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

["Daniel L. MacIsaac" <Dan.MacIsaac@NAU.EDU>]

> > > but was _adamant_ that one could cover _more_ material with his method
> > > because students would really be motivated to read thechapter before the
> > > class activity.
>
> Joel, et al., I use the Socratic Method rather than "discussion groups" ie
> my setting is one large discussion group.  And I will testify that indeed
> more material _can_ be covered in one class period  -- mostly because the
> students tend to come prepared.
>
> Don't decry it until you have tried it.
>
> Jim Green

Whoa, I agree w/Jim Green on a pedagogical issue :^)  World ends at 5. :^)
I'm writing about this right now, so I apologize for the length of
the attached description (hot button issue).

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.  This is what Hake's active engagement is all
about, Hake showed conceptual gains correlate with doing this.

Dan M

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
danmac@nau.edu          http://purcell.phy.nau.edu         PHYS-L list owner

Step 1: The Reading Summary

EXAMPLE:
Chapter 18 reading Summary due 1 Sep00:

Read chapter 18, sections 1-5, omitting 4.  For each section write
a point by point summary of the main idea, including a simple
sketch.  For sections where formulas are given, include the
MAIN formula in your summary together with an explanation of
what the formula is for and what the names and units of the
variables are.  Finally for each section write a question that you
have about this material that is relevant to your own life
experience.  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.

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 hope to publish this description of reading summaries somewhere as part
of a larger work (tenure-track publish-or-perish), so please acknowledge
where you got it from if you use the above in your own publication.

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northern AZ Univ
danmac@nau.edu          http://purcell.phy.nau.edu         PHYS-L list owner