Chris Juzwiak

Carnegie Grant, Fall 2005

Week 6

I met with Angela on Monday to discuss her lesson plans for the week. We reviewed two PPT presentations, and I explained strategies for delivering the content of the slides. We also reviewed and opened the WebCT quizzes that were developed to accompany these presentations.

Angela seemed more confident this week about the progression of the class and her management of the materials. Her biggest concern at this juncture is how to manage the opening and closing of quizzes for her students. This is a significant stumbling block and topic of concern for all three instructors (myself included), so we’ll be brainstorming quit a bit on this for next semester. Here’s the gist of the dilemma: when a student misses a number of quizzes and expresses an interest in making them up, we want to oblige and ensure the learning opportunity. However, if we do this too frequently, we end up enabling a student’s irresponsible behavior. Moreover, with so many quizzes assigned at one time and so many students behind in their homework (a common situation with this level of developmental students), it becomes a logistical nightmare trying to open and close so many quizzes (with an infinite number of opening and closing dates) for so many individuals. On Friday, during our weekly meeting, we discussed a number of strategies to minimize this problem:

· During each class meeting for the first two weeks of the semester, have the students log onto the class website for five or ten minutes to check the calendar and rehearse selecting “Available Quizzes” on the quiz page. (This operation is contingent upon the class being in a computer lab full-time, which is not guaranteed.)

· Assign quizzes in small increments initially and make them due from one class meeting to another. Then, when students arrive to class, have them log onto the class website and check My Progress. Point out that it is quite serious if a student has all zeroes for the assigned quizzes. Then (for the first few class meetings only), let the students know that the quizzes will be open for two hours only after class and that they should make them up immediately.

· After allowing a student to make-up one set of missing quizzes, the instructor should not open any more missing quizzes until the student demonstrates that he/she can stay on track with the currently assigned quizzes for several weeks.

· Develop a handout that the student keeps and the instructor signs only when certain missing quizzes are to be re-opened. The student can then take the instructor approved request to the WebCT Help Desk where the helper can open the quizzes.

· Connect the struggling students with the SI leader by the second week of the semester.

· The instructor needs to demonstrate a command in managing the website and the students’ initial response to the electronic assignments. When a student senses that an instructor is not fully in command of these issues, he or she may be less inclined to fulfill the homework requirements. (In my own experience in English 189, I have observed many recent high school graduates--especially developmental students--who believe that instructional technology is still a “grey zone” for teachers; as a result, the students routinely take it less seriously, feeling comfortable with the sort of facile excuse making and lack of accountability that may have been tolerated in high school. Once they understand, however, that the instructor is fully in command of the electronic material and that this represents a new standard for academic performance, they usually quit making excuses and accept their responsibility.)

Denise kept me busy again this week loading new and revised PPT slides, opening quizzes, and the like. Having taught English 189 many times, she has a strong sense of direction for the course, and spends most of her time modifying and augmenting her lecture materials (PPT presentations) and managing the class website. She is doing this with equal élan in both her English 189 and 191 classes. Her outcome is, to my mind, vertiginous; I continue to be amazed by her enthusiasm for this new medium. Her main concern seems to be honing her integration of the materials and the pedagogy with her old (much respected) materials and pedagogy. The confluence of these two substantial resources often approaches flood level in the classroom, and though riding the wave with grace, Denise wants to get a better footing in her merging of the two resources.