Category: Education Article

Cooperative Writing

During Cooperative Writing, one specific strategy involves the teacher assigning writing tasks to two students, and they take turns completing a writing task. The teacher may often provide some specific instructions like

“Discuss in pairs _____ and then take turns responding to the prompt___.”

Students then take turns to record their writing, building on each other’s sentences or paragraphs. They can also use this time to check each other’s work.

Pairing students during cooperative writing can serve many purposes:

• Struggling students paired with higher performing students can provide an avenue for the struggling student to learn proper grammar and vocabulary usage. In contrast, the higher performing student can practice reviewing writing rules with his or her peer.
• Two higher performing students can challenge each other to include additional details, more complex vocabulary, or a more refined sentence structure.
• Two lower performing students, with the help of the teacher,

Are there parts of your course you wish could be taught more effectively?
Would you like to prepare students for learning material with which they tend to struggle?
Do you want to help students transition effectively from one learning activity to another?

Priming your students will provide solutions to these questions. Read on for three useful ways to improve student learning.

Priming

Priming is a strategy that introduces a new topic to students in a way that facilitates their academic learning because they know what they can expect. Priming prepares students for upcoming information or a learning activity before they receive the information or participate in the activity in a course. Priming exposes students to new material in a way that influences their learning behavior later, without them necessarily being aware.

According to cognitive psychology, priming is a process in which we use a mental framework (or schema) to organize

This article first appeared in the Teaching Professor on September 26, 2016. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: There are two articles in this issue on rubrics. First, Raz Kerwin shares how he engages students (via Google Docs) in the creation of assignment rubrics, while Perry Shaw’s piece focuses on how faculty can improve their use of rubrics. Both articles reflect the growing interest in and use of these more elaborate delineations of grading criteria.

Wide consensus confirms the usefulness of rubrics. For instructors, rubrics expedite grading with standards; at the same time, they reinforce learning objectives and standardize course curricula. For students, rubrics provide formative guidelines for assignments while—ideally—spurring reflection and self-assessment.

Rubrics can do these wonderful things for students only if students actually look at, understand, and use them. Many of us have seen students do just the opposite—file them away or, even worse, toss them

This article first appeared in the Teaching Professor on December 13, 2017. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved.

Teachers and students can give each other priceless gifts. “Professor Jones changed my life!” The comment is usually followed by the story of a teacher in love with content, students, and learning. How many times have I told the story of my advisor who was the first person to suggest I could be a college professor? We love to hear and tell these stories because they are remarkable and inspiring. A student and a teacher connect during one small segment of the student’s life, yet through that tiny window of time can blow a gust strong enough to change the direction of that life.

And students gift us with stories that bear witness to life-changing encounters with teachers. I recently read Fred Heppner’s description of the three teachers who changed his life.

The Marble Jar Reward System

This article will demonstrate the Marble Jar Reward system as a method of extrinsic motivation in your primary to elementary students. While you can use this reward system for every age group, by middle to high school, students should be more intrinsically motivated and may deem behavior reinforcers such as a reward system too juvenile.

The Marble Jar Reward System is a common classroom management tool to help reinforce desired behaviors. This positive reinforcement strategy is typically utilized as a whole class reward system but can also be modified for individual students. The most common use of the Marble Jar System is for the teacher to set up a glass jar in an easily viewable location, like the top of a shelf or her desk. Choose a jar size that is not too large; or, if you choose a large jar, add a tired system