Thank you very much for sharing what you do! I don’t tend to have as many student presentations during the semester, but I wonder if even having that opportunity to have students contribute to expectations for presenters and audience beforehand might be helpful for me (create some sense of ownership for the students).
As someone diving into alternative grading fully for the first time in an intro proof IBL class, this was a really great perspective to read on presentations. I'm still learning how to balance everything (pacing, support, presentations, etc) in an IBL class.
I've made presentations one of the learning targets for the course, but I am experimenting with allowing students to fulfill this either in class or with recordings. I'm at least going to try having the students reflect on what went well and what didn't, and thanks to your post, I'll include a question on goal setting. I'm hoping this will help me provide more useful feedback and decrease the stress around presenting!
This sounds like a good plan! I will say that I have trouble keeping track of every student's goals -- I write them down, but just keeping them in my mind as I watch presentations can be tricky. Good luck!
David, this is a courageous project in the context of a mathematics course. How important is it to you to have access to an IBL map for the course? Could you implement gradeless practice with outcomes from the Common Core or NCTM? How to you determine final course grades? Do you have any thoughts about how gradeless practice might be translated into English classes? Finally, what are your thoughts about gradeless practice in an AP Calculus sequence?
I would say that the IBL and gradeless aspects are mostly independent. I think they work well together -- they reinforce the same messages -- but I've taught IBL classes with traditional grades, and used alternative grading in non-IBL classes.
Final grades and other info are in the blog posts I linked from this one -- it's a long story and not really the point here, but there are lots of details elsewhere!
Overall, I *don't* think that going fully gradeless is always the best plan. In particular, I think it's something to do after the instructor has some practice with alternative grading -- going fully gradeless seems to cause more difficulties in general, and the experience earned from moving to other alternatives can be invaluable in making it work.
I’m really interested in what you mean by developing with students a list of class norms (that you remind them of during the semester). Would you mind explaining that a bit? (I teach English, so a very different discipline, but I share several of your concerns regarding grading student presentations). Thanks much!
1. Students do a number of early presentations, during which I set just a few basic expectations like "applaud, questions, applaud again" and I try to model good questions.
2. On a pre-class assignment a few days later, I ask students to suggest what they've found especially useful when listening to presentations, and to also suggest what they think is good for the audience to do.
3. I collect those and summarize them, and put them into a shared doc. I sometimes add a few of my own if I think they're needed. I display the doc in class and we talk briefly, but then I ask them to go and edit it as part of a future daily prep.
4. At some point I say "ok, these are our expectations for both presenters and audievce" and put a link somewhere prominent. Then I'll either show them, or mention a relevant one, at the start of each class.
5. Sometimes I'll revisit them later in the semester, but sometimes they work well enough without changes.
Dave Clark Five?
10 (ill-defined) points for you! :)
Thank you very much for sharing what you do! I don’t tend to have as many student presentations during the semester, but I wonder if even having that opportunity to have students contribute to expectations for presenters and audience beforehand might be helpful for me (create some sense of ownership for the students).
As someone diving into alternative grading fully for the first time in an intro proof IBL class, this was a really great perspective to read on presentations. I'm still learning how to balance everything (pacing, support, presentations, etc) in an IBL class.
I've made presentations one of the learning targets for the course, but I am experimenting with allowing students to fulfill this either in class or with recordings. I'm at least going to try having the students reflect on what went well and what didn't, and thanks to your post, I'll include a question on goal setting. I'm hoping this will help me provide more useful feedback and decrease the stress around presenting!
This sounds like a good plan! I will say that I have trouble keeping track of every student's goals -- I write them down, but just keeping them in my mind as I watch presentations can be tricky. Good luck!
David, this is a courageous project in the context of a mathematics course. How important is it to you to have access to an IBL map for the course? Could you implement gradeless practice with outcomes from the Common Core or NCTM? How to you determine final course grades? Do you have any thoughts about how gradeless practice might be translated into English classes? Finally, what are your thoughts about gradeless practice in an AP Calculus sequence?
I would say that the IBL and gradeless aspects are mostly independent. I think they work well together -- they reinforce the same messages -- but I've taught IBL classes with traditional grades, and used alternative grading in non-IBL classes.
Final grades and other info are in the blog posts I linked from this one -- it's a long story and not really the point here, but there are lots of details elsewhere!
Overall, I *don't* think that going fully gradeless is always the best plan. In particular, I think it's something to do after the instructor has some practice with alternative grading -- going fully gradeless seems to cause more difficulties in general, and the experience earned from moving to other alternatives can be invaluable in making it work.
I’m really interested in what you mean by developing with students a list of class norms (that you remind them of during the semester). Would you mind explaining that a bit? (I teach English, so a very different discipline, but I share several of your concerns regarding grading student presentations). Thanks much!
Sure! The process looks something like this:
1. Students do a number of early presentations, during which I set just a few basic expectations like "applaud, questions, applaud again" and I try to model good questions.
2. On a pre-class assignment a few days later, I ask students to suggest what they've found especially useful when listening to presentations, and to also suggest what they think is good for the audience to do.
3. I collect those and summarize them, and put them into a shared doc. I sometimes add a few of my own if I think they're needed. I display the doc in class and we talk briefly, but then I ask them to go and edit it as part of a future daily prep.
4. At some point I say "ok, these are our expectations for both presenters and audievce" and put a link somewhere prominent. Then I'll either show them, or mention a relevant one, at the start of each class.
5. Sometimes I'll revisit them later in the semester, but sometimes they work well enough without changes.