Barry Westling

Jordan, You're right, that is a form of pretesting. In a three week course, modifying the usual way a pretest is performed would seem to be necessary. Perhaps by asking questions as you do. Because of the diversity of ages, it might be an interesting activity to break the class up into say, three groups and have each group work for 10 minutes answering 3-4 questions collectively. Then, each group could present their answers to class. Then, any added emphasis or clarification you want to provide could follow each group's presentation. This whole thing wouldn't take more than thirty minutes,… >>>

Valerie, Great! A good back-up plan should be as solid as the regular, planned activity. I've found the times I've initiated a back-up plan most commonly is when whatever I had planned is not able to be conducted for whatever reasons. So, for back-up plans, I use activities that are low tech, easy to implemment, related to the subject matter, involves their primary career choice, and is interesting and fun. I don't want students to feel as though I'm just filling time. Also, if done smoothly, the students don't even have to know something different from what was planned is… >>>

Jeannine, Exactly! Although some believe the extra time putting a pretest together is not worth the effort, I would disagree. The pretest doesn't have to be comprehensive or lengthly, just sort of a "toe in the water" to see where the students as a whole are at. One way to approach it is to take the key learning objectives as the basis for the questions. A variation is to take one or two key objectives that are essential to the course and assess a number of questions based on a single objective. Almost any way you slice it, the results… >>>