Establishing a Teaching Pattern
When establishing a pattern of teaching, what do you believe are the two most important things to consider?
MARIE,
It can be frustrating when students don't use the tools you provide them. You could have them sign the rubric saying they read the rubric and understand the expectations. I have done that just to make a point.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
MARIE,
Great post! You are right, you have to make sure that respect is practiced by both student and instructor. That will go long way in working with students to achieve high expectations.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Hello Yvette,
I could not agree with you more. I think rubrics are great for providing descriptive guidelines to any given assignments. I do sometime find that students either don’t read or understand them. I simplify my rubrics as much as possible. Do you run into the same problem with your students?
Marie
Hello Dr. Kelly,
As suggested in the text, students learn what is expected of them in any particular course. One of the important things to consider is how the instructor will provide the information to the students. Both the teaching and learning processes are enhanced and a pattern of teaching is developed. I also think that the pattern chosen is with care and all aspects of the concept should be taken into consideration.
Marie
Molly,
I think we tend to forget organization. Communication is a no brainer, but organization provides routine and routine provides comfort and confidence to students. Your embedded routines contribute to the organization.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
It's hard for me to only pick two, but I would state communication and organization. It is very important to be organized and clear on each component of the classroom. I do my best to make sure all questions are answered before students enter my classroom by making sure material is organized, not overwhelming, and most importantly clear. The one thing that I think is most important to my teaching pattern is communication. Not only do I need to communicate clearly to my students, but it is important that they feel they can communicate with me and their classmates in a comfortable environment. The first week of class, I try very hard to reach out to every student through email or a phone call. Furthermore in each week's discussion, I respond to every students initial post. Offering office hours, live chats, and an emergency phone number is essential too. It is important they know we are truly here for them!
Yvette,
You make a great point. When you use a rubric, it makes it easier for students to see the small tasks in a big project. Students seem to become overwhelmed many times by multiple steps or a high stakes project. A rubric does help them break that down.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Yvette,
Your statement is so true. It is like star crossed lovers. Neither makes a move but both want to and need to! That is why it is so important for you as the instructor to always make the effort of the "first move". You may want to create your own "raise your Hand" action in your online course to make sure students know the way to reach you in a quick way.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Yvette,
You really articulated well about establishing the two areas of a teaching pattern. You have to have the expectations area and the feedback area. You are right, in online ed, it does seem to be more front end/ back end. You do have to have both pieces to make a complete pattern!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I agree as well. Rubrics, as I often tell my students, is a legal way to 'give you the answer' to a degree. It shows you exactly what the instructor is looking for in your deliverable. I always tell my students to use the rubric to build your assignment one piece at a time and check their assignments against the rubrics prior to submitting them to ensure they contain all the pieces for which I will be looking.
This is so true. I have seen this happen and it's the saddest thing. Often times, an instructor is there and WANTS to help. And they are wondering why a student didn't reach out. But if the instructor doesn't reach out, the student might never speak up. And they could have been receiving the assistance they need all along. It's really important that as instructors, we take the reigns and constantly remind students that we are here to help them and all they have to do is 'raise their hand'.
When establishing a teaching pattern, there are several important aspects to consider. Because of the number of items an instructor needs to consider, I would group them into two categories.
One category include "front-end" things like: establishing course expectations, communicating course outcomes, explaining course assignments and establishing resources to help students learn. These are things that need to be clearly identified from the beginning of the course to help set the stage for student success.
The second category of items to help establish a pattern of teaching include the "back-end" items, such as: establishing grading schedules (so students can know when to expect grades), making grading rubrics available (so they understand their grades), providing timely feedback (so they can learn what they did right or wrong and how to improve) and keeping the lines of communication open (so they know they can contact you with any issues they have).
These 'categories' of items are critical to students' success in learning and our success in instruction and in reaching course and institutional outcomes.
Michael,
I agree with you. They need to know expectations. Do you give them examples of good work and bad work?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Wilkinson, I've always believed that it is even more important in an online environment to provide greater clarity, in terms of your course expectations etc. A grading rubric is also essential so that the students can "reverse engineer" their assignment responses… In other words, they know exactly what they need to be providing for the required assignment. Thank you. Mike Crowley
Mischel,
Great post. You really have defined elements of your teaching pattern that are so important. You need to make sure this is articulated in your syllabus and other places.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The two most important things I would consider in establishing my teaching pattern are to clearly define my expectations of the students and to make certain the students are aware of resources and modes of communications with me.
Mischel,
You make a great point. We really have to go over the resources to help students learn. You can record or go over them yourself but that is so important.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I feel the two most important things to consider when establishing your pattern of teaching are communicating student expectations and outlining the resources and availability of the instructor.
Rickey,
Great points! You do need to look at your course content and the time you have to meet your course objectives. Then you will need to look at the technology as the delivery tools.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
