SI Resource Manual by EUSA Peer Support

Leader Resource

Manual

an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution

Center for Academic Development

Leader Resource Manual for Supplemental Instruction (SI) First Edition, June 2004 University of Missouriâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Kansas City SASS Building, Room 210 5100 Rockhill Road Kansas City, MO 64110-2499 816.235.1174 fax 816.235.5156 cad@umkc.edu www.umkc.edu/cad sinet@listserv.umkc.edu

SI Motto: Tell me, and I forget, Show me, and I remember, Involve me, and I understand. - Chinese Proverb

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a service mark of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. A license may be granted to registered Certified Trainers and others upon written request to use the term Supplemental Instruction in association with educational programmatic approaches to enhance student academic development. This license is not transferable and does not apply to the use of the service mark in any other programs or on any other literature without the written approval of the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

June 1, 2004 Dear Colleagues: Whether you are from here in the United States or somewhere else across the world, I would like to welcome you to the SI Leader Training Workshop. All of the work you do, including your attendance at this workshop, is more important than ever before. With the rising costs of education, access and equity in education are even more important than they were 10 years ago. Students, institutions of higher learning, and the nation all lose if students do not do well in their classes and, thereby, are not retained in institutions of higher education. Our responsibility is to help prepare them to achieve their academic and career goals. What you do in this workshop and in the implementation of Supplemental Instruction will richly contribute to the educational goals of our students, our institutions, and ultimately to our society as a whole. We at the International Center for Supplemental Instruction are here to assist you during this training workshop and while you are involved with SI on your campus. I look forward to interacting with you here or wherever our paths may meet in the future. Enjoy the training.

Dr. Glen Jacobs, Director

Center for Academic Development International Center for Supplemental Instruction

TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION FOR SI LEADERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Ideal SI Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Theoretical Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Proof that SI Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Breaking the Dependency Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SI Compared to Other Models. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 PREPARING FOR SI SESSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Short Descriptions of Learning Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Types of Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 SI Session Planning Rubric (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Planning the SI Session (Examples). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 PROCESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Advanced Organizers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Jigsaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Time Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Vocabulary Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Boardwork Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Using Visuals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Think Aloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Think-Pair-Share . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Post Exam Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Note Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Use of Analogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Informal Quiz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Divide and Conquer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Writing in the SI Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Matrices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Concept Mapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Reciprocal Questioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 One-Minute Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Incomplete Outline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Question Group Protocols (Multiple Choice Questions) . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 CONDUCTING SESSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Opening and Closing Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Student-to-Student Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Redirecting Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Wait Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Checking for Understanding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Planning Flexibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 General Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Case Studies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

TABLE OF CONTENTS SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS WHEN PLANNING AND CONDUCTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Exam Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Exam Reviews for Problem-Solving Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Post Exam Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Writing an Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Prerequisite Knowledge Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 The Unprepared Student . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Too Many/Too Few Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 EVALUATING SESSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Observation Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Self-Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Visiting Other Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 What to Expect from Your Mentor/Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 ADMINISTRATIVE/DAY-TO-DAY RESPONSIBILITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Administrative Duties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Attending Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Office Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 SI Leader Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Bookmarks (sample). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Labels (sample). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Exam Results Memo (sample) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Exam Results Chart and Session Preview (sample) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 FORMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Participation Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Participation Log for Exam Review Sessions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 SI Session Planning Rubric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Planning the SI Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Self-Evaluation Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Memo of Faculty Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Fax to Police. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 LIST OF REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 General Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Readings in Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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PREFACE

August 2007 After the initial SI leader training workshop, SI leaders often want to refer to topics discussed and modeled in the workshop. This manual is organized as a reference tool that will be especially useful to leaders even after the pre-term training. The organization of the manual generally follows the process an SI leader uses to prepare for and conduct SI sessions. “Supplemental Instruction for SI Leaders” provides a definition and rationale for SI as well as the kinds of “proof” SI leaders need to be convinced of the efficacy of SI. It also includes a brief overview of the theoretical background for SI and a list of characteristics found in ideal SI sessions. “Preparing for SI Sessions” takes the leader through the process of preparing and provides some examples of good preparation. “Processes” gives detailed descriptions of, rationale for, and instructions on how to use the various learning strategies central to SI sessions. “Conducting Sessions” discusses general principles underlying all SI sessions, such as the use of wait-time, redirecting of questions, checking for understanding, paying attention to the interaction patterns in the sessions, and ways to open and close sessions. “Special Considerations When Planning and Conducting Sessions” outlines things to remember about the out-of-the-ordinary sessions, such as exam or book reviews. “Evaluating Sessions” talks about ways SI leaders can think about how they can improve their sessions. “Administrative/Day-to-Day Responsibilities” and “Forms” remind leaders of the paperwork they need to complete, without which we could not continue to obtain funding for SI. Many thanks to Sandee Zerger, Campus SI Coordinator from 1999-2006, for her hard work writing and editing this manual. The campus SI mentors for the 2003-2004 school year also influenced much of this manual: Mark Burnett, John Cooley, Valerie French, Rachel Haughenberry, Gülbanü Gökbulut, and Sergio Requena. This manual came about thanks to their vision and persistence and our combined interest in providing SI leaders with a helpful guide to facilitating successful sessions. And, thanks to Sonny Painter formatting the manual and to Maureen Hurley, Jennifer Carnicom, and Linda Carter for proofreading the manual. Without the encouragement and guidance from Dr. Glen Jacobs, the Director of the International Center for Supplemental Instruction, this project would not have been possible.

Amelia McDaniel, Co-Editor, Certified SI Trainer

Introduction to Supplemental Instruction for SI Leaders

Introduction Ideal SI Sessions Theoretical Frameworks Proof that SI Works Breaking the Dependency Cycle SI Compared to Other Models

SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION (SI) FOR SI LEADERS Definition:

Supplemental Instruction (SI) sessions are peer-led review sessions provided for selected courses. The sessions are organized to allow students the opportunity to interact as they construct knowledge. More specifically, SI sessions provide a chance for students to get together with classmates to compare notes, discuss important concepts, and develop strategies for studying the subject. The sessions are facilitated by a trained SI leader, a student who has taken the class before and earned a high grade. The leader shares with the students what he or she has learned about how to study effectively for the course. The leader attends lecture every day, taking notes and listening closely to the professor. The leader does not re-lecture or give out his/her class notes but helps the students become independent learners by planning activities that encourage students to work together and process material themselves. Rationale:

Considerable research has been done on the benefits of studying in groups. Students who study together learn two and a half times as much in the same amount of time as students who study alone.1 Collaborative learning promotes critical thinking through discussion, clarification of ideas, and evaluation of othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ideas. (If the goal merely is to gain factual knowledge, individual study works as well as collaborative learning.2) The SI Program focuses on encouraging students to work with their classmates and challenges students to break the cycle of dependency (pp. 22-23 in this manual) that students may bring with them from secondary school. SI also avoids trying to identify high-risk students by instead identifying high-risk courses. History3:

The SI Program began here at UMKC in 1973. The founder, Dr. Deanna Martin, originally created the program to address the academic struggles of students of color and women in the schools of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. The program was so successful that it was expanded to undergraduate programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and certified by the U.S. Department of Education in 1981. Benefits: To Students Acquire short-term and long-term study skills Learn how to organize class materials Spend more time on task with class materials Prepare more thoroughly for exams, both content and format Receive higher mean course grades Meet classmates and therefore feel more comfortable participating Learn to collaborate with classmates Become independent learners 1 Johnson,

R. T., & Johnson, D. W. (1986). Action research: Cooperative learning in the science classroom. Science and Children, 24, 31-32. See also: Johnson, D., Maryuyama, G., Johnson, R., Nelson, D., & Skon, L. (1981). The effects of cooperative, competitive and indvidualisitic goal structure on achievement: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 89, 47-62.

2Gokhale,

A. A. (2004). Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7, 22-30.

3Widmar, G. E. (1994). Supplemental Instruction: From small beginnings to a national program. In D. E. Martin & D. R. Arendale (Eds.). Supplemental Instruction: Increasing achievement and retention. (pp. 3-10). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION (SI) FOR SI LEADERS

Benefits of SI: To the SI Leader Reiterate knowledge base Prepare for standardized tests needed for post graduate work Gain experience in curriculum planning Gain experience with collaborative learning techniques and with what it truly takes to learn (not taught to college professors in most degree programs but invaluable if you will be teaching) Develop communication skills Develop leadership skills Keep good company—other leaders and students, SI staff Network with students Earn personalized employment and academic references Earn competitive income To Faculty Receive feedback before the end of term student evaluations Improve student interactions in class See more students succeed and continue in course sequence Improve student understanding of concepts Work closely with and mentor top students To the Institution Report higher graduation rates Raise the learning bar Lower rates of students earning D’s, F’s, Withdrawals Provide faculty development Create a sense of community Bridge the gap between student ability levels Provide cost efficient academic support

IDEAL SI SESSIONS

One of the goals of the ideal SI session is to model good student behavior: this includes modeling good behavior in lecture as well as demonstrating in the sessions what students do if they have a question or gaps in their knowledge. Good sessions also prompt students to develop organizational frameworks to organize the material for more efficient studying, and through the use of well-designed strategies (Informal Quiz, Note Review) and techniques like wait-time and question-redirection, encourage students to work with each other, not just ask the leader questions. Through these behaviors, the students will become independent learners. We at UMKC, along with our colleagues in the field, have found that effective SI sessions tend to have the following: The leader plans the sessions carefully by deciding what is the most difficult (not necessarily the most important) content and then matches carefully planned strategies to address the difficult content. It often is difficult for leaders to distinguish difficult from important content. Additionally, it is challenging to probe why the content is difficult—what exactly makes it difficult for the novice learner? The leader organizes the content. One good definition of SI is “organized peer facilitated study sessions.” Often courses are difficult not because each individual topic is difficult but because there is so much material covered, and novice learners may have difficulty organizing or grouping content in order to learn it effectively. A good leader helps students develop strategies that organize the content and organize the group study time efficiently. Both faculty and supervisors can help the leaders determine what will be the most difficult concepts. (Supervisors with a good understanding of learning pedagogy can assist leaders by having the leaders explain the content and asking leading questions until they both figure out why the concepts are difficult for novice learners.) The leader uses effective cognitive strategies related to the discipline. SI is based on effective learning strategies, such as Informal Quiz, Matrix, One-Minute Papers, Discipline-Specific Writing Strategies, Reciprocal Questioning, Analogies, Vocabulary Clustering Techniques, Advanced Organizers, Paired-Problem Solving, Talk Aloud Procedures, Concept Mapping, Note Processing, or Divide-and-Conquer. (Some of these italicized strategies also appear in The Leader’s Guide to Supplemental Instruction and the Supplemental Instruction Mentor Manual.) The leader pays attention to the group’s interactions. The students sit in a circle or semi-circle in order to see each other. Students talk to each other and ask each other questions rather than the questions’ being asked and/or answered by the leader. The session is not a question-answer session. Students are doing most of the processing of the content. If the leader brings in handouts that are filled out or questions that are already made out, the leader has done most of the processing rather than the students. In good SI sessions, the group will predict most of the test questions. Content is broken down into component parts. The learning strategies employed clarify rather than confuse content. The leader uses good wait time and redirects questions.

IDEAL SI SESSIONS

Characteristics of Ideal SI Sessions, continued: The leader is not the SI “instructor” but a leader who facilitates rather than “teaches.” (Always use the term leader to reinforce this.) There is humor. There is informality. Students feel free to bring food or drinks and free to come and go. Students feel free to come to the sessions even if they have not prepared specific questions ahead of time. Even if students have not prepared the homework (although that is encouraged), students are encouraged to come to the sessions, and leaders have an alternate plan for such occasions. SI leaders and students know each others’ names. An agenda is set (including items suggested by group members), and there is closure to the sessions. There is discussion of future group work both inside and outside of the session. There is very little overt leader participation. There is evidence of a strong, positive relationship between the leader and the instructor. Nobody expects a quick fix. Faculty members are given both quantitative and qualitative feedback.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR SI

Introduction: Those of us in Supplemental Instruction are often called upon to explain what we are doing and why. If SI leaders present or publish on SI, it is crucial to tie the research on SI to the theories that underpin it. If an SI leader would like to continue in the field as a mentor or professional staff member, s/he will need to have more than a cursory understanding of learning theory. As you can see from Table 1 (next page), SI has borrowed from more than one learning theorist. Although Lee Shulman1, a researcher on learning theory, argues for hybrid designs (learning strategies that incorporate more than one learning theory, in the study of teaching and learning) he warns that they present dangers as well. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They can become utter chaos if not informed by an understanding of the types of knowledge produced by these different approaches. However, the alternative strategy that reduces the richness of teaching to nothing more than the atomism of a multiple variable design may be even worseâ&#x20AC;? (p. 4). He suggests that learning strategies that require the learner to learn one item at a time and then build on each item (as suggested by theorists whose underlying epistemology is positivistic) are not appropriate to the way most learners actually learn. Shulman uses an analogy to illustrate how several theorists would approach learning. He says that biology may be defined in three ways: 1. Biology is the study of cells and their functions and how they aggregate to form organisms. This would be comparable to the behaviorists who break down concepts to the most basic units. 2. Biology is the study of organisms and how they function to enable the activities of the organism and how equilibrium among the various components of the organism is maintained. This approach compares to the cognitivists who like to study the whole and how ideas assimilate into the whole. 3. Biology is the study of the community or ecosystem. This approach is similar to the social interdependence theorists who study how learners are interdependent on each other (p. 21). Each of the three approaches to biology is informative. Likewise, each of the groups of theorists helps us understand learning from a unique vantage point. Drawing upon all the vantage points is important.

1 Shulman,

L. S. (1986). Paradigms and research in the study of teaching: A contemporary perspective. In M.C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching. (3rd ed., pp. 4-36). New York: Macmillian. 16

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR SI1 After reading the basic principles, see if you can list ways in which the theories are applied in SI.

Theory

Some Theorists

Some Theoretical Principles

Behavioral learning theory

Watson Skinner Bandura Ausubel Herbart

Behavior is based on positive reinforcement of desirable behavior Decompose complex tasks into their component parts Emphasis on cause and effect relationships (process product) Modeling is important (Bandura)

Cognitive developmental theory

Bruner Piaget Flower & Hayes

Mental structures develop gradually as learning is constructed through organization and integration of new information and experiences As learners assimilate knowledge, they think differently about a concept Learner use prior knowledge when learning new knowledge Social interaction causes conflict that stimulates cognitive development

Social interdependence theory

Geertz Vygotsky Bakhtin Doyle Erickson

Knowledge is actively built by learners, working together cooperatively and interdependently Knowledge is produced rather than distributed Knowledge and understanding are not constructed individually but in dialogue with others, and facts are “true” in that social context Learners are able to do in collaboration today what they will be able to do independently tomorrow

Interpretive/ Critical Theory

Freire Apple Kozol

Good pedagogy empowers learner to take control of their own learning processes Education should have as its goal liberation rather than domination Educational practices should seek to overcome the learner’s “culture of silence”

SI Applications

The list of references used to create this table can be found beginning on p. 145.

PROOF THAT SI WORKS Introduction: The research claims that the SI Program makes were validated by the U. S. Department of Education in 1981. They are as follows: SI participants receive a lower rate of D, F or course withdrawals SI participants earn higher mean final course grades SI participants persist (reenroll and graduate) at higher rates Following are charts and tables that present some statistical support of the SI program. Figure 1

Final Course Grades UMKC SI Classes Semesters: Fall 1997 to Winter 2002 Mean Course Grade for All Supported Classes

3 2.5 2

1.5

Non-SI

1 0.5 0

FS97

WS98

FS98

WS99

FS99

WS00

FS00

WS01

FS01

WS02

FS02

2.7

2.6

2.8

2.6

2.8

2.7

2.6

Non-SI

2.3

2.2

2.5

2.4

2.5

2.3

2.5

2.3

2.5

2.3

SI vs. Non-SI Groups by Semester

Figure 1 shows five years of SI success with students who attend finishing, on average, .3 grade points higher than those who do not. SI attendees consistently have higher mean grades than students who do not attend, regardless of prior high school achievement. Figure 2 shows an analysis of the performance of students who attend SI in relation to their prior achievement.

PROOF THAT SI WORKS Figure 2

Mean Final Course Grades Differing Levels of Prior Achievent (High School Rank and ACT Composite) for Fiscal Year 1997

Grade Scale

3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1. 5 0 1. 0 0 0.50 0.00

Top

Middle Two

Bottom

Non-SI Participants

2.83

2.28

1.77

SI Participants

3.29

2.67

2.10

Regardless of prior achievement, SI is proven to increase mean final course grades for student of all levels of ability. This is testament to the success of the SI program in targeting traditionally difficult classes as opposed to individual students. Though the mean grade for each quartile decreases in correspondence with decrease in quartile level, final grades for students who attend SI are approximately .4-.6 points greater at each tier.

Mean Grades

Table 1 UMKC Students of Differing Levels of Previous Academic Achievement: Fall Semester 1989 to Winter Semester 1990 (N=1,628)

Group Composition

Number of Students

Percentage of Students in Targeted Classes

High School Percentile Rank

Mean Composite ACT Score

Percentage Reenrolled Following Semester

Final Course Grade

Top Quartile: SI Non-SI

112 228

32.9% 67.1%

87.5 82.1

26.8 27.0

92.9% 93.1% n.s.

3.29 2.83**

Middle 2 Quartiles: SI Non-SI

262 687

27.6% 72.4%

68.7 67.7

21.3 21.4

90.5% 77.9%*

2.67 2.28**

Bottom Quartile: SI Non-SI

104 235

30.7% 69.3%

64.9 63.5

15.1 15.7

85.6% 77.9%*

2.10 1.77**

*Level of significance of difference (p < .05) using chi-square test. **Level of significance of difference p < .01) using independent t-test. n.s. No statistically significant difference between the two groups. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

PROOF THAT SI WORKS

Table 2 UMKC Students of Differing Levels of Previous Academic Achievement Fall Semester 2002 (N=1,293)

Number of Students

Group Composition

Percentage of Students in Targeted Classes

High School Percentile Rank

Mean Composite ACT Score

Final Course Grade

Top Quartile: SI Non-SI

359 366

49.5% 50.5%

89.56 84.29

27.82 28.04

3.01 2.76

Middle 2 Quartiles: SI Non-SI

258 234

52.4% 47.6%

77.14 71.76

21.41 21.57

2.41 2.05

Bottom Quartile: SI Non-SI

39 37

51.3% 48.7%

64.95 65.83

15.69 16.03

1.83 1.43

Discussion of Tables 1 and 2 The data in Table 1 warrant the following observations. Students in the bottom quartile group used SI services at nearly the same rate as did students in the top quartile. Despite quartile ranking, SI-participating students earned significantly higher grades than their nonparticipating counterparts. With the top quartile group the SI participants had an average grade of “B” while the Non-SI students overall average was a “C” or “C+”. In the bottom quartile group, SI appeared to make a difference between a “C” average and a “D” average. That could have implications regarding placement of students on academic probation. SI-participating students in the bottom quartile and the middle two quartiles reenrolled at the institution at significantly higher rates than their nonparticipating counterparts. While the SI and Non-SI groups of the top quartile reenrolled at 93 percent, the Top Quartile SI-participants received a significantly higher mean final course grade. The data in both Tables 1 and 2 suggest that SI services continue to meet the needs of students with a wide range of previous levels of academic achievement. While additional research is warranted, other institutions may want to consider this data and replicate the study with research from their own institution when considering whether to provide additional and separate tutorial programs for students from different levels of previous academic achievement.

