Scientifically Thinking…

Originally posted 5-23-06 in my first blog 

FOCUS… It’s very difficult to give quality feedback on student work while playing ringmaster to the three-ring circus that is a classroom of sophomores assigned to work on individual projects… Personally, I think that’s a major reason why online classes are so successful — when you remove the clas6sroom management responsibilites so that a teacher can just focus on the instruction-assessment feedback cycle, the quality of that feedback increases tremendously! 

Many years ago, I used “C&C” — “critique & comment” sessions for lab reports. Students saved drafts to a central network folder, protecting them for tracked changes & allowing comments only. We’d spend a full class period with every student AND ME at computers, opening peer lab reports & giving feedback comments.

Peer feedback on drafts of the sophomore element powerpoints would be nice, but I’m not willing to give it class time. (The project is a presentation, that happens to be supported by a powerpoint… we have 1.5 hours of in-class peer feedback on rehearsal presentations to small groups of peers.)

I’m currently experimenting with a class wiki so I can give comments to students as they do their research, but at this level most kids are pretty intent on putting research directly into powerpoint slides without an intermediate synthesis place…

As I’ve been doing for many years, I suggested that students email me their powerpoint BEFORE completion for feedback… I can give quality feedback so much more efficiently OUTSIDE the classroom (during prep periods & “study hall” babysitting duty). Now that I’ve started posting comments in wiki’s, I’m realizing how much it helps to have a record of the feedback, connected to their work. I can ask them to REPLY to my email when sending a second (or third…) draft so that I have my original feedback right there, but I wonder how many will? It’s a pain to have to dig my original email to them out of my sent items folder…