Mid-Term+Progress+Report


 * Spring 2011 Mid-Term Progress Report**

In an email which I will send to you within a few days, I will give you a grade range—based on your wiki page—for the course so far.

To make sure everyone hears the same message from me on exactly how I assess your work, I have devoted a wiki page to it.

I will go over it with you during class time. Please stay with me--and listen to my explanations--as we read through it together.

This Mid-Term Progress Report page is a supplement to and modification of the GRADING page of our Learning Professor wiki: http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Grading


 * Digression: My Facebook Page**

Up to now, I have hesitated to require you to be a "fan" of my Facebook page, but I think we need to move in that direction.

I am posting much material there to enrich your course experience.

I am keen to get your reactions to questions I pose that will help me progress as a teacher.

Also, that page will provide an outlet for shy students to contribute in a more comfortable way to our class.

So, to get to my page [please take the time to do it right now, if you are not already a "fan"]:

1) under Facebook Search, choose "David Lambert author" or "David Lambert page"

2) Or go directly to this link: http://www.facebook.com/LearningProfessor


 * My Overall Grading Philosophy**

1) My goal is to be your coach, friend, and mentor, but not be a cop.

See the article by Professor Peter Kakela (Michigan State University) at http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/No+Longer+a+Cop

In that ideal world, we would not have grades.

2) Yet I must award grades.

3) In the grades I award, I want to act justly and be merciful.

Micah 6:8 And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Such a just and merciful approach might well argue that everyone should get a high grade. I wish.

4) Yet grade inflation is an issue on college campuses across the nation.

I must take into account the admonitions about grade inflation from the Dean of our College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as from the chair of the Department of History and Political Science.

5) So I face a conflict.

This excellent article from the //New York Times// concerning student grade expectations illustrates that conflict:

"Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes" http://nyti.ms/g7rbUz

On the one hand, students want an "A"; on the other hand, many professors often feel that a "C" should be the default grade.

6) How do I personally try to resolve the dilemma: I choose to use a "B" as my default grade.

7) Within the "B" range, I look at B/B+, B, and B/B- as the normal options when assessing your work.

So in my email to you I will use one of those three options as your grade so far this semester.

8) Caveat: We are still at an interim point in the semester.

Whatever grade range you are in at this point implies no total guarantee as to your final semester grade.

It is conditional, based on how well you finish the semester.

9) You can improve. We will talk below about how to do that.

10) But if you tank, all bets are off.

11) To make sure I connect with you personally and not just through email, at your request we can have one-on-one huddles and more updates as the semester rolls on.

12) Your response to my feedback can lead to growth in your proficiencies.

I myself have needed to learn how to accept feedback.

If my feedback is not exactly what you prefer to hear, resolve to get better, not bitter.


 * My Assessment of Your Wiki Page**

1) Your semester grade is not so much about the grade I give you.

Your grade will be what YOU have earned.

Your grade is based on your own effort and consistency over the course of the entire semester.

2) Remember: You are not being asked to take exams or write a term paper.

3) What you learned over the course of an entire college semester should be demonstrated by the reactions on your wiki page.

4) Your reactions should demonstrate depth of thought at a college level and a semester-long engagement with the material.

5) I will evaluate the sum total (a holistic grading of your wiki page, your entire portfolio as it were) of your reactions.

6) I can't possibly read everything you put on your wiki page. (I have at least 100 students each semester, each writing the equivalent of 40 typewritten pages.)

Refer to this excellent article from the University of Hawaii at Manoa Writing Program: "Tips for Teachers of Writing-Intensive Classes" http://www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/qt-tips.htm

Scroll all the way to the bottom to "Tips for Saving Time." Notice: Teachers don't need to read everything that students write for a course.


 * Wiki Page/Reactions**

1) Your Wiki Page format:

Please make sure you have followed the steps I have listed on the following page: http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/REACTION+SCHEDULE

It helps my eyes if you make your page easy for me to read, like using regular black print on the white background and employing the same font size throughout.

2) You don't necessarily need to insert pictures but they do add a certain pizzazz to your page.

3) Keep up to date by posting your reactions as the semester unfolds. The reaction needs to be on the wiki page to count.

Your grade is based on effort and consistency over the course of the entire semester.

4) Your reactions over the course of the semester should demonstrate your engagement with the breadth of the course material.

5) Your reactions should take advantage of the buffet table I try to provide you.

6) Don't just post your reactions off the top of your head but think about the material for that class period.

Read several of the web links. Deal with an important chunk of the material in your reaction. Polish your prose to a "finished copy" level.

7) Benefit from the leeway I give you to follow your interests. [If our approach to learning U.S. History doesn't hold your interest, I don't know what will.]

Please click on the following article, written by Mara Truslow and published in the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching blog:

"From a Student’s View: Freedom and Structure within a Course" http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2011/02/from-a-students-view-freedom-and-structure-within-a-course/

8) Mara Truslow's concept of a teacher offering "structured freedom" is what I am attempting to offer to each of you through the material on our wiki.


