Authentic Assessment Workshop (hosted)

Pre-term introductions and Mid-term feedback

Good course design is dynamic and responsive to the needs of students. How will we know what our students are coming into our classroom with if we don't ask them? How will we know what we're missing if we don't ask our students how the course is going? This idea was revolutionary to me when I encountered it as part of my @ONE training. In response to this, I now implement pre-term and mid-term surveys. The pre-term surveys are intended for me to gauge what my students are bringing into the classroom with them, including prior experience in college, the sciences. I also ask about other obligations on their time outside of the classroom - do they work full or part time? Are they a caretaker? Additionally, I make sure I give students to share their pronouns with me, and an opportunity to share how they pronounce their name. Most importantly, students are asked to share with me about how they're feeling about the class. This lets me know if I have students who are anxious, scared, or excited, or perhaps any other emotion, and I can adjust my approach in the classroom accordingly. Perhaps this class is mostly first term, first generation college students who also work outside of class, and they're particularly anxious about this class. I need to adjust my tone, and be more explicit with my connection and support resources with this group. 

At the halfway point of the term, I give students the opportunity to give me anonymous feedback. I ask them to not only reflect on practices I use that may or may not be working for them, but I also ask them to reflect on what's going on for them that may or may not be helping their progress in the class. This also gives me an opportunity to address or adjust my approach as needed. For instance, I often get frustrated comments on this midterm survey that they wish the labs were graded, which is a reminder to me that I need to be more explicit in my explanation for why I don't grade labs, and my philosophy behind my teaching practices. 

At the end of the term, students are provided an opportunity to share what they wish they'd known going into this class. I frame this activity as "Knowing what you know now, if you could tell your day one self anything to help prepare you for this class, what would it be?" Students are given the option to record themselves, and if I have their permission, I use these recordings as a montage for future students to learn from and hopefully take some advice from peers. 

These practices have helped get more buy-in from my students on my approach, while showing that despite the power disparity, I am open to feedback and willing to adjust in order to support their learning.