Barry Westling

Hi Frank: I think every class occassionly has high and lower performers, and as teachers, we're presented with challenges of how to teach to diverse groups with wide ranges of ability. I just have to resign myself to the fact that, for whatever reasons, these students are expected to attend my class. My approach is "if they know the material, put them to work". When I've had exceptional students, and the activity is a discussion or group activity, I separate the high performers into their own group, and they get a more challenging exericse or topic. A related activity is… >>>

Hi Rhonda: Another great example. Even studying outside of class, if students can re-write their notes, read their notes aloud, put on a fresh pot of coffee or tea and have someone read the notes back, these are just a few ways senses can inhance the learning process. Even reading the rewritten notes into a tape recorder, and play back the tape, hearing their own voice as they read the study cards, here's another example of multiples senses being applied. BTW the coffee/tea thing: if a student can associate pleasurable with study material, that reinforces the retention of information as… >>>

Hi Tracy: THe component system works well for many teachers. Using components, differents types of assignments are grouped together to form categories, such as homework, quizzes, lab assignments, discussions, tests, projects, etc. Then percent weight is applied to the category. Deciding how much weight is kind of a trial and error, but my experience has been to guage factors such as how much time is spent, to what degree does the component contribute to grasping the core concepts, and a fair distribution of weight, to avoid what you identified, having a large percentage ofthe grade come from a single test.… >>>