muraPOI: November 7, 2012

• Teaching Metacognition to Improve Student Learning: Maryellen Weimer’s summary of
  Kimberly Tanner’s article on “Promoting Student Metacognition“.

  To get things started, we might ask students to address these two questions before class:

  • How have I prepared for class today?
  • What questions do I have?

  And then post exams, asking students to answer:

  • Why did I miss those exam questions?
  • What do I need to do to avoid missing questions like these on the next exam?

  (via Faculty Focus, October 31, 2012)

• APGAR for Class Meetings: At his OpenEd 2012 keynote Gardner Campbell revisited his notion of the Apgar for class meetings. In his 2006 blog post he writes:

  “What if we could generate an “Apgar” for each class meeting? Here’s my idea. At the beginning of the class, students would assign themselves a score based on questions like these:

  1. Did you read the material for today’s class meeting carefully?
     No=0, Yes, once=1, Yes, more than once=2
  2. Did you come to class today with questions or with items you’re eager to discuss?
     No=0, Yes, one=1, Yes, more than one=2
  3. Since we last met, did you talk at length to a classmate or classmates about either the last class meeting or today’s meeting?
     No=0, Yes, one person=1, Yes, more than one person=2
  4. Since our last meeting, did you read any unassigned material related to this course of study?
     No=0, Yes, one item=1, Yes, more than one item=2
  5. Since our last class meeting, how much time have you spent reflecting on this course of study and recent class meetings?
     None to 29 minutes=0, 30 minutes to an hour=1, over an hour=2

  In many ways, he’s just asking the question, “Are the students prepared?”

I think both of these ideas mesh very well with one another, and certainly have given me food for thought.