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VOLUME XVIi, NUMBER 16

88 INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD), COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, THE

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN » WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

 

Visual Poster as Reading Quiz

Testing students’ understanding of their reading
assignments and their preparedness for class discussion
based on these assignments is often accomplished by brief
quizzes at the beginning of class. These quizzes may
require short-answer responses to questions about the
readings, true-false responses, one- or two-page
freewrites, or examples of applications.

After several years of quizzing students and dealing
with their concerns about material and questions, |
decided to try another approach. Embarking on a
particularly complex section of readings about rights vs.
responsibilities in American society (in preparation for a
research writing assignment), I found several students
confused by the scholarly language of some of the
readings, and others overwhelmed by the complexity of
the social issues in the articles. I decided to make this
assignment: Take one reading (of the six for today’s
class), evaluate it carefully, find the main ideas or topic
areas of the article, and make a poster explaining your
understanding of the major ideas.

The students’ looks of boredom and frustration turned
to expressions of stunned surprise and excitement. They
asked questions.

Question 1: “You mean this will be our homework
assignment?”

“No, this will be your quiz grade—
visually analyze and explain one of the
readings in a poster.”

“What kind of posters should they be—
how should we set them up?”

“Any way you like—use colored markers,
cut and paste, glue beans in a diagram,
sew a pattern, make a collage, present a
diagram or chart. They can take whatever
form you feel comfortable with in assess-
ing one of the articles. But present the
facts in a way that is clear and easy to
understand. Be prepared to present these
briefly to us at the beginning of next
class.”

“How will you grade them?”

“Chiefly by the clarity, the points made
(and understood), and the amount of
effort demonstrated.”

My response:

Question 2:

My response:

Question 3:
My response:

  

I then presented an overview of the assignment of
social rights vs. responsibilities, including potential
topical applications to issues such as gun control, capital
punishment, smokers’ rights, affirmative action, and
separation of church and state. The remaining 15 minutes
in class allowed students to confer with each other, plana
strategy, or clarify directions.

Then they were on their own to create individual
posters. Was I ever surprised! An African American
student had outlined a chart of legal cases claiming
discrimination against blacks in the workplace, covering a
period of nearly 100 years. (The case studies had been the
focus of one of the readings.) The case name, date of each,
and brief outcome were outlined on a 36”x 30” cardboard
poster. Dark, somber colors simulated the serious nature
of this issue. All listened attentively while she reviewed
these cases and added her opinion about the probable
future direction of such litigation.

Could she have done so thorough a job if I had asked
her merely to memorize these cases? I doubt it. Based on
personal interest and relationship to this social concern,
she drew more meaning from this reading than from
some of the others, but she also deepened the class's
understanding of this issue as we noted her passionate
devotion to the topic.

Another student had designed a 30”x 24” poster
shaped like the United States. She had pasted photos of
babies’ faces—African American, Asian, Native Ameri-
can, Anglo, and so on—to the poster and printed the
words: “Will they grow up equal?” Then she had printed
excerpts from three major political speeches emphasizing
freedom and placed them in various locations on her
“map”—highlighting the word FREE in each passage:
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE, and THE CONSTITUTION (14th
Amendment). She explained that hope for greater
equality rests with today’s children—an interesting
perception growing out of one of the readings.

A third poster addressed gun control, the focus of
another article. This student copied a variety of local and
national newspaper articles written about her side of the
issue, reduced them, and arranged them chronolog: ‘ally
in a flowchart on a 30”\ 30° posterboard. She hac
highlighted the titles of each with a marker. As we

= THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
(C92) Community College Leadership Program. Department of Educational Administration
SZ College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, SZB 348, Austin, Texas 78712