OZARKA COLLEGE

Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week we are looking at two methods that require students to make the information they have learned "their own."

The first one requires students to apply a general set of knowledge to a specific circumstance or idea that has not yet been covered. Students must have a firm grasp on the information, what it means, and how it plays out in different situations.

The second method asks requires students to understand a concept completely in order to explain it thoroughly in their own words. I think this method could be altered slightly and turned into a brief debate on each issue, providing the added benefits of sharing ideas and peer review.

Quotations - this is a particularly useful method of testing student understanding when they are learning to read texts and identify an author's viewpoint and arguments. After students have read a representative advocate of each of several opposing theories or schools of thought, and the relevant concepts have been defined and discussed in class, put on the overhead projector a quotation by an author whom they have not read in the assigned materials, and ask them to figure out what position that person advocates. In addition to testing comprehension of the material presented in lecture, this exercise develops critical thinking and analysis skills.

Directed Paraphrase –This technique asks the student to summarize in well-chosen words a key idea that has been presented during the current class period or the one just past. The paraphrase part requires the student to generate a new way to express the concept. The directed part specifies the audience to whom the paraphrase is directed, thus revealing whether the student understands the concept within the specified framework. A nursing student might be directed to paraphrase the concept of drug clearance by the kidneys to a worried patient (Angelo and Cross. 1993)

If you have time and don't want to wait for the next bite, you can find the rest of the toolbox in myOzarka under the "Ozarka Resources" tab.

Or you can follow this link:

https://www.ozarka.edu/files/resources/teachingtoolbox.doc

I will be posting each section in the Student Success Center Blog. So if you are interested in checking out "back bites," you can find them there.

Or you can follow this link:
https://www.ozarka.edu/blogs/success/index.cfm/Weekly-Postings-for-Faculty-

Hope you enjoyed it.