Imagine for a second that you’re trying to teach a kid how to ride a bike. You explain the mechanics of peddling and balance. You sit with them on a park bench and watch other bikers ride past. Then you put them on a bike and ask them to ride.Do they do it?
Probably not. You can’t learn how to ride a bike unless you practice riding a bike.
This point might seem obvious when we’re talking about biking, but sometimes it becomes less obvious when we’re talking about academic subjects.
Think about your course for a moment. What do you do to assess whether your students have mastered your material at the end of the semester? Do you give them exams, papers, final projects?
If so, what do you do to prepare them to succeed?
In edu-speak this concept is called “alignment.” Alignment means that all parts of your course fit together like a nice game of connect the dots:
Your Learning Goals => Your Content => Your Activities and Assignments => Your Assessments of Student Learning.
By the time students reach the end of the course, they’re prepared because the whole course has been leading them to this point.
This doesn’t mean you need to teach to a test. You can still teach whatever content best suits your course, but along the way you can include activities that guide students where they’ll need to go.
If You Give Multiple Choice Exams
- Try polling your students during class to see if they can correctly answer a multiple choice poll. Then have them confer with their classmates about why a particular answer is the best.
- Or set up a “Check Your Understanding Quiz” in Canvas and give them participation credit for practicing multiple-choice questions to see if they’re comprehending the material.
If Your Give Essay Tests or Final Papers
- Have students practice writing. Give them five minutes in class to write an argument about the topic of the day and then another five to share it with a classmate.
- Have students practice paper components: writing a thesis statement, analyzing evidence, etc.
If You Give Final Projects or Problem Sets
- If they’ll need to solve problems or brainstorm solutions to challenges, give them class time to work on these skills in groups.
When the end of the semester rolls around, your students might surprise you with better work. But you won’t be surprising them with a final that they’re unprepared for.