Tag: flexibility

SIP 7.9 Specifications Grading

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice?               It is 9pm on a Sunday night. You spent much of yesterday and most of today grading and you still aren’t done. You try to provide such thoughtful feedback to your students, but you can’t be sure that they read it. You …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-7-9-specifications-grading/

SIP 7.4 Productive Failure

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? As educators, we know that college as not just about learning disciplinary content—it is also about the holistic growth that helps to form a mature, well-rounded person. Sometimes the achievement is measured by “successes”—persisting from semester to semester, earning a strong GPA, securing a coveted internship, etc. But sometimes the real lessons are found in a student’s failure.  It is our job …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-7-4-productive-failure/

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 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 3.9 Differentiated Assignments

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? With only a few weeks until the end of the semester, students are now (hopefully!) starting work on their final papers or projects. Have you ever shuddered with negative anticipation just thinking about receiving another set of what seems like the same work you saw last semester and the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-3-9-differentiated-assignments/

SIP 3.4 Integrated Attendance and Participation Policies

Thirsty for a Strong Instructional Practice? Since time immemorial, instructors have battled to get students to come to class and participate. Responses to the attendance conundrum have ranged from positive reinforcement (assigning points for coming and/or participating) to the punitive (taking away points for missing). How can we best encourage fruitful attendance and participation in …

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Permanent link to this article: https://sites.msudenver.edu/sips/sip-3-4-integrated-attendance-and-participation-policies/