Post 470: Bitmoji Classrooms are a great way to show resources

 

Bitmoji classrooms are a great way to motivate students to look at other writing sources like grammar books or other Writing textbooks. Here are a few writing textbooks I have found for students. I have used these textbooks myself, so these textbooks are terrific!

Post 469: Using Bitmoji Classroom and My Art To Invite Students To Email me

Post 469: Using Bitmoji To Motivate Students To Email me

 One of the tenets for creating a successful bond between student and teacher is to create a welcoming atmosphere and ambiance in the classroom. In the face to face classroom, this is done through a welcoming tone, fun activities, showing interest by making eye contact to the students. But in an online classroom, showing students that you care can be quite challenging.

I created this Bitmoji classroom to make students know that they are welcome to send me email anytime, if they need help. The more students feel comfortable with the teacher, the more the student will come to the teacher for help if the student has problems with his work, or just need advice on how to do the assignment.

Successful communication and bonding between student and teacher leads to a successful online experience for both the teacher and the student.

Post 468: Posting Another Bitmoji Resource Room To Store Extra Lecture Notes

 

I love creating Bitmoji Resource Rooms for my students. These Bitmoji classroms provide an easy way for me to store sources in a convenient place for students to find.

I also enjoy designing these rooms in pleasing colors that match, in fancy rooms that look academic and inviting at the same time.

These rooms give me a chance to express my personality and creativity. It also gives students a glimpse into my personality and my artistic tastes thus students get a better handle on my teaching persona.

Prof. H's Supplemental Lecture Notes Resource Room  

Post 467: The Almond Joy of Giving Student Feedback

 Post 467: The Almond Joy of Giving Student Feedback

My boss posted this to our company email today. I read this article, and it reminded me of the Sandwich Method of giving feedback, where you sandwich the bad news between two pieces of bread of positive news. Basically, in the Sandwich method, or the Almond Joy method, you start with the positive, then in the middle, you add what needs improvement for the student, then at the end, you tack on something positive again. With Almond Joy, it is the two creamy sugary crusts (Positive comments), then the almond in the middle represents the negative or what needs improvement, then you cap it off with a positive comment which is another sugary crust of Almond Joy! Here is the article in its entierty. If you want other relevant faculty articles, Faculty Focus is the website to go to. I also have some published articles on that website :)

HIGHER ED TEACHING STRATEGIES FROM MAGNA PUBLICATIONS

·      EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT

The Almond Joy of Providing Feedback to Students

• March 11, 2019
• Kimberly Chappell, EdD

Providing detailed feedback is a critical component of effective teaching. Feedback serves as a one-to-one conversation with students and can be a powerful tool to teach course content, mentor students, and help them to develop a growth mindset (Dweck, 2006). Decades of research have identified the characteristics of good feedback as expedient, specific, and related to the expectations of the task (Nichols & Macfarlane‐Dick, 2006). Feedback must also provide students with information about how to improve their work, which is focused on future learning (Sadler, 1989).

 

The analogy of the Oreo™ cookie has often been used to describe how feedback should be given to students. The analogy asserts that a positive comment about work is given first, then information about where the student went wrong, followed by another positive comment to encourage the student. While this analogy reminds instructors to sandwich negative comments with positive ones, this approach is incomplete and can result in superficial and general feedback. Without specific and substantive feedback, the dialogue that leads to learning is stifled (Nichols & Macfarlane‐Dick, 2006).

 

A better analogy is the Almond Joy™. There are some key features of this treat that act as a guide for providing effective feedback. The primary feature is the nutritional nature of the candy bar over the cookie, relatively speaking. The cookie is mostly sugar and flour, while the candy bar has coconut and almonds that give it some redeeming qualities for health. This analogy offers a better way to think about feedback. Each component in the anatomy of the candy bar corresponds to an essential characteristic of good feedback.

 

Think first about the coconut filling. This layer of chewy goodness will represent an affirmative description of the student’s performance. Using positive terminology, the student is provided a specific description of their performance on the assignment. Performance descriptions should reflect both the expectations and instructions for the assignment, as well as correlate to the evaluation rubric. This approach connects the student’s work to the expectations of the assignment. Students should understand exactly what was correct about their work including to what degree they met the expectation.

The next element in the candy bar is the almond. This element represents the hard things that need to be communicated, but like almonds, these comments should be good for the student. A constructive critique of the student’s work should explain what was lacking, deficit, or incomplete.  This requires instructors to be intentional about the comments. Instead of, “You did not write a good introduction to your paper,” the feedback should be specific such as, “Your paper needs a clear thesis sentence in the first paragraph to clearly introduce your topic.” This comment not only explains the shortfall in terms of a need, but it also explains why that element is essential. This reinforces the teaching of the criterion that is being assessed.

 

The almond comments should focus on improvement of skills being assessed. The comments should also communicate to the student what needs to happen differently, rather than merely focusing on what was lacking. This means first determining exactly what criterion the student missed, then deciding what the student needs to do next time. For example, if the student’s paragraph is unclear (missed skill), then the paragraph needs clarity. The feedback comment should explain the missed criterion as a need, such as, “You need to explain X to clarify Y in your paragraph.” Focusing on the elements that are needed, gives students opportunity see what they can do in the future and how to grow in their skills. Students are also encouraged by these hard comments because they learn how to make their work better rather than merely feeling they missed the target. Focusing on the need and giving specifics are the keys to this layer of comments.

