10 Pro-Tips to Guide you Through the Semester

1. Use the 3-column backwards-design system for creating your course.

• Identify your forward-looking measurable course objectives. "By the end of the semester, students should be able to...." "Forward-looking" means focusing on how students will use this learning after the semester ends. That may mean in their future careers, in their lives as citizens, or simply in the next course of a sequence. But it should not be internal to the class. "Successfully write a term paper" is not a forward-looking goal. A forward-looking revision would be "communicate arguments with evidence to different types of audience."
• Identify the assignments and other mechanisms that help you to assess whether and how the course objectives have been achieved for each student. Too often, course goals name outcomes that simply cannot be measured. Similarly, a lot of assignments exist for generating a grade without any alignment to the objectives. Alignment means that each objective can be measured in one or more ways; each assessment contributes to the measurement of an objective; and each learning activity prepares students for one of those assessments. Thusly,
• Design learning activities that align with assessments and objectives. Don't just include everything you've ever done, whatever activities work best, or the activities that are 'canon' in the field. You need to take the time to address each course objective and prepare students for the assessment. (Some objectives can only be assessed in course discussion, and that's totally fine, but it helps to name which objectives your discussion time aligns with.) Learning activities include discussions, readings, homework, videos, field trips, games, etc. Traditional, liberal arts classes have been heavily centered on the text, so that the reading list dominates the list of learning activities. Let that go! Reading matters, but the readings need to be driven by the course goals, and you need to pay attention to the ways that other activities besides reading can also help you achieve your goals. 

2. Teach on the first day of class.

The first few class meetings may have some enrollment turmoil leading up to the add/drop deadline. It can be tempting to delay teaching until after that deadline, and especially tempting not to teach on the first day. After student and faculty has heard the notion that the first day is just for passing out syllabi, handling a few business matters, directing students toward the books, and sending them away. But we need to use this time to generate excitement for the topic and teaching is the best way to do that. Find a micro-topic or a micro-text you can discuss on day 1. A literature course might spend day one discussing a poem or a famous passage. A communications course might spend day one discussing a music video. In a 50 minute class meeting, I would spend day 1 doing 20 minutes of business (course overview, etc.), 25 minutes of discussion with 1-2 key lessons or takeaways, and then 5 minutes to connect the discussion back to the overview. In an 80 minute class meeting, I might do 35 minutes of business, 35 minutes of discussion and 10 minutes tying them together at the end. 

Choose a topic that will generate enthusiasm. Last year in my pop culture class, we spent day one discussing Taylor Swift's new music video for "Look What You Made Me Do" and I identified the specific ways that a sociologist would examine the video. I also listened to student perspectives on how they make meaning from the music they listen to. 

3. Assess early.

The learning community is formed collaboratively by the students and the professor. That's why classes can feel so different from one section to another even when the syllabus looks the same. We create this community initially through learning activities. But a higher level of trust is created (or undermined) by the first assignment. If students see that the first assignment is reasonable measure of what they have been doing in class up to that point, and if they feel they are graded fairly, then they grant more trust to the instructor, to the course, and to the learning community within the course. 

On a related note, if students are likely to struggle with the assessments, it's better for them to discover that early on so that they can make arrangements for their needs. They may discover that they need to spend more time preparing for class, seek support from the writing center, or discuss their needs with the professor. But if they don't discover that until a large assessment at the midterm or an even larger assessment at the end of the semester, they may not be able to succeed in the course at all.

4. Create breathing room for you and your students. 

Include days when you show media or invite a guest speaker. It's good for students to learn from multiple voices, so let go of feeling guilty that you're not doing your job on those days. Plan for catch-up days in case you fall behind. If you don't need it, use it as a chance to have an open discussion that connects the ideas of the course to a current event. You will feel less pressure to be the expert and student voices will get to occupy more space in the room. 

