I use PickMe also. Great app. I have 120 students in my class and the possibility that you might get called on is a great motivator.
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John Mark Jackson
On Jun 19, 2012, at 6:54 AM, "Dean Parmelee" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
I strongly suggest either old fashioned ping pong balls with student names on them to pick at random, or one of the new APPs like PICKME that you can set up easily for picking a student at random. I never ask for a volunteer to answer. Keep every student in the class on their toes and expect any student who gets called to speak for the teams positions. Dean
From an iPad
On Jun 18, 2012, at 11:23 PM, Peter Balan <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Dear Jennifer,
The great thing about TBL is that it is inherently designed to involve every student. Here’s what I do to reinforce individual participation…
I use the information on TBL team folders to create a seating plan for the class, and I require each team to sit in the same location each session. I usually call for volunteers to answer team exercise (or other) questions. Fairly often, though, I call on students by name to respond to questions after teams have discussed an exercise. In this way, each student should be able to give an answer, as the question has been addressed by the team, and I check each student’s name on the seating plan as I call on them. In this way I make sure that each student pays attention and contributes at some stage during the sessions. If a student (eg “Jane”) “gets stuck”, I call on another student (“Jim, would you help Jane out”), and tell “Jane” that I will give her the chance to answer another question later on. Using names personalises this approach and “encourages” them to pay attention for the next time…
I explain this approach at the start of each class so that students know what to expect. This does not require me to know every student as an individual; all I need to know is their team and location, and keep simple records on the seating plan. I find that this works well with my entrepreneurship classes (40 to 85 students), but I guess that this could be done in larger classes with more teams.
All the best, Peter Balan
University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jennifer Imazeki
Sent: Tuesday, 19 June 2012 12:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: encouraging student participation in teams
Hi all,
I'm wondering if anyone does anything to specifically encourage participation of ALL students during team and all-class discussions? For example, appointing specific students to be the 'scribe' for the team, or the 'reporter'? I ask because although the peer evaluations should (and do) provide some incentive for students to contribute (and I do mid-semester non-binding evaluations so students do get feedback in time to make adjustments), I find that there are always still a handful of students about whom their teammates say things like, "was really quiet", "only spoke up when directly asked", etc., and who never speak up during all-class discussions. On the flip side, most teams seem to appoint one, maybe two, students who routinely do all the writing on the worksheets that get handed in; those also tend to be the students who speak for the team during all-class discussion. That also means that during team discussion time, many teams will discuss the problem but then leave it to that one person to write it all up while the rest of the team just chats, checks their phones, etc. At the beginning of last semester, I tried randomly calling on students during the all-class discussion, hoping that would get them to be prepared to answer for their team (and I repeatedly pointed out that writing out the responses on the team worksheets is good practice for the midterm exam), but I had a lot of students who couldn't do much more than tell me which choice their team picked, without being able to articulate the team reasoning very well, eventually needing to be 'saved' by someone else who volunteered to speak up.
I'd be curious what approaches others have used to ensure all students are engaged - or should I just accept that there will always be a few who 'zone out'?
thanks,
Jennifer
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Jennifer Imazeki
Department of Economics
San Diego State University
homepage: https://sites.google.com/a/mail.sdsu.edu/jenniferimazeki/
Economics for Teachers blog: http://economicsforteachers.blogspot.com
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