Prepared Students: The Secret’s in the Assignment Strategy

Learn how to go from blanks stares to fully prepared students.

You might start to wonder if you are asking too much of your students. Some of them routinely come to class unprepared (or underprepared). Then you have to adjust your approach to class—on the fly, no less—to make sure you don’t lose them entirely while still keeping the prepared students engaged and learning.

It’s not how you want to teach, and it’s not the best way for any of your students to learn.

The fact that some of your students fail to prepare might have more to do with what you asked them to do prior to class than with the amount of time you expected them to spend doing it.

In other words, if you change your assignments you might also change your students. And it’s not as difficult as it might seem.

You can design (or redesign) courses to organically encourage and motivate students to prepare for class most of the time, and you can learn how in Prepared Students: The Secrets in the Assignment Strategy.

This Magna 40-Minute Seminar shows you how to tweak your approach so you can maintain control of class time and focus on high-level learning activities instead of bringing unprepared students up to speed.

Learning Goals

After this seminar, you will be able to:

• Design a course using an interactive teaching model in which students come to class prepared and class time is used for higher-level thinking and skill development
• Write class preparation assignments to guide students in their readings and to inform and stimulate class discussion
• Design a definitional grading system for any course (one of the categories should be class preparation)
• Avoid the common pitfalls of using class preparation assignments
• Incorporate student writing assignments without creating a heavy grading burden
• Design an interactive course that allows space and time for student voices and shows respect for students’ intellectual abilities

This is an information-dense, targeted seminar that delivers everything you need to know about motivating students to prepare for class—all in just 40 minutes.

Topics Covered

This seminar covers course design strategies, including assignment planning and grading tactics, which will motivate students to prepare for class.

You wont need to nag them to finish their readings or chide them for failing to complete assignments.

You’ll still have some students on some days who aren’t ready for what you have planned, but that will be the exception.

You will learn that:

• You don’t have to settle for unprepared students
• You can use an interactive teaching model that exposes students to course materials before class time so that class time can be used primarily for applying, analyzing, and evaluating the material with the aid and guidance of the teacher and other students
• Using a definitional grading system will help ensure that students prepare for class
• When students prepare, they will have some exposure to course material before they encounter it during class time
• Grading strategies, such as pass/fail assignments, can help you manage the paper load of class preparation assignments

Audience

Prepared Students: The Secrets in the Assignment Strategy would be particularly useful for the following:

• Assistant, associate, and full professors
• Lecturers
• Instructors
• Adjunct instructors
• Academic provosts
• Graduate teaching assistants

Purchase

Order today. You wont need to nag your students to finish their readings or chide them for failing to complete assignments any longer.

Product Code: PC15FA