BACK          HOME

Shawn Ford
ED 299W
Workshop Report
Spring 1997

ED 299W: Workshop Report

Introduction

For the History 152 practicum classes of my ED 299W class, I conducted a series of workshops at the beginning of the semester designed to help the students develop effective study habits. These workshops included one on effective listening skills, one on techniques for taking notes, and one on strategies for taking exams. I decided to hold these workshops during the beginning of the semester with the intent that these workshops would lay a good foundation for the students' learning in History 152 throughout the rest of the semester. Although I tailored each workshop to fit the History 152 classroom setting, I also pointed out how each workshop could be applied to the students' other classes and even to their personal lives. In addition, I offered these workshops as a way of developing a good rapport with the students, hoping that they would come to me for tutoring assistance as the semester progressed.

As an extra incentive to get the students to attend the workshops, my practicum instructor agreed to offer extra credit points to students who attended the workshops. The instructor gave four points for each workshop attended and a total of fifteen points for attending all three. To receive extra credit points, students also had to turn in a one paragraph summary of each workshop that they attended. This was done as a way of reinforcing what was covered in the workshop by having the students review and rewrite their notes from the workshop. The students had until the end of the semester to turn in their summaries.

Methodology

My first workshop was on effective listening skills. Most of the information that I gave in the workshop came directly from handouts given in ED 101. I first read a newspaper story to test how well the students were listening. Then I asked them questions regarding the story so that they could gauge how well they listened. I then went over the seven "Facts About Listening", conducted the brief "Quiz 3" on listening habits, talked about "Active Listening", and finally told them the "10 Keys to Effective Listening".

My second workshop was on techniques for note taking. All of the techniques that I described came directly from the "Note Taking Strategies" video that is in the college's Learning Assistance Center (LAC). I first told the students how important the sense of sight is in the learning process by using figures given in the video. Then I explained the note taking technique described in the video by drawing a picture of a notebook on the board and labeling the parts of the pages. After showing them the technique, I relayed several other note taking hints to the students such as writing in pen, dating their notes, highlighting single words instead of sentences, discouraging the use of tape recorders, and the use of symbols and shorthand to write notes quickly.

My third workshop was on exam taking strategies. Most of the strategies that I passed on to the students came from the "Exam Taking Strategies" video and handout that is in the LAC. I supplemented these strategies with some of my own that I had developed from taking the practicum teacher's tests in the past. I broke the workshop down into two parts: before the exam and during the exam. I encouraged the students to begin studying for their exams as early as possible by paying attention during lectures, taking good notes, and reviewing their notes often. I then went over the ten pre-exam strategies from the "Exam Taking Strategies" handout. While talking about what to do during the exam, I first went over the ten strategies from the handout, then I picked an essay question from the practicum teacher's study guide to break down and analyze. I also recommended that the students take the test in a particular order.

Each of my three, 45 minute workshops were offered at four different times on two different days in order to try to reach as many students as possible. I offered a workshop just before and just after the Monday night class. I also offered a workshop two hours before and just after the Thursday night class. The classrooms that I used for the workshops were the same classrooms used by the practicum class. Additionally, I reserved the meeting times for the entire semester at the beginning of the semester to ensure that I would have a space for each session.

The table below indicates my workshop schedule:

Results

The following table shows the number of students who attended each workshop and the number of summaries received for each workshop:

The next table indicates the total number and percentages of students who attended one, two, or three of the workshops, the percentages of students who attended workshops based on the total number of students enrolled in the practicum classes at the beginning of the semester (62), and the total number of extra credit point given out:

As the two previous tables show, the workshops were well attended. A full 59% of the total number of students enrolled in the practicum classes at the beginning of the semester attended at least one workshop and 26% attended all three. Overall, there were 36 different students who attended the workshops, and a large percentage of those (44%) attended all three.

The figures also show some interesting results regarding human behavior. Of the 16 students who attended all three workshops, 3/4 of them turned in their required summaries. Three students who attended all three workshops did not bother turning in their summaries, therefore, they did not receive any extra credit. The nine students who came to two workshops came to the first two and not to the last one. Of those nine, only five turned in both of their summaries. Of the 11 students who attended just one workshop, six of them came to the first one. Only two students who attended just one of the workshops handed in their summary.

