OZARKA COLLEGE

Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

We used a form of this first method in my Advanced Composition course. We each took two papers from the "turn-in" pile, read them, and wrote a one page review for each one. In that way, each of us received the instructor's remarks and two peer reviews of our work. It gave us the opportunity to see how other students approached the same assignment and to see how they interpreted our approach as well.

The next method promotes student engagement in the learning process. This can be a fun way to approach an active, collaborative learning style.

Evaluation of Another Student's Work - Students are asked to complete an individual homework assignment or short paper. On the day the assignment is due, students submit one copy to the instructor to be graded and one copy to their partner. These may be assigned that day, or students may be assigned partners to work with throughout the term. Each student then takes their partner's work and depending on the nature of the assignment gives critical feedback, standardizes or assesses the arguments, corrects mistakes in problem-solving or grammar, and so forth. This is a particularly effective way to improve student writing.

 Active Review Sessions - In the traditional class review session, the students ask questions and the instructor answers them. Students spend their time copying down answers rather than thinking about the material. In an active review session, the instructor poses questions and the students work on them in groups. Then students are asked to show their solutions to the whole group and discuss any differences among solutions proposed.

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.