MAILING LISTS

I'm using TBL, for the first time, in an intro to macroeconomics course.
Would be interested in hearing from any co-conspirators, who teach
economics.



All is going well except that students seem to be doing way too much foot
dragging during the in-class exercises.  I pass out or describe the exercise
and too many of them want to "negotiate" about what exactly I want.  Then
they want clarification.  Then, after warnings that they need to finish we
have to wait because "we still need to write out our graph."



We have a large number of remedial students, and that may explain some of
this.  What I'm looking for are tips on how to get more
productivity/learning out of the team exercises.  My feeling is that I'm
doing pretty well on Larry Michaelsen's main points of designing activities
that require specific choices, with simultaneous reporting (if I could get
more cooperation on that).



Perhaps I need a way to hold the groups more accountable for foot dragging
and not paying attention.  Perhaps by doing this incrementally, I could make
groups feel accountable for paying attention without provoking a revolt.
For example, (1) "Does everybody get the assignment?" (and if not, another
group is asked to explain so that the rest of the class gets to express
their frustration at the foot draggers), (2) "Who is not done?" (with the
implicit question being, if all others are finished, why not you?), I could
implement this accountability without provoking a revolt.  My feeling is
that being too strict won't work because then the offending group will
disrupt the class discussion.



Other tips?  Any silver bullets?



Thanks,    Fritz Laux, Northeastern State University.