Rigor in the Classroom When the Students Need a Lot of Support

[polly_mer]

Experienced classroom instructors: what advice do we have for those who will end up with students-in-name-mostly who need firm guidance from their instructors to rise to the occasion or to have that F recorded so the students cannot hide from the evidence for a need to change?

I remember LarryC's advice to start right off with a graded assignment, grade the snot out of it, and then let people rewrite to come up to standards.  By setting the bar high early, students will rise to the occasion, get the help they need, or go away.  All of those are wins all around in their own ways.

I remember various advice over the years to decide on whatever late/excused/make-up policy is fair to the students and to the instructor and then stick to it, regardless of how much whining occurs.  Again, LarryC's advice of when there's a choice between being annoyed or being amused, choose to be amused comes to mind.  Refusing to take students' behavior personally makes focusing on the students who do want to learn easier.  It's not you that's the problem; it's the fact that you are the face of the system.  Again, whether students step up, get help, or go away, your job is done by following the policy.

I remember various advice over the years to decide upfront whether one is the hardest of hard asses (and plan the class accordingly) or whether one is the most supportive of supporters with the burden on students to rise to the occasion, but to never be inconsistent.  Either one is bringing down the hammer early in the term with plenty of room to improve by students (i.e., failing the first week is not fatal, but is instead a wake-up call) or one is fairly flexible on deadlines because the focus is on learning the material and everyone will progress differently.

Having high standards and not enforcing them is not rigor in the classroom, but it is painful all around.  Bad, but common, choices when one finds oneself surrounded by students in name-only are:

a) let students do whatever they want in the classroom because it's so hard to believe they aren't competent adults who will magically display proper classroom behavior.  We all agree you shouldn't have to teach proper classroom behavior, but you do in this circumstance.

b) let students coast with unacceptable work while being afraid to record the grade that was earned.  Yes, it's painful to record that F, 0, unacceptable, but that's your job to provide feedback so the students understand they have to improve.  These folks in front of you may have had a good decade of knowing they can't fail as long as they display any glimmer of work.  Your job, unpleasant as it is, has a large component of enforcing the norms of doing the work to an acceptable level to earn a passing grade.

c) let students determine how you will spend your non-classroom hours responding to whining and pleas.  You do have to answer questions related to the material and class policies that only you can answer.  You don't have to have extended, continuing discussions with people who have no case, but are instead trying to wear you down, just like a naughty toddler and an exhausted parent.  People who have valid complaints based on evidence can be redirected to the formal complaint process.

O wise and experience forumites who have taught for years in the trenches with the students who need guidance to rise to the occasion, what other targeted advice can we give to our novice colleagues who end up needing the classroom management aspects of teaching more appropriate to pre-college-levels?

[kiana]

I do a *lot* of developmental math at the most basic level, where a big part of the class is not just "how to math" but also "how to college". I'm also working at a CC now.

1) I come down pretty hard on goofing off in the class. I've been more lax in the past and it just pissed me off. No phones. If you're talking, talk about math. But I do try to always have something for the students who are at the higher end of the placement curve to do that IS math-related so they're not twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the rest of the class to catch up.

2) Open-notes quizzes at the end of class or at the beginning of the next class on what we just did, and more open notes quizzes through the semester reviewing old stuff. These are very short quizzes, mostly one or two questions (so very fast to grade -- almost takes longer to alphabetize and enter the grades) and the lowest 10% are dropped. They're almost always the examples from class with the numbers changed. I'm going to start throwing some vocab questions on them too next semester. Didn't take notes? Missed class and didn't get notes from someone else? Didn't bring notes? Guess that's one of your drops. Oh, you wanted to use those on days you missed? Guess you should miss fewer days. I added them in at the beginning because a few people (who of course did not succeed) were showing up 90 minutes into a 150 minute class (don't ask why we have 150 minute dev math classes, that's another topic) just to get the quizzes.

3) I bribe them with points a lot to do things that are "good student" things. The tests are a little harder than average so this makes it overall same average as everyone else. For example, we have worksheets for things where you just really need practice. These are worth "extra credit" points that add into your homework score. You can turn them in at the end of class, or you can finish them outside of class and turn them in later. The extra credit is only 10% as much as a normal homework score, BUT it's extra credit so it's special and magical and compliance has been very high. This is new this semester but I am really liking the results. The good students are doing outstandingly well, the weak but try-hard students are doing better than before (but still weak), and the flakes are still flaking. Plus, this is a nice carrot for the faster students because if they get done early with the worksheet, they can take their quiz and go home. This is also a hidden bonus for me because then I don't have the faster students sitting there bored and I can work with the struggling ones. 

4) I don't relax my standards for what I think they need to be able to do. I remind them that I'm doing them no favors by passing them into college-credit math without being ready. Sometimes I ask them why they want me to send them on just to mess up their GPA.

5) I give tests frequently. If the class is struggling, by the time they wait until 1/3 or 1/2 of the way through and fail the test, they're shit out of luck. They need to see early that what they're doing isn't working.

[mamselle]

Bookmarking.

I like the way you've understood "market segmentation" in your class' needs...absolutely no snark intended.

Having a way for the better-prepared students to get something from the class while keeping less well-prepared students' more basic needs in mind is a very compassionate outlook for all involved.

M.

[pepsi_alum]

Thanks for starting this thread, Polly.

The students at my current university are very capable academically, but still learning to be college students in some ways. I've previously taught at places that were open admission in all but name. A few things that have worked for me in the past:

1) +1 to Kiana's advice about frequent quizzing. At one of my former places, it was the only way I could get students in 100 and 200-level classes to take notes. It's also a great attendance check.

2) Beware of assignments that create what I call "empty points" -- they're sort of the academic equivalent of "empty calories" -- they fill you up but don't do anything nutritionally. I've reduced participation points in most of my classes to 5%, because I found it was difficult to track and was mostly just inflating student grades to higher than I thought was appropriate.

3) To keep student whining in check, I've found that it useful to be super-transparent with students about their progress in the course. I make sure to announce the average for every graded assignment ("the average on last week's quiz was 78%; among those of you with perfect attendance, it was 86.7%") and for exams and other major assignments to publish an anonymous list of grades from highest to lowest with all identifying information removed. I tell students that my goal is not to embarrass anyone, but to make sure that I'm being transparent about how students in the class are doing. Some students still don't like the class, but it really cuts down on the whining about the assignment being "unfair" or "impossible" when they can see that, yes, some of their classmates did well on it.

4) For classes where students struggle because they don't follow basic directions, I find it helpful to post a checklist of major assignment steps and things to verify. Some students use it and some don't; I view it as as a reference that they can choose to consult if they want to do well. (Several years ago, I tried requiring the checklist as part of the submission process -- it did increase compliance with direction-following, but it also increased student angst about 10-fold. I decided after that to keep it optional because it wasn't worth the drama). 

I'm curious to hear what other people suggest.