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EMAIL SUBMISSION OF READING ASSIGNMENTS IN CALCULUS I AND II
Very few calculus students have any experience reading a mathematics text before the material is discussed in class. In order to help students develop this skill, I gave specific reading assignments for most class meetings which included several basic questions that they should be able to answer after completing the . The students emailed me their responses before class, which gave me valuable insight to the students level of understanding before class. The student response rate to the assignments was very good, and most students indicated on supplemental evaluations that the reading assignments were a worthwhile part of the course.
Report
Pedagogical
Goals
In my calculus courses, I emphasize that mathematics is a liberal
art and that the students should be reading, writing and discussing
mathematics.
One problem I have repeatedly faced is structuring my courses
so that reading the text is a meaningful part of the course. In
particular, I have had a very difficult time getting the students
to complete the reading before the class meetings. I have fairly
modest expectations for the reading assignments: I want the students
to be familiar with the terminology and have a rough idea of the
the basic concepts from the section. Since very few of my students
have experience reading a math book, I want to give well-defined
goals for each reading assignment and reward the students' efforts.
In addition, I want to keep any grading of the assignments manageable.
Strategy
This fall, I gave reading assignments for nearly every class meeting
in Calculus I and II similar to ones I had assigned last spring
in Calculus I. I placed the assignments on the course web page
(which can be found from my homepage at http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/tratliff).
Each assignment indicates which parts of the reading should be
emphasized, which can be skipped, and contains two or three questions
that the students should be able to answer after they have completed
the assignment. The students emailed their answers to the questions
to me before each class. The messages had a specific subject lines
so that I could filter them into a separate folder. The students
were sent an automatic reply that their message had been received.
I read the assignments before class, which gave me valuable information
on the students' preparation for class. I selected several of
the best answers each day and saved them on a temporary web page.
Since the classes met in Science Center A102 (which has a computer
display capabilities), I was able to display these responses during
class, giving the students immediate feedback on their level of
understanding. The assignments were graded as either a 1 or 0,
and they counted for a total of 5% of the final grade.
Assessment
As in the spring, I am very pleased with the student participation:
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Last updated
on 12/06/00;
Send questions about this page to: Thomas Ratliffe
or contact Wheaton
College.