Got a Minute? The Pros of One-Minute Papers

Looking for a quick and simple way to collect written feedback from students?  Try implementing the minute-paper!

What is a minute-paper?

Designed by Berkeley physics professor Charles Schwartz, a minute-paper is actually exactly as it sounds: a paper that you ask students to write in just a minute or two.  Instructors provide a question or two that is focused on class content that has been discussed or assigned, the students hand in their papers before leaving class for the day, and the instructor then has written feedback from students providing insight on student understanding, confusion, and active listening.  Because minute papers are quick to administer and easy to analyze, they are perfect for use in large classes.

When can I use the minute paper?

Really any time during the class period is a good time for minute papers.  You might start the class off with a question about what they thought was the most significant point in the assigned reading for class that day.  You could take a break in the middle of class for students to critically think about the content you’d been discussing.  Some instructors like to end class with minute papers to gauge overall student understanding on the lecture from that day.  Whenever you choose to implement minute papers, they all serve the same purpose—to seal ideas in students’ minds, provide you with an idea of where they are in their learning, and help them develop critical thinking skills.

What should the questions look like?

Your questions can be a large majority of things.  You might choose to keep your questions the same each time you assign a minute paper, like these:

1)      What is the most significant thing you learned today?

2)      What question is uppermost in our minds at the end of today’s session?

Or they could be more content-specific, like these:

1)      Explain the relationship you witnessed between today’s readings and the readings we discussed last week.

2)      We’ve just talked about the scientific flaws in Jurassic Park III.  Write for one minute on which you consider to be the most serious.

Or they could have some fun with them by using questions like these:

1)      You are going to make a movie of Galileo.  Cast the major characters using contemporary actors.  Provide a two or three sentence rationale for your casting choices.

2)      Dear Abby: My high school teacher said I could never use “I” in an essay.  Now I’m at UW-Eau Claire and I’m being told the most horrible things, like I can use “I” if it’s appropriate.  What should I do?  Is that true?  And if so, when is it appropriate?  Signed, “I” am confused in Eau Claire”

Are there other perks to using one-minute papers?

Yes!  If you choose to have students include their names on their papers, you can also use these as attendance trackers.  Otherwise, it’s perfectly acceptable for answers to remain completely anonymous—often an encouraging aspect for introverted students.  You can have students create tables, graphs, or other graphics in place of written answers is you prefer.  Plus, according to several studies at universities including Berkeley, Indiana, and Nebraska-Lincoln, students consistently find the use of minute papers fun and engaging.

Tip Provided By: Jessica Moser

Adapted from: Berkeley University 

Grading Collaborative Writing in the College Classroom

We’ve all witnessed the reactions to mention of the dreaded group project.  Worse still, the deafening collective gasp of shock when talk of a collaborative paper is thrown in the mix.  It’s no secret that college students fear group assignments, and with the difficulties of scheduling meetings, separating work, and relying on complete strangers to do their portion of the project with as much vigor and studious focus as one would do it individually?  Well, needless to say, it can be a stressful concept.

In fact, I can remember back to my first college group paper, and the ultimate betrayal I felt when I stayed up night after night researching, organizing, and writing, only to find out that my other group members waited until the day before it was due to do their own portions.  Then, it’s like some sort of unwritten code among the student body (especially in freshman level courses, mind you) to make sure that everyone gets an adequate grade on the peer evaluations.  The peer pressure in that alone is enough to make one question why they didn’t just do the entire project on their own from the get-go.

So, amidst all of this struggle, one question remains:  how is it possible to adequately and fairly grade a collaborative group project or paper?

An article released by Carnegie Mellon listed the different options concerning individual grading on a group scale.  One of these options was to have each student write a reflective journal piece to hand in with their group work.  This journal includes the things they struggled with individually with the project and how they overcame those struggles, and then also discusses the overall contributions of each group member, how often the group met before handing in their project, and any other details students might like to share with you concerning the completion of the project.  If you are planning on utilizing this type of assessment, make sure students know that their responses in these journals will remain confidential, and only you will be reading them.  Other ideas included individual quizzes or exams after group papers have been handed in to make sure all members of the group were equally fluent on the content their paper or project addressed.