PROOF THAT SI WORKS

Figure 3

Unsuccessful Enrollment Rates (DFW's) SI Classes at UMKC Fall 1997 to Fall 2003 45 40

Percentage of DFW's SI vs. Non-SI

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

FS97 WS98 SU98 FS98 WS99 FS99 WS00 FS00 WS01 FS01 WS02 FS97 WS98 SU98

FS98 WS99 FS99 WS00 FS00 WS01 FS01 WS02 FS02 WS03 FS03

Non-SI

Semesters

Students who do not attend SI are much more likely to fail or withdraw from a class. SI targets those classes with high rates of Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Fâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and Withdrawals; Figure 3 shows the significant difference between those students who attend SI and those that do not. Without SI, the traditionally difficult classes remain traditionally difficult. With SI, they will be difficult, but statistics show that students will perform at a higher level.

THE DEPENDENCY CYCLE

Definition and Rationale: One of the goals of SI is to foster independent learners. The Dependency Cycle (sometimes called “learned helplessness”) is a pattern of learned behavior that allows students to remain dependent upon an authority figure (instructor or tutor) for learning. Often we foster dependency by relying too heavily on repetition, drill, and memorization. Without structuring, categorizing, and other forms of manipulation of information, students will fall back into a mode of memorizing isolated facts—a very time-consuming and ineffective way of learning large amounts of meaningful information. As illustrated below, in many large, lecture classes, students are told information by the instructor. Here are the failed processes that perpetuate the Dependency Cycle:

Some students will learn via this format because they already have the sophisticated learning strategies that allow them to convert information into meaningful knowledge. Others, especially students new to a discipline, will have problems, so they will ask a question, which may lead to their being told again, perhaps more slowly the second or third time. Eventually, if these students do not do well in the course or in their overall schooling, we may shunt them off to a remedial program or put them someplace and give them a shiny toy to play with so they will not interrupt the rest of the students. Their failure in one situation may lead them to feel like they cannot learn new, complicated information at all. Our job in SI is to help students use new learning strategies, so they are less dependent on being told information. Some students who have experienced a continuing history of failure or a recent cycle of failure may believe that they lack the ability to succeed. Brophy1 found that highly successful teachers and facilitators implement strategies to help students overcome this “learned helplessness” or Dependency Cycle by engaging in supportive behaviors, providing reassurance, and making personal appeals to students to improve performance. They deemphasize activities that promote competition and comparison and emphasize non-evaluative strategies and cooperative strategies, such as matrices, reciprocal questioning, and Think-Pair-Share.

1 Brophy

J. (1998). Motivating students to learn. New York: McGraw-Hill.

BREAKING THE DEPENDENCY CYCLE

To Break the Dependency Cycle:

Dweck and Eliott2 suggest the following behaviors that help to break the Dependency Cycle and can be applied to SI: 1. SI leaders should act more as facilitators (or sources of information and strategies) than as judges. 2. SI leaders should focus more on learning processes than on outcomes. 3. SI leaders should react to errors as natural and useful parts of the learning process rather than evidence of failure.

2 Dweck, C., & Elliot, E. Achievement motivation. (1983). In P. Musser (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Socialization, personality, and social development. Vol. 4. (pp. 643-691). New York: New Wiley. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

SI COMPARED TO OTHER MODELS

While SI may differ from other types of study sessions, it may also have some things in common. It may be helpful for you to think of the items below on a continuum. Class Attendance: Unlike traditional programs, SI leaders attend all class lectures and read all assigned texts. Non-expert/Authority of Study Leader: While SI leaders demonstrate proficiency in the content area, they also model the learning processes necessary for content mastery. SI leaders function as model students rather than authority figures. Extensive Training: In addition to demonstrating content-competency, SI leaders are trained to think about how they achieved this content-competency. Training includes process and methodology applicable to the subject and ways in which that knowledge best can be transmitted to students. Study Skills: In addition to dealing with content, the SI sessions include information on notetaking, anticipating test questions, vocabulary development, and memory aids, but these skills are not covered in isolation. Students develop the thinking and reasoning skills which characterize intellectual maturity. Rigorous Evaluation: When successful, the SI groups show a statistically significant lower rate of D/F/Wâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and higher mean course grades. Statistical differences are rarely tested in other study/review sessions. Focus: SI helps students formulate and answer inference, synthesis, and application questions. Asking and answering their own questions helps students develop a more sophisticated mode of inquiry.

Preparing

for SI Sessions Introduction

Short Descriptions of Learning Strategies Types of Questions SI Session Planning Rubric (Example) Planning the SI Session (Examples)

INTRODUCTION: PLANNING FOR SI SESSIONS

Most of the time, SI sessions go well. Over the last several semesters, however, we have observed that the sessions that do not go well have one thing in common: the leaders did not plan well. Some leaders did not plan at all; some did not distinguish between “difficult” and “important” material; some focused on content at the expense of process; some did not plan appropriate activities, and some did not allow themselves enough time. Each of these problems can be solved by emphasizing that planning for sessions is important. This requires a stronger emphasis on planning in the pre-term training, as well as a renewed program commitment to planning in on-going training. The most significant difficulty we see is that SI leaders feel compelled to cover all course material in their sessions. The SI leaders are generally good, conscientious students, and feel that the students in their SI class hold them responsible for every concept or fact introduced in the course. While this may be, our central responsibility as SI leaders is to encourage the students to break this habit and not hold others responsible for their own learning. When SI leaders attempt to cover all course material in their sessions, they soon revert to lecture or a questionanswer format. These “strategies” may be necessary in order to address all of the information, but they are not good SI strategies. These leaders become overwhelmed almost immediately—you are not being paid enough to do this! Instead, choose what to cover in the SI sessions based on what is the most difficult for students to learn. The sessions will be most helpful to students if you can determine why the difficult material is so difficult. Is it a large volume of information? Are there complicated concepts? Is the material abstract? Do they have difficulty applying it to the “real” world? Do the students lack prerequisite knowledge? Have they done the homework? Do they lack resources necessary to learning (solutions manuals, visual models)? A session that addresses the specific reason(s) material is difficult to learn will be the most productive. Continue asking yourself why the concepts are difficult until you reach the most basic reasons. Consider the following example: an SI leader for a biology class is planning a session on cell respiration. She asks herself why the content may be difficult for students. First she thinks that it may be learning the steps involved in the process. She then asks herself why learning those steps is difficult and decides that it must be keeping track of what happens at each step that is tricky. She finally decides it is difficult to keep the order of the process straight because not all molecules will participate in each step. The students will need to develop a way to discern which steps go with each molecule.

INTRODUCTION: PLANNING FOR SI SESSIONS

Even when focusing on only the difficult material, some leaders emphasize the content of the session rather than the process. When planning a session, these leaders will be very clear about the content involved but not the process. Their planning sheet will say: Content Gibb’s Free Energy (specific)

Process Group Work (vague)

When asked, “What is your plan for your session tomorrow?” these leaders will say, “I am going to go over Gibb’s Free Energy.” What does “go over” mean? When probed, we see that these leaders did not plan a process. The content is most important, right? Wrong. At this point in the planning, the content is secondary to the process to be used. Students should leave SI with a new, albeit subconscious, understanding about how they learn. If we focus on content alone, they focus on content. Instead, plan around the content while focusing on structuring the session in order to provide them with a model of how to study. We hope that this section of the manual will help you (the SI leader) better understand how to plan your SI sessions. When your sessions are successful, so are your students.

SHORT DESCRIPTIONS OF LEARNING STRATEGIES1 Matrix A matrix is a chart with columns and rows used to compare and contrast two or more subjects. Think-Pair-Share As the name implies, students think about a question individually, then pair up to discuss their ideas, and finally come together as one group to share their answers. Informal Quiz The leader asks students to write down their answers to questions given orally. The written answers are short but are designed to stimulate a broad discussion. Sequencing The leader scrambles material and has students put it back in order (example: steps in a math problem or a biological cycle). Reciprocal Questioning The leader structures time to alternate between asking the students questions and the students asking the leader questions. S/he asks a student to track the types of questions asked (higher/lower order) and continues to redirect questions. Note Review Students read through their notes, taking turns from subject to subject. While one student is reading, other students are encouraged to add to the discussion by providing missing information and questioning the content of his/her notes. Frequently used at the beginning of the semester. Divide & Conquer This is a version of the Jigsaw strategy, p. 43. The leader breaks up a large amount of material (usually a reading) into smaller segments, then assigns a segment to a student or group. Then the students present their segment to the whole group. One-Minute Paper Students write for one minute on a question or topic given by the leader. Helpful to refocus, open, or close the session. Boardwork Model This is a template for board work that asks the group to list prerequisite information needed to solve a problem (example: formulas), record the mathematical steps of the solution, record the steps of the solution in narrative form, and construct a similar problem. Flowcharts and Diagrams These are visual models that allow students to organize information in a way that is meaningful to them. 1This is not a comprehensive list, and more complete descriptions and instructions for use can be found in the Processes section of this manual, beginning on p. 39.

TYPES OF QUESTIONS There are many types of questions, and not all types are equally valuable for promoting student processing or response. SI leaders need to consider carefully the different types of questions that are asked during a session. They should write down in advance (on the Planning the SI Session Sheet) higher-order questions to ask, along with the predicted responses. This will allow them to develop some follow-up or probing questions. The questions leaders ask should provide a model for students of the kinds of questions to ask about a certain body of information—setting a high expectation for students’ responses. Leaders may need to ask intervening sequences of more specific, factual questions to help students recall relevant data, recognize pertinent relationships, and make informed inferences—all part of thinking about an answer to a higher-order question. In “Systematically Misleading Data from Test Questions,” William Labov1, a leading sociolinguist, categorizes questions according to whether or not the speaker and the hearer know or do not know the answers to the questions. His classification system helps SI leaders think about the nature of questions beyond mere multiplechoice versus essay questions or open versus closed questions, for example. Labov’s classification is reproduced below: Table 3a Speaker thinks hearer doesn’t know answer Speaker doesn’t know answer

Rhetorical Question I “Gee how are we going to end the war?”

Speaker does know answer

Riddle

Speaker thinks hearer does know answer Legitimate Question I Request for Information “What time is it?” Rhetorical Question II

(Socratic Question. Question is introductory, leads to something else.)

“Look, this is Michigan, right?”

Speaker doesn’t know if hearer knows answer Legitimate Question II Request for Information “Do you have the time?” Test Question I

“How much is 2 + 2?”

Table 3b

Speaker needs answer

Speaker thinks that no answer is better than others

Speaker thinks some answers are better than others

Request for display: e.g. therapy situation, speaker is analyst.

Competition—answerer(s) tries to give best answer.

“How were things last week?”

“How can we fix this machine?” “What’s the best way to solve this problem?”

Speaker doesn’t need answer

1Labov,

Phatic communion—just for the sake of communication.

Test Question II (Request for display.)

“How are things?” “How’s the wife?”

“Tell me everything you can about this.” (Hearer must guess what questioner wants to have displayed.)

W. (1976). Systematically misleading data from test questions. Urban Review, 9(3) 146-170.

TYPES OF QUESTIONS

Continued: Labov states that “[m]any people assume that if you ask somebody a question, it’s going to make them talk. It’s not so. Questions are often very poor devices for getting people to talk” (p. 152). According to Labov, the student has the right to know in order to respond to a question whether or not there is a right answer to the question and whether or not the questioner knows the answer. If it is a rhetorical question, for example, it does not need to be answered, and, in fact, the student may be offended or manipulated if the questioner “forces” an answer. Many beginning students may not understand that some questions are requests for displaying of information. These questions need to be practiced in SI sessions to help students receive full credit for such essay-type questions. For example, with the Test Question II, students need to understand that some answers are going to be judged better than others. For these questions, a longer list may be more preferable to a short one. Questions in the far right columns of Tables 3a and 3b are often asked to test students or to check for understanding. These can be asked either as close-ended or open-ended questions. Close-ended Questions: Generally the answers for these types of questions are fixed. These questions offer a fixed choice between two or more alternatives. At the same time these kinds of questions do not require the students to think. Usually the answers for these kinds of questions are “yes” or “no” or an answer of a word or so. Close-ended questions usually start with: Are..? Were..? Have..? Will..? Do..? Can..? Would..?

Since close-ended questions do not require students to think and analyze, an SI Leader cannot use them to judge whether the students understand the material or if they are just memorizing the facts. So, when checking for understanding, it is better to use open-ended questions that require the students to think critically.

TYPES OF QUESTIONS Open-ended Questions: When asked these types of questions, students are required to think and answer in their own words. Openended questions focus on students' understanding, their ability to reason, and their ability to apply knowledge. Such questions can communicate levels of student understanding since they address the essential concepts, processes, and skills that go beyond the simple facts. They require complex thinking. Open-ended questions often are used in order to check if the students really understand the material. Open-ended questions should begin with words such as "why" and "how" or phrases, such as: "What do you think about _____?" They should lead students to think analytically and critically. Ultimately, a good openended question should start a discussion in the session. (See Reciprocal Questioning on p. 75.) Examples of Open-ended Questions: What do you think about ____? I wonder if there's another way? What's your opinion? Just suppose that. . .then what? What would happen if ____? What else can we use this for? What is this like? What if we added this? What if we take this away? Why do you think this happened? How do you think this works? How did you ____? Now could you ____ ? How else could you do that? What's similar about these? In what ways are these different? What could you tell me about? What did you notice about ____? How do you think we could ____? . . . Tell me about it. There are several open-ended question categories that can be asked. Benjamin Bloomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives2 categorizes questions in a hierarchy. The lower levels of the hierarchy include knowledge or factual questions that can be answered easily. SI sessions should include a variety of questions from each of the levels, emphasizing questions that encourage students to think beyond memorization of facts.

2 Bloom, B. S., Englehart, M., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwold, D. R. (Eds.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals by a committee of college and university examiners. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: Longman and Green. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

TYPES OF QUESTIONS

Lower Order Questions Knowledge These questions are lower order level questions. Although they require the students to think before they answer, they do not require students to analyze the material. These types of questions include skills, such as: remembering, memorizing, recognizing, recalling, identification, recalling information Question Cues: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where Higher Order Questions These questions require much more critical thinking and analyzing. The answers to these questions are more elaborate. Comprehension These types of questions require students to interpret and describe the concepts in their own words, and organize the facts and ideas. Skills demonstrated involve: understanding information, grasping meaning, translating knowledge into new contexts, interpreting facts, comparing and contrasting, ordering, grouping, inferring causes, and predicting consequences. Question Cues: summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate Application These types of questions require students to apply the information they learned to produce some result. Skills demonstrated include: use of information; use of methods, concepts, theories in new situations; solving problems using required skills or knowledge. Question Cues: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

SI SESSION PLANNING RUBRIC

(example from an on-going leader training meeting) 1. What is the most difficult content? (Remember, important is not the same as difficult. There will always be important concepts that you will not have time to address in the sessions. If you try to cover everything, you will create students dependent on you for their knowledge. Instead, we would like to create independent students who can take the study skills they learn in SI and apply them to their future courses.) Steps involved in planning/How to plan Appreciating the importance and benefits of planning Differences in planning between exam review and normal session Selecting appropriate strategies 2. What strategies (e.g. Note Review, Informal Quiz, Divide and Conquer, Think-Pair-Share, Boardwork Model, Matrix) will work well with these concepts? How much time do you expect to spend on each activity? Think-Pair-Share – 25-30 minutes for the Planning Rubric Create content map – 0 – 10 min. (if there’s time) Normally, estimated times should total to the duration of the session; however, in this training, we are presenting new material, which requires some of the meeting time. 3. How many students do you expect? What will you need to adjust in the strategies you’ve chosen depending on how many students actually attend? How can you be ready for students who are not prepared (no book, no notes, haven’t read book)? Make those plans now. 24 Leaders (must attend) / 3 meetings = 8 people average. We anticipate a group as small as 4, and one as large as 12. We adapted TPS to work with small groups instead of pairs. This allows us to break the large group into smaller groups and work through the rubric step-by-step without losing much time. 4. What do you need to prepare to make these strategies successful? (e.g. review your own lecture notes for a Note Review, write Informal Quiz questions, divide a reading assignment for Divide and Conquer, select problems representative of important types to use for Think-Pair-Share or Boardwork Model, form your own complete Matrix) Review the rubric and create an example rubric Review different strategies and their applications (for content mapping) Create list of strategies and brief descriptions 5. Write a summary of these plans on the Planning the SI Session sheet. Attached (p. 34) 6. What would you like to remind the students to study on their own? Talk with their mentors for more detailed strategy information! Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

PLANNING THE SI SESSION

(example from an on-going leader training meeting)

Examples of Planning

Processes Introduction

Use of Analogies

Advanced Organizers

Informal Quiz

Jigsaws

Divide and Conquer

Time Lines

Writing in the SI Session

Vocabulary Development

Matrices

Boardwork Model

Concept Mapping

Using Visuals

Reciprocal Questioning

Think Aloud

One-Minute Paper

Think-Pair-Share

Incomplete Outline

Post Exam Survey

Question Group Protocols

Note Review

INTRODUCTION TO PROCESSES We know from research in learning1 that students who study together learn two-and-a-half times as much as those who study alone. Collaborative learning is part of the reason SI is so successful—students study together and learn from each other. Getting students to work together, however, is not as easy as it may seem. As an SI leader, you cannot simply put students into groups and expect them magically to work well and efficiently together. Instead, you must employ one or more proven learning strategies to encourage them to work together. For example, if you tell a group of students to “review their notes” with no other instructions, they may sit quietly and read their own notes. They may ask if they can compare their notes to someone else’s, and they will examine both sets in silence. Rare groups may start a conversation beginning with their notes but branching off into a complete review of the lecture and applications to real life. Obviously it is the last scenario that we want to see in SI, but it does take some sophistication to facilitate this interaction. In this section we have provided you with more than twenty-five learning strategies that have proven successful in SI sessions. It is important that you use a variety of strategies so that your students will not become bored with predictable sessions. Although some strategies may not seem to apply to your discipline, you will be surprised by how versatile most of them are. We have included them here for that very reason. You will recognize many of these strategies from the pre-semester training and the on-going training meetings, but some will be unfamiliar. Please take some time during the first week of class to discuss the various strategies with your mentor. If either of you have questions about implementing the strategies, your SI coordinator(s) will be happy to help. Don’t try to recreate the wheel by formulating your own processing strategies—take advantage of years of research and development in learning!

1 Johnson,

D., Maryuyama, G., Johnson, R., Nelson, D., & Skon, L. (1981). The effects of cooperative, competitive and indvidualisitic goal structure on achievement: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 89, 47-62.

ADVANCED ORGANIZERS

Definition1: Advanced Organizers are tools or methods that help students connect new information and concepts to existing knowledge. These take many forms; they may be short sets of verbal or visual information presented before learning a content or a brief introduction about the way that information is going to be structured or presented. Rationale: Advanced Organizers help students understand, learn, organize, and remember large volumes of material by allowing them to preview the information to be learned. The intent of an Advanced Organizer is to present context (not content) with conceptual frameworks (not specific detail). They are presented prior to learning and at a higher level of generality than the rest of the session. They are always specific to the discipline of the SI. This type of organizer is especially effective for unfamiliar, technical, or difficult material. Some Types of Advanced Organizers: 1. Charts 2. Diagrams 3. Brief explanations 4. Concept maps 5. Demonstrations Examples: 1. Give the reasons for the Revolutionary War before studying its major battles and personnel. (In general, identify a problem and ask for a reason before giving the reason.) 2. Offer pictures of different types of geometric forms before discussing their individual likenesses and differences. (Go from known to unknown.) 3. Provide a brief abstract paragraph with an outline of new information. (Structure of learning to come.) 4. Give a scenario and ask students to infer rules based upon their current knowledge. 5. For the topic of the structure of state government, review the structure of the federal government studied earlier. (Bridge to previous knowledge.) Practice Exercise: Develop a possible Advanced Organizer for your next SI session.

1 Ausubel, D. P. (1960). â&#x20AC;&#x153;The use of advanced organizers in the learning and retention of meaningful verbal material.â&#x20AC;? Journal of Educational Psychology, 51, (1960): 267-272.

