Tag: Teaching
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“Explain Your Choice”: Metacognition as a form of reflection with student work
I’ve spent all my teaching career working with students on production skills–writing, design, audio, video, photo, social media, and others. And throughout the last decade+, I’ve wrestled with how best to (1) have students reflect thoughtfully on their production work, (2) integrate more metacognitive practices into my classroom, and (3) find more opportunities for students…
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Who Do You Want to Be? Setting up your classroom for culture-focused learning
Changing first-day questions can help elevate classroom culture for the remainder of the term. We all know that the first week of classes is commonly and comically referred to as “syllabus week.” It stems from the likely time spent reading the syllabus as a class, or what is more likely: to the class. There is…
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Utilize classroom creeds for student agency and respect
One of the most critical shifts in education can and should be giving students the power to empower one another. Developing a class creed can be done at the beginning of any term, and you won’t regret it. All too often, our syllabi represent one voice–our own. If you stretch that slightly, it also represents…
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Learning more about students with four corners
Sometimes I want students to share more of themselves with the class, but I also acknowledge that doing this may be difficult if we focus on individual call-and-response. This activity gives you the opportunity and flexibility to get to know your students in a way that will help them feel seen yet still part of…
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Constructing strong and sustainable objectives
One of the building blocks of curriculum design is the objective or the outcomes and goals instructors want to achieve by the conclusion of a course or an individual lesson. Objectives can also be tied to department-, school-, college-, or university-wide goals and outcomes. This post will first provide a brief primer to Bloom’s Taxonomy,…
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How we bowl (academically) with bumpers
As many of us encroach on the final weeks of the academic term, finding opportunities for balance becomes increasingly difficult. This post allows us to reflect on our preparation for the end-of-term grind. What is more common than the senior slide? The end-of-semester/trimester/quarter slump. And that slump emerges in many different ways in ourselves and…
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Revisiting the syllabus: Paths toward successful course design
Constructing a syllabus can feel much more daunting of a task than the “syllabus week” sentiment carries. The power packed into that semi-annual document requires significant time and attention. This post provides a seven-step process to think big about your course and transform that thinking into your syllabus. Use this table of contents to jump…
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Keeping up with the conversation: Assessing your discussion leadership
The fifth strategy of a five-part post about discussion strategies. These five strategies will help students to improve small-group communication while also allowing them to synthesize important course content in large-group discussions. It is appropriate and fair to see setting up discussions as one of the most difficult instructional strategies in our lessons. The easiest…
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Keeping up with the conversation: Fishbowls
The fourth strategy of a five-part post about discussion strategies. These five strategies will help students to improve small-group communication while also allowing them to synthesize important course content in large-group discussions. It is appropriate and fair to see setting up discussions as one of the most difficult instructional strategies in our lessons. The easiest…
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Keeping up with the conversation: Speed dating
The third strategy of a five-part post about discussion strategies. These five strategies will help students to improve small-group communication while also allowing them to synthesize important course content in large-group discussions. It is appropriate and fair to see setting up discussions as one of the most difficult instructional strategies in our lessons. The easiest…
Patrick R. Johnson, MJE 