5. Teach less, so your students learn more.

Here's a class plan you can use any given meeting: Invite students to write down one key response, question, striking moment from the reading (or from the last learning activity, whatever it may have been--homework, video, guest speaker, discussion, etc.). Go around the room and ask each student to share, inviting students to respond to each other, but let it be okay if no one has a response. Usually when I do this exercise in a class of 20-30, I don't make it to every student before the class ends. That's okay too, but pay attention and make sure you don't always hear from the same students. For this class plan, the instructor needs only to have engaged in the learning activity and its conceivable that the instructor could facilitate student learning even when they haven't engaged the learning activity. 

6. Check in with the students at mid-semester or even sooner to see how they are doing.

I ask them to anonymously answer three questions: 1) What aspects of this course help you to learn? 2) What aspects of this course hinder your learning? 3) What suggestions do you have? 

I collect the responses and review them thoughtfully. I even write a summary that I share with the students. Inevitably, some issues divide the students ("10 of you commented on how great the readings are, and 10 of you said that the readings hinder your learning"), but it's helpful for students to see that their experience isn't the same as others. Some concerns are brought up so infrequently that no response or a minimal response is warranted. A minimal response is to acknowledge that it came up and clarify any confusions that may be attached to it ("one of you raised concerns about the fact that I take attendance in every meeting but I do want to remind you that I overlook the first two absences"). Some concerns are brought up so often that I response is necessary. I have had classes where students communicated that a slight reduction in the number of readings would make a big difference, or that an alternative prompt on a response paper would be helpful. I often can't anticipate this feedback, but I can do a lot with the feedback to improve student learning. 

7. Read (or skim) all the papers before you grade them.

Sounds counter-intuitive, but reviewing the papers before you grade them will save you a lot of time and help you grade consistently. How will it save time? 1) It makes the papers less overwhelming. After you receive the papers, you will likely have a period of time when you will struggle to start the grading process. It seems too overwhelming; you have too much else to do; you can't find a stretch of time long enough to get going. Reading the papers is a much lower-stakes activity that you will likely be able to start much sooner than grading, and grading will follow soon thereafter because the papers are no longer a black box of work. 2) Once you review the papers as a group, you realize where the major troubles areas are and you can focus your time in the grading process.

Also, don't get caught up in line-by-line mark-ups on early papers (or maybe on any papers). Research shows that students can catch most their own mistakes. If they are struggling to do so, give them time in class to mark up their own (or each other's) papers. 

8. Close the semester with a celebration of student learning.

Give students a chance to reflect on what they learned and what was most meaningful for them. Allow them to reflect on how they might use the learning experiences in the future. If you spent a lot of time engaged in critique during the semester, let the last meeting or two focus on telling stories that are positive and focused on agency and change. 

9. Foster the evaluation experience that you want and need.

Tell students about the different ways that evaluations are used and not used. Remind them evaluations are a professional experience that they should approach them in a professional manner. Give students a list of the elements of the course they should consider in their review (organization, discussion, readings, assignments, technology, etc.). Invite them to name the elements that worked well so that you can preserve for them future. Ask them to offer suggestions for how to improve the elements that did not work as well for them. 

10. Read your evaluations as part of a broader professional review of the semester.

It's very important to read your evaluations as they are a part of your professional record. You need to know what they say. You need to help others who will read them understand what they are seeing.

Take the emotion out of evaluations by essentially re-writing them. For instance, "this horrible bore asked stupid questions that no one wanted to answer" becomes "did not enjoy discussion." Then just put a tick mark next to the new phrase to account for any other students who indicated something similar. If you several students in the same class indicated that discussion isn't working for them, then you can look for ways to transform your discussion style without confronting the existential question of whether you are truly a bore who asks stupid questions.

If reading evaluations is painful, partner with a colleague to read each other's evaluations and summarize them to each other in a way that reduces the pain.

After reading a summarizing evaluations, write a reflection on the whole of the semester that accounts for the evaluations AND your own experience in teaching the class, and any peer reviews you have. Include notes on how you want to adjust the course in the future.