Teaching Resources

Our team has assembled a wealth of suggestions and information for our faculty. Faculty members are encouraged to use these resources, as well as resources from other institutions, as needed.

Teaching Library

• solutions and strategies to handle common challenges

Teaching Tips Database

• archives of weekly teaching tips emailed to instructors

Faculty Resources

Teaching Resources

Tip #3| Checking In with Your Students
Summer 2007

Summer session can feel overwhelming for instructors because of its fast pace. Many times we come out of it tired and feeling like it ended before it even began. Now imagine how your students feel, learning the material for the first time in this condensed format.

The opportunity for giving timely, individual feedback during the summer session can potentially fall by the wayside. Check-ins (also known as mini-meetings) between instructors and individual students provide time that is specifically dedicated to communicating about how the student is doing and giving feedback on their performance. Additionally, you can get ideas on how you can better meet the students’ needs. Check-ins can come in a variety of formats and both the student and instructor can benefit from them.

How to Do Check-Ins:

• Designate one day when you will have mini-conferences. While you can choose any time, it is preferable to do check-ins somewhere near the middle of the term. Plan to do this on a day when everybody will be working on individual assignments. Before class, send out a sign-up sheet with 5-15 minute increments of time (your choice based on how much information you need to give/receive). While the group is working independently, call up each student individually and “check-in” with them as a midterm evaluation.
• If this isn’t possible, emails or phone conferences with students are just as useful.

Suggested Topics for Check-ins:

• Feedback: Having feedback for the students is very important. Make sure that they know where they stand in the class—especially at the midterm point. The check-in is a perfect opportunity to make sure students know what their grades are. Additionally, letting them know what their strengths are can be a huge motivator. You should also identify specific areas in their performance that need improvement. A printout of the current status of their grades and a written summary of your feedback will let the student know exactly where they stand.
• Ask Questions: Asking your students open-ended questions will help you get an idea of where they stand. Possible questions could be: What are your goals with this class? How do you feel you are progressing towards them?
• Unpreparedness/Lateness/Absenteeism/Disruptive Behavior: The check-in is a perfect time to address any issues that might be hurting their performance in the class.
• Questionnaires: Before the check-in, hand out a questionnaire to the student that asks them to honestly evaluate their performance in the class.

It is beneficial to both you and the student to have a “paper trail” of your meeting. Create a template of your “Feedback Sheet.” Give each student a copy of your check-in remarks for the student to take with them. That way, when you are grading at the end of the term, you will have a record of what was talked about midterm and you can evaluate how/whether the student has progressed.

More Resources:

Conferencing with Students from University of Kansas

Setting up an Electronic Gradebook

For information on printing out informal progress reports, contact Marian Shaffner at 618-3900 or mshaffner@academyart.edu

Faculty Resources

Teaching Resources

Tip #2| Keeping Your Grading on Target
Summer 2007

Conscientious teachers put considerable effort into providing students with detailed feedback and fair evaluations of their work. They know how important it is for students to receive meaningful input about the quality of their work and how can be improved. But it can be frustrating when students merely complain about a letter grade and don’t appreciate your helpful feedback.

Whether we like it or not, students pay attention to grades If grading practices appear inconsistent, arbitrary, mysterious, or otherwise unfair, you can spend a lot of energy dealing with student challenges.

Here are some suggestions to ensure that your grading system is fair, transparent, and integrally connected to the most important learning in your class:

• Create assignments (and the grading standards for them) with the learning outcomes in mind. The grading criteria for important projects, papers, and tests should dovetail with the stated course learning outcomes on the syllabus. Make the connection explicit for your students by explaining how each major assignment helps develop the skills needed to achieve the final course outcomes.
• Grade what you teach; teach what you grade. Assess what students learn in your class, not skills and knowledge they have acquired outside of your class. It’s okay to assume they will transfer and develop skills from previous classes, especially in upper division classes. However, weight your grading to focus on the concepts and skills developed in your course. Grading the critiquing skills of first semester students, for instance, if you haven’t explained and practiced how to give constructive criticism, is hardly fair.
• Assess the full range of skills being taught. Check to see you have a way of measuring achievement for each outcome on your syllabus. If your course has four learning outcomes but your assignments assess only two of them, you will not have a full picture of student ability for your course.
• Keep students on target by sharing grading criteria in advance. It’s difficult for students to meet your standards if they don’t know what you are looking for. Well-crafted rubrics with specific criteria and levels of achievement provided when the assignment is introduced help students live up to your expectations and progress.
• Grade early and regularly. Students are more likely to hit the target if they have more than one shot. Give students an early opportunity to learn your standards early and keep them informed of their progress throughout the semester. Don’t wait until midterms, or worse, the end of the semester, to let students know where they stand on the core skills and ideas being taught in your class. In addition, multiple measures of performance (projects, quizzes, and critique participation) are more reliable; they give a more accurate picture of ability than a single measure.

Grading Tips

AAHE (American Association for Higher Education)
9 Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning

Links to other tips on grading:
Grading with empathy and clarity
Time saving ideas for grading

Faculty Resources

Teaching Resources

Tip #1| Achieving Success in Your Summer Class
Summer 2007

Just because your semester-long class is now squeezed into a seven-week period there is no need to get stressed. Achieving success in teaching your summer class is definitely possible. Really! There is no need for panic.

With some extra time management and a little strategic planning, both you and your students will have a triumphant teaching and learning experience.

Here’s how:

• Map out the class for you and your students. Make the time frame real by handing out a calendar to the students or by posting one each class. Continuously draw attention to dates that have projects due, quizzes, or exams and have students acknowledge where they are in relation to those dates.
• From day one, communicate that time is tight. Reinforce this by assigning a project or assignment that is due the very next class; make sure you give feedback on it either the day it is turned in or the very next class. Talk to students who miss deadlines the first week about the importance of staying focused on their course(s).
• Have students exchange contact information the very first day so they immediately build a support system within and outside of class. With the course running at such an accelerated pace, knowing they can contact each other will ease their stress levels.reduce time-consuming verbal explanations.
• Vary your activities and teaching style. This is especially important in the summer when students are spending long hours in your class each week. Set chunks of time for lecture or demonstration, time for small or large group work, and time for students to practice or apply what has been taught. The more variety offered during a class, the less students will want to be elsewhere.
• Keep students abreast of their progress and grade. Remind them that it is too easy to fall behind during the short summer session.

Resources:

Time Saving Tips for Teachers
Efficient Grading and Feedback
Mind Tools: Time Management Skills
Mind Tools: Effective Scheduling