By LIZETTE MUÑOZ ROJAS and JOSIE RUSH

As the semester winds down and the weather turns colder, it’s a great time to cozy up with a book. Books about teaching and learning can offer ideas about how to make productive changes or even new perspectives on “old” strategies. At the Teaching Center, we’ve put together a short list of recently published (or re-published) pedagogical books that you might consider for a holiday read that can benefit you in the new year.

“Grading for Growth” by David Clark and Robert Talbert

While we have been compelled to think critically about grades for close to a quarter of a century, the pandemic truly put into perspective the pedagogical meaning of grading in the face of life-altering conditions. I became interested in alternative grading practices because of their impact on student self-reports of reduced stress and anxiety, which is a key aspect of promoting student well-being.

Traditional grading, usually provided in the form of a number attached to a quiz that cannot be retaken or an essay that cannot be resubmitted, can often have the effect of curtailing students’ growth. Clark and Talbert turn to fellow instructors at a diverse array of higher ed institutions to compare and contrast their application of alternative grading practices, such as standards-based grading, specifications grading, and ungrading.

Regardless of topic or class size, instructors who embrace alternative grading practices: a) use clearly defined learning objectives to assess students’ progress, b) give students helpful, actionable feedback, c) indicate progress with forward looking summaries of their feedback (i.e., “Almost” or “Not Yet”), and d) allow revisions without penalty, using the feedback they provide, until learning objectives are met.

Reading this book, I realized I have been implementing alternative grading practices all along, and this framework helped me better articulate to my students the relevance and usefulness of the feedback I offer.

“Classroom Assessment Techniques: Formative Feedback Tools for College and University Teachers” (3rd ed.) by Thomas Angelo and Todd Zakrajsek

Grading practices, whether traditional or alternative, sanction a one-way flow of feedback, from instructors to students. If, like me, you’ve found yourself wondering how to concretely demonstrate that your pedagogical choices are guided by a student-centered rationale, look no further.

“Classroom Assessment Techniques” is an instructor-led effort to systematically and collaboratively get and give feedback to improve the effectiveness and quality of teaching and learning. Angelo and Zakrajsek astutely assert that teaching without learning is just talking, and the consistent application of classroom assessment techniques, or CATs, before and/or between scheduled high-stakes evaluations can help instructors gather evidence of students’ interaction with the teaching opportunities designed for them.

More importantly, in eliciting student feedback, we are inviting students to take an active role in their own education, which aligns with fostering life-long skills such as becoming self-assessing, self-directed and self-regulating learners.

This book guides us through the process of planning, implementing and responding to more than 50 CATs. The Minute Paper continues to be the most popular and versatile CAT, and has a full chapter devoted to its successful application across disciplines, institutions, course goals and student populations. In this CAT, students are given a short amount of time to share in writing what the most important thing they learned in a session was and what questions remain in their minds as the session wraps up. I usually use this technique to answer questions on the spot or to anchor the beginning of the following session to students’ pre-existing knowledge.

“Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning” (2nd ed.) by James M. Lang

What I valued most about “Small Teaching” when I first read it (my second semester ever teaching a class) was that it allowed me, mid-semester, to make manageable, effective changes to my classroom that demonstrably improved students’ engagement and learning.

The promise of “Small Teaching” is that it will suggest actionable plans for improving learning in your classroom, without requiring you to overhaul an entire course. Each chapter offers an accessible theoretical overview of the research that supports the suggested pedagogical practices, examples of how an instructor might put the theory into practice, principles to guide the pedagogy, and quick tips to help instructors assess the effectiveness of their intervention.

For example, one strategy I picked up from “Small Teaching” is asking students to collaboratively create a concept map during a unit, charting ideas across readings and discussions. Not only does the concept map serve as a student-created resource to which they can turn during activities and assignments, but it also prompts students to make connections between ideas in the course, deepening their understanding of class concepts. The strategy can take as little as 10 minutes of class time and doesn’t require an inordinate amount of preparation from the instructor.

Starting small and simple is a shared theme in these three enriching reads. And that’s precisely how we envision you engaging with them. For example, in “Grading for Growth,” you may want to go straight to their Case Study List (p. ix) and find a colleague’s classroom that most resembles yours to find an alternative grading example to adapt to your course. In “Classroom Assessment Techniques,” you may want to turn to Chapter 5 to familiarize yourself with the research that supports the effectiveness of the Minute Paper and learn more about its variation, the Muddiest Point. You could also approach “Small Teaching” with curiosity for the tools that will allow your students to better understand a topic, such as generating concept maps, transitioning from analog to digital. These books can be read from start to finish and are also great as just-in-time teaching resources.

If you do cross “read a great book about teaching” off your wish list, and you think the book is worth discussing with colleagues, consider sharing it with us. To get you started, the Teaching Center is organizing a collective discussion on improving student learning guided by a close reading of “Small Teaching.” We invite you all to register and join us from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Jan. 22 at 815 Alumni Hall.  

Remember that we are here to support you as you prepare for the new year: Check out our website for resources, and feel free to reach out if you’d like a one-on-one consultation. The Teaching Center wishes everyone a joyful holiday season.

Lizette Muñoz Rojas is a senior teaching consultant in the University Center for Teaching and Learning and the program manager for the Graduate Student Teaching Initiative. Josie Rush is a senior teaching consultant at the Center for Teaching and Learning and a part-time composition instructor at Pitt.