Tag: communicating with students

SIP 4.8 Challenging Students’ Mental Models: Dealing with “Expectancy Effect”

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Have you ever seen students worrying about your class before you even start teaching? Perhaps complaining about the difficulty of the content before they even know what is expected? Have you heard students being defeatist about their own ability level, or believing that that they already know all there …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-4-8-challenging-students-mental-models-dealing-with-expectancy-effect/

SIP 4.5 Productive Interactions with Frustrating Students

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Last week the SIPsquad offered some perspective on the management of instructor frustration in the face of challenging student behavior. This week, the SIPsquad offers up some tactical advice that will allow instructors to immediately and positively engage in behavior correction for good outcomes. We are doing our students …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-4-5-productive-interactions-with-frustrating-students/

SIP 4.4 Managing Feelings of Frustration Toward Students

Professor frustrated with students

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Have you ever heard something like, “What degrees do you have?” “I am an A student and I don’t agree with this grade.” “Actually, I recently read ____ and it said ….” Comments like these can result in feelings of frustration for professors. Those feelings can become barriers to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-4-4-managing-feelings-of-frustration-toward-students/

SIP 4.3 Managing Narcissistic Students

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Do you ever find class becomes dominated by a few student voices? Have you struggled to figure out how to maintain those few students’ enthusiastic interest in the class while making space for others to speak up as well? Or there is the other version of student voice – …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-4-3-managing-narcissistic-students/

SIP 4.1 Creating Inviting Course Documents

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? We put tremendous time and energy into formulating our course assignment guidelines and scoring criteria, as well as communicating them to students. Unfortunately, our students often aren’t actually reading or understanding them. When we create course documents that are inviting to our diverse student population, we can increase the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-4-1-creating-inviting-course-documents/

SIP 3.14 Office Hours

Thirsty for Strong Instructional Practice? Providing individualized attention to students in “real time” (synchronously) is an important aspect of university teaching, and meeting with students face to face (F2F) is a time-honored and institutionalized way of making this happen. Yet, traditional “office hours,” in which a professor announces times in which students may drop in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-3-14-office-hours/

SIP 3.10 Universally Designed “Value Rubric”

Cartoon character holding piece of paper with rubric written at the topi

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? After reading SIP 3.9 on differentiated assignments, you have decided to let your students design their own final products for your class. But now you are wondering: how in the world are you going to fairly and efficiently grade final products that are all different? How will you ensure …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-3-10-universally-designed-value-rubric/

SIP 3.2 Assignment Menus

Thirsty for Strong Instructional Practice? Do you notice the energy and motivation your students bring to class discussions and activities wane when it’s time for them to write an assignment? Do you get bored reading the same thing from student to student and even semester to semester? Using an assignment menu can reinvigorate both you …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-3-2-assignment-menus/

SIP 3.1 Graphic Syllabus

This image has information the course content, assignments, grading, policies, and required materials for a class.

Thirsty for Strong Instructional Practice? Traditionally syllabi have been brief outlines that listed the scope and sequence of course topics, readings and assignments. Today however, the syllabus has become a quasi-legal contract between a course instructor and the students exacting in grueling detail the rules, regulations, and expectations for class – from policies on laptop …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-3-1-graphic-syllabus/

SIP 2.15 Learner-Centered Syllabus

Thirsty for Strong Instructional Practice? Typical syllabus content generally involves basic class information such as the name of the class, contact information for the professor, and the text and assignments. Unfortunately, syllabi do not typically guide learning or tell students what they need to know in order to derive maximum benefit from the class. In …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-2-15-learner-centered-syllabus/