Campus: University of Washington
4. Post Exam Reflection
Educator: Colleen Craig, Lecturer – Chemistry
Context: Out of class; General Chemistry
Keywords: exam wrapper, study skills
Student Activity