James FalkofskeSummer 2007

Assumption # 1 Students WANT to do Well They want to be there. They are happy to be there. If they become disgruntled, then I have

done something to them ORfailed to provide something for them.

Simple Things

Students need to understand the required formats, parameters, and styles of deliverables

If students hit 3 or 4 roadblocks, the “give up the trip” (“why should I care; the instructor doesn’t”)

Most miscommunication is the fault of the instructor who does not provide enough details and examples

If YOU were a new hire…

What if you were a new hire and told “in 16 weeks we will either promote you or FIRE you… Good Luck and GO TO WORK!” – how confident would you feel?

Would you want detailed expectations, samples of former “work” of the department, and maybe some list of policies and procedures?

We Owe our Students…

Respect Clarity Samples and Examples

“Over explain” versus under explain

Clarifying Expectations

Rigor Opportunities to Succeed for Everyone Clear grading policies Pushing to “exceed” expectations (get

students in the habit of “going beyond” the project description)

Three Levels of Competency Failing to meet the expectations (0

points) Meeting the base expectations (50-70%

of possible points) Exceeding the expectations (100% of

the possible points)

Standards and Requirements Rubric contains the standards and

requirements Additional resources provided to help

students submit in proper formats Many criteria to allow students to

demonstrate design skills as well as knowledge and understanding

Mechanics are important

Research Paper

Topic Choice Audience Adaptation Mechanics Citations Organization Logic Proper use of Course Concepts Applicability

Research Citations

Rubric includes instructor expectations for proper citations of quoted materials as well as a webpage that helps build citations.

Students need to submit 7 credible and recent research sources with their topic – to prove that there are sources available

Turn-It-In is used to verify student authorship and correct quoting of cites

Electronic Concept Project Presentation Creativity Audience Persuasion Mechanics Citations Organization Logic Proper Use of Course Concepts Specificity

Discussions Activity 1: post by mid-week reactions and

thoughts about the questions and problems for the discussion

Activity 2: by end of week, post replies to classmates which support their thoughts and arguments, refute those points, or answer questions another classmate has asked

In both activities – students must incorporate research sources, to become practiced at finding information

Reflection Paper

Demonstrate changes in attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, practices, and understandings

Helps student identify their own competencies and significant learning moments

Helps identify areas of the course that were difficult - so that instructor can provide improvements in the future

Peer Review

2 weeks before assignment turned in to instructor, students exchange completed works in the discussions.

Peer to peer feedback (to improve overall quality of deliverables)

Peer to peer teaching (learning while reading and evaluating other projects)

1 week for review; 1 week to make improvements before deadline

3 Functions of Peer Review Ensures students cannot procrastinate

on major assignments (must be turned in 2 weeks early to group)

Provides opportunities to improve language, logic, and analysis within the assignment

Allows peer-to-peer learning

Rubrics as Defense Poor work is easily identified by student Student can “pre-grade” work before

submitting it Grading becomes cleaner and clearer

(student scores in one of the three levels for each criteria – and therefore it is easy to identify where students earned/lost points

Syllabus Contains Purposes The syllabus helps identify the purposes

for each of the assignments, thereby supporting the criteria in the rubrics

Policies, and the reasons for those policies, are clearly describedlate assignmentsrequired formatsextra credit

Samples for Rubrics

http://www.pedagogyonline.com/ArticlesList.asp?topic=Rubrics

Questions?

Email questions to Jfalkofske@sctc.edu

Additional content and advice is available on my websitehttp://www.PedagogyOnline.com and at my bloghttp://technologybites.blogspot.com