All of the summaries that were turned in were reviewed for content. Most of the students wrote more than the required paragraph summary. Most of the summaries were accurate and well written. Many of them also contained statements that suggested that they would begin following the strategies given in the workshops. Not until later in the semester when I conducted the classroom CATs would I find out how many students were using the workshop techniques.

As far as the workshops having any effect on the grades was concerned, that seemed to be very hard to tell. Based on past classes that did not have workshops or a tutor, the practicum instructor believed that the final grade distribution was very similar. However, when she compared the number of students who attended two or more workshops to those who did not attend any, she found a huge difference in the number of students who received passing grades. Of the three people who received "A's", two of them attended all three workshops and one did not attend any. Only two people who attended two or more workshops received "F's", and those people attended all three. Most of the remaining students who attended the workshops received "B's" or "C's", with only a few "D's". A large majority of the students who did not attend any workshops received "D's" or "F's", and most of those were "no-shows".

Analysis

All in all, I was very pleased with the workshops. When I held my first one, I was terrified. As I held more, I gained confidence and actually began having fun. The first session of each workshop was the roughest, and they gradually got better until the last session.

I was surprised to see so many students attend the workshops. I had anticipated a turnout of around 10%, but the turnout was five times that amount. I do believe that the high attendance rate was due to the extra credit given; that is why the practicum teacher and I decided to give extra credit, and it worked.

The fact that workshops were held at different times and on different days to accommodate students' work schedules was very effective. It is interesting to note that the sessions before the Monday class were well attended, while the sessions before the Thursday class were not, even though they were at the same times. Also, the sessions after the Monday class were not well attended, while the sessions after the Thursday class were, even though the Thursday class met 1 1/2 hours later in the evening. I cannot explain why this was so.

I was very surprised to see that most of the students wrote such in-depth summaries for the workshops. They had been told that they only needed to write a brief paragraph, but many of them wrote whole page reports. This could be explained due to the fact that the students were told that their instructor would be reviewing their summaries before she gave extra credit; however, this was not exactly the case. This was a ruse by the instructor and I to get the students to turn in something other that scribbled notes. This turned out to be very helpful in determining whether or not the students learned anything from the workshops.

What surprised me most about the summaries was the fact that a majority of the students who attended all three workshops handed in their summaries, while a majority of those who attended one or two did not hand in their summaries. This could be explained by suggesting that the students who attended all three workshops were diligent and interested in getting extra credit to improve their grades. On the other hand, perhaps those students who attended fewer than three workshops did not feel like the few extra points would help their grades.

I am not sure what to make of the grade distribution, as the practicum instructor believed that the final grades were comparable to previous semesters' classes. It is interesting to note that two of the students who received "A's" attended all three workshops. It is very possible that these were serious students who would have received "A's" anyway. The other interesting point is that only two people who attended two or more workshops received "F's", while many students who attended one of fewer received "D's" or "F's". In addition, the two students who attended workshops and received "F's" also did not turn in any of their summaries, therefore, they did not receive any extra credit points.

As far as my own analysis of myself was concerned, I believe that my main strength throughout the workshop sessions was patience. This was very important in dealing with so many different personalities while I was not really in an authority role. My main weakness was my nervousness in front of an audience. However, after several workshops and more practice, I started getting more confident. That relieved some of the nervousness. If I could improve on anything, it would be my confidence in front of a group. If I could change anything, I would conduct my workshops exactly the same way all over again, because it was a great learning experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I feel that conducting these workshops as a part of the practicum class was very beneficial to me. I worked hard to organize them and to present them in a way that would be helpful for the students. I received invaluable experience with working with small and large groups of students as well as speaking in front of crowds, which is a weak point of mine.

I also feel that the workshops were very helpful for the students. They were conducted at the right time of the semester, when the students had little homework to do. This time was also good because it gave them essential strategies and techniques that helped them in their classes for the rest of the semester. The themes of each workshop were good because they highlighted weak points that many students have in content area courses such as history. Holding the workshops at different times and on different day was important to try to reach as many students as possible. The workshops were also a great way to get the know the students and to develop a rapport with them so that they would come to see me as a tutor during the rest of the semester. I would recommend this type of strategy to all content area tutors.

TOP          BACK          HOME

contents (c) 2001 Shawn Ford/ Webb-Ed Press
sford@hawaii.edu