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Thriving in Academe
Issues To Consider

Holding Students Accountable

The options are endless, the results unexpectedly positive.

Aside from study questions and problems to solve, what other forms of homework are possible?
The best selections depend upon the content of the readings, but the possible student products are endless: notes on the readings, answers to standard reading-response questions, a concept or mind map, a matrix for compare-and-contrast content, and outside material that shows the relevance or examples of the readings.

An underutilized homework option is to have students construct objective items that demand higher order thinking for possible use in future tests. You’ll have to teach students how to write good items and how to distinguish higher-order thinking from mere recall. But once you do, you’ll never have to write another objective test again! You’ll get good items because students will want you to choose theirs for the tests. After all, they know the answers to their own test items!

If you want to extend the homework into in-class activities, have your students submit one copy electronically before class and bring a hard copy to class. Then they can present their homework or call on other students to answer the test items they wrote.

What kinds of in-class writing activities will work?
Consider having students write a short “paper” on the readings at the beginning of class: a “one-minute” take on the readings’ most important points, a reading response piece, an audience-directed paraphrase, or a simple summary. Students can also draw a summary in a concept map, matrix, or other appropriate graphic. Or they can work on objective test questions. My personal favorite is the daily, five-to-10-minute “mind dump,” where students write down everything they can remember from the readings. Why will they bother? Because you will give them back their “dumps” during the tests.

But will my students hate me?
Not at all! They will probably respect and even like you more, since you’ve shown them that you understand their learning challenges and motivations. Many students will even find themselves enjoying the readings once they learn how to tackle them. Consider the positive experiences of two colleagues in the Best Practices section. In fact, daily quizzes are a student favorite (Thompson, 2002; Connor-Greene, 2000). After instituting them, several Clemson faculty have had me interview their classes for the mid-semester “verdict,” and uniformly students have applauded daily quizzes. Who would have thought?

This suggests that our students actually enjoy learning but lack the self-discipline to do for its own sake. They look to us for the discipline, so let’s furnish it.

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