What to do when students aren't prepared
Remember in class how we talked about kicking students out of class if they were not prepared. Well, I was doing some research and ran across the following option at jill/txt:
This might be the ticket,, "setting up activities that plain aren't fun if you're not prepared." What do you think? Small group activity might work to cut down on students not being prepared, especially if you have it organized as she did, freewrite, group work, group presentations, writing revision.
Also, this made me think that group work announced in advance might be a way to get students to do the reading in advance because they might get pressure from their peers to contribute in the groups. I guess they could just as easily talk about the party on Friday and leave it to others to do the thinking about course content, but having each group make a presentation does put the group on the spot to add something to the discussion.
What do you think? Other ideas anyone?
I’m pleased that instead of refusing students who’ve not done the preparation entry to classroom or punishing them somehow, as has been suggested to me, I set up activities that plain aren’t fun if you’ve not prepared. Also, small groups make it so embarrassing if you’ve read nothing. And I don’t have to do or say a thing about whether they’ve read or not.
This might be the ticket,, "setting up activities that plain aren't fun if you're not prepared." What do you think? Small group activity might work to cut down on students not being prepared, especially if you have it organized as she did, freewrite, group work, group presentations, writing revision.
Also, this made me think that group work announced in advance might be a way to get students to do the reading in advance because they might get pressure from their peers to contribute in the groups. I guess they could just as easily talk about the party on Friday and leave it to others to do the thinking about course content, but having each group make a presentation does put the group on the spot to add something to the discussion.
What do you think? Other ideas anyone?
posted by Marcia | 10:43 PM
2 Comments:
Personally, I'm dubious about the group work suggestion. I guess I would want to know more about what kind of group work the other person was suggesting. When I was in high school particularly, I vowed I would never make my students do group work because I hated it so much. I particularly dreaded my grade depending on the work of others. As a student, my experience with group work is not that it necessarily embarasses those that are not prepared but puts even more pressure on those who are. Although I am no longer completely anti-group work, I prefer to see it as small discussion groups that facilitate larger class discussion than as grading opportunities or a way to ensure students do the work.
As for activities that are not "fun," my worry is that they would only increase the perception that class is boring, instead of the student realizing that class might be more enjoyable if they were prepared. (I'm sorry, I don't mean to be completely negative here--just think of me as playing devil's advocate.)
Jennifer, I appreciate the devil's advocate position for it helps me clarify my thinking. Thanks! Let me know if you have any ideas.
In the rest of Dr. Walker's post that's linked, it describes more fully that it wasn't a graded group project, but group work during class that lead to a presentation towards the end of class. And, I'm not sure, but I don't think she described it to her students at the time as a "not fun" activity.
I was invisioning an entire class that wasn't prepared versus just one student. I like your idea Talena. If I were the type of instructor who gives pop quizes (I'm not sure if I am yet), then I might do something like you suggest with the entire class (rather than singling out one student) as sort of a pop quiz. Then, these pop quizes would have to be incorporated on the syllabus somehow.
It didn't occur to me that a student would not do the reading because he or she thought the class was boring. I would have guessed that the student(s) didn't do the reading because they chose to do something else instead - say, their friends were having a party; or they just didn't have time because of other commitments or because of an emergency of some sort. Gosh, I guess I'm naive.
Oh, remember the lit class I mentioned last Wed. in class? Most of the students came to class prepared to discuss. It may have had something to do with class participation being graded.
And, as you know, Donna has part of our grade calculated on whether we do the informal postings to get us ready for class discussion. Because it's a writing class, this makes good pedagogical sense. I just checked and she does this with her English 1000 class too. So, Talena, your idea about having students argue the opposite position on a controversial issue could also be a writing activity students do in advance of class.
So, to come at this question from the opposite angle of how to ensure that students are prepared...Do you think you'll be a pop-quiz person, or a write-in-advance person? or, something else? (I am just full of questions, aren't I? Please humor me. I'm a curious Gemini! :-) Thanks. M.
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