Taking Roll: An Instructional Innovation

Would you appreciate an instructional method that both encourages students to attend class regularly and to respond to questions? We looked for one and found it. taking roll.

Taking roll regularly is one way to encourage students to attend class. It demonstrates that we value attendance, that attendance records are kept and absences are noted.

As well, most people like to hear their names spoken. It takes only three to five minutes to call the roll aloud, and calling each student's name by taking roll helps us become familiar with them—no small trick when you have classes of 100 or more.

The Added Objective

In addition to encouraging attendance, we want to encourage full class participation. Students are often reluctant to respond to questioning in class. Research findings document that a student who doesn’t respond toa question during the first three weeks of class probably won’t respond to a question for the rest of the semester. Therefore, we want students responding carly on, and so we combine taking roll with breaking the ice.

The Strategy Once we've established the seriousness of the course (the first and second day of class) by reviewing the syllabus, pre-testing, etc., we tell students that they are to answer the roll, which will be taken daily, by re- sponding to a general question posed at the beginning of class. Initially, the questions are “safe” and rela- tively nonthreatening: * “What's your major and where are you from?” e “What's your favorite food?” ¢ “If you could change places with anyone, who would it be?” Any response is acceptable, and minimum positive comments are made by the instructor. It takes approxi- mately seven to ten minutes to call roll in this fashion. As the semester progresses, so does the self-divulg- ing nature of the questions: * “What's your favorite television program?” ¢ “If you had to give a book as a gift, what book would you choose?” e “What's your greatest fear?” * “What is one thing you wish your parents or roommate would do?” * “What would constitute a ‘perfect’ date for you?”

* “When is the last time you cried in front of another person?”

¢ “If you could ask anyone three questions and receive an honest answer, who would you ask and what would you ask?”

e “If you could ask your best friend three questions about yourself and receive an honest answer, what three questions would you ask?”

Besides encouraging students and creating a shar- ing, accepting environment, the questions can direct the students’ thinking. For example:

* Lead in to the lecture on population: “If you could change any area of American socicty, what would it be?” “Do you agree with Thomas Malthus?”

* Lead in toa review of punctuation: “If you could gain one punctuation skill, what would it be?”

* Lead in to a chemistry lecture: “What chemical reaction that occurs in your daily life do you value most?”

After a few classes, the students begin to anticipate the questions. They also have suggestions for ques- tions, often with more depth than the instructor anticipated. (An excellent source is Gregory Stock’s The Book of Questions.)

Instructional Payoffs

Having students respond to a question as part of taking roll helps break the instructor-student silence barrier. Students now respond to content questions more comfortably, more eagerly and more often. We think some students come to class just to hear the day’s question and their classmates’ responses. In any case, they come to class more often, on time and respond in class more often. Taking roll has become an activity to which we all look forward.

Robert N. Boll, Division Chairperson, Humanities

Betty Parkman, Instructor, Psychology, Sociology and English

For further information, contact the authors at New Mexico Junior College, 5317 Lovington Highway, Hobbs, NM 88240.

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

September 9, 1988, Vol. X, No. 18

©The University of Texas at Austin, 1988 Further duplication is permitted by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel.

8

tium members for $35 per year. Funding

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizatonal Development (NISOD),

EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austn, Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsor- in part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and once dunng the summer. ISSN 0199-106X.