ADVANCED ORGANIZERS1 (Chemistry Example)

The following example is from a second semester general chemistry course. The students have already learned about the first two laws of thermodynamics, and now they are going to discuss Gibb’s Free Energy in the SI session. Jessica, the leader, has thought of a way to help the students connect their prior knowledge to the new set of information. Planning: Why Is It Difficult? Jessica has determined that Gibb’s Free Energy is a difficult concept worthy of focusing on in her next SI session. She thinks it is difficult for students to understand because they don’t always remember that it is a sum of its parts (laws of thermodynamics). She needs to help them understand how each of the first two laws of thermodynamics (material they have already learned) comprise Gibb’s Free Energy. What Kind of Organizer? An Advanced Organizer can be a chart, diagram, brief explanation, real life example, concept map, analogy, etc. Jessica chose a practical lab situation to illustrate enthalpy and an analogy of a messy room to explain entropy. She planned questions to ask and the answers she anticipated (italicized): Imagine that you are in the lab conducting an experiment. If you fill a beaker with distilled water and place it on a hotplate, what happens? The heat increases. What is that called? Enthalpy. What is enthalpy? H, or, the amount of heat in the system. This is a law of thermodynamics. Now, imagine your bedroom at home. Who has a messy room? I do. Is it a natural occurrence that your room becomes messy? What is it called when disorder is a natural occurrence? Entropy. What is entropy? It is the amount of disorder naturally occurring in a system. The second law of thermodynamics states that it is natural for everything in a system to increase in entropy or disorder. If you take these two laws and “smush them all together,” what happens? You get Gibb’s Free Energy. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Conducting: Notice the question-answer, leader-student-leader-student interaction pattern the above organizer lends itself to. To encourage student-to-student interaction, once you have thought of a way to help the students preview the information they are going to study, use another learning strategy to structure the presentation of the Advanced Organizer. Here are some possible strategies to use with this organizer: Think-Pair-Share One-Minute Paper Think Aloud Reciprocal Questioning For example, ask the students the first question, and have them do a Think-Pair-Share or One-Minute Paper rather than simply shouting out the answer. Follow this process for each question. This will help students rely on each other (not just you!) as resources. 1 This example is taken from the videotape of a live, unscripted SI session entitled, SI Demonstration Session: Chemistry II with Jessica Shoop. It is available for purchase from the Center for Academic Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Visit www.umkc.edu/cad/si for more information.

JIGSAWS1

Definition: Jigsaw is a method of making the group as a whole dependent upon subgroups. A large group is divided into smaller groups, and each small group is given a specific task to perform (e.g. solve a problem, compile information for a history identification, write a simple program). Often the tasks are each a part of a larger, more complex assignment. Once the small groups have had time to work on their task, the large group reassembles to share the information. The last step is the most important, since it represents the puzzle coming together or the completion of a large task. Rationale: Jigsaws allow a large group to complete a complicated task by utilizing a division of labor. Students spend the majority of the time working together in their small groups, so they have a better opportunity to participate than they would if the group remained large. The small groups each have a responsibility to the group as a whole, and this helps keep students on task. When to Use: Exam reviews—there’s always a lot of material to cover! Regular sessions—this will be the meat of the session. Be sure to allow enough time for the small groups to share with the large group. Problem-solving sessions—ask each group to work on a different type of problem. This way, several types of problems can be covered in one session. When one student is dominating the session—by splitting the students into smaller groups, you are limiting the number of people this student can dominate. Be sure that the groups vary from session to session so students can meet new classmates and no one student always dominates the same group. When the group is just too large to work well together—it may take some practice to fine-tune this, but you will realize that it is harder to keep a large group on task. Exercise: Think of the SI you will be doing. Jot down a problem or issue that you will need to cover. Break that problem or issue down into several component parts. What are the different parts you see? Talk with your mentor; does s/he see other possible ways of breaking down the information? How will you present this in your session? Be sure to plan for even the simplest thing—how will you break them into groups? Do you want to control who works with whom, perhaps by having them count off by threes or fours? Having them count off prevents students who came together from working together—a great idea!

See Divide and Conquer, a variation, on p. 61.

TIME LINES

Definition: Most of us are familiar with time lines from history class. They begin with a horizontal line that represents the continuum of time. Important events are inserted relative to each other, creating points on the line. Each point that denotes an event should be marked with the date, a brief description of the event, and significant person(s) involved. Rationale: Learners often utilize visual representations to improve the processing of material. According to Ericsson (2002), â&#x20AC;&#x153;expert performance is mediated by complex memory mechanisms and representationsâ&#x20AC;? (pp. 15-16).1 Time lines are one representation that expert learners use to build complex memory. Also they allow for visualization, a deep processing strategy that can be used to integrate a body of knowledge and to provide recognition that such a structure can be used to control explanations.2 Uses: Even if the professor does not test on dates per se, a time line can be a useful tool for organizing a session if the discussion of the items on the time line lead the group to discuss the difficult or important concepts from the lecture. For example, a time line on the history of science simulated lecture tape (see p. 46) can lead the group into a discussion about the differences between the Aristotelian cosmology, including the perfection of the heavens, and the Copernican cosmology. This should encompass how Galileo was put on trial because the changes in cosmologies also changed the theology of the time. If students do not see the relevance of such a change in world view (or if they see the people at the time of Galileo as simplistic) that discussion, then, could be clarified by asking what the current cosmology is and what current theological issues have been raised. Following are samples of time lines.

1 Ericsson,

K. A. (2002). Attaining excellence through deliberate practice: Insights from the study of expert performance. In C. Desforges & R. Fox (Eds.). Teaching and learning: The essential readings (pp. 4-37). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. 2 Entwistel, N. J. (2002). Understanding academic performance at university: A research perspective. In C. Desforges, C. & R. Fox (Eds.). Teaching and learning: The essential readings (pp. 108-123). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

DOUBLE TIME LINES Introduction: Make sure that the dates are truly important before using this procedure. Then, make a brief, very general time line of events happening in the U.S. and/or world at approximately the same time as the dates presented. Give this general time line to the group at the beginning of the session. Then, have the students draw a duplicate time line directly below the one they have previously constructed. They should work in pairs to find key dates from the notes and text and place them on the new line. Discussion should center on events which were happening at the same time as the dates which were presented in class.

Sample Double Time Line:

U.S. Events (Initial time line)

Erie Canal

Railroads

Civil War

Industrialization

WWI

1825

1850

1860-65

1900

1917

European Immigration to U.S. (secondary time line)

Wave I Irish & German 1840

Wave II N.W. Europe

Wave III S.E. Europe

Quotas

1880

1915

1921

HOW THE TELESCOPE TRANSFORMED ASTRONOMY1 (Example of a Time Line)

4th C. B.C.E

Aristotle Instruments measured angles

1532

Copernicus died

1543 1564

Galileo born Galileo attended University of Pisa

1580’s 1592

Galileo began teaching at University of Padua Tycho Brahe

c. 1600 c. 1608

Telescope invented Galileo’s Drawings of Moon Blemishes

Nov. 1609 Jan. 1610

Galileo’s diaries of Jupiter’s moons Galileo published 24-page pamphlet on findings

Mar. 1610 Late 1610

Sidereus Nuncius published. Observed phases of Venus and sunspots. Galileo appointed Duke of Tuscany

1613 1630

Telescope improved Galileo went to trial

1633 1635 1642

Moon rendered as we do today Galileo died

Today 1 This

example corresponds with the videotape entitled, Simulated SI Lecture on History of Science, a lecture by William Ashworth. This tape and other simulated lectures are provided for supervisors to use when training SI leaders. They are available for purchase from the Center for Academic Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Visit www.umkc.edu/cad/si for more information.

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT Definition and Rationale: The human mind can encode only 5 to 9 pieces of information at a time. In order to remember (and retrieve) more items, one must combine related information. “Chunking” is the psychological process of grouping information in not more than nine “chunks” in order to remember it. In SI, by asking students to group vocabulary in a way that is meaningful to them, you can help them learn more and more quickly. Students may not recognize the importance of learning the vocabulary of the discipline. An SI leader can help emphasize this by focusing on vocabulary in the sessions. There are many vocabulary development exercises that can be used in SI sessions, but this one is useful across many disciplines. To Prepare the Exercise:1 1. Make the list—that’s the hard part. 2. Write down all the words that are important from the content to be covered (the chapter, the lecture, the reading, or the problem set). 3. Organize the words (I. A. 1, 2, 3 etc.)./ Make sure there are words from various levels of specificity. If there are 5 words in one level, for example, not all words have to be included in the list—but all should be discussed when the large group goes over the list. 4. Select one of two words to have the group define. These should be words that will allow for discussion or words that will require very specific definitions. For example, in the Galileo tape, the most important word may be telescope but this word would neither lead to good discussion nor be difficult to define within the scope of this lecture. 5. Scramble the words. Think about how this technique would be used in various disciplines. Remember that “words” in math, computer science, or chemistry may be in a different symbolic form—numbers, formulas, other symbols than words—or that an equation really is a sentence. Procedure: 1. Follow the italicized directions as written. (Use these directions for any discipline—do not try to re-invent the wheel by using new directions.) 2. Make sure to allow for sufficient time to process the words. It takes time to do the groupings— and doing the groupings allows for learning. 3. Have the groups report their groupings to the large group and discuss any similarities and differences between groups. Ask if they had words that did not fit into any of the categories? If so, what did you do with such words? Do you need to rename a category to include these words? (For the words given in the SI leader Training Sample, p. 48, usual categories include something like: Paper, People, Processes.) 1Bower,

G. H., Clark, M. C., Lesgold, A. M., & Winzenz, D. (1969). Hierarchical retrieval schemes in recall of categorized word lists. Journal of Verbal and Verbal Behavior, 8, 323-343; Spiegel, G. F., & Barufaldi, J. P. (1994). The effects of a combination of text structure awareness and graphic postorganizers on recall and retention of science knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31, 913-932. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE (SI Leader Training Sample)

Directions: This is a two-part exercise. First, group the vocabulary words below in a way that is meaningful to you. Second, define, and, where appropriate, give an example of the terms that are starred. Work in pairs on this exercise. When you have finished, we will discuss the groupings. Charts Active learning Faculty member Informal Quiz Beginning-of-Term Survey Content competence Model thinking *SI session Note Processing Paired problem solving SI schedule SI leader SI Participation Log Statistical analysis of data SI supervisor *High-risk course

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE (Physics Sample)

Directions: This is a two-part exercise. First, group the vocabulary words below in a way that is meaningful to you. Second, define, and, where appropriate, give an example of the terms that are starred. Work in pairs on this exercise. When you have finished, we will discuss the groupings. *Force Acceleration Mass Displacement Speed *Velocity Distance Vector Scalar component Vector component Position *Weight

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE (Political Science Sample)

Directions: This is a two-part exercise. First, group the vocabulary words below in a way that is meaningful to you. Second, define, and, where appropriate, give an example of the terms that are starred. Work in pairs on this exercise. When you have finished, we will discuss the groupings. Front loading Electorate Ticket splitting Mandate Incumbency Primaries Delegates Election conditions Secular realignment Superdelegate Unit rule Blanket primary Run-off primary *Initiative Media *Recall Critical election *Trustees Gerrymandering

BOARDWORK MODEL

Definition: Well-organized board work in SI sessions is crucial to helping students understand how to solve specific problems. The Boardwork Model is a method of organizing board work in order to facilitate an understanding of problem-solving strategies as a process. It requires four types of information to be collected for each problem: (1) prerequisite knowledge, (2) mathematical steps, (3) a narrative of the steps, and (4) identification, solution, or construction of a similar problem. SI leaders use this model when (1) students don't know how to solve a problem, (2) students are stuck within a problem/solution or (3) to check student understanding of how to solve each type of problem, or (4) to help organize and â&#x20AC;&#x153;chunkâ&#x20AC;? different types of problems. Rationale: Problem-solving courses like chemistry, physics, or mathematics are major obstacles for many students. Students often don't know how to begin to attack a problem or do not know what to do when they encounter difficulty in the midst of finding a solution. In general, SI creates a "safe haven" for students to learn general problem-solving skills. In SI sessions, attendees help each other by actively exchanging strategies for problemsolving. Students need to become part of a collaborative, mutual-help team, attacking a common problem and solution together by pooling resources. When students get stuck, the manner in which SI leaders handle the situation determines whether the student gains an understanding of the process or merely gets a right answer. Procedure: 1. Arrive early and organize the board into four columns. Label like the diagram on the next page. Allow enough room for two people to write at once. 2. Ask for a volunteer to write on the board. If you encounter reluctance, reassure them that the group will tell the scribe what to write (they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to know what to do already). 3. As a group, brainstorm all formulas, equations, rules, etc. required to solve the problem. 4. Ask for another volunteer to scribe. a. The first volunteer will list the mathematical steps in the solution; the second will write out the narrative of the steps in the solution. This should be done simultaneously, and the steps in each column should be numbered. The narrative is very important because students need to verbalize the steps in their own words. b. Encourage students whose skills are verbal to try their hand at the mathematical steps and vice-versa. Remember, the group will help them. c. Depending on the ability level of the group, identify, solve, or construct and solve a similar problem. Generally, weaker students should begin by identifying similar problems, but do not underestimate their ability to or how much they will benefit from constructing a problem. If they can get inside a problem enough to construct another one, it will help them understand problem-solving more thoroughly.

BOARDWORK MODEL (Examples)

This is the standard Boardwork Model. The model can be adapted to fit various problem-solving disciplines.

Prerequisites Include relevant equations, formulas, charts, and general rules for solving the type of problem. Include the source of this information (notes, text, previous course)

Mathematical Steps in the Solution

Narrative of Mathematical Steps

Solve the problem step-by-step. Number each step. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Describe what is happening in each step of the solution and why the group decided to do it. Use the students’ own words initially, but use this column to introduce students to the language of the discipline. 1. 2. 3. 4.

For example: % yield = actual theoretical

Similar Problem: Identify, Construct, Solve Check understanding by asking students to identify, construct, and solve similar problems. Provide the answer and the source of any problems used.

Below is an example of how the Boardwork Model may be used in a computer science programming course. Notice that the columns serve a slightly different purpose here than they do above. However modified, it is always important to include the narrative of the steps taken to solve the problem.

Prerequisites 1. While (condition) { 2. do something; 3. Increment; }

Narrative of Mathematical Steps 1. While is a word reserved for a loop. The condition determines when the loop will end; in other words, which condition will be checked for “true” every time the loop runs. 2. This step(s) will be repeated every time the loop runs. 3. The increment increments the variable used in a determined loop to avoid an infinite loop.

Rules

Similar Problem:

The condition must follow 1. While (x < 10) valid logic. { 2. cout <<”Hi”; 3. x++; }

USING VISUALS Definition: The best visual techniques do more than just condense notes; they help students understand the relationship between topics covered in various lectures and provide a â&#x20AC;&#x153;big picture.â&#x20AC;? Some of these techniques include mapping and picturing. Rationale: Some students learn well by creating visual study aids. This type of learner may actually picture the page of notes when answering essay questions on a test. Therefore, notes that are clear, concise and well organized are essential. There are a variety of ways to summarize notes in a few words. Students who simply memorize their notes as if they contained a series of several hundred unrelated facts may easily miss the point. Visual techniques help pull the ideas together. Examples: Mapping and picturing are used to draw a picture of the concept presented verbally in the lecture. The relationships between the topics are stressed in the map by the use of arrows. There are many types of mapping and picturing techniques. Two are shown below. These must be adjusted to the subject matter. The key idea is to visualize the information and to use as few words as possible.

Mapping $ Independence of Women

Picturing Positions of Theorists on Basic Assumptions Freedom Maslow, Rogers, Freud, Skinner

Divorce

Good_

Rogers, Maslow, Freud

Holistic___Jung, Rogers, Maslow, Freud_

Determinism Evil _Atomistic

Environment Skinner, Erickson, Freud, Jung_Heredity

High Expectations of Happiness

No Social Stigma

EXERCISE TO UNDERSTAND USING VISUALS Identify courses or disciplines in which these visual models may be useful. 1. 2.

d 4.

A a

d B

1 C

THINK ALOUD1 Definition: Think Aloud is an established research technique used to understand how people think and learn. It requires students to verbalize (usually to a partner) what they are thinking about as they read a passage or as they solve a problem. The vocalization should include all thoughts, decisions, analyses, and conclusions as the problem solver reads or solves a problem (Whimbey). This procedure is often called Paired-Problem Solving when the student is solving a problem. Rationale: Students gain insights into their thinking and reasoning by vocalizing their methods for solving problems and by justifying their reasoning. Whimbeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research suggests that students actually improve their reasoning abilities through repeated used of the think aloud procedure. Description: Students work in pairs, one as the thinker/problem solver and the other as the listener. The thinker must vocalize every step in the reasoning, including reading the problem aloud. The listener must listen and understand every step the thinker/problem-solver takes. The pair should work together rather than separately. The Thinker/Problem-Solver Should: Keep thinking out loud Predict what will come next Ask questions, such as: Why? What? How? Tell what the problem is asking for and what variables are present Visualize: draw, chart, sketch Check for accuracy Change roles every other problem The Listener Should: Require that the problem solver continually vocalize Listen to the predictions the problem solver makes Keep the thinker talking Point out any errors Check for accuracy Jot down notes Change roles every other problem Procedure: 1. Pair the students. Remind them of their roles. 2. Assign problems. 3. Get the pairs back together to discuss answers and observations on the problem solving process that the pairs observed. 4. Summarize any problem solving techniques unique to certain problems. 1 Whimbey, A., & Lochhead, J. (1999). Problem solving and comprehension. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.; Nessel, D. & Newbold, F. (2003). 180 Think-aloud math word problems. New York: Scholastic Professional Books; Richardson, J. S. (2000). Read it aloud! Using literature in the secondary content classroom. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. See also: Garner, R. (1988). Verbal-report data on cognitive and metacognitive strategies. In C. E. Weinstein, E. T. Goertz, & P. A. Alexander (Eds.). Learning and study strategies: Issues in assessment, instruction, and evaluation (pp. 63-76). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

THINK-PAIR-SHARE

Definition: The name Think-Pair-Share describes the three stages of this process. Students are given a question, concept, or problem and asked to think about it alone. Then they pair with a classmate and discuss the responses they found individually. Each pair then shares their individual and/or paired solutions with the large group. This part of the process is structured by the leader to combine similar responses and draw abstractions or generalizations about the types of approaches. Rationale: This technique helps the leader use Wait-Time (pp. 87-88) effectively and helps break the Dependency Cycle (pp. 22-23). It also structures the group in a way that helps avoid the question-answer interaction pattern. (Question from leader, answer from student, another question from leader and answer from student, and so on.) It models in-depth questioning, allowing students to consolidate information and think more in-depth about the concepts under discussion. Procedure: 1. Begin by telling the students that they should not blurt out an answer. 2. One person asks a question to the whole group. (May begin with the SI leaderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s asking the first question.) 3. Students listen to the question. 4. The leader asks that students think individually about the question. Students are not permitted to converse or volunteer to talk but are encouraged to write down or diagram their thoughts. 5. At a designated time, students form pairs and exchange ideas. 6. Pairs share with the whole group. (Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave out this step, or the session will become individual peer tutoring.) Exercise: Use the questions below to practice the Think-Pair-Share technique: Why is step #4 above important? What is the best movie you have seen this year?

