Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part IX)

Last night the students in the History 101: Western Civilization class that I’m teaching in the University of North Dakota’s snazzy new Scale-Up classroom submitted the first draft of their chapters. Those of you who follow this blog know that the core feature of this class involves “flipping” the textbook and making each of the 18, 9-student tables responsible for producing a chapter. The week before spring break saw each table prepare an outline for their chapter drawing on their careful work over the first 7 weeks of the semester. This outline not only organized their chapter but also set out which students were responsible for each part of the chapter. 

Watching the students work together to produce an outline and bringing their work together into a chapter was pretty remarkable. In general, the students approached these tasks with a seriousness of purpose. In the process of circulating from group to group, I learned a few things about classroom management:

1. Student Managed Groups. Students get annoyed when some of their group members don’t show up or pull their own weight, but, in general, the tables have done a remarkable job managing their groups. Most groups clearly could work together and handled the distribution of tasks in a pretty efficient way. While many of the Scale-Up pundits recommended formal ways to ensure tasks rotate at the table, I’ve yet to see any real issues with students dividing responsibilities evenly across the group.

2. The Three Computer Problem. One issue, however, is that each table only has three computers for nine students. This was an intentional feature of the Scale-Up room to facilitate student interaction and collaboration. The issue is, of course, that the laptop itself is not designed to accommodate multiple users. In fact, the basic design of the laptop is to create an intimate space between user and the tool. While it is possible to project the work from the laptop onto a large flatscreen monitor assigned to each table, the round table shape means that some students at the table can’t see the monitor without moving to a different position. None of this a deal breaker for the Scale-Up room, but it makes certainly kinds of exercises – like looking for images or sources on the web, writing anything longer that short texts, and any kind of formatting work – less than ideal in the Scale-Up setting. In effect, the three laptops become tools useful only in short bursts. And, since my class involves some sustained work during class time (e.g. writing an outline), most tables now have more than the three laptops running. 

3. A Little Something Extra. Last night was the first night that the groups completed the assignments faster than I anticipated. Most of this is owing to the increased efficiency of the groups. Tasks that involved significant planning at each table at the beginning of the semester now happen without the need for organization. Students have accepted certain tasks and get to work quickly. 

What this means from a course management standpoint is that exercises later in the semester have to be more complex and more densely scheduled. So when they ran out of work last night, I had to dip into my reserve of ideas to keep some of the more efficient groups active and moving forward. 

4. Keeping Momentum. Most groups had completed the tasks set for them this class and appeared to have momentum in terms of editing and working on their chapters. So I suggested that they take the last half hour of class to plan for the rest of the week. This instantly caused 70% of the class to leave. Apparently, there is a balance between giving the students open-ended tasks (prepare an outline) and giving them time without a clear objective (plan for future work). The former capitalizes on rapport and building momentum; the latter stops a class dead in its tracks and causes people to leave. 

5. What’s Next? As I look ahead toward the final part of the class which will focus on peer review, I have to convince the students of three things that are, frankly, not native to their species. First, they have to read other people’s work critically and make substantive comments. Next, they have to recognize the value of taking this work seriously not only for their own benefit but because it will benefit their classmates. And, finally, they have to stay on task and continue to assess and edit their own work.

For more on how my History 101 class has progressed in the Scale-Up classroom, check out my earlier posts.