MAILING LISTS

I have been out of the office for a while so this is a late post to the thread about supplying reading guides. It is similar to the suggestion from Ron's student. It doesn't involve any extra involvement from me and the students seem to like it.

In one course I teach I have mostly sophomore and freshman. Learning how to read and pick out important things is really difficult for some students. It is sad to say but they really never had to do this in high school. Here is one thing that I have done that has helped.

In my course each team has a wiki through wikispaces. A wiki is a web 2.0 tool that easily allows students to collaborate. You could probably use a lot of other tools such as a blog or google docs to do the same thing. Teams are given the option to create study guides for each other. The team can decide how they want to do the study guides but it has to be approved by me. Some teams assign each person a different section of the course to outline, some have each team member list important ideas, some make out questions for each other, some make flash card like things. They must post the study guides on the team wiki by 5:00 the day before the test. For each person that completes the study guide on time, he or she gets a bonus question on the iRAP. So if there were 10 questions on the iRAP and the student missed two he or she would have a score of 9. If they got them all right then they would have a score of 11. Also if every member on the team posts a study guide then the team gets a bonus question on the tRAP. I have found that students will do almost anything for a bonus point, even if in reality it effects their grade very little. I have also heard comments during tRAP discussions like,"That one was on Mary's study guide." It really is very little work for me, but it helps students learn how to make their own study guides. Students have told me that this method has helped them really learn to study. I think one reason this helps is it lets them see what others note as important and it helps the team do better on RAPs.

After the students finish the RAP I have them take the team test and write on it the date and time that each person posted on the wiki. They know that I will randomly check the wiki to make sure that they are being honest. Then when I grade the test I just add the bonus points when calculating the grade.

Karen

Dr. Karen Milligan, Associate Professor
Box 71874
Carson-Newman College
Jefferson City, TN 37760
Phone: 865-471-3484
Fax: 865-471-3475