Re-Thinking Your Course

Contact Hours Comparison Current 2,520 minutes/semester New MWF 2,475 minutes New TTh 2,400 minutes

Contact Minutes Over Two Weeks Current350 minutes New MWF 330 minutes New TTh320 minutes

First Message Get the big rocks in first!! – Steve Ehrman

Multiple Approaches Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins – Understanding by Design L. Dee Fink – Creating Significant Learning Experiences

What Do I Most Care About Eaves-dropping on a conversation among former students five years from now – – What would you most like to hear them remember from your course?

Possible Goals Foundational, short term Score 80% or higher on comprehensive final Foundational, longer term Master this material so can succeed in next course Broader, application/integration Learn how historians evaluate arguments and information Human dimension/caring See themselves as appreciating history and seeing its importance

Reminder The point is not to include all or most of the goals. The key is thinking about what you want to achieve – and making a conscious decision.

Assessment and Classroom Activities Design Assessment First – Create exams aimed at testing whether students learned what you said was most important Then Create Classroom Activities – Plan activities designed to help students develop so they can meet the assessment tasks (and the learning goals)

Before You Teach Write out test questions Or “At the end of this unit, students will be able to…”

Benefits Forces use to operationalize goal statements Having test questions in mind helps us sort out what to include and what can be left out Serves as test of whether you are doing what you really care about

Ways of Shaping Classroom Time How/where to deliver information Do we have to tell them or are there alternatives? – Flipped classroom?

What Kind of Information Depends on Learning Goals Content – Packaged w/out ambiguity – Lecture or text Interpretation/analysis – “Messy” – no single conclusion

What Will The Students Be Doing? Active learning Make relevance explicit Reflection – What did I learn/what is still unclear – How has my understanding changed – How this information matters in my life

Classroom Activities – The Big Message There is never enough time, so you have to leave some things out Make sure it is a conscious choice based on your learning goals

Structuring Out of Class Explicit planning Asking them to do things that meet your goals Follow with rudimentary flipped classroom – Focus on what they need help understanding – Not delivery of what they have learned from reading

Getting them to do the work Accountability – Not everything has to be graded Changing our behavior – Don’t be an enabler

Teaching Strategy Techniques v. strategies Audience, timing and goals – Understand where students are – Find appropriate techniques Use combinations to create illusion of variety Use combinations over different days to move from lower level learning to higher

Check Your Work Dee’s Grid

If you want more … More on Dee’s approach, or a chance to talk with others who are trying to re-organize their courses During summer Let me know