If you’d like to be a little more personal with your assessments, and the class size isn’t too daunting, have students schedule individual conferences with you to discuss how the collaborative side of things went.  That way, you can take notes, and it enables you to discuss the importance of group roles within your classroom beforehand.  If students enter a project knowing that they will have to face you with information on their contribution, and that others will be telling you directly about their contributions as well, chances are they will be at least slightly more motivated to put their fair share of effort forth.

It's also strongly recommended that you never give a flat group grade to every person within the group.  Since students tend to split work among themselves in order to then bring their pieces together to create a larger cohesive piece, it might be beneficial for group members to label portions they personally are able to take credit for before handing in the finished product.  That way, you are able to better assess individual portions as well as take into account the finished product as a whole.  Utilizing a rubric that hosts point values for both the collaborative and individual aspects separately will help make grading and providing feedback seamless and consistent.

Tip Provided By:  Jessica Moser

Textbooks and Active Note-Taking Strategies

I remember taking my first textbook centered class in college.  We read chapters at a time and then listened to lectures on the content.  It seemed pretty standard at the beginning, but after the introduction and beginning chapters were over, and we began with more in-depth material, I quickly became overwhelmed.  There I was, sitting on the floor of my freshman dorm room, an arrayed collection of highlighters within easy reach, a notebook perched precariously on my lap, and I had no idea where to start.

That semester, I think I spent more time in my professor's office than in my dorm room, asking questions, and trying to better understand the content.  I got a tutor for the subject.  I asked friends for help.  Nothing seemed to work.  That was, until a friend of mine, two years my senior, suggested I look up tips on reading a textbook.  I had scoffed.  I was an English major.  I didn't need tips on how to read.  Reading was my life!  But to humor her, or maybe just to try and prove her wrong, I spent some time googling, and realized: I didn't know how to read a textbook.

I would put money on the fact that this is a hugely widespread issue that many college students have to work through.  Luckily, some of them are able to figure it out on their own with enough time and practice, but some students aren't as fortunate--spending semester after semester struggling with understanding content simply because they don't know how to effectively read or organize it once they understand it.

As it turns out, the key to reading a textbook has nothing to do with the actual act of reading, but instead, the ways in which students process, take notes on, and study the information they read about.  Therefore, the real problem has to do with how students work with the information they are given, and most of them are doing it wrong.

What most students perceive as good note-taking etiquette, is actually the opposite.  Students highlight full pages of text, they write down vocabulary words and only focus on the definitions, not the use of the words themselves.  They make flash cards and focus on route memorization to get them through tests.  They write things word-for-word from their texts, expecting that to be enough of a tool to remember what it means.  In reality, none of these things are effective learning techniques, and instead, have been proven across the board to promote a less engaged system of memory retention.

Instead, students should be using active note-taking procedures: putting things into their own words, making real-world or personal connections to the things they read, jotting things down in the margins instead of highlighting, or summarizing each page with one or two main thoughts written on sticky notes.  They should be considering titles, subtitles, and reviewing the questions that are at the end of the chapter before they even begin reading.

My proposal is this: for professors that choose to utilize textbooks, the first class of the semester can be used to show examples of how to effectively read and take notes on chapters within their texts.  Explain that there are several different techniques they can use (like the ones listed in the previous paragraph), but using an entire highlighter per chapter is not the way to go about it--mostly because it won't help them remember any of it, but also because they're college students and highlighters are expensive.

Look for resources (like this video) that might be helpful in illustrating how to put active note-taking skills to good use, and share them with your students before you begin the semester to make sure they're getting the most from your class, and you're getting the most from them.

Tip Provided By:  Jessica Moser