POST EXAM SURVEY

Definition and Rationale: The post exam survey is a self-test for students to assess how successfully they studied for an exam in a specific course. This survey originally was given by a professor in a humanities class before the exam was returned to the students. The survey also can be used in an SI session after an exam to target areas on which students need to improve or in an SI Leader Training Workshop to stimulate a discussion comparing and contrasting discipline-specific learning strategies. Procedure: To use in an SI session: 1. The SI leader tailors the example survey by thinking through all items necessary to obtain a perfect score on the exam the students just completed. 2. The leader reads each item orally to the students in the SI session and has them score their performance. 3. The students add up their scores and discuss how close their survey score was to their exam score and why there were differences. 4. The SI leader may want to share these categories with the professor. To use in an SI Leader Training Workshop: 1. SI leaders read through the sample Post Exam Survey (p. 58). 2. Each SI leader writes down the categories she/he believes are necessary to score 100% on an exam in the specific course section. 3. Leaders weight each category in terms of importance so that they add up to 100 points. 4. The leaders get into discipline groups. 5. Individuals share the categories with the group. 6. Each disciplinary group shares the categories with the whole group. Compare and discuss the differences by discipline.

POST EXAM SURVEY (Sample)

Score Yourself in Terms of Preparation for the Exam

Did

Did Not

I read the material when assigned.

I read the regular textbook and understood this material adequately.

I read the supplemental textbook and had a good understanding of it.

I reviewed the readings carefully before the exam.

I have good, complete notes, and when I review them, I can understand them.

I studied my notes thoroughly before the exam (until I knew them well enough that I could have told someone what was in them). Just reading through them is not a good score.

I attended lecture regularly. (missed 2 to 3 times = 0)

I attended SI sessions. (1 or 2 times = 1; regularly = 8)

Score

Add up your score.

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: I observed a humanities class in which the professor read these questions to the class before he handed back the exam. He had them score themselves. Then he told them that the score they gave themselves should be the score they received on the examâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;big sighs! He handed back the exams and asked them to raise their hands if their survey score was more than five points higher than the exam score; surprisingly, only a handful raised their hands. So, it appeared that they had answered honestly on the survey. If their score on the exam was lower than five points from their survey score, he asked them to come see him so they could talk about study strategies.

NOTE REVIEW Definition: Often students do not realize that they would ever want to add to the notes they take during class; they see them as static artifacts from lecture. Note Review is a method of getting students to work together to review and augment their lecture notes in an organized way. In small groups, each student takes a turn reading from his/her notes. While they are reading, the rest of the group members should be encouraged to interject with details the speaker may have missed or questions about the topic. When they are not adding to the review, they should be filling in any gaps in their notes with the information being read aloud. Rationale: Complete lecture notes are part of the intellectual capital of the course, and an oral reading of lecture notes in a group setting is a great way to break the ice. Students will become comfortable with each other as they review the information the instructor provided. Their completed notes will become a solid foundation on which to build new information. Students will be more likely to participate in the rest of the session you have planned if they have complete notes to refer to as a sort of crutch. Procedure: 1. Tell the group that you will begin reading from your lecture notes and will ask the student on your right or left to pick up where you stop. Let them know that the role of reader will move to each student in the circle. 2. Look at the students and encourage them to let everyone know if something is left out or inconsistent with what they have recorded. To note inconsistency does not mean that someone is necessarily right or wrong; moreover, members of the SI group will discover how to remedy the problem through the following resources: Ask the student who disagrees to read from his or her notes. Ask the group if their notes compare. Check in the textbook for support; add the page reference to the notes. If a consensus is not reached, work with the students to formulate specific questions to ask the instructor in the next class. 3. Since reading aloud is a form of performance, some students may be reluctant. Gently encourage the student, but if he or she is not comfortable, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t push. Perhaps note taking skills and confidence will improve as the term progresses and the usefulness of good notes becomes apparent. 4. If you approach the end of the time allotted and material has not been discussed, suggest to members of the group that they should finish reading through their notes on their own. If they have questions or blanks in their notes, tell them to work with another student to find the answers or to bring these questions to the next SI session. If time does not permit the discussion of major concepts or vocabulary, draw attention to them.

NOTE REVIEW

Uses in SI Sessions: First Session of the Semester Students donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always take good notes. By focusing on notes from the beginning of the semester, you are modeling for them how important lecture notes are for this particular course. Once the students have completed the exercise, pass out copies of your notes from the lecture. Generally we discourage leaders from giving their notes to students because it does not help the students to receive information, (they need to process it, remember) but in this case it will help them understand how they should take notes for this class. Talk about how you structured your notes and give them recommendations for taking notes next lecture. For example, the Cornell Note-Taking System1 is a good way to leave room for elaboration in the left-hand margin while keeping pace with lecture. Opening a Session Generally, note review only takes 10-15 minutes during a session. This makes it a great way to begin a session. Because you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want your sessions to become monotonous, use Note Review when you are planning to ask the students to do a relatively different or unfamiliar exercise later in the session. This will provide them with a comfort level by participating in a familiar activity, and they will have a complete source of information to consult as they proceed. Highlighting Difficult Vocabulary: students may not recognize when they are expected to memorize, understand, and use new vocabulary. Often this is vocabulary specific to the discipline. Using a Note Review on a lecture where this vocabulary is introduced will stress the importance of learning and using the new words.

Pauk, W. (2001). How to study in college. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

USE OF ANALOGIES1 Definition: An analogy is a process of identifying similarities between different concepts. In everyday conversation, speakers use analogies frequently, “It’s just like. . . .” or “It’s the same as. . . .” Rationale: According to the English physicist N. R. Campbell, “Analogies are not ‘aids’ to the establishment of theories; they are an utterly essential part of theories” (as cited in Glynn, 1991, p. 220). Glynn also quotes Robert Oppenheimer as saying: “Analogy is an indispensable and inevitable tool for scientific progress. . . .Whether or not we talk of discovery or of invention, analogy is inevitable in human thought, because we come to new things in science with what equipment we have, which is how we have learned to think, and above all how we have learned to think about the relatedness of things” (p. 220). So, it is not surprising that scientific text are filled with analogies because they tie new abstract concepts to more familiar, concrete concepts. Procedure: Using the term analog for the familiar term and the term target for the new term, Glynn presents the following abstract representation of an analogy: SUPERORDINATE CONCEPT, PRINCIPLE, OR FORMULA

Target

Analog

compared with

Feature 1. 2. 3. 4.

compared with

Feature 1. 2 3. 4.

1 Glynn, S. M. (1991). Explaining science concepts: A teaching-with-analogies model. In S. M. Glynn, R. H. Yeany, & B. K. Britton (Eds.), The psychology of learning science (pp. 219-240). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. See also: Ryan, J. (1989). Study skills for the sciences: A bridge over troubled waters. Journal of College Science Teaching, 18(6), 373-377. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

INFORMAL QUIZ Definition: If a quiz is an informal exam, then an Informal Quiz is self-explanatory, right? Actually, there is a very specific procedure involved in this strategy. An Informal Quiz is a way to take advantage of the serious regard students have for quizzes to create a basis for discussion. The quiz itself is taken with no talking or sharing, but looking at notes and text is allowed. Students jot down brief answers to questions read aloud by the SI leader. Once the “quiz” is complete, debriefing begins. During debrief, the leader facilitates a discussion that expands upon each of the short, written answers. Rationale: Students often express frustration during lecture when an instructor poses a question to the class but does not allow them enough time to formulate an answer before providing the answer. They need time to think it through themselves, or they don’t feel they really know the material. The Informal Quiz allows students this time alone before sharing with the group. The Informal Quiz increases participation in SI sessions because when students already have an answer or possible answer written down, they are more likely to volunteer during discussion. The informality of the quiz (open-note, open-book, written on scratch paper, not turned in or scored) also encourages students to participate. The goals may appear to be excessive for what is feasible within an SI session; however, these goals can be accomplished in a small way each time the procedure is used. The Informal Quiz frequently is used at the beginning of the session. The whole procedure may take no more than 10 to 15 minutes. However, the discussion generated by one or more questions may become the focus of the SI session. Procedure: The Quiz 1. Give the students the following instructions: 2. Get out a piece of scrap paper or provide half sheets. (This makes it more informal.) 3. Ask them to write the question if they don’t know the answer. (This will prevent students from seeing who knows the answer and who doesn’t by watching who is not writing.) 4. Tell them that while referring to notes and text is permitted, they should try to answer first without looking. (This will promote self-testing.) 5. Ask a majority of questions requiring short multiple answers; e.g., “Name one of the three ways to . . .” or true/false questions. (False statements stimulate more discussion.) 6. Focus on current material but include at least two concepts. 7. Most questions should not be difficult, but should emphasize recall of key points or of minor points related to key points. One, or perhaps two, questions should require use of higher order thinking skills. For example: “Give one reason why capitalism is not intrinsically more valuable than socialism, as an economic theory.” 8. Questions on familiar material can be varied, e.g., the following: “The answer is ________________; what is the question?” “I can’t think of any more. Does anyone have a question I might have asked?”

INFORMAL QUIZ

The Debrief: 1. In answering questions, ask who would like to answer a question--any question. Starting with any question instead of the first question contributes to the informality of the quiz and allows a student who only answered a few questions accurately to participate immediately. 2. Call on the weaker students first, whenever they have raised a hand. This, along with #7 above, allows weaker students to participate equally with better students. It will also help foster a cooperative rather than competitive spirit. 3. Restate the question before the answer is given. 4. If possible, find something complimentary to say about wrong answers. “That’s a very good guess. If I weren’t sure, I might have guessed that.” Don’t let wrong answers stand. 5. Keep it light and short. We recommend that you ask a maximum of ten questions.

INFORMAL QUIZ IN THE DISCIPLINES (Examples)

The following examples illustrate the flexibility of the Informal Quiz strategy. Notice how well it can work for the hard sciences as well as the humanities. Chemistry II: Thermodynamics and Gibb’s Free Energy1 1. It is the total energy of a system calculated from the sum of the entropy and the enthalpy at a reference temperature. What is the question? 2. Gibbs Free Energy predicts the ____________of a reaction. 3. T/F. When G is greater than zero, the reaction is in equilibrium. 4. T/F. G = H + T S. 5. All systems want to go towards ____________free energy. American History I: Before 18772 1. 2. 3. 4.

Name one act of legislation that led to the partitioning of America. In what document did Jefferson indict the evils of the slave trade? Was Congress under Northern or Southern control when it banned the oceanic slave trade? After oceanic slave trade was banned, the phrase “ __________________ ” was used to describe the domestic shipment of slaves from the upper South to the deep South. 5. T/F: the Northwest ordinance divided Pennsylvania and Virginia, among other states. 6. What is one other question I could have asked over this lecture? Physics I: Physics for Science and Engineering 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

List one property of vectors. T/F. The magnitude of a vector is defined by its direction. Name one example of a unit vector. The answer is a difference between a vector and a vector quantity. What is the question? Velocity is an example of a vector__________. Draw a vector with a magnitude of 1 and in the direction of the Y-axis. Write a possible test question Professor Smith could ask.

1 This

example is taken from the videotape of a live, unscripted SI session entitled, SI Demonstration Session: Chemistry II with Jessica Shoop. It is available for purchase from the Center for Academic Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Visit www.umkc.edu/cad/si for more information. 2 This

example corresponds with the videotape entitled, Simulated SI Lecture on History, a lecture by Louis Potts, also available for purchase.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Definition: This learning strategy really is a special case of the Jigsaw Strategy (see p. 43). As the name suggests, this strategy conquers a difficult reading by dividing it up among the members of the session to facilitate understanding of the whole by each member. Rationale: According to Vygotsky (see Theoretical Frameworks, pp. 16-17), individuals can learn to do in collaboration today what they will be able to do independently tomorrow. That means that a difficult reading can be understood by the group more easily than by the individual alone. Procedure: 1. Select a reading. (or use a portion of the readings from the course.) 2. Divide it up into meaningful units. Number the units. (Estimate how many students will be in the session. If more arrive, have more than one student read the same section. If fewer arrive, have each read more than one section.) 3. Assign the readings. Ask each student to summarize the main portion of the section in one or two sentences. 4. After all have read the assigned section, go around and have each member summarize the assigned section. The SI leader should be prepared to emphasize the portion of the section the student missed or misunderstood. Students often take more time than they are allotted to present their â&#x20AC;&#x153;briefâ&#x20AC;? summary. If you anticipate this problem, it may be helpful to model an effective summary before you begin. Obviously, the people who have sections near the end of the article will have more trouble with the reading because they do not have the prior knowledge provided by the beginning portions of the reading, but by the time it is their turn to summarize, they will be able to do so without problems. 5. When all have read, discuss the overall article. What is the impact or importance of the material? How does it relate to the lecture or other readings? Uses: This strategy can be used if students come to the session without having read course material that is crucial for understanding the lectures or the problems or the learning activity the leader has prepared. It allows the group to proceed with learning in spite of not arriving prepared and prevents the leader from falling into re-lecturing or teaching the material. The strategy also can be used to present material that may be more difficult than most in the group would want to tackle on their own.

WRITING IN THE SI SESSION Introduction: Increasingly, teachers of writing are requiring students to collaborate on all stages of their writing assignments. This practice accomplishes several pedagogical goals: making student-authored texts the focus in the classroom shows students that their writing is valued, increases their confidence, and encourages participation; novice writers begin to use the professional writing practice of working in peer response groups; students become more aware of their audience; and any writer-based portions of their writing are addressed. Although Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) celebrates the many discipline-specific types of writing, most students are unaware of the variety of writing consumed and produced in institutions of higher education and the professional world. Beginning composition courses are usually provided by English departments and focus on writing formal essays. Students sometimes think that this is the only type of writing they will need to master for courses in the humanities or sciences that require them to write an essay, term paper, or research paper. They must also learn, however, the conventions of writing a poster or PowerPoint presentation, a lab report, or a book review. Most instructors expect students to know how to write already. This expectation assumes that writing is transparent and generic. In fact, the writing required in a particular discipline needs to be taught because not all writing is transferable across disciplines. Some students will need to be refreshed on the process of writing; others will not be familiar with it at all. The first difficulty for many students is that they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know where to begin. That is usually where they remain until the night before the paper is due. Part of your job as an SI leader modeling good student behavior is to help them set a timeline for completion of the tasks. What are the parts of the process of writing a paper? When is the final draft due? Based on the deadline, what needs to be done when? Each of the strategies below follows the natural progression of writing a paper. Understand the Assignment 1. Is the task already broken into component parts? If not, work with the students to break it down in a logical way. What is the purpose of each part? 2. What conventions of language and style are required for this discipline? (e.g. MLA, APA) 3. What is the assignment? What does the instructor expect us to gain from completing this task? 4. How formal should this writing be? Does the instructor penalize students for using contractions, first person, or for making grammatical or punctuation mistakes? 5. What is the scope of acceptable subject matter or research questions? 6. What is the length requirement? 7. Is there a requirement for types of sources, number of sources?

WRITING IN THE SI SESSION Dissect a Sample Paper 1. Try to get one or more sample papers from the instructor. If s/he does not provide one, ask if you can use the paper you wrote for the course. Discuss the questions below with the instructor. 2. Make plenty of copies for your students, and advertise that you will be dissecting a sample paper in the session. Break the students into groups of three to five and ask them to discuss the first three questions below in their groups. 3. Bring the large group together and debrief. Extract some main points that will help them as they think about their own papers. Questions to Ask About Sample Papers What grade did this paper receive? (Don’t always assume it is an “A” paper.) Find out what the instructor values most about this paper. Is it the particular topic, the narrowness of the topic, original thought, careful research, lack of grammatical errors? Look at the Works Cited/Bibliography/References—can anyone use these sources? Suggest that students refer to this paper as they write. It may provide helpful models of forming a purpose statement, suitable introductions and conclusions, transitions, etc. (Warn them about the risks of plagiarism.) Pre-Writing Brainstorming 1. Ask the students to bring any informal writing assignments they have done in class and any assigned texts to the session. 2. Organize the session into groups. 3. Ask students to trade materials and go through each other’s writings/readings to recommend topics to a classmate. 4. Bring the large group back together and ask the students to share the topics that were recommended to them. Do they think they will use the topics? Source Treasure Hunt 1. Gather student topics in a previous session or ask for submissions during class. (if the topic is assigned, this step is eliminated.) 2. Design a “treasure hunt” for the students to complete. This should help familiarize them with the research resources provided by the library. Be sure to focus on resources they will need. Consider offering a prize for the first one completed. 3. Meet at the library and send them on their way. Remain at a central location for the length of the session so they can check with you if they have questions. Encourage them to approach the reference librarians.

WRITING IN THE SI SESSION Peer Organization 1. Ask the students to bring their research notes to the session, before they have written a draft. 2. Have them exchange their materials with a partner. 3. Each student should organize the material for his/her partner. How does s/he think it makes the most sense? Have him/her explain it to his/her partner. Some students may provide more helpful feedback if they are allowed to do so anonymously, so consider that when structuring this activity. Extracting an Outline 1. Ask students to bring a draft of their paper to the session. 2. Have each student trade his/her draft with a partner. 3. Each student should extract an outline from his/her partner’s draft. This does not have to be a formal outline. Don’t worry about correct outline formatting and using complete sentences—this is just a guide for evaluating the effectiveness of the essay’s organization. Make sure the students know that they do not need to make sense of the outline but simply record the main idea and support from each paragraph as it is presented in the draft. 4. Ask them to make suggestions to the author regarding the organization. 5. This should help students see the difference between writer-based and reader-based essays. Discuss the differences in the large group. Practice with Prose 1. Ask a student to volunteer a portion of his/her notes/note cards/outline. 2. Project it to the group with an overhead or document camera. 3. Ask each student to write that information into a paragraph form. (be sure to allow them plenty of time, especially the slow writers.) 4. Ask for volunteers to read/project what they have written. 5. As a group, discuss the differences in the paragraphs. What do they think is better or worse? This should begin a dialogue about academic versus other discourses and what is appropriate in your particular class. Remember, some professors are more particular about the formality of language used in an essay. Many students assume, however, that unless the professor explicitly requests a “formal” paper, any language is acceptable. Revision Exercise Activity 1. 2. 3. 4.

Have each student choose a paragraph of his/her paper with which s/he would like help. Exchange or distribute anonymously the paragraph to another student. Ask each student to rewrite the paragraph for his/her classmate. Return and discuss the differences: Did it help? Make sure the students know it is okay to use the rewritten paragraph in their paper. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

WRITING IN THE SI SESSION Polishing/Editing the Essay Activity 1. Schedule a session the day before the paper is due. Ask students to bring the FINAL DRAFT of their papers. 2. Put students in groups of two or three and have them take turns reading each other’s or their own papers out loud. They will notice typographical and grammatical errors. 3. Bring crayons or markers to the session. Ask each student to go through his/her draft and mark all first person pronouns one color, all second person pronouns another color, and all third person pronouns another color. Work with the students as a large group (or in small groups first) to discuss what it means if all three colors are present on each page. Everyone should be able to “read” the color-coding on the draft from across the room. This process can also be used for verb tense, sentence variety, etc 4. Remind your students to spell check (they still forget)!

MATRICES Rationale and Description: A matrix is a chart with columns and rows used to compare or contrast two or more subjects. It is an excellent way to organize information in order to learn large quantities at a time because it allows students to differentiate groups, characteristics, and features, as well as tie together items that may at first seem unrelated. Matrices are most helpful when students must relate several subjects and their various characteristics. Experts have developed organizational structures they use to store vast quantities of information into meaningful units, thus allowing them to learn and remember more information than beginners can. According to de Jong and Ferguson-Hessler1 a hierarchic knowledge structure is highly suited for retention of knowledge, for quick and efficient search purposes, and for fitting new elements of knowledge into the existing knowledge structures (108). The type of structure that contains abstract and general concepts at a higher level is typical of experts in a field. To Create Matrices2: 1. Usually, the subjects (groups) go in the columns ( ) and the categories (features, characteristics) go in the rows ( ). Group A Feature A Feature B Group B Group C 2. Identify the subjects (groups) to be compared or contrasted. Write one subject on each row. 3. Identify the categories (features, characteristics) of information to be discussed. Write one category at the top of each column. 4. Complete the matrix by writing key words in each box where columns and rows intersect. 5. Be sure to title the matrix. (Sometimes students know the material of the matrix but forget the source or author of the theory embodied in the matrix and if the professor asks a question such as: â&#x20AC;&#x153;According to Piaget. . .â&#x20AC;? students may fail to retrieve all the information they have on the topic.) Identify Subjects and Label Rows Since matrices are designed to compare or contrast information for two or more subjects, begin by identifying the number of subjects. Sometimes the subjects are grouped together in the information you have read. Other times, you may need to think through the information you have read to identify subjects for comparison or contrast. Once you have identified the number of subjects, you can begin to make the rows. If you have two subjects, you will need two rows. Write the name of one subject on each row. 1 For theoretical background, see: de Jong, T., & Ferguson-Hessler, M. G. M. (1996). Types and qualities of knowledge. Educational Psychologist, 31(2), 105-113. 2 Adapted from Wong, L. (Ed.). Essential study skills. (pp. 248-250). New York: Houghton.

