort of active engagement method), I don't
think one should deal with derivations unless students will be responsible
for them, or that kind of reasoning skill, in some fashion.

> Step 1: The Reading Summary
>
> <description snipped>
> This assignment is due the class before the start of
> 18.1, and will be graded on a scale of ten for completeness.  It
> will be returned as study notes before the appropriate
> examination.

A question I have is how do you find time to do this grading of the reading
summaries?

 I find it hard to imagine that in my situation I'd have the time to do all
the other tasks required of the courses and administration, preparing
tests,
grading them etc and grade these summaries; other than in the most cursory
and superficial manner (probably literally a check-off to see if it was
done, or faked-up well enough by the student that it could get by a quick
glance my tired eyes.)


> The ideas behind the Reading Summary are:
> - make students responsible for their own learning; encourage
> students to critically read the book before class and reward them
> for doing so
> - eliminate the need to address ALL aspects of the material in
> class.  Some material will be assigned, read, summarized,
> assigned homework from and examined upon without ever being
> discussed in class.
> - eliminate the need to read, summarize or regurgitate text material
> in class
> - free time to do inquiry (aka PER active engagement) activities
> - start the student study cycle by preparing study notes and
> practicing appropriate drawing and formula use skills
> - provide some instructor feedback and student recognition of
> effort for
> the development of appropriate freshman level study skills
> - provide a series of student questions for the instructor to weave
> into class activities and presentation

I have little to argue about regarding the ideas behind the summaries;
other
than to rather sadly note that it represents what is probably the reality
that this is mostly remediation for learning schools that I'd ideally hope
the incoming freshman would already possess.

Joel Rauber
Joel_Rauber@sdstate.edu