November 2017 archive

SIP 6.11 Teaching Source Documentation

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Many faculty mistakenly believe that by the time students get to college, they should know how to cite sources. Or, they may figure that since students in their classes have taken ENG 1020, they already know how to cite sources. Both of these assumptions are faulty and can lead to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-6-11-teaching-source-documentation/

SIP 6.10 Universal Design for Learning in STEM

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? While many of us who work and teach in the STEM fields think of our disciplines as “neutral” and empirical, there are lots of ways our teaching strategies can either increase or decrease access to the content. Traditional “weed-out” methods of STEM teaching are designed to push struggling students out …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-6-10-universal-design-for-learning-in-stem/

SIP 6.9 Debate as Instruction

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Discussions, in either online or face-to-face classes, can sometimes turn into an exchange of opinions without much evidence for support. In addition, a few students can dominate a discussion while other students’ voices fade into the background. Take a SIP of This: Debate as Instruction Creating discussion in the form …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-6-9-debate-as-instruction/

SIP 6.8 Chunking

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Our working memory can only hold about seven items of information at a time (Miller, 1956). Breaking skills into bite-sized chunks and mastering them one at a time until the learner reaches fluency is a more efficient way of learning. Understanding and retaining complex information or lists of dates, facts …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-6-8-chunking/

SIP 6.7 1Book/1Project/2Transform

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Universities have traditionally been seen as places where students can participate in active intellectual debate around current events and ideological topics that impact society. At MSU Denver, these conversations are happening in relative isolation all the time—but campus-wide dialog can be hard to achieve with our commuter students and the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-6-7-1book1project2transform/

SIP 6.6 Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Whether we are presenting at a conference, reporting to colleagues, pitching a proposal, or teaching classes, we want our PowerPoint presentations to be accessible to everyone. How do we do that? Here’s how… Take a SIP of This: Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations   What to do  Why it is …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-6-6-creating-accessible-powerpoint-presentations/

SIP 6.5 Action Research in the Classroom – Using Your Classroom as a Research Lab

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? With teaching, service, and increasing research expectations, we are all stretched thin. One way to “kill two birds with one stone” is to turn your classroom into a research lab – and to bring students along for the journey. You can do this by conducting action research in your …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-6-5-action-research-in-the-classroom-using-your-classroom-as-a-research-lab/