MATRICES

Identify Categories and Label Columns: Identifying categories requires you to think carefully about the information you have read. What categories of information were discussed for all or most of the subjects? The number of categories you select determines the number of columns in your matrix. Label the top of each column. If you have difficulties finding appropriate labels for the columns, try using this approach to help you organize important information for the matrix: 1. 2. 3. 4.

List each of the subjects across the top of a piece of paper. Under each subject, list important details associated with that subject. Look at the list of details. Can the details be grouped into larger categories? If you see a logical category of information under one subject, is that same kind of information also given for the other subjects? If so, you have discovered an appropriate title for a category.

Using Matrices in the SI Session: 1. The SI leader should have a good idea what the matrix should look like in its completed form, including the title, headings and categories, but should not come into the session and give it to the students completed. The value of the matrix is in the processing of the information to form the matrix. 2. At times, the students in the sessions will come up with better headings or characteristics to be compared than the SI leader does. Rejoice in their ideas rather than snubbing them! 3. The hardest part for the SI leader will be to get students to come up with the information that goes in the headings of the rows and the columns. An initial question to get it started could be: “What groups/differentiations are there for this topic?” Then: “What features or characteristics could we list that would compare the groups?” 4. Don’t forget the title—this is the memory peg on which the whole matrix is hung. 4. At the beginning of the semester, the leader may want to help by offering one or more headings to get things started. Or, the leader may draw a blank chart without the headings to indicate how many categories will be compared. Later in the semester, a simple clue such as, “Can we organize this information in a chart/matrix?” should suffice. 5. For some disciplines, an incomplete matrix (one in which random subject/feature cells are filled in) may be helpful for organizing types of problems, organizing raw data, or reviewing for tests. 6. The matrix does not need to be filled in completely during the session in order to be of value in learning the information. The leader may offer to look over completed matrices at the next session if students want that help.

CONCEPT MAPPING

Definition: A concept map is a special form of a web diagram (think spider webs, not the Internet) for exploring knowledge, brainstorming ideas, and organizing large amounts of material. Concept maps present concepts relationally, as organized networks of related information, often representing spatial relationships of the material as well.1 The process of making such a map is concept mapping. Rationale: According to Glynn, Yeany, and Britton,2 “Students need to actively organize, elaborate, and interpret knowledge, not just repeat it and memorize it” (p. 3). Reorganizing linear material into a spatial form leads to deeper processing of the material3 by aiding the learner in understanding interrelationships among the important concepts.4 This approach gives students the opportunity to reach higher levels of understanding with peers that would be beyond themselves alone (Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development”5). The good news is that students can be taught how to construct graphic organizers or concept maps that involve the learner at a higher level of cognitive processing and produce more elaborate learning. Procedure: 1. Put students into small groups or pairs. 2. Have them identify the central word, concept, or question around which to build the map. 3. List the concepts, items, or questions that are associated with the central word or concept. 4. Work from the general to the specific. 5. Write in the linking words on the lines connecting the nodes. 6. Make sure students understand how all of the concepts are related. Have them tell you how they are related. Use arrows to join ideas from different branches. 7. If a group of branches are related, draw a circle around them. 8. You may want to write a few sentences in the map itself to explain, question, or comment on some aspect of the map. 9. You may want to begin with a list of words and have the students put them into a map. 10. You also can make slips of paper with the words that link the concepts and have the students put them in the right order.

1 deJong,

T. & Ferguson-Hessler, M. G. M. (1996). Types and qualities of knowledge. Educational psychologist, 31(2), 105-113.

2 Glynn,

S. M., Yeany, R. H., & Britton, B. K. (1991). A constructive view of learning science. In S. M. Glynn, R. H. Yeany & B. K. Britton (Eds.), The psychology of learning (pp. 3-19). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

3 Spiegel,

G. F. & Barufaldi, J. P. (1994). The effects of a combination of text structure awareness and graphic postorganizers on recall and retention of science knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31, 913-932. 4 Goldsmith,

T. E., Johnson, P. J., & Acton, W. H. (1991). Assessing structural knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 88-96; Palincsar, A. S. (1986). The role of dialogue in providing scaffolded instruction. Educational Psychologist, 21(1 & 2), 73-98. 5 Vygotsky,

L. S. (1978). In M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman (Eds.), Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

CONCEPT MAPPING Uses:

Summarize a lecture Review for an exam Learn a process Brainstorm for a paper Clarify information Design a complex structure Aid learning by integrating new and old knowledge Assess understanding or diagnose misunderstanding

Example of a Concept Map Using a List of Links:6 Coleman provides a useful concept map in which students are given an unfinished map and the words needed to link all the concepts. They fill in the linking words. Chlorophyll

Water

Sunlight

Carbon Dioxide

Energy

Glucose Other Parts of Plant Energy-Containing Food

List of Links: Use To become (becomes) To make (makes) Transport(s) Carry (carries) Release Is a form of To form Is made up of Has, has a Have

Causes Is Contain(s) Store(s) To Is absorbed Absorbs Are Are found in (are from) Need Travels

Produce Goes to Combines Are a part of Are a type of Collect Creates Goes through Holds

Coleman, E. B. (1998). Using explanatory knowledge during collaborative problem solving in science. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7, 387-427. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

CONCEPT MAPPING1 Here is an example of a concept map about the Roman Government. Romans are important for government started as Monarch had seven kings were

had statesman

through Julius Caesar

had extensive laws

Etruscan

was

Empire

Republic

extensive

started by

conquered

Augustus

changed

marked by

brought about

calendar

emperor worship

tribes

Pax Augustus

Here is an example of a concept map about marketing. marketing is the production function

appeal of adding availability

product values

service values or

new use

convenience

of adding

creation of utility

such as

desire

added to raw material

for which one makes

a profit

for differentiation 1

Novak, J. D. & Gowin, D. B. (1984). Learning how to learn (pp. 84, 170). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

RECIPROCAL QUESTIONING1 Definition: Reciprocal Questioning is an alternating question-and-answer process that aids students in a deeper understanding of content. (an assigned reading or specific material for an exam review.) The leader allows the students to ask questions of him/her first, and then the leader asks questions of the students. Rationale: This procedure improves students’ questioning and reasoning strategies as well as their reading comprehension. It emphasizes modeling of thinking as it pertains to questioning and answering skills and gives students the opportunity to practice these skills in an environment where they will not be graded.2 Because the group discusses what they asked and how it was asked, the strategy also creates metacognition within the learning environment. (An example of metacognitive questioning is “Did we ask the best questions for this content?”) As students learn together through their questions, they also are socially constructing knowledge or changing prior knowledge to include the new ideas generated. Procedure: Prepare the Strategy: 1. Select a brief but important section of the textbook or reading. (4-5 paragraphs.) 2. Prepare ten to twelve varied questions over the material (factual, inference, application, or evaluation). Include at least one question that requires the students to make a prediction based on the material. (e.g. Where is the author going with this topic?) Implement the Strategy: 1. Introduce the strategy saying, “Here is a strategy that I think will help you improve your understanding of the material. Read this selection to understand it 100%. After you have read it, I will turn over my paper and you may ask me as many questions as you can think of. After you have asked all your questions, you will turn over your papers and I’ll ask you questions.” 2. When students ask a question that extends beyond the text, model your thinking for the students. If you do not know an answer, it is okay to tell them you do not, but then model how you would think about it and where you would go to find out about it. 3. When students have finished asking their questions, begin by asking questions for which there are direct references in the text. If, for example, no one asked the meaning of a specific word, ask to make sure everyone understands its meaning. Then move on to more sophisticated questions. 4. When you answer a higher order question, it is appropriate to ask the student or the group for input. [See Types of Questions on pp. 29-32 for more on higher-order questions.] For instance, you may say, “Is that what you had in mind?” or “Did someone think of a different response?”

Manzo, A. V. (1969). The request procedure. Journal of Reading, 13, 123-126; Manzo, A. V. (1985). Expansion modules for the ReQuest, CAT, GRP, REAP reading strategy study procedures. Journal of Reading, 28, 498-503. 2

Martin, D. C. & Blanc, R. (1984). Improving reading comprehension though reciprocal questioning. Techniques, 7, 29-31; Palincsar, A. S. & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1, 117-173. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

RECIPROCAL QUESTIONING

Implementing the Strategy, Continued: 1. Make sure that students state their questions clearly. Help them frame the questions, if necessary, but do not answer questions that are poorly articulated even if you can figure them out. Rather, help to formulate better questions through modeling and by asking them to rephrase a poorly stated question. 2. If there are enough students attending, select one to be the observer. The observer writes down the questions asked or the types of questions asked. While debriefing the strategy, the observer reports what questions were asked by whom. As the semester progresses, students should see a shift in the types of questions asked. (More metacognitive, less factual.) Debrief the Strategy: 1. After the material has been reviewed thoroughly by the alternating questions of the leader and the group members, the leader should lead a discussion about what kinds of questions were asked. Or, the student assigned at the beginning to be an observer acts as the leader of the debriefing by reporting his/her findings. 2. By the middle of the semester, the group should be able to observe that different kinds of questions are being asked by the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;more of the higher-order questions. Uses: 1. To introduce a topic. 2. To review before an exam. In this case, you may eliminate the reading, but you still will alternate asking

possible test questions. In this context, the strategy helps organize the time so that both students and the leader are asking questions. One way to ensure a fair distribution of time is to set a timer. When it rings, reverse who is asking the questions.

ONE-MINUTE PAPER1 Definition: A One-Minute Paper is just that: writing for one minute on a question or topic given by the SI leader. It is not graded and is not meant to be a polished piece of writing. Rationale: Brief writings like the One-Minute Paper give feedback to the leader about how well the students understand a topic. They also help students realize what they know or do not know through writing about it. The process of writing helps stimulate thinking processes, sharpen prior thinking, and focus thinking. When to Use: At the beginning or during the session to stimulate discussion. The writing helps students formulate responses in private, so they are more confident to express an opinion to the group. During the session to assess how well students are learning. At the end of the session to see how well students understand and to direct planning for the next session. During a discussion to re-direct it if it seems to be taking off in several directions.2 (See #3 and #5 below for examples of this use.) Process: 1. Decide whether this is a one-, two-, three-minute paper, etc. 2. Ask the students to take out a sheet of scratch paper and write on a topic you present orally or on the board. 3. Use the format of your question to guide the type of response they will provide. For example, if you want them to create a list, use a question like #6 in â&#x20AC;&#x153;Possible Questions for a One-Minute Paperâ&#x20AC;? (next page). If you want them to write prose, use a question like #1 or #3 on the next page. 4. Remind them that this is not a polished piece of writing. The important part is that they get their thoughts on paper in their own words, so they will be more likely to participate later in the session. 5. Be sure to wait the one, two, or three minutes you promised to. (watch the clock because one minute spent in silence with a group may seem like five minutes.) 6. Share the responses with the group. If used as an opening or re-directing activity, ask for volunteers to read their writings aloud. Encourage a conversation about the similarities and differences between their ideas. If used as a closure activity, you may want to have some students read their writings to the group, but you can also collect them and go over them after the session.

Cross, K. P., & Angelo, T. P. (1988). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for faculty. Ann Arbor, MI: National Center for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning. 2 Keifer, K. (2004). An introduction to WAC: Focusing the discussion. Retrieved June 10, 2004, from Colorado State University Writing Across the Curriculum website: http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop5g.cfm 1

ONE-MINUTE PAPER

Possible Questions for a One-Minute Paper: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What was the most important thing you learned today? What questions remain? Give a one-sentence summary: Who did what to whom? For whom, when, where, how and why? Come up with an application in an everyday setting for the concept weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve just been discussing. Relate this issue to a current event in national or international news. Write either what you saw as the main threads of the discussion or where the discussion may most profitably go.

Exercise: Write one additional question that would be good to use as a one-minute writing exercise in your SI sessions.

INCOMPLETE OUTLINE

Definition: One of the ways you can be most helpful to the students in your SI class is to show them ways to organize the high volume of information they receive during lecture. An Incomplete Outline allows you to give the students a gentle push in the right direction while leaving the majority of the processing to them. Most of us are familiar with outlines from writing papers in high school, but outlines can be used to structure any information that is hierarchical. Rationale: Students new to college may not always recognize the inherent organization of a topic. They often come from high schools where information was organized in the only acceptable form before it was even presented to them. College-level instructors expect students to be able to structure information on their own and in more ways than it was presented to them. For example, a history instructor may lecture students about the Protestant Reformation by describing the formation of each of the different Protestant sects. However, on an exam, s/he may ask a question about the chronological order of events surrounding the Reformation. While s/he provided that information in lecture, it may not occur to the students to organize it that way. This is where you come in. Procedure: 1. Get the students together into groups of three to five. 2. Point out that the main points about a particular issue might not be clear from a specific lecture (or series of lectures). 3. Present to each group one copy of an outline with some of the parts missing. For example: Aspects of Medieval Life I. _____________________________ II. ____________________________ III. ___________________________ 4. Tell the students to work together to complete the outline (since you gave each group only one copy, the chances are higher that they will work with each other, not alone!). Note: This activity is an excellent way to gradually promote group independence. At the beginning of the term, provide outlines that are more complete with some of the items filled in and all of the numbers and letters filled in. As the term progresses make the outlines more and more incomplete, putting in fewer and fewer entries, then eliminating the notation. By the end of the term, students should be able to complete their own outlines without assistance. By progressing this way, you are helping to create independent learners.

QUESTION GROUP PROTOCOLS: MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMS1 Definition: Multiple-choice exams are a staple in both high school and college. The possible answers prove more difficult to choose between when most of them are similar or seem likely. Exams may be designed in this way in order to force students to learn the concepts fully, and this does make it more difficult for students who do not know enough about the wrong options to know that they are wrong. This strategy asks students to work carefully through the foils, or possible answers, in a multiple-choice question. Rationale: In order to prevent uneducated guessing on multiple-choice questions, this process models a protocol for reading the question and answers. It results in a thorough understanding of all material alluded to in both the question and the suggested answers. The process may take a considerable amount of time because the students work together to discuss all material thoroughly, so consider this when planning to use it in a session. Procedure: 1. Select what questions to cover. These can be from an exam just taken (a post-exam analysis), a practice exam (preparing for an upcoming exam), or questions written by the leader or students. 2. Cover up the answers (foils) so they cannot be seen. Ask a student to choose a question to read aloud to the group. 3. Ask all students to re-phrase the question, using notations or drawings. This can be done by asking the students to work alone and write down the phrasing, in pairs, or in groups. 4. A student re-states question as it was originally written to help identify exactly what is being asked. 5. Check for group agreement. 6. Ask everybody to write down prediction(s) for answer. 7. Discuss predictions. (Use drawings, notations.) 8. Everybody looks at foilsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Select 1st and 2nd choice. 9. Record on scratch paper or worksheet along with +/- (for confidence level, lst choice). 10. Group discusses all foils. 11. SI leader may give correct answer, if necessary. 12. Students identify and record reason for error in prediction (non-content). 13. Share reasons among group. Examples: Misread question Misread foils Made wrong choice between two because ___________ Didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t trust my judgment No notations to help focus 14. Volunteer looks up answers or items that are unclear. 1

Copyright by Institute for Professional Preparation. The University of Missouri-Kansas City. May 2002. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

Conducting Sessions Introduction Opening and Closing Sessions Student-to-Student Interactions Redirecting Questions Wait Time Checking for Understanding Planning Flexibility General Tips Case Studies Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

INTRODUCTION: CONDUCTING SESSIONS

Once you have planned your session by deciding what is the most difficult material, why it is difficult, and matching that material with a learning strategy, the next step is successfully conducting the session. Facilitating a good SI session is much easier with a good plan, but there are important techniques aside from your plan to remember as you facilitate the session. Sessions are generally structured as follows: 1. Introductions (first session of the semester) 2. Addressing Student Needs/Allowing Student Input to Agenda (what would the students like to address before they leave the session? Remember, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t address these needs yet.) 3. Setting Agenda (tell the students what you have planned for them) 4. Strategies (facilitate the one or two activities you planned for the session) 5. Closure (how can the group summarize what they have learned this session?) The proven learning strategies that we encourage you to use (and provide for you in this manual) foster the interaction patterns that have been demonstrated by research to result in a gaining of understanding for students. Therefore, once you have planned using these strategies, your job during the session is to facilitate effective interaction patterns. In order to do so, there are three techniques that you should keep in mind and practice throughout each session: Redirecting Questions (whenever possible, ask students to answer questions directed at you) Wait-Time (the longer you wait within reason, the more and more elaborate student responses you will receive) Checking for Understanding (how can you be sure the students are gaining understanding? Check!) In this section, you will find in-depth descriptions, explanations, and practical applications for the techniques that successful SI leaders employ in their sessions.

OPENING AND CLOSING SESSIONS Definition and Rationale: Because SI sessions are meant to be informal, the leader must clearly communicate to the students when the session is starting. The students will need to begin with an activity that eases them into an academic mindset. In addition, when the time is up, students need closure in order to confirm the understanding that they have gained. Structure of SI Sessions: Most SI sessions should be structured as follows: 1. Introductions (first session of the semester) 2. Addressing Student Needs/Allowing Student Input to Agenda (what would the students like to address before they leave the session? Remember, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t address these needs yet.) 3. Setting Agenda (tell the students what you have planned for them) 4. Strategies (facilitate the one or two activities you planned for the session) 5. Closure (how can the group summarize what they have learned this session?) Setting the agenda for the session is usually the first step, with the exception of the first one or two sessions of the semester. This is the official opener, but this section is intended to suggest opening closing activities or strategies you can use in your sessions. Addressing student needs (see Planning Flexibility on p. 90 for more on this process) is an important part of every session, and it can provide an excellent closure activityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;ask a student to go to the board and allow the group to confirm and deny that each issue was covered. However, asking students for questions is not a sufficient opening activity. Suggested Strategies for Opening and Closing Sessions: Advanced Organizers Informal Quiz One-Minute Paper Matrix Predict Exam Questions Think-Pair-Share Note Review Analogy Concept Mapping Visuals Vocabulary Development Tips for Opening and Closing Sessions: Arrive Early: is the room locked or occupied? Arrange the Room: chairs should be in a circle or half-circle (facing the board). Sit in the circle, not at the front of the room. Pass Around the Participation Log (and get it back!) Watch the Time: be sure to allow enough time for a closure activity Suggest Additional Study: what concepts should students study on their own? Ask for Input: what do they want to cover in the next session? Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

STUDENT-TO-STUDENT INTERACTIONS Definition: Collaborative learning can be defined as a learning method in which students work in groups toward a common academic goal. The patterns of interaction in a collaborative learning environment, like SI sessions, should be primarily student-to-student rather than student-leader or leader-student. Rationale: In collaborative learning, students are responsible for each other’s learning as well as for their own. The success of one student, thereby, helps other students to be successful. Proponents of collaborative learning stress that it increases interest among the participants of the group, increases social skills of the group members, and promotes critical thinking. According to Johnson and Johnson, students who work collaboratively achieve higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who work alone.1 Shared learning encourages students to discuss, to take responsibility for their own learning, and become critical thinkers.2 Strategies and Tips: The SI leader should plan for student-to-student interactions. Without careful planning, sessions will tend to be leader-to-student interactions (question-answer sessions). There is only so much time in a session, so the number of possible interactions is limited. The student-leader interaction results in only one student’s gaining understanding; therefore, try to increase the number of students talking during the sessions to increase the number of students gaining understanding. (The leader already understands the content and does not need to interact except to guide the students.) Students should ask questions to each other, and they should try to answer each other’s questions. Using good wait-time helps increase student-to-student interactions. The SI leader should redirect the questions back to other students so that students will talk to each other to learn. Students should work in small groups whenever possible. The SI leader should encourage the students to study together outside of the sessions. The SI leader should pay attention to the student responses and check for understanding when needed. Ask your mentor/supervisor to observe the interactions in your sessions. If the interactions are diagramed, you will be able to see your progress from session to session. You want to strive toward Diagram 2.

