Student Responsibility
One thing I am finding is that many students are not prepared to ask questions from the previous weeks homework. The best solution I can offer on this is to post online the work we do on the smartboard so that when they do get caught up they can look at the work we did in regards to questions. Better late than never.
Hi Amy - Thanks for your post to the forum I say, "Whatever it takes to get them doing what they need to!" Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I work with students who as a group are quite literal in their thinking, and I teach very abstract topics. Getting them to even get started asking questions can be a chore, so I make it a large part of the course assesment. Each week students have to show up to class with five or six bullet-point key ideas from the reading, and one or two questions about it. I review these before the next class session, and use both the good questions and the unanswered ones to start the next week's discussion.
In terms where students aren't speaking up with their questions, I have them all write their questions on the board before class, and I navigate among them to rebuild the course of the reading. Usually I don't have to do this more than three or four times.
Do you notice that as the semester progresses students answer more of the homework questions? If so, I would say that providing the questions you are going to ask in advance may help them prepare for discussion. If not...and I suspect this is the case...it sounds like the students just aren't doing the reading? Maybe they need an incentive like a brief class project at the end of each class that the reading would have prepared them for. In other words, if they come to class prepared, they will be able to complete the assignment better and faster.
It is somewhat depressing, I think, to have to provide external motivators to complete work, but when I think about everything else I am competing with (work, family, other classes) I think it is often necessary. On the upside, students do tell me that they are glad they "had to" complete certain assignments...they were planning on blowing it off but didn't because of the incentive and as a result...they learned something. Go figure, huh?
Hi Scott - This is a never-ending problem. We always have the students who have not done the homework and so don't know what they don't know. Your idea of posting the SmartBoard activity is great, ( Providing that they view it!) Best wishes- Susan
