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It’s 48 minutes into your hour-long one-shot and you are almost at the end of another library instruction session. The temptation is always to teach one last thing, especially because that one last thing is super awesome, at least in your mind. However, teaching is like flying an airplane–you need to make sure to land well. Ending classes well means both ending on a good note with your students and making sure you have the right data in hand to improve your classroom instruction.
Classroom assessment techniques or CATs, are various ways to finish a class session while providing yourself with important assessment information on the session. A simple Google search will provide you with countless CATs, yet not all are created equal. Here are two CATs that we have found to work well in our instructional settings.
Ruth’s current favorite CAT is to have students spend the last five minutes of class emailing her answers to an assessment prompt. The prompts can be really simple (“What’s one thing you learned today?”), but give you an idea of what the students actually took away from the session AND ensure that when the students run into research troubles down the road they have a way to contact you.
Eric enjoys passing out unlined notecards and asking students one or two questions. The questions can be vague, such as “what is one question that you still have?”, or more detailed to the specifics of the content. He also allows students the option to include their name to follow up with a reference appointment.
Looking for help in classroom strategies or assessment? Aestiva Solutions can help you evaluate and implement effective teaching techniques. Some of our offerings include providing staff workshops or giving feedback on your existing instructional program.
Chat with us today!
Ruth and Eric