Jordan- Reading Notes #3

There were three areas that I had the most questions about throughout the readings, and they all deal with assignments. Firstly, Chapter 35 jumped out to me. I haven't thought too much about designing writing assignments. I really enjoyed the tip Davis used by assigning several short papers. One of my favorite instructors did this, and it's a way for students to get some easy points. Davis says that it's also a way for instructors to get students used to what you are looking for with writing assignments (pg 314). It would definitely be a task to get everyone on the same page for what you look for and expect with a writing assignment when that first assignment is a ten page research paper. I like Davis' advice on making sure the purpose of the assignment is clear and specified (pg 314). I don't want to find myself writing an assignment that I find clear only to have ten students not sure exactly what I want. I like the advice of involving the students right away on larger writing assignments (pg 316). The same teacher that used smaller assignments throughout the course also made the first task of each of his classes picking a topic for the term paper. While a perfect world would feature every student engaged in research and term papers right off the bat, it seems to me that the more involved a teacher is with an assignment the more focused the students end up being. For instance, just by casually mentioning term papers or exams will get the students at least thinking about it in advance more than not mentioning assignments at all.

The second concern that I have comes from Chapter 36: evaluating work. I like the advice Davis gives of sorting out papers based on quality (pg 325). I like the language that Davis uses by saying don't "overestimate an average paper" or "wait expectantly for an outstanding one" (pg 325). One of the problems I foresee having is being able to fairly critique and dock points when needed. I don't want to be too generous or too harsh when evaluating, as Davis puts it, and I want to be able to "keep it simple" (pgs 325, 329). I was also not a very big fan of rubrics, maybe that could come from some of the past teachers I've had whose rubrics I didn't really like, but I'd much rather use the definition of the criteria for each grade that Davis presents on pgs 330-331. I feel as if I can't tell the difference between an A paper and a C paper, then maybe the assignment was a little too complex. I will do my best to keep it simple. It's not as if we're trying to reinvent the wheel here. Keeping that in mind, I'd prefer just taking the total points possible in the course and taking the number of points the student earned and divide those numbers to find the student's percentage in the course. I think this presents less error on my part. If I used some of those examples and models that Lang presents from pages 142-145, it presents too much of an opportunity for error, and I don't want to have to spend all that extra time calculating and recalculating grades. I could be working on becoming a better teaching with that time.

The last question I had was finding out my testing methods. Davis lists several different types of testing methods on page 365-367, and I wonder what type of method would suit me and my teaching skills and strengths. Basically I'm trying to look at it from the student perspective and think about how well I lecture or how well I explain concepts and then what would be the best way to test the students on those strengths and weaknesses. Davis says to use a variety of methods to appeal to the different learning types of the students (pg 363-364). I also want to incorporate more essay tests though. Davis says that this is a great way to "comment on students' progress, the quality of their thinking, the depth of their understanding, and the difficulties they are having" (pg 365). This ties back into my teaching philosophy of wanting to develop critical thinking skills. I also feel as though multiple choice tests or matching tests can leave students with only memorizing basic facts and doesn't present that in depth analysis that I'm also looking for in students.