Diagram 1 1 Totten,

S., Sills, T., Digby, A., & Russ, P. (1991). Cooperative learning: A guide to research. New York: Garland.

2 Johnson,

Diagram 2

R. T., & Johnson, D. W. (1986). Action research: Cooperative learning in the science classroom. Science and Children, 24, 31-32. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

REDIRECTING QUESTIONS1 Description: Redirecting questions can be considered the process most central to the Supplemental Instruction program. The process itself is fairly simple to understand but difficult to practice without a context in which to do so. The goal of this process is to encourage more and better student-to-student interactions in the sessions. It is based on the concept that we all learn better when we have to explain something to someone else. The natural tendency for anyone is to answer questions asked; this process requires the leader to suppress that tendency and redirect questions back to the group. Perhaps it is easier to illustrate this process with a few examples: Sample Interactions: Student to Leader: Leader:

Who came up with the law of relativity? Does someone have the answer to this question? [Resist the natural urge to provide a quick answer, so you can go on with more complex questions. Redirect back to the group to avoid a Question-Answer session.]

Student to Leader: Leader:

What is the derivative of a constant? Can anyone find an answer to that in your notes/text? [Use the resources that students have. Useful when it is obvious that students don’t know the answer. Makes students think for themselves and process the material in a way that will be helpful for them.]

Student to Leader: Leader:

I don’t understand how temperature affects a chemical reaction. I’m glad you brought that up! Why don’t we analyze #5 on the handout to see if we can understand how temperature affects different reactions? Let’s see if we can come up with the reasons by the end of the session. [Remember to use responses that offer positive reinforcement. Leaders often will anticipate problem areas and have sample problems on a handout. A useful handout may structure the answers and list steps.]

Student to Leader: Leader:

I don’t know how to do this problem. What part(s) of the problem do you understand? [This will help narrow the question and divide it up in more useful parts.]

Student to Leader:

I understand how to get the derivative, but I don’t know what to do next. Would someone please go to the board and scribe as we work it together? Or: Would someone please put what you have for this problem on the board? [Note: This interaction demonstrates that there may be a two- or three-phase process. SI leaders get questions redirected back to them, for example. In that case, help the students to structure the problem, redirecting as you go.]

Leader:

1Riley,

J. P. (1981). The effects of preservice teacher’s cognitive questioning level and redirecting on student science achievement. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 18, 303-309.; Brown, B. E. (1979). Probing skills for tutors. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western College Reading Association, Honolulu, HI. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED184065) Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

REDIRECTING QUESTIONS

Additional Sample Phrases: What is this question asking for? Why are you thinking of it in that way? Give an example of that. Can you summarize the discussion up to this point? Can you think of another way to think about this? How is your answer (point of view) different from _____? Let’s rephrase it on the board and figure out what information we will need to answer it. Can you be more specific? How does your response tie into ____? Let’s look that up in the text. Let’s write down everything we know about this topic/problem/theory. How can you relate this to everyday life? Okay, that’s the book definition, but how do we define that (i.e. in your own words)? So, how do you think you can redirect questions? Practice Exercise 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Have each participant write down a question that could be asked in a session for his/her discipline. Make sure that the group is in a circle to avoid even this practice exercise’s evolving into a mini-lecture. Select one participant to take the role of an SI leader. Have the participants ask the questions they have written down. Have the leader redirect the questions to the group. Group members should answer as naturally as possible. 6. After several exchanges, change who is taking the role of the leader and repeat the process. Discussion and Debrief: 1. How does this process attempt to break the Dependency Cycle? 2. Map the interaction patterns that occurred during this exercise. Discuss how effective the interactions were in promoting student learning. [See Student-to-Student Interactions on p. 84 for examples of interaction patterns to look for.] 3. What would you do if the response by the student after the leader’s redirect were “If I knew how to do this problem, I wouldn’t have come to SI!”? 4. Make sure you are redirecting the right questions. Can you give an example of a redirection that shows that the leader misunderstood the question? 5. Are there some questions that should not be redirected? Give an example. 6. Give an example of an additional sample phrase for redirecting questions.

WAIT-TIME Definition1: Wait-Time is the time that elapses between an SI leader-initiated question and the next behavior (student response or the leader talking again). There are two kinds of wait-time: (1) The time the leader waits after asking a question (2) The time the leader waits after a response Rationale: Wait-Time is an important factor in successful SI sessions. Extensive research has demonstrated that the quality and quantity of students’ verbal responses increases significantly if teachers (SI leaders) regularly utilize at least three seconds of wait-time. Wait-Time (2) seems to be even more significant than wait-time (1). So, once again, if SI leaders resist the natural temptation to jump in too quickly to answer or rephrase, student learning improves. Increased wait-time probably allows the brain more opportunity to consolidate information, which allows for deeper processing of information. According to de Jong and Ferguson-Hessler2, deep-level knowledge is associated with comprehension, abstraction, critical judgment, and evaluation. Deep-level knowledge “has been thoroughly processed, structured, and stored in memory in a way that makes it useful for application and task performance” (p. 107). Research findings3: For Students: 1. More students answer 2. More accurate answers 3. Answers are more elaborate, reasoned, and supported 4. Students listen to each other more 5. More speculative responses 6. More questions asked 7. More participation by poorer students 8. Increase in use of logical consistency in responses For SI leader: 1. Asks fewer questions 2. Connects questions better 3. Asks more higher-order questions 4. Demonstrates greater flexibility 5. Expects more from poorer students 1 Rowe,

M. B. (1974). Wait-Time and rewards as instructional variables, their influence on language, logic, and fate control: Part 1— wait-time. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 11(2), 81-94. 2 deJong, T. & Ferguson-Hessler, M. G. M. (1996). Types and qualities of knowledge. Educational Psychologist, 31(2), 105-113. 3 School Improvement in Maryland. (2003). What have we learned about good instruction? Retrieved March 11, 2003, from: http:// www.mdk12.org/practices/good_instruction/projectbetter/thinkingskills/ts-83-85.html Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

WAIT-TIME

When Students Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Respond: SI Leaders may worry about what to do if no one responds. After waiting 5-10 seconds with no responses, they may want to try one of the following1: Repeat the question Rephrase the question Simplify the question Ask a student to attempt to rephrase the question Break down the question into its component parts Make the question more specific Ask students what it is about the question they do not understand After each alternative, wait 5-10 seconds. Practice Exercise: 1. What can you as an SI leader do if no one answers a question? 2. Write one possible question from your discipline to actually demonstrate the technique. Write down several anticipated responses. 3. Use the Think-Pair-Share technique with the others in the group using the question you just wrote down in #2. [See Think-Pair-Share on p. 56 of this manual.] 4. What are some ways you can remind yourself to wait? (Examples: take a drink of water; look at each student)

1 Lorsch,

N. and Ronkowski, S. (2003). Teaching tips for TAs: Wait-time. Retrieved July 23, 2003, from University of California, Santa Barbara website: http://www.id.ucsb.edu:16080/ic/ta/...html 88

CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING Definition: The learning strategies that SI leaders use in their sessions are designed to promote student-to-student interactions. We cannot automatically assume, however, that the students are gaining understanding from their interactions. Instead, we must check for understanding by asking the students to confirm that they have learned the content. Rationale: The most common method of checking understanding is to ask the students a closed-ended question like, “Do you understand?” This question can be answered with a simple yes or no. This is not effective because students are sometimes uncomfortable admitting that they still do not understand a concept, especially if considerable time has just been spent on it during the session. Instead, questions that check for understanding should be open-ended and require higher-order thinking skills.1 It is essential that students can explain the discussed topic in their own words so the leader knows that students understand before proceeding to the next topic. If there is any doubt that the students have not “got” it, the concept should be discussed again. The leader should make sure that the students get a chance to demonstrate their understanding so that demonstrating understanding becomes part of the SI sessions. This will improve student preparation and learning. Possible Ways to Check for Understanding: 1. Always maintain eye contact with the students during the session. By making eye contact, you will likely see when a student is confused. 2. Ask a student to summarize the concept just covered. If s/he struggles, ask the group to help him/her. 3. Ask for a volunteer to write the main points of the discussion on the board. 4. Ask a question that requires the student to understand in order to answer correctly. For example, if you just covered the difference between the logical rules of inference, Disjunctive Syllogism and Modus Ponens, ask the group, “So I can use Disjunctive Syllogism on this argument, right?” when you cannot, based on the discussion. When they reply, “No, of course not,” ask them why not. 5. Once in a while, intentionally make mistakes on the board. The students will catch you if they understand. If no one notices, probe the group about the content on the board until they discover the mistake. (Frequent use of this strategy may confuse students.) 6. Ask the students to rephrase the question you asked originally or the summary another student gave. 7. Ask for real-life examples or applications of the concept. 8. Ask for a similar problem, metaphor, or analogy.

See Types of Questions, beginning on p. 26.

PLANNING FLEXIBILITY Rationale: You have planned for your session. You arrive at your room five minutes early and arrange the chairs in a circle. Students come in, and you start the session by setting the agenda. Perfect. Everything is running smoothly and according to plan. Suddenly a student asks if you can cover a subject that is not in your plan! You panic. What do you do? Do you abandon the plan? One of the reasons SI is successful at over 1400 institutions in 27 countries is because it is flexible. When students present needs that may take you away from the content and activities you had planned for that session, you don’t necessarily have to abandon your plan. Instead, adapt it to fit their requests. General Structure of SI Sessions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Address Student Needs/Student Input Set Agenda Facilitate Planned Strategies Closure

Setting the Agenda: Before you set the agenda for the session, ask if there is anything in particular the students would like to cover before they leave the session. Ask a student to scribe at the board as they voice their questions/concerns. Just knowing that they have articulated their concern will make it less pressing and allow them to participate fully in the session. Sometimes they will ask about material you were already planning to cover. If that is the case, tell them so, but still have the scribe write the question on the board. If the questions/concerns are easily addressed by redirecting them to the group, go ahead and do that right away. If no other students in the session seem to have the same concern, ask the student to ask you at the end of the session or during your office hours (but still get the question on the board!). However, if the concern involves material you did not plan to cover, simply promise that you will come back to it and begin the activities you had planned. Try to leave the list on the board throughout the session so you can return to it at the end as a closure exercise. Ask the group what items you can cross off the list. Make them give a brief summary of the answer or solution to that question/concern. What items are outstanding? Can anyone answer them now? Ask them who would like to volunteer to ask the instructor. Model your thinking process were you going to solve that problem/answer that question. In other words, give them some leads, but don’t do it for them. This is the best way to keep them responsible for their learning. If there is enough need and material, offer to prepare another session to address it. Don’t feel bad that you did not anticipate or accommodate their every need— that’s impossible!

PLANNING FLEXIBILITY More Than One Plan: There are two common situations that leaders must anticipate when planning sessions: 1. The number of students attending will fluctuate. Remember to plan using the SI Session Planning Rubric (pp. 137-138). It will remind you to anticipate a large group as well as a group of three or four. See Too Many/Too Few Students on p. 109 for more on adjusting your plan according to the number of students present. 2. The students did not read or prepare at the level for which you planned activities. The SI Session Planning Rubric also asks you to plan for students who are not prepared. Always have a back-up plan for unprepared students, otherwise you will be tempted to re-lecture. For example, if you have planned for students to work together and solve logic proofs but they havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t memorized the Rules of Inference or Replacement yet, then pull out your back-up flashcards and drill them. Divide and Conquer, p. 65, is a good activity for a back-up plan when students can read a portion of the text to get caught up.

GENERAL TIPS FOR CONDUCTING SESSIONS Arrive early. It is very helpful to arrive at your sessions early if you can so that you can arrange the room and be ready for the students. Make sure that the desks are arranged in a way that provokes participation. A full or half circle is best. If you are unable to arrange the desks, then request a different room through the SI office. Always have a detailed planning sheet with you at your sessions. You may not remember everything you planned. You must always remember to have students fill out your Participation Log neatly and clearly, otherwise we will not be able to determine how we are helping the students. Take a minute to learn the students’ names from the sheet. Maintain eye contact. It is more effective to “model” how successful students learn a particular subject than it is to “tell” students what they need to know. Make use of the language of the particular discipline, course, and instructor. Watch your time. Your SI session should only last 50 minutes, or 1 hour 50 minutes for test reviews. Sometimes sessions last longer. This is fine if your schedule permits, but please be courteous and vacate your room on time if another instructor/leader has it reserved for the next hour. Try to encourage all students to participate, even the reluctant ones. The best way to do this is use a variety of learning strategies1 because each of them is designed to encourage all students to participate. Also, ask a student to go to the board, don’t go to the board yourself. Avoid interrupting student answers. You may be able to say it faster, but that won’t help them learn. Protect students from interruptions, laughter, or from those with louder voices. Waiting for students to volunteer a well-developed answer takes time. If you are uncomfortable waiting for 10 seconds, join students in looking through notes or text. If students are unable to answer the question, ask for the source of information. For example, ask for the date of the lecture that contained the information and search for the answer together. Avoid taking on the responsibility of always providing answers. Lead the session, don’t dominate it. An ideal session2 is one where the students do most of the talking. Remember that your purpose is to mediate the group in studying class materials. It should be more of a study group and not a lecture. If you cater everything you do as an SI leader to these basic concepts, then you will be more successful.

1 2

More than twenty-five possible learning strategies are described in the Processes section of this manual, beginning on p. 39. See Ideal SI Sessions on pp. 14-15 for a list of the characteristics present in ideal SI sessions. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

CASE STUDIES

Each of these situations has actually occurred in an SI session. As an SI leader, what would you do? What variables could affect your choice of actions? Situation #1 You are conducting a session, and become â&#x20AC;&#x153;stumpedâ&#x20AC;? by questions raised by the group. You are floundering for a response to the problem. What could you do? Situation #2 Your session lapses into a question-andanswer format. You realize that you are directing responses to the group and the student participants are responding directly to you. There is no student-to-student interaction. What could you do immediately? In the future? Situation #3 A student who has never attended SI is dominating the discussion. The student insists that you, not a classmate, answer questions about a concept discussed the week before. You are becoming flustered; the regular attendees are becoming angry, and the dominating student is suggesting that SI is a waste of time. What would you do? Situation #4 You notice that several medical students are rolling their eyes whenever nursing students ask questions. How will you deal with this situation? Situation #5 You notice that the instructor of the class makes mistakes in the lecture. What would you do? What would you do if the instructor is not open to constructive criticism?

CASE STUDIES Situation #6 It seems that a group of students in the class lack the prerequisite background for the course. Are there any steps that you can take to help with this situation? Situation #7 Someone in the session makes a racial comment. What should you do? Situation #8 What if only one student comes to your session? Situation #9 You forgot your planning sheet. How will you lead the session? Situation #10 You arrived early and arranged the chairs in a circle. Several students sit outside the circle. How can you get everyone together? Situation #11 Several students are having side conversations. They may or may not be discussing content, but they are disrupting the session by making it difficult for other students to hear. How can you handle this without putting off the students who are talking?

Special Considerations

When Planning and Conducting Sessions Introduction Exam Reviews Exam Reviews for Problem-Solving Sessions Post Exam Sessions Writing an Essay Prerequisite Knowledge Sessions The Unprepared Student Too Many/Too Few Students

INTRODUCTION: SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

Most of the time, the general session guidelines we have provided will help you prepare, conduct, and evaluate good, productive SI sessions. However, there are times when you will need to provide what we call â&#x20AC;&#x153;specialâ&#x20AC;? sessions. The most common of these special sessions are exam reviews. These are extended sessions that are held at least two days before an exam. More than that, though, they are structured carefully to ensure that the most important (note: not the most difficult) material can be covered in a relatively short amount of time. Other types of special sessions include: post exam sessions, book reviews, essay-writing workshops, and prerequisite knowledge sessions. When a leader is planning a session and probes difficult content to find out why it is difficult for students, the leader often discovers that the students lack prerequisite knowledge. For example, an understanding of algebra is often necessary to manipulating equations in chemistry. If a student has not recently had algebra, this gap in his/her knowledge will make chemistry more challenging. Because not every student who attends SI will share this difficulty, the group may become impatient when these students need extra time spent on these issues during a regular session. Thus, a special session becomes necessary. Despite the various differences and difficulties associated with special sessions, they still should be conducted with the overall goals of SI in mind: the SI leader should model good student behavior and encourage students to work with each other in order to create independent learners. This section will give you guidelines that will help you lead successful special sessions.

EXAM REVIEWS

Definition: Before each exam the SI leader must hold an exam review. This is a two-hour session during which potential exam material is covered. These sessions are usually fast-paced and well-attended. In order to ensure that they are truly helpful for the students, it is important that you plan them carefully. Although you cover difficult material in regular sessions, in exam reviews you should cover important (i.e., potential exam) material. Expect some students to come and go throughout these sessions. Rationale: Generally speaking, the group of students who attend exam review sessions will be different from your group of regular attendees. Good students know that they perform best when they spread out their studying evenly across the entire semester. However, some students are unable or unwilling to do this. They may not be model students, but their needs are still important and must be addressed in SI. It is still possible to influence their study habits. Therefore, it is important that SI leaders continue to model good student behavior and use proven learning strategies and techniques when conducting exam review sessions. Throughout the Semester Students often live â&#x20AC;&#x153;exam to exam.â&#x20AC;? If an exam is not imminent (next week), then they may not even have it on their radars. SI leaders should remind students that an exam is always on the horizon, even from the time of the first SI session. This suggestion will reinforce to students what we already know: study as you go. One good way to do this while making planning for an exam review session easier is to ask students to formulate possible test questions over current material. This should be done at each regular session from the first day that potential exam material is presented in lecture. This is a great closure technique, but it may also be used to open a session. Students should write a possible test question over the topic in the current session. Ask them to use the same format that will appear on the exam (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, essay) to give them practice with that form. By inviting them to write questions, you are helping them alleviate the mystery behind exams. This will make them more confident about the material. Allow them to submit the questions to you anonymously. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask them to answer the questions immediately because some may not be well-formulated. Instead, collect them each time and sort through them yourself. Compile the questions that address the important material as a practice exam for the exam review session.

