Instructor’s Name

Jo Cavins

Course No., Name, and Call#

English 110, College Composition I, 18449

Semester Taught

Fall 2002

No. of Students

21

Type of Active Learning (AL): Cases/CL/ PBL/etc.

PBL, cooperative learning, collaborative work

Frequency of AL: Used in how many percentage of your class.

85%

Brief Description of AL methods? How did you use them? Your reflection on how effective the methods were in enhancing student learning?

Groups, peer response, side-shadowing, student-generated assignment ideas and instructions, minute papers, collaborative writing/research project, problem on how to grade first assignment, formative assessment, small group projects in class on reading, discussing, writing, researching, and documenting

I was a little worried at first. I took an idea from one of last year’s FIEL luncheons and had students design the topics. I gave an overall topic (identity) and they generated ideas for where to go with that. When I had envisioned the class, I had some suppositions about topics, but they had different ideas and I felt a little out of control.

Of course, that’s the point. By the end of the semester, many more of my small groups were functioning at a high level than is usually the case. And far more students approached and completed their final assignments with real interest, passion, and originality than I have ever seen.

Some things didn’t work. I had a problem for them to work on about what an A paper, a B paper, etc. looks like. I thought it would demystify the process if they saw that their opinions and mine meshed. But even though the two sets of criteria matched up, students said on the formative assessment that they didn’t understand the grading criteria. As a result, I designed and used grading rubrics for the rest of the semester. I think students were more satisfied with that.

Please rate

Considering the types of active learning methods (cooperative learning, problem-based learning, etc.) and how often they were used in your class, please rate the overall usage of AL method(s) in your current class as (please bold one): 1) Never, 2) Occasionally, 3) Often, and 4) Very often

If applicable, rate the overall usage of AL method(s) in your class taught in the previous semesters as (please bold one): 1) Never, 2) Occasionally, 3) Often, and 4) Very often

Class Score on the Survey of Student Engagement

Course URL (if any):

http://blackboard.ndsu.nodak.edu/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_682_1&frame=top

Other Comments

Although the rating of how often I used active learning remains the same, I used some very different ones this time. I feel my students were much more in charge of their progress this time and the results convince me that relying on their interest and dedication can be very effective.

Elizabeth Birmingham
Assistant Professor, Department of English
320J Minard Hall
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota 58105

Office: (701) 231-6587
e-mail: Elizabeth.Birmingham@ndsu.nodak.edu

Prospective students may schedule a visit by calling: 1-800-488-NDSU.