Magna 20 Minute Mentor | How Can I Effectively Use Class Preparation Assignments?

During this Magna video Dr. Robert Gillette and Dr. Lynn Gillette share their ideas about how they get students primed to come to class and engage with the course materials. In their “interactive model” for teaching they assign students required reading materials that introduces essential course content and have them begin processing that information on their own. When they come to the class sessions, they are expected to become involved in discussions and learning activities that have them working with other students to extend, analyze and apply the new content.

A fundamental element of the Gillettes’ teaching method is to provide the students with Class Preparation Assignments (CPAs), which are guided reading activities involving four to six questions that prepare the students for in-class active learning exercises. The CPAs are graded pass/fail and require that students answer each question, plus create one copy of the CPA to use in class and another copy that is turned in to the instructor. The learners are also encouraged to collaborate with one another outside of class-time to develop answers to the CPA questions. The students are not expected to have perfect responses on the CPA, but they must participate with the in-class learning activities in order to receive any credit. It is important that the CPA questions are not too difficult as the objective is to afford the students with a first-time exposure and not an emphasis on competence. The additional processing, critical thinking and developing expertise about the content will occur during classroom learning exercises involving the whole class.

As part of their presentation, the Gillettes offer many supplementary materials that provide thorough guidelines for implementing the CPAs, including some example questions, and details about their corresponding “multi-category” grade scheme. This video addresses the LCCC Faculty Competency domain for Competency-Based Design and can be accessed by completing this one-time registration to view all the videos in the Magna 20 Minute Mentor series.

Magna 20 Minute Mentor | How Do I Include Introverts in Class Discussions?

In this Magna video, Ms. Nicki Monahan explains some of the challenges introverted students have with in-person class discussions and she proposes several strategies to help them participate. Ms. Monahan discusses that introversion needs to be understood as a basic human characteristic and temperament. It involves some fundamental personal dispositions and differences that can be manifested in the choices that people make.

An individual’s temperament influences their preferences for learning and introverts have certain ways they prefer to learn. Introverts are more comfortable with solitary learning, need adequate time to think before speaking, and prefer using writing to express themselves rather than verbal communications. Therefore, Ms. Monahan advises that these types of learners tend to struggle with in-class discussions and perform much better when provided with an online component to a discussion where they can reflect and post a written response. Another type of learning activity that can help promote participation by introverted learners is to assign “exit passes”. These involve having students reply to some questions or topics based on the discussion and turn in their written replies at the end of the class sessions.

Ms. Monahan also believes it is important to create some discussion strategies that allow introverts to feel more at ease with verbal contributions. She suggests that incorporating adequate “wait time” for students to reply to an inquiry can be very helpful for allowing introverted students time to reflect and organize their thoughts. Think-pair-share is also a useful activity for encouraging introverted learners to respond to a discussion question. They first express their thoughts with a partner, which can be less intimidating than participating with the whole class group. Next, the student partners work together to prepare their reply and then communicate those ideas back to the entire class.

View this video to learn more about Ms. Monahan’s methods for helping introverted participate with class activities. This Magna video addresses the LCCC Faculty Competency domains for Teaching and Learning as well as Diversity and Inclusion. This can be accessed by completing this one-time registration to view all the videos in the Magna 20 Minute Mentor series.