 

The final layer of the candy bar is the chocolate coating. This layer is sweet and comforting, which represents encouragement for learning and better performance in the future. These comments should compare the current performance to the next level. The proficient elements of the assignment are highlighted and comments summarizing one or two behaviors the student can employ on the next assignment are made. The intent is to provide practical strategies that will assist students in obtaining the next level of performance. For example, “You have defended your rationale with two solid arguments. To support your arguments better, you will want to include research citations that validate your position.” Providing encouragement and practical strategies also makes the assessment a teaching tool, which is a sweet treat for students and instructors.

Using an Almond Joy approach can provide opportunity to develop students’ growth mindset and maximize learning through assessment tasks. While providing feedback like this may seem daunting, instructors can prepare comment templates, pre-determine the elements to focus the hard comments, and limit comments to avoid overwhelming both students and the instructor. The keys are substantive, positive, and specific comments that are nutritional and forward-focused for the growth of the student.

Kimberly Chappell is an assistant professor of Education at Fort Hays State University and the Specialist in Education (EdS) program coordinator.

References

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.

Nicol, D. J. & Macfarlane‐Dick, D. (2006) Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 199-218. doi: 10.1080/03075070600572090

Sadler, D. R. (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science, 18, 119–144.

 

 

 

 

Post 465: Prof. H's Lecture Notes Resource Room Bitmoji Classroom

 Post 465: Prof. H's Lecture Notes Resource Room Bitmoji Classroom

The Bitmoji classroom is not only a great place for me to store my quiz preparations and my quiz ppt, it is also a great place to store all my weekly lecture notes in one place. Instead of making weekly announcements of my lecture notes or sending weekly lecture notes to student inboxes where students lose track, instead, with my Bitmoji Lecture Notes Resource Room, I can place all my Lecture notes for all 12 weeks in one easy to find and easily recognizable place. I place my Resource Room on the home page of the Canvas classroom when students first log in. You always want to make things easy and convenient for students to avoid confusion and questions later on. I sure am a Bitmoji addict!

Post 464: My Students' Writing are Out Of This World

 Post 464: My Students' Writing are Out Of This World

We are now in Week 2 of the class. I am still in the process of building a bond with my students, and developing trust among students and having the students trust me in return. Last week, students learned how to navigate the Canvas classroom to find their assignments, figure out where the Discussion Forums are, learn what the deadlines are for assignments, and figure out where the syllabus is located. During the Week 1 Instructor Zoom session, students came to introduce themselves, and to get to know the new teacher.  

At this early stage of the class, I am doing my best to get them to feel safe, and to make them feel welcome. In an effort to bring some humor to the class, and to give them more confidence to write, I created this fun Bitmoji classroom inspirational stating complimenting them on their Week 1 Forum and their Week 1 Quiz by saying that so far, their writing is OUT OF THIS WORLD!

Post 463: Different Kinds of Office Hours

Post 463: Different Kinds Of Office Hours

I use many different kinds of Office Hours. At my job, for each hour of class you teach, you need to have one hour of office hours, so if you teach 2 classes, you need to have 2 hours of office hours per week. I give my 2 hours of office hours each week through Zoom.

1. One-on-One Zoom meeting--During my one-on-one Zoom meetings, students who need help with their work schedule a Zoom session with me. We then meet one-on-one to discuss a student's grades, and students can go over their work, or ask questions about their assignments. I would use the Zoom whiteboard as the student, for instance, goes over their Essay 1 rough draft. I ask the student what his thesis statement is and we work that out, and then after we write a good thesis and outline, we then fill in the paragraphs together. I would ask the student 'What three main reasons do you have for this claim?" Then, those three reasons become the student's body paragraphs. We finish a rough draft or an outline together. After we work together, the student understands how to do a 5 paragraph essay structure.

2. One-on-One Zoom Meeting with other students who take turns. Each student takes turn to have a one-on-one meeting. Each student either waits in the waiting room, or each student watches other students correct their rough draft or watch another student create their paper from scratch on the Zoom white board and they learn from each other's mistakes.

3. Mini-Lesson Office Hour--I teach a mini=lesson based on student request of material they did not understand. For instance, I had several ESL students ask me to create a lesson on how to use the past tense in English. So, I taught a short lesson on the different past tenses in English. Then, we would have a long Q/A about these tenses. This mini lesson is a supplement to their syllabus, but is not an official assignment, just something extra students were having trouble understanding. 

4. Required Office Hour Meetings for At-risk students--If a student's average falls below 70%, students are required to attend a Zoom meeting to improve their grade. These students with low grades are usually behind in their work and require a lot of remedial work. Sometimes, these sessions are one-on-one, sometimes I teach a group of low average students.

For all my office hours, I put aside time from my week for those office hours to help students who are behind in their work or for students who are super nervous and just want to make sure they got their essay right. These super nervous students include students for whom English is not their first language or for native speakers of English who have low confidence in their writing skills. 

Many teachers do not like to have office hours because for many schools, they are not paid extra for office hours, and sometimes office hours lies outside the teaching load pay of teachings. I think students appreciate teachers who go out of their way to provide extra tutoring even if it is unpaid. After all, you will never get rich as a teacher anyway, so you might as well volunteer time to help students out!