 * Grading of your Reactions**


 * Caveat: This grade assumes that your reactions are present on your page and up-to-date. If not, your grade could be much lower: a C, D, or an F.**

B/B+ means that almost all of your reactions are in the "good" category

B means that the majority of your reactions are in the "good" category

B/B- means that not enough of your reactions are in the "good" category

Note: Excess unexcused absences will push your grade toward the B/B- range (or even below that).


 * Characteristics of "Good" reactions**

1) Reactions that go beyond just merely reciting what happened.

2) Reactions that are thoughtful and evaluative, not shallow and obvious.

3) Reactions that are consistently more than the threshold minimum word count.

4) Reactions that make connections to other things you are learning.


 * Characteristics of "not-so-good" reactions**

1) Reactions in which the thinking level is thin, shallow, standard, obvious, or superficial.

2) Reactions that are barely up to the threshold word requirement.

3) Reactions that deal with only a small portion of the material covered that day.

4) Reactions that read more like a first draft than a thoughtful, polished entry.

5) Reactions with an overabundance of proofreading mistakes.


 * Class Contribution**

1) My approach both to the format of our course and how I assess your overall semester performance emphasizes behavioral aspects crucial to your future success:

a. You yourself must set your own high standards and drive hard to reach them.

b. Hard work alone is not sufficient: how you come across to your bosses, colleagues, and clients is almost as crucial.

2) Your grade can be modified by your semester-long contribution to our class.

3) To move within the default "B" range, contribution will help.

You can move from a B- to a B, a B to a B+.

4) To receive an A or A-, the contribution piece is crucial.

You should have verbally contributed regularly in class or to our class Facebook page.

5) Here is how to work the "participation part" of classroom contribution

a) During class time

Try to contribute something regularly (like at least once a week) to our class:

Ask a substantial question (one you can't just look up on your laptop)

Make a thoughtful observation on something I or one of your classmates has said

Build on someone else's contribution.

Be the Google Jockey: http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Google+Jockey

b) Or—for those who are too shy to speak up in class—contribute a weekly comment on my Facebook page

6) Here is how to work the "attitude part" of classroom contribution

A positive attitude and demonstrated enthusiasm are so important to your success in your career.

You can practice some aspects of each of them while taking our course this semester.

a) Looking at your fellow students when they offer a prayer request or make a comment

b) Looking up from your computer and showing enthusiasm for Friday songs

c) Facial expression of being "into" the class period (like smiling every so often!)

d) Emitting a belly laugh every so often.

e) Embracing the concept of High Fives

Remember: I have a specific reason why I want to do them. Let's read this article: http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/High+Fives


 * Laptop Procedures/Etiquette**

1) This section ties into the "attitude part" of classroom contribution.

2) There is not much literature on how other professors handle having all students in class with a laptop.

3) So, in a sense, I am inventing things as we go along.

4) Let's read my blog post "No Laptops Permitted in this class. Really?". http://thelearningprofessor.blogspot.com/2011/02/no-student-laptops-permitted-in-this.html It is also posted to my Facebook page. To get to the original blog post, click on the title. That takes you to "Notes" section of my page. Then click on "View Original Post."

Here is some of what I grapple with—as a teacher facing a room full of laptops.

1) I am thrown off stride when only a few students ever seem to look at me when I am talking.

When you look continually at your computer, I question—perhaps unfairly to you—what you are doing.

2) So, there are times when I would like you to close your laptop: during our prayer time and our Friday songs; when I introduce the material for that day, and at other times.

Help me figure out how best to signal to you my desire for you to partially close your laptop at those times.

Some possible ways could be:

"Tracking" "Eyes" Code Yellow (computers half closed)

3) Is your lack of eye contact an issue of good manners? (I am probably wrong in thinking so.)

4) I certainly accept multi-tasking but somehow am not comfortable with that during our class.

5) So let's try to "write the book" on how a laptop class should best meet the needs of both students and professor.

How you are trying to process our work as our class session proceeds?

1) Are you taking so many notes that you need to concentrate on your computer?

(I don't think you need to take down much more than the notes that are already provided in the modules.)

2) Are you working on non-class-related things?

If so, that presents a real dilemma for me.

I have put my trust in you to be faithful in appropriately (not doing email or surfing the web) using your laptops during class time.

[Note the reference to eye-service in both Ephesians 6:5-6 (NAS) and Colossians 3:22 (NAS).]

3) If you are trying to keep up with me because I am moving too fast, then let me know.

4) If you are working ahead on reading the links, try to hold yourself back.

5) If you are working to get your reaction done so you won't have to do any of that work outside of class time, that—from my standpoint—is counterproductive.

6) I have to improve the way I operate.

I need to stop asking everyone to look up something on Google; that approach distracts you.

Instead, I think we might try having two students each class period act as the Google Jockey. They can be the ones to move their fingers.

What other things should I do to make our approach to a laptop class flow better for you?