EXAM REVIEWS

Variations: Ask the entire class to write a question and collect all questions. Offer to sort through them and compile them into a practice exam only for those students attending the exam review. This will advertise your sessions and provide more questions for the practice exam. Ask the instructor if s/he would be willing to put a sample exam on the course website. Tell students you will go over that exam. If the professor agrees, you have a great way to advertise SI. Ask the instructor if s/he will put a question formulated by the SI group on the exam. If so, advertise this. One question will not affect exam scores significantly, but more students will attend SI if they will have any influence over the content that will be on the exam. Scheduling Exam reviews usually attract the most students. This can cause two problems: 1. It can be difficult to find a suitable time for all of the students who want to attend. 2. Your regular attendees may be frustrated by newcomers who do not understand how SI works, are looking for a quick fix, and want to cover material that has already been addressed in regular sessions. In order to reward your regular attendees for their loyalty and participation, you may schedule an extra review that only they know about and attend (this can be one or two hours long, depending on your schedule). This will alleviate a lot of their stress. Some leaders find that extending a regular session to two hours is the best way to fit most students’ schedules since the regular sessions are based on the beginning-of-term survey. Others prefer a general survey of the class. Ask the professor for a few minutes of class time to poll the class, or ask the students two or three minutes before class starts. This can be overwhelming if your class is large and students disagree, so it helps to decide on two possible times/day (example: Monday morning or Tuesday evening) and ask the class to vote for one or the other. Be careful that they don’t pressure you into doing both. Exam reviews should fall at least two days prior to the exam. This allows students additional time to continue to study, especially details. The most important point about scheduling exam reviews is that you don’t do so independent of student input. If the review is at a bad time, you will have poor attendance. Consulting the Instructor The SI leader must focus on the important material in the review session. A meeting with the instructor may help you narrow your focus, but be careful about possible unethical behavior. For example, if the leader sees the actual exam that students will be taking, s/he may unintentionally indicate to the students specific content to study. This is not fair to students who cannot attend SI, and it does not help students who do attend become independent learners. 98

EXAM REVIEWS

Planning When preparing for an exam review, it is easy to get caught up in the details of the material. A balance must be struck between quality and quantity. If the details are crucial to understanding further material then focusing on the details does not waste time. However, in situations where much information must be categorized and sorted it can be beneficial to focus on the general ideas. Some useful strategies for exam reviews include: Divide & Conquer (p. 65) This is helpful in exam reviews because it is a good way to cover lots of information in a short amount of time. You can D&C text(s), notes, or sample exams. Matrices (pp. 70-71) Matrices are a good way to compare and contrast many concepts in an organized way. Because time is limited in an exam review, a matrix does not have to be completed in the session. Structure this activity so that the students have enough time (in small groups) to determine title, subjects, and categories, but then allow them to fill it out outside of the session. This is a good opportunity to encourage the students to study together outside of SI! Reciprocal Questioning (pp. 75-76) This strategy is helpful when the students simply want to ask you questions. Superficially, that seems to be the essence of this process, but actually, the leader continues to redirect questions. By timing the asking and answering, the leader keeps the session moving quickly. Generally the best strategies for exam reviews utilize small groups. Large groups waste time and because attendance does significantly increase for review sessions, there may be more students than ever before. Small groups allow for each student to get more contact time to understand the material. If a sample test or a worksheet is handed out, keep in mind that many students will be present. It doesn't hurt to have extra copies. Better still, when the SI leader announces the exam review, a show of hands can be used to get a rough idea of how many students will come. This type of survey can also be used as a marketing technique. When a student sees that many others plan to attend the exam review, s/he they will feel more comfortable attending even if they have never come before. Plan to discuss with the students the kinds of questions to expect on exams. Explore the amount of emphasis that will be placed on the text, lecture, or outside readings. For example, are half of the points earned through multiple choice items that focus on the information from the lecture and text? Is the other half of the possible points earned through two essay questions that focus on the supplemental readings, the assigned novels?

EXAM REVIEWS

Conducting the Session Follow the usual structure for an SI session: Address Student Needs Set Agenda Facilitate Planned Strategies Closure When the actual review session begins, pass out the SI Exam Review Participation Log, p. 136. Often students arrive late or leave early, so the Participation Log should be announced several times during the session (at the beginning, when the students break up into groups, or at the end). Even though you have planned carefully and time is limited, don’t forget to address the students’ needs as usual. Letting the students air their questions and setting the agenda for the session will alleviate a lot of test anxiety for them. Stick to your plan. This is even more important than usual because there is so much to do. Remember that emotions can run high when an exam is near. Be patient with students, and be careful that your responses to students do not seem like “yelling” or “laughing” at them. It is unlikely that you will actually do either of these things, but student perceptions are skewed when they are stressed. Don’t forget to write your email address on the board and remind the students that you can be contacted by email if they have questions after they leave. Miscellaneous Notes If you have a regularly-scheduled session that falls after the exam review, you should still hold that session, so students can come and clarify any misunderstandings or reinforce those concepts that are most pertinent to the exam. Just like regular sessions, exam review rooms need to be scheduled through the registrar’s office. That means that you need to email your room request to the SI Coordinator at least two business days before you would like to announce the session. (not hold it.) Include your name, the class for which you SI, the date, day of week, and time for the session, any building preferences, and the date/time you need to announce the session. If you are extending a regular session, include the day of week, time, and room you usually have when requesting that your room reservation be extended. It may not always be possible to keep the same room.

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EXAM REVIEWS FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING SESSIONS1 This is an example of an exam review for a Calculus II class. Sonny, the SI leader, knew the students had a lot of possible exam material to cover in a short amount of time. Preparation: 1. Sonny decided what material to cover based on what was important, not difficult, because this session was an exam review. 2. He created a list of twenty-six questions that he called a pretest. The questions on this pretest were not randomly selected. They represented certain types of problems that would probably be on the exam. 3. He prepared twenty-six cards, each with a number that corresponded to one of the numbered questions. 4. He wanted to provide the students with some options in case they did not feel comfortable solving a particular problem, so he chose a learning strategy, Jigsaws, to cover the specific content. This would give the students one or more partners to use as a resource. He also wanted each group to have more than one problem to choose from, (in case they felt they couldn’t do one) but he didn’t want two groups to work on the same problem. (not enough time.) He decided to divide students into groups of two or three based on where they were sitting and ask each student to draw one of the numbered cards. This would give each group a small pool of problems that did not overlap with any other group. 5. Even though he knew time would be short, he did not want to skip the most important step of Jigsaws: small groups reporting back to the large group. He decided that as a group finished a problem, one student would write the steps to the solution and the narrative of the steps on the board (see Boardwork Model, pp. 51-52) while the other groups continued to work. This reduced interruption of good student-to-student interaction. 6. When the board was filled, (about every three problems) all groups would stop and the student who wrote the problem on the board would discuss the solution. He expected other students to chime in if they didn’t understand, and he planned to interject as necessary to emphasize or redirect the group. Once each problem on the board was discussed by the large group, the problems were erased, the small groups returned to their assigned pool of problems (drawing more as needed), and the process began again.

This example is taken from the videotape of a live, unscripted SI session entitled, SI Demonstration Session: Calculus II with Sonny Painter. It is available for purchase from the Center for Academic Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Visit www.umkc.edu/cad/si for more information. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

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EXAM REVIEWS FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING SESSIONS

Conducting: He set the agenda for the students at the beginning of the session by describing the process he had planned. He (purposely) arrived with fewer handouts than participants so they would have to share and work together. He reassured students by telling them that they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to do the problem(s) they drew if they felt uncomfortable. He moved around and listened to each group to be sure all students were participating equally and no group was off track. Closure: As a final activity, Sonny often asked the students to construct a matrix based on the types of problems and the prerequisites for each. This helped students organize the information and understand the big picture: certain types of problems are best approached in certain ways.

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POST EXAM SESSIONS Definition: The session immediately following an exam can be the most challenging because there is no new information to cover. However, it is important that students reflect on the exam and use it as a tool to evaluate their study habits and better prepare for future exams. A useful exercise for this activity is included in Post Exam Survey on pp. 57-58. Rationale: Even though attendance will drop significantly after an exam, some students will attend. These students are usually motivated to examine their study habits. The session immediately following the exam is the perfect opportunity for the leader to encourage them to look over the exam again to extract important concepts and strategies from it. Strategies and Tips for Post Exam Sessions: Consulting the Professor It is good practice to consult the instructor about conducting a post-exam session. Sometimes instructors are very protective about the answers to their exams. (rightfully so.) Be sure to keep him/her informed so s/he is comfortable with what you are doing. Miscellaneous Notes After an exam, students should reflect on what happened during the test and not just "erase" that part of the class. Students may think this is important only if the content will be included in a cumulative exam, so part of your job is to help them see that this is not the case. Students can benefit from examining their performance on an exam and how it reflects the effectiveness of their study patterns, whether or not they are examined over the same material again. If the instructor spends the lecture after the exam discussing the details and results of the exam, the leader is left with no new information to cover, and the students have already had an opportunity to follow-up on the content of the exam. If you have already cancelled a session (the one immediately after the exam) there is still another session that could present difficulties in planning. Here are some techniques that can be used in such a situation. Predict questions on this material that could be on the final. Have each student write 3-5 questions in the style of the professor that may show up on the final exam. Don’t present new information, but encourage students to predict what will come next in the course. Use the exam as a platform to build future information upon. For example: “Our next topic is cellular respiration. From what we already know about photosynthesis, (the making of glucose) what can we deduce about cellular respiration (the breaking of glucose)?” Often, the session immediately after the exam is cancelled because there is not new information to cover. For example, if the test is Wednesday morning and the next session is Wednesday afternoon, it is reasonable to cancel this session. However, if the exam is Friday morning and the next session is Monday afternoon (after Monday’s lecture) the SI leader may want to have the session as usual. Remember that any time you cancel a session, you must notify the students, the instructor, the SI Coordinator, and your mentor. Otherwise, it will appear as though you are not doing your job. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

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WRITING AN ESSAY

Introduction: Through the pedagogical endorsement of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), asking undergraduate students to write essays in disciplines that did not previously seem to lend themselves to this form of report (mathematics, physics, chemistry) has become more common. It is likely, then, that you will need to help the students in your sessions write an essay. How can you help students do so successfully? Despite the method you choose or the level of assistance you provide, your primary goals are still the same as the overall goals of SI: Encourage the students not to wait until the last minute to begin their assignments. Help them understand the process of the task (writing) so they can employ it in future courses. Where should you begin? Break Down the Assignment: Many students have difficulty starting a paper because they do not understand the assignment. Some students may not even know that they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand the task and will write a paper that does not complete the assignment. In the first session after an essay is assigned, take some time to do a close reading of the assignment sheet. What information does the instructor give? Does s/he suggest questions for the students to consider when writing their essay? Does s/he provide a clear scope or limit for the content and length of the paper? What questions would the students like to ask the instructor in the next lecture? Sample Paper: Using a sample paper in SI will help you remember to tailor your efforts to the class this paper is for: are they writing up an experiment in the lab, or are they writing a formal paper for a history class? Be sure that every exercise you employ in SI is relevant to the class and the specific assignment. Otherwise, they will lose interest. Ask the professor if s/he has a sample paper you can use in SI. If s/he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have one, ask if you can use the paper you wrote for the class. ADVERTISE that you will be dissecting a sample paper in a session. Students will be interested. Tips for using a sample paper in a session are on p. 67. Here are some suggested questions to ask and activities to use to help the students move through the process of writing a well-formed essay. Finding a Topic: 1. Is there an assigned topic, or do they get to choose? 2. If they can choose, help them select a topic on which there is enough information. Undergraduate students often get in over their heads when choosing a topic. 3. Pre-Writing Brainstorming Activity, p. 67.

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WRITING AN ESSAY

Finding Sources 1. Where do they look for credible, accessible sources? 2. What format should they use for their citations (APA, MLA, Chicago)? 3. Source Treasure Hunt Activity, p. 67. 4. Schedule a library demonstration session with a reference librarian. If that is not possible, arrange to meet in a lab, the library, or in an ILE classroom. Demonstrate for the students how to search the online databases provided by the library. Remind them that they can do this from any computer connected to the internet. 5. Ask the students to bring two or three sources to the session. Divide into groups and work through formatting the citations. Meet in a computer lab if they would prefer to type. 6. Contact the writing Center on your campus. They often provide on-site workshops on research, writing, grammar, punctuation, etc. Organizing the Paper 1. Generally, an essay is most effective when it ends on a strong note. For this reason, it is important to place a strong point or argument last. 2. Each point that the author makes should be supported with credible sources. The author should also interpret the information they present to the reader and explain why they have included it in their essay. 3. Peer Organization Activity, p. 68 4. Extracting an Outline Activity, p. 68 Writing the Paper 1. Transitions can be very challenging for novice writers. Ask the students what authors (best if they write on the same topic that the student is writing about) they think write well. Think of two or three possibilities. Suggest that they consult writing by those authors when they are stuck with a transition in their own paper. How does an established author handle a similar situation? Can you model your writing after theirs? (Warn students about the risks of plagiarism.) 2. Practice with Prose Activity, p. 68 3. Grammar/Varied Sentence Structure: How important is this to the instructor? Don’t stress it if the instructor doesn’t—students will tune out. Revising the Essay 1. Does the professor require or allow revision after they make comments? 2. Revision Exercise Activity, p. 68 Polishing/Editing the Essay Mistakes that should be caught during this process are frustrating for professors, and they often grade down severely as a result. Polishing/Editing Activity, p. 69.

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PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE Definition: In the vocabulary of an undergraduate student, prerequisite usually refers to a course that is required before another course is taken. (example: college algebra is a prerequisite for calculus.) In this context, we are referring to knowledge that instructors expect students to bring to a course. For example an economics student must understand the slope of a line to understand supply and demand graphs. A nursing student should know conversion ratios for a pharmacology class. In the second semester of course, it is presumed that information from the first semester is understood. Although this knowledge is often acquired in required, prerequisite courses, this is not always the case. Rationale: When the group feels that one or two students are holding them back because they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand material they should already know, they can become resentful and unpleasant. This can undermine the goal of students working together. If a session that focuses on the missing prerequisite knowledge is available, students will have an opportunity to get the specialized help they need. This will ensure that the students have a solid base on which additional material can be built. It will also help regular sessions flow more smoothly. Strategies and Tips for Prerequisite Knowledge Sessions: Scheduling The SI leader may wish to designate certain regular sessions or add sessions for prerequisite knowledge. The special session should be announced in class as a session to clarify prerequisite material. It may be that this session will need to be offered a few times so that all of those students interested can attend. Sources The SI leader should have a base of information to provide during a prerequisite knowledge session. This may be the first half of the textbook, (as in the case of a two-semester course) an appendix in the text, or an outside source. Whatever the source, it is important to provide all students who attend with this material. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t assume that you as an SI leader can be the source of this information because that leads you toward dominating the session; you should not be the focus of the session. Consulting with the Instructor Your instructor may have resources for you to use, so you will not have to re-invent the wheel. The instructor also will be able to give you hints of exactly what material you should focus on.

106

PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE

Tips In conducting a prerequisite session, the SI leader may feel tempted to “teach” the material. This strategy, of course, is counter to the goals of SI and must be avoided. A good way to start would be Think-Pair-Share (p. 56) concerning what the students already understand about the material. This allows the leader to get a general feel for the students’ strengths and weaknesses. Many SI techniques are useful for prerequisite sessions, including Divide and Conquer (p. 65). With this technique it is possible for the students to cover a large amount of information. As they read through the material, they should note what concepts are important and then share these with the group. While the material is being discussed, a scribe can organize the facts and ideas into categories. While doing so, the SI leader should ensure that the facts are brief and in the student’s own words (“real” English) because that means they have truly synthesized the information. After the material has been introduced, application and practice are in order. Incomplete flowcharts, matrices, or outlines can help students organize bits of information. Think Aloud (p. 55) can reinforce strategies for working problems. At the end of the session, the students should reflect on what they have learned and relate it back to the material in class. It is helpful, therefore, to predict more advanced questions concerning the material and to use a closure technique such as a One-Minute Paper (pp. 77-78).

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THE UNPREPARED STUDENT Definition: Often, students view SI sessions as an opportunity to “soak up” any material that they have not previously looked over. Students may attend SI with the idea that it is a “make-up” session after they have missed a class, come to a book review so they don’t have to read the book, or attend an exam review thinking that it will cover everything they need to know for the exam. Rationale: Leaders often revert to lecturing students who have not prepared, but this is the least effective way to help them. Instead, leaders should point students toward the resources they already possess in order to catch up. For example, if you have planned for students to work together and solve logic proofs but they haven’t memorized the Rules of Inference or Replacement, then pull out your back-up flashcards and drill them. Divide and Conquer, p. 65, is a good activity for a back-up plan when students can read a portion of the text to get caught up. Strategies and Tips for Helping the Unprepared Student: SI Leaders should plan for prepared students, but they should create a plan B in case unprepared students attend. This will assure that these students will still leave the session with a better understanding of the material and that regular attendees do not get frustrated with the sessions. Often the unprepared student will direct questions to the leader instead of other students. Here is the perfect opportunity for the leader to redirect questions and allow regular attendees to show off their knowledge. Most group work techniques will work even if a student is not up to date with the material being covered. In fact, this will cultivate the student-to-student interaction desired in SI because the unprepared student will have to ask fellow group members questions concerning the material. Additionally, unprepared students can always be scribes because they will simply be writing down what other students are telling them to. At the end of the session, it may be good to have the previously unprepared student write a OneMinute Paper (pp. 77-78) to check for understanding gained during the session. Exercise: 1. You decide that a chronological organization of a recent reading assignment, combined with information from the lecture notes, will help the students extract important themes. You just finished creating the timeline as it should look once the students have completed it. You are ready for the session. Now, create a plan for this session when none of the students attending have completed the reading. 2. You want the students to practice solving different types of problems that require different sets of equations. You have selected representative problems, listed the prerequisite knowledge, and decided to use the Boardwork Model (pp. 51-52) in your next session. You are ready. Now, create a plan for the same session when none of the students attending understand all of the prerequisite equations, let alone have them memorized. 108

TOO MANY/TOO FEW STUDENTS What do you do in a situation where you only have one or two students or where you have too many to count? You must always have a back up plan for situations just like these. This section will give you some tips on how to prepare for those sessions that only have a few students and those that have more than you realized were even in the class. Too Many: Normally only four or five students attend, but suddenly one day, twenty students arrive. Keep these tips in mind: Think groups! The best way to handle a large group of students is to set them up in groups of three or four. Make sure that you explain the group activity thoroughly (remember, â&#x20AC;&#x153;group workâ&#x20AC;? is not an activity) and walk around to field any questions or problems. When you plan a session for which you expect a large group of students, be sure to allow enough time for the small groups to return to the large group and share what they discussed. Otherwise, the students will resent working separately. Helpful strategies for groups: Think-Pair-Share, p. 56 Informal Quiz, pp. 62-64 Divide and Conquer, p. 65 Matrices, pp. 75-76 Incomplete Outline, p. 79 Vocabulary Development, pp. 47-50 Too Few: Only had one or two students show up, but you have only planned an activity that requires group work. What do you do? Remember these tips and the time will fly. Do not fall into the trap of teaching or re-lecturing, which is very tempting when there are so few students. Even two or three students can work together in a group. You may want to join the group and work as though you are just a fellow student. Keep in mind that you should still let the students do most of the work and the talking in the group. Or, you could make it into a session where they teach you the material. Do board work. Why not have the one or two students discuss the material and do activities on the board. See the Boardwork Model, pp. 51-52. This is a good time to have students ask questions. See if they can answer their own questions. Reciprocal Questioning, pp. 75-76, may also work well in this session because it can help to structure the interaction patterns.

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110

Evaluating Sessions Introduction Observation Guidelines Self-Evaluation Visiting Other Leaders What to Expect from Your Mentor

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INTRODUCTION: EVALUATING SESSIONS

You may want to rely on your mentor or supervisor to evaluate your sessions, but you can also use your own unique perspective and ability to improve yourself. One of the most productive practices of good facilitators and teachers is to constantly evaluate the effectiveness of their approach. How did you feel about the session? What did you think went well? What did you think did not go well? Did you stick to your plan? Why or why not? How can you enhance (positive results) or avoid (negative results) these occurrences? Recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses is the first step in being able to improve upon them. In addition to evaluation of your own sessions, we also ask that you observe other leaders, both within and outside your discipline. Such observation will provide you with a realistic, peer model of comparison which will help you fairly evaluate your own sessions and help you see different ways of using the learning strategies provided in this manual, adding variety to your sessions. This section will provide a list of expectations you should have of your mentor; the types of things your mentor will be looking for as they observe you; information about evaluating your own sessions; and information about evaluating other leadersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sessions. You and your mentor periodically will spend some time discussing your evaluations of your sessions.

