Mid-Term Assessment |
       
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Ideally, of course, there should be an ongoing conversation in
any class about how things are going; do students see the connections
between readings and writing? do they find paper comments helpful
in revision? how can class discussion improve? Nevertheless, mid-term
is a good opportunity for students and instructors to reflect on
the class while there's still time to make changes.
Ask students to write anonymous course evaluations as part of their homework. You might give them specific questions to respond to: What would you keep about our class? What would you change? What do you want to do more of? Less of? How would you describe the course/the instructor/readings/essay assignments/paper comments thus far? Use the evaluations as the basis of a class discussion about how the course is going, or just read them yourself, looking for common themes.
Trained graduate students from the Teaching Resource Center will
come to your class and talk to students about their perceptions
of the class (while you are out of the room). The TRC consultant
helps students come to a consensus and clears up ambiguous
answers. Afterwards, the consultant meets with you to discuss
the results.
TAPs take only 30 minutes of class time and 30 minutes of
post-class discussion. They are completely confidential, and
are a terrific
way to hear student feedback. For more details about TAPs,
check out http://www.trc.virginia.edu/Consultations/TAP.htm This is essentially a TAP, but one with you in the room. It's great if you can't schedule a TAP; the drawback is that students may feel inhibited with you facilitating the discussion. Ask students to get into groups of 3 or 4 and come up with lists of three things that help their learning in the class, and three things that hinder their learning. You might ask students to prepare these lists for homework. Everyone in the group should agree. Then ask students to put the lists up on the board. As a class, come up with a list of three in each category that everyone can agree on, and brainstorm strategies to change with the list of things that hinder learning.
Alternatively, ask students to come up with three things
they want to change about the class, three things they
want to keep.
Ask students to fill out a form like the one on the page below.
Students are more likely to be honest because the form
is anonymous, and it still you a good sense of how things
are going.
Students
also begin to take responsibility for their own performance
in class. Use the results as the basis of a class discussion
about
the class (if no one is doing the reading, for example,
start asking why: are readings are too hard/too easy/too
confusing?).
Always Usually Sometimes Never I take notes/underline while reading
Always Usually Sometimes Never I try to organize
my thoughts about the reading before class
Always Usually Sometimes Never If I am unable to attend class, I borrow notes from a reliable source Always Usually Sometimes Never I take notes during class on what the instructor says or writes on the board Always Usually Sometimes Never I take notes on other people's ideas Always Usually Sometimes Never I participate in discussion Always Usually Sometimes Never I make an effort to listen to my classmates while they speak Always Usually Sometimes Never I make sure to ask questions/raise ideas that seem important to me
Always Usually Sometimes Never I begin writing assignments before 9 pm the night before they're due Always Usually Sometimes Never I leave myself time to revise my writing Always Usually Sometimes Never I ask the instructor questions about my writing or ask the instructor to look at it before I'm done if I'm uncertain about my progress Always Usually Sometimes Never I have visited the Writing Center Always Usually Sometimes Never I read the instructor's comments carefully
Always Usually Sometimes Never I have talked with others about our theme Always Usually Sometimes Never I think about ENWR writing strategies even when I'm not dealing directly with work for the course Always Usually Sometimes Never I have talked with others about ENWR writing strategies |