If it seems like I'm blogging about my quiz techniques all the time, it's because I'm experimenting with approaches and seeing what works. I've already told you about my "Quiz Grader/Note Taker" routine and the time I borrowed David Droppa's "collaborative quiz" routine. Tonight I did a variation on the latter: after everyone finished the quiz, I partnered them up and had them consult with one another about their answers before grading it as a class. This, I felt, solved the problem of "peer pressuring me into the wrong answer" which the students reported the last time I did a collaborative quiz (where students worked together in generating answers). What I liked about this latest method was that it encouraged the students to recognize the authority they already had (or didn't) over the material.

And it eased the tension in the room, too... a little levity was necessary, I think. It's that time of year. I want the students to put their energy into their term essay (a shot list and analysis) rather than basic material from the textbook. In fact, I typically design my courses so that by midterms the students will ideally have learned the basic discourse of the field of study (in this case, cinema technique and discourse terminlogy) and in the second half of the term they put it to use through some creative application, critical essay, or independent research project. This allows the class to be come progressively student-centered over time; as much as I try to "dive right in" to a student-centered classroom, they resist it until they warm up to the class dynamic.

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