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OBSERVATION GUIDELINES Below is the checklist from an Observation Record that mentors/supervisors use when observing your sessions. Do you know what each of the items listed is? Are you doing all of these things in your sessions? If you have questions about any of the items on the checklist, talk with your mentor.

Qualities

Satisfactory

Need for Improvement

Room arranged for group work (circle or semi-circle) Session beginning on time Participation Logs filled in SI leader prepared Planning the SI Session sheet available Agenda set at beginning of session Advanced Organizer used Students doing most of the talking (helping each other) Varied interaction patterns present (diagram below for illustration) Effective use of questions (open-ended, higher-level) Leader uses appropriate Wait-Time Leader redirects questions, when appropriate Appropriate processing activities used If available, were the worksheets helpful? Students referring to text books and notes Leader involves all students Leader addresses studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs and questions Leader knowledgeable of content material Leader set appropriate tone for session Time managed efficiently during session Summary and Closure Students seemed to gain understanding

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SELF-EVALUATION Definition: This evaluation is a self-critique for SI leaders to use, so they can recognize their strengths and weaknesses and work towards self-improvement. Rationale: After an SI session, it is important for you as the leader to evaluate your own performance. Often you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of sessions. This allows for you to self-correct and improve independently, making you a stronger leader. Strategies and Tips for Self–Evaluation: Fill out the following evaluation of your session. The first set of questions corresponds with the second set. Keep in mind that this record is only for your own self-improvement. Self-evaluation Questions How was the room arranged? Were the students facing each other? Did you remember to pass out the Participation Log? (If not, you will need to re-create it to the best of your ability.) Did you set the agenda at the beginning of the session? Did you allow the students to have input? What were the interaction patterns during the session? Were the students talking to each other? To whom did the students direct their questions? How much wait-time did you allow? Did you wait both after questions and after answers? Did you redirect questions back to the students? Did the students begin to ask each other questions? Had you adequately planned for the session? Did you follow your plan, or did you have to adapt to the students’ needs? How may you better plan for future sessions? Did you check for understanding? Did the students leave with a better understanding of the material? What kind of closure did you provide at the end of the session? How do you feel the session went overall? What were your sessions’ strengths? Its weaknesses? What do you think could be improved for your next session?

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SELF-EVALUATION FORM Answer the following questions as honestly as you can, and then add up your score. 1. Did you arrange the room in a circle or semi-circle?

0 no

2 yes

2. Did all students sign in on the Participation Log?

0 no

2 yes

3. Did you set the agenda?

2 yes

0 no

1 sort of

3 yes (including student input)

4. Did you wait at least three seconds after a question (wait-time 1) and after a response (wait-time 2)? 1 almost never 5. Did you redirect most questions?

2 rarely 2

3 sometimes

4 mostly

5 almost always

6. Did students interact primarily with each other (not you)? 1

7. Were you able to stick to your plan (i.e., was it appropriate and sufficient for the group?) 1

8. Did you use open-ended inquiries to check whether students understood?

9. Did you provide a closure activity? 10. Overall, you feel the session went:

Maximum:

0 no

1 sort of

2 yes

3 outstanding

1 worst ever

2 not great

3 4 5 could be better pretty good never better

Your Score: _______ (higher is better!)

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VISITING OTHER LEADERS

Definition: New SI leaders should visit at least two returning leadersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sessions. One of the sessions should be within the observer's discipline and the other should be outside the observer's discipline. Returning leaders are strongly encouraged to visit other leaders, particularly if they hope to become mentors. Rationale: Much of what we learn is through observation. By observing returning leaders, SI leaders can observe how a good session is run and also get ideas of strategies to use in their own sessions. Strategies and Tips for Visiting Other Leaders: Before deciding which leader to visit, you should consult with your mentor to determine which leaders would help you the most. Before you visit that leader's session, it is courteous to let the leader know ahead of time that you will be coming. When going to the session, take an Observation Record (pp. 48-49 in the Mentor Manual for Supplemental Instruction) or Self-evaluation Form (p. 115 in this manual) with you to note what happens during the session. The forms will prompt questions like: How was the room arranged? How did the session start? Was an agenda set? What processes were used during the session? Did the leader redirect questions effectively? Were the techniques used beneficial to the student? How long was the leaderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wait time? How did the leader handle any difficult situations that came up? What were the interaction patterns of the session? How did the session close? After the session, you should take a minute to talk with the SI leader to get his/her input about how the session went overall. This lets you get a glimpse of what s/he was thinking during the session. Listen to the leader carefully but do not offer any criticism. The purpose of visiting other leaders is for you to see more examples of what SI is in practice, not to critique your co-workers. You should visit sessions both within and outside your discipline for a better overall picture of SI.

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WHAT TO EXPECT FROM YOUR MENTOR

Just as your mentors have expectations for high performance from you, so should you expect high performance from your Mentor or Supervisor. Here is a list of regular duties your Mentor or Supervisor should perform: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Observe your first three sessions. Observe your sessions once per week afterwards. Attend your course lecture 2-4 times throughout the semester. (one in the first week of class.) Help you pass out surveys in class. (beginning of term, mid-term, and end of term.) Help you tabulate surveys and find a room for the sessions. Help you plan your first three sessions. After the first three, your Mentor/Supervisor will let you know if they will continue planning with you. Debrief each observation with you. This should happen as soon after the session as possible, so be as available as you can. Provide you with feedback about one or two areas in which you are doing well. Provide you with feedback about one or two areas in which you could improve and give you specific directions for improvement. Help you make bookmarks, stickers, flyers, or other marketing materials. Discuss implementation of various strategies in the manual. Listen to your concerns. Help you troubleshoot problems. Help with communication problems between you and the instructor(s).

All mentors are required to hold an office hour each week, so that may be a good time to meet with your mentor. If you are in the office and have a question, feel free to ask any mentor; they will be happy to help you! If you have concerns that your mentor/supervisor may not be performing these duties, please talk with the SI Coordinator and/or Assistant Coordinator.

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Administrative

and Day-to-Day Responsibilities Introduction

Administrative Duties Attending Class Office Hours SI Leader Responsibilities Marketing Bookmarks (sample) Labels (sample) Exam Results Memo (sample) Exam Results Chart and Session Preview (sample) Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

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INTRODUCTION: ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES

SI leaders have a number of administrative responsibilities in addition to the day to day responsibilities associated with planning and conducting sessions. These administrative duties are crucial to the success of the SI program. The paperwork completed and turned in by leaders provides the program with the data needed to maintain funding for SI. In addition to the paperwork related to planning and conducting sessions, SI leaders will need to market the sessions to the students in the course. The purpose of this section is to familiarize the leader with the different types of paperwork and marketing for which they are responsible during the course of the semester.

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ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES Rationale: Leaders have administrative duties on a weekly basis throughout the semester; there are also a number of administrative responsibilities which occur periodically during the course of the semester. Although some leaders may view the paperwork involved in their position as less important than planning and conducting sessions, without the forms we require, we have no basis to evaluate your performance as an SI leader. In other words, if we cannot demonstrate the effect your sessions had on the students, (by comparing mean final course grades of the students who did and did not attend SI) we cannot support the program. The section called Proof that SI Works (pp. 18-21) demonstrates the data that we are able to report to faculty, deans, and administrators as a result of this paperwork. Providing feedback to all members of the institution who are involved in SI is crucial to their continued acceptance and support of the program. Following is an explanation of all administrative paperwork as well as some reminders about each that must be followed in order to collect the accurate data that the program relies on. Weekly Responsibilities Participation Log Fill out all questions at the top of the sheet for each session. Encourage students to print their names. The Participation Log must be legible, so check it after everyone (or each new student) signs in. Take a few minutes to learn the students’ names. This is a good opportunity to be sure you can read the names on the log. You should know the students’ names after a few sessions, so be sure that you print their names if they do not. Pass out only one sheet per session. If more than one is needed, attach two sheets together prior to circulating the sheet through the room. Although using more than one sheet may seem more efficient, they are often not returned to you at the end of the session. Stress to attendees that it is a “participation log,” not an attendance sheet. We want to stress that attendance is voluntary; the reason for the Participation Log is to keep track of statistics, not individual students. Remind them that the instructor never sees the Participation Log. For each session, staple the Participation Log and Planning the SI Session sheets together, and turn them into your file in the SI office. This should be done at least once a week. Planning Sheet Complete a Planning the SI Session for each session. Remember, this sheet should reflect a summary of your planning for the session. For each session, staple the Participation Log and Planning the SI Session sheets together, and turn them into your file in the SI office. This should be done at least once a week.

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ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES Office Hours Both you and any students who attend your office hour need to sign in. You will find a clipboard with an “Office Hour Sign-In Sheet” on the conference table in the SI office; that’s where you sign-in. Use a Participation Log for the students, and write in “Office Hour” on the “Day of the Week” blank. Always turn in a Participation Log when students attend your office hour, but do not turn one in when no students attend your office hour. Mailbox/ Email Our primary method of communication is email. This allows us to keep a record of correspondence, notifications, and replies. Check your email at least every other day. You are considered responsible for all material sent to the email address you provide, and scheduling changes, cancellations, and other important developments occur frequently. Periodic Responsibilities Syllabus Collect the course syllabus at the beginning of the semester. Make a copy, keep one for yourself to assist in planning, and turn one in to your file in the SI office. Surveys There are three surveys about SI that must be conducted during the semester. They must be conducted during class, (not sessions) so you must get permission from the instructor to take a few minutes of class time before you conduct a survey. Beginning-of-Term Survey This is conducted on the first day of class. These surveys, along with an informational pamphlet about SI, should be picked up in the SI office before the semester begins. This survey will provide you with the students’ interest level in SI, as well as their daily schedules. You will use these to determine times for your sessions, but we also use them for other important research about student motivation. Be sure to turn them in to your file in the SI office once you have set times for your sessions.

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ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES

Midterm Survey This survey is the only anonymous survey you will administer. It should be conducted between the sixth and eighth weeks of the semester. It asks for brief feedback from the students regarding the sessions so far. Remind the students to be honest and that you take their comments very seriously. End-of-Term Survey This survey allows the students to evaluate the overall usefulness of the SI sessions throughout the semester. Remind the students that you will see these surveys, and encourage them to write in comments. Ask them to provide feedback about what they liked and didn’t like so you can improve the sessions. We include the mean of your score on the Lichert scale from question #1, “How helpful were the sessions to you?” in the Final Report on the SI. We also use these surveys for important research on student motivation. Be sure to turn them in to your file in the SI office once you have read through the comments. Exam Scores It is helpful to the leader and the students to see an evaluation of the grades after each exam, rather than waiting until the end of the semester. You are responsible for obtaining the exam scores from your instructor. (we receive all final course grades from the registrar’s office.) All instructors receive the Memo of Faculty Agreement (p. 141) explaining the legality of this practice. If your instructor has any questions or seems reluctant, refer them to the SI Coordinator, and we will take care of it. Please tell your instructor that we need each student’s name or student number and the grade they received (anonymous or aggregate data is not useful) and that we prefer the grades in electronic format. Once you have turned in the grades to your file in the SI office, the SI Coordinator will provide you with an analysis with a comparison of mean final grades for students who did and did not attend SI. At this point, if you have not marked on your Participation Log which was your last session before the exam, we will not be able to analyze the data. Share the analysis with the class by using an overhead or document camera projector. You can also create a short PowerPoint or memo to distribute if time permits. Ask your instructor for a few minutes of class time or project the information in the few minutes before class starts. The class will see how helpful SI is, and this can increase your attendance. Include the session schedule and what topic you will be covering in the next session so students can make a new resolution! See p. 132 for an example.

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ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES Resource Files The SI program keeps copies of the handouts, worksheets, sample exams, prerequisite knowledge sources, and practice problems that previous leaders have used. These files are organized by course number in the SI office. Use these files. This will make your job easier. Adapt materials, or use them as is. When you develop new materials, add them to the file. Is there information in the file that is no longer useful? If so, remove it; we cannot possibly know what materials to keep or remove without your help. Do not remove these files from the SI office. If you would like to take some materials home to study, make a copy in the main office. Peer Observations All leaders must observe at least two sessions conducted by other leaders. Fill out and turn in an Observation Record for each observation to your file in the SI office. One session must be in your discipline; the other will be decided by your mentor. New leaders must observe returning leaders. Talk to your mentor for more information about peer observations. Self-Evaluations All leaders must evaluate their own performance. Use the Self-Evaluation Form on p. 115 to reflect on your sessions. The frequency of these evaluations will be determined by your mentor. On-Going Training Meetings These meetings are a required part of your position as an SI leader. The times will be set according to each of your schedules, (just like you schedule your SI sessions) so please turn your schedule into the SI office as soon as possible after the pre-term training. Meeting with Faculty Although many faculty are very busy, offer to meet with your instructor at least once a week for a half hour or so. S/he may not be able to meet that frequently, but it is courteous to offer since you are a guest in his/her classroom. S/he will probably be interested in the areas in which students are struggling, the topics you will be covering in your sessions, the processes you will use, and the advice you are giving students. Remember not to share information about specific students attending sessions, but consider your instructorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s motives when talking with him/her. Often they want to help the students as much as possible, and your perspective provides them with a unique opportunity to see where the students are coming from. Try bringing a session plan to the meeting and asking for his/her advice. Often faculty can help you distinguish between difficult and important. 124

ATTENDING CLASS Definition: SI leaders should attend each SI class. The SI leader should also take lots of notes during class but avoid the temptation to raise his/her hand when the instructor asks a question. Rationale: Through regular attendance, you will not only get the same lecture experience that the students do but you will serve as a model student for those in the class. You will observe the how the students react to the material when it is presented in class. Also, attendance fosters a peer relationship between you and the students. Strategies and Tips when Attending Class: When you attend class, you play two roles: one as a model student and another as an observer. When you act as a model student, the students in class will see that good students are always in class, paying attention, and taking lots of notes. As an observer, you should note when the students seem confused, the kinds of questions that the professor and the students are asking, and the expectations the professor has of the students. When You Go to Class, Remember to: Write your SI sessions on the board Remind students that you can be contacted by email Sit somewhere noticeable Change seats from class to class Be friendly If You Have to Miss a Class: Only serious obligations justify missing an SI lecture (illness, car accident, family emergency). Notify your instructor, your mentor, and the SI office that you will be missing a class. Taking Notes: You should take notes in class as the students do. However, many leaders find it helpful to brainstorm planning (e.g. Informal Quiz questions or a matrix outline) during lecture. These can be jotted down with the other notes and will make planning for the session easier. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel guilty about planning during class. Although as a new leader you may not want to plan during class because you want to pay close attention to the material, as you become more experienced, planning during class can be very useful. Participating: From time to time the professor may ask questions of the class. Although you should know the answers and may feel tempted to answer them, you should refrain from doing so. Take note of the questions and answers, but remember, during lecture and SI sessions, the point is not to demonstrate your own knowledge, but to allow the students to interact. Copyright by the Curators of the University of Missouri, 2004

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OFFICE HOURS

Definition and Rationale: Every week the SI leader should have an office hour in the SI office. Office hours provide students with the opportunity to get additional contact time with the SI leader. This is helpful when students cannot make the regular sessions, need individualized help, or just have a quick question. When no students come, you can use this time to catch up on all administrative responsibilities. Strategies and Tips for Office Hours: File all Participation Logs and Planning the SI Session sheets from the previous week. Stock up on Participation Logs and Planning the SI Session sheets for the upcoming week. Check your mailbox. This is where pay stubs arrive! Feel free to chat with other leaders and SI staff about any difficulties and successes you’re having. Mentors also hold office hours each week. If you see a mentor in the office (even if it is not your mentor), they are available to answer questions about your sessions. They have good experience with SI—please use them! Interacting with Students: Be sure to have the students sign the Participation Log. Label the Participation Log “office hour” in the “Day of the Week” blank. If you have more than three students or there are more than three other leaders in the office, you may prefer to move down the hall to one of the classrooms so your group can work undisturbed. Just let the SI Coordinator know and s/he will find you a place. Office hours can be different from regular sessions: you don’t have a plan, and the students have specific questions they would like help with. However, you should still practice the strategies central to conducting sessions during this time: redirecting questions, wait-time 1 and 2, and checking for understanding. Don’t fall into the trap of re-lecturing or teaching; make the student do most of the talking. Encourage them to articulate their thinking processes as you help them. Think Aloud (p. 55) can be a helpful model. When more than one student attends, even if they arrive at different times, try to include them all in the same activity, just like you would during a regular session. They should work together on problems or questions before you address their concerns.

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SI LEADER RESPONSIBILITIES 1. SI Leader Training At the beginning of the semester Throughout the semester Meet with the instructor and your mentor regularly 2. Attend the Targeted Class If you do not already know him/her, introduce yourself to the course instructor before the first day of class. If you already know the instructor, check in with him/her. Turn in a copy of the syllabus to your file in the SI office Introduce SI to the class and administer the Beginning-of-Term survey. Announce in class (usually during the first or second week) the SI schedule and room locations. 3. Conduct Sessions Schedule SI sessions based on the Beginning-of-Term survey. Email the SI Coordinator your room request. Announce the sessions when first scheduled. Afterwards, write them on the board each lecture. Begin preparing for each session with your mentor. Conduct your sessions; adjust your techniques and planning based on feedback from your mentor. Hold marathon sessions or extra sessions before each exam. 4. Support Faculty SI leaders support classroom instruction in every way. Do not participate if students are complaining about the course instructor. The SI program is offered only in classes where the faculty member understands and supports SI. Offer to meet with your instructor frequently to keep him/her informed about what is happening in the sessions. 5. Build Relationships and Develop Responsibilities The SI Supervisor. The Academic Department. The Students. Other SI Leaders. Yourselves. 6. Collect Data for Program Evaluation Collect participation data at every SI session, i.e. student name, course title, date, and time. Administer End-of-Term survey. Complete end-of-term checklist to release your final paycheck.

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MARKETING SI SESSIONS

Rationale: Some students need only hear about SI sessions, and you can count on their attending. Other students need some nudging. By marketing your sessions, you will ensure that students are constantly reminded of the sessions. This will increase your attendance and encourage students to approach you for help. Bookmarks: Bookmark templates with graphics for the various disciplines are available in the SI office. These bookmarks are easily created using columns in Microsoft Word. The SI leader will need to fill out a Print Order Form, also located in the SI office, and submit it to the campus printing service. Bookmarks are printed three to a page, so remember to divide the number of pages needed by 3. Also, you must request cardstock, or you will get colored paper but in typing paper weight. Last, be sure to get the Print Order Form signed by a qualified staff member and request the printing service to cut them (or youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have to cut them all by hand!). Stickers: Labels for the laser printer are available in the SI Office. These labels can be used to stick on notebooks or inside textbooks. Templates are available in Microsoft Word on any computer in the SI office. Overhead Projection/Document Camera: Overhead transparencies (or regular paper when using a document camera) are useful for showing the class the results of exam scores and for advertising concepts that will be covered in the next weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sessions. They should include the exam score analysis chart (SI versus Non-SI mean grades), the concepts to be covered in the next session, and all of the session times/days/locations. The leader should arrive early to put the overhead up before class, so the students can see it as they come in. This prevents the instructor from shortening the lecture for SI announcements while still allowing some advertisement of the SI sessions. Following are some examples of these kinds of advertising.

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for American History

Tuesday 11-12 EDU 33

Wednesday 1-3 EDU 36

Thursday 11-12 EDU 33

Friday 2-3 SASS 206A

SI leader Stephanie Cary scary@xyz.org

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ADVERTISING LABELS (sample)