Student Feedback
The students gave suggestions on how to improve the writing assignments. One said to alternate in-class with out-of-class writing assignments; this is because sometimes all the material is covered before the writing takes place, and sometimes the lecture began on the second day of the writing assignments. I might take the suggestions of two or three students to make the first and second papers take-home, and after that place the writing back in the classrooms. Time spent writing is an issue in the early papers, and the students believed that having more time would make the first in-class writing more thorough. All the paper prompts call for the same length, but as the semester goes on, the amount of material the students include shrinks as they continue to work on condensation and clarity. I actually allow them to use more space at the beginning; additionally, I only allow one long paragraph (about three-fourths of a page) on that one page I require. I hold more strongly to the length as they continue.
Several students commented on the percentage of writing and its impact on grades. One suggested that the writing assignment pulled grades down when he or she had expected it would elevate the grades. Another asked me to consider reducing the percentage of writing that is graded. In a similar vein, a different student stated, “In-class writing assignments seem to be pulling my grade down, even though I read the material before class.” However, I believe that in-class writing forced students to stay up-to-date, thus making it easier to test. Before I set this up, I had carefully looked at the total student output (writing, tests) that I would require. I think it is a wash: some of the students did better on one area, and others did better in another area. What I found important is that no one said anything negative about the writing other than to change the percentage of writing.
I believe that the writing assignments, along with the short answer quizzes, provided additional learning opportunities for writing and for retaining the lecture information. I think this is reiterated through other student comments, such as, “I liked the writing assignments even though I did poorly. They helped me prepare for the tests.” Another said, “The weekly writing assignments helped make me read.”
Future Uses of Rubrics
No matter what, closed book, short answer question writing helps. It’s not done in a disciplinarian or punishment mode. The feedback this semester indicates that the questions made the students prepare for their writing. It makes sense. Even my worst critics didn’t say anything negative about the overall writing; no one said dump the writing assignments. I will use writing without question every time. A rubric is a really good addition. It makes the writing process clearer and more feasible for everyone involved. This has taken time to develop, and after three to four years, I’m starting to feel that I’m getting the writing bit down.
As a teacher, using a rubric puts constraints on the class work to the points on the rubric. The upside of this is that it makes you pick, a priori, the most important writing and learning that you want the students to do. As a teacher, it helps you to focus. I have to decide on the short answer questions and the essay questions. The rubric that I developed, with the help of Michele Eodice, former Director of the KU Writing Center, is flexible and can be modified. Next semester I will teach Psychology 475, Cognitive Neuroscience, which is the methods of neuropsychology class, and I will use writing in it. Writing will be great. I’ll have students do more primary readings outside of class, and the rubric will change to reflect analysis and criticism of literature as opposed to conceptual understanding of topics in the textbook.
I also teach Psychology 370, Brain and Behavior, and I have decided not to add writing to it. Over the last eight years, I have been developing in-class activities for it that I think are a successful way to learn this topic’s information. In this class, students have to do a great deal of memorization of concrete concepts. The students also tend to get the subject ideas without too much trouble.
For Psychology 318, in the past I had students do a presentation. This will now be the third time that I have taught it. The presentations take a great deal of time, and they equal the material that would be equivalent to one in-depth paper. Doing this amount of work only once is not enough. Writing will allow the students to hone more skills. Perhaps I will have them do one presentation at the end, but they will practice via writing throughout most of the semester.
