Your Feedback

Earlier this week I took a few minutes at the beginning of class to get your feedback/assessment of the first half of the semester, asking two basic questions.  What worked?  What did not work?

I read through all of your responses. 

In many responses a consistent theme was that the quizzes covered too much material at once.  Some of your direct comments were,

"Test in smaller amounts of chapters." 
"I wish the reading quizzes were based on notes and lectures in class and they weren't grouped in several chapters because it is a lot of reading to cover and remember." 
"...if we could focus more on one thing at a time it would be great."

Well, there is some madness to my method.  When attending college one of the transitions you can expect to make is that you will find more material per quiz/test/exam.  We do reading quizzes for every two (sometimes three) chapters.  The Midterm and Final Exam cover much broader swaths of course material, but also offer more flexibility with response items.

I think testing on at least two chapters is important because when you transfer to a four-year college/university, you may be tested on many more chapters at a time, and you need to be prepared for this.  For example, some college courses (for history) have a midterm, final, and three longer essays (that's five grades, and that's it).  Others may have a midterm, final, and one large research paper (three grades, and that's it).  Research shows that if you are quizzed on reading, the more likely you are to stay up with the reading and stay engaged in the course material.  Granted, a quiz on every chapter may be great, but we do not have this much class time. 

I like the response above that says, "if we could focus on one thing at a time it would be great."  This is also a challenge for anyone studying history.  We do need to isolate and discuss various historical events, or themes, but we also must remember that things do not happen in a vacuum.  Events are influenced and connected to other events/ideas.  You must be able to see the relationship between various historical events and make a thoughtful analysis about those connections.

One of my professors in college provided a system for us as we studied.  He advised us to read through the chapter and then go back through the chapter and think about which events you would characterize as "Political," "Social," "Economic," "Cultural," "Military," and so forth (you can add as many broad thematic categories as you like).  What you would end up finding is that while you may define an event as primarily a political, it also had social implications, cultural implications, even economic and militaristic implications for society as a whole.  You have to be able to discuss the minutia, but also see the big picture (zoom in and zoom out).

Someone offered a great suggestion which I will try and remember to implement.

"Provide an option to write an essay to replace a bad quiz grade."  Wow, I like this.  Anytime someone is willing to write more to take the place of multiple choice based questions, I'll probably take you up on this.  Look for an option about this later in the semester.

Thanks for you comments, suggestions, and feedback. Keep up the good work and diligence in your studies.