Notes and News

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the February Issue of Teaching Central. You may notice as you read through this issue that we have concentrated on classroom assessment techniques.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) can help you find out what your students know before that big test. Doing an assessment after teaching smaller elements of information provides numerous advantages. It allows you to re-teach if needed for those stubborn topics, but also allows you to stop teaching when your students have learned the material. Another major advantage of using CATs is allowing your students to understand what they do/do not understand. Students (and you) can then confidently move into the next segment.

The book review this month is on Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide and our Article by CMU student Amanda Archer and the Tips of the Trade also follow the theme.

Also, check out the teaching resource on FaCIT’s website on classroom assessment techniques at http://www.facit.cmich.edu/instructional-development/links/cats.htm.

Many months FaCIT will also provide a corresponding faculty learning activity to follow the theme. Note that there is a workshop this month Classroom Assessment Tips:  How to Quickly Determine What Your Students Are Learning.

Until next time,
Ireta