At 08:49 AM 12/29/2007, you wrote:
Something else that's missing
from the "health" TBL book is the "Setting Grade
Weights" exercise, with which the class determines the weights of
the various types of evaluation. Is this exercise available elsewhere,
preferably online?
To reduce the math involved, my own inclination is to weight by providing
different numbers of points for different things, rather than getting
into percentages. For example, an IRAT question might be worth 1 point,
GRAT 1, and end-of-topic 3. But that's what I would let the students
decide, I guess.
Lane,
Here are forms I use when running the Setting Grade Weights
exercise:
- the Word document allows (requires) the teams to come to class
with their initial decisions set
- the spreadsheet is displayed in class to show the teams the class
average (I've erased the formulae)
- the initial breakdown of 1000 points in the syllabus gives the
students a general guide as to my view, which they can adjust in teh
Setting Grade Weights exercise
I found this level of organization necessary since I was using 40 or so
teams in this class. You can adapt it for any number, of course.
My biggest challenges with incorporating the 'Setting Grade Weights'
component of TBL were:
- how to explain it to the students clearly and simply
- what "stake" to put in the ground at the beginning of
the semester - i.e., what percentages do we START with, so students see
how their grade is calculated
So what I do is:
- pick MY initial breakdown of points (and tell them if the class
can't agree on Grade weights in one in-class session, we will revert to
my initial point distribution)
- use the forms attached to this message to run the exercise
- update the syllabus and re-distribute this new point distribution
after the exercise
BTW, virtually every class begins thinking that there is too much at
stake for "team" points. And virtually every class ends up
increasing the "team" points when they talk through the issues
in Setting Grade Weights! (As Larry intended it to go, I believe. Then
THEY'RE responsible for the choice, and you have buy-in!)
Hope this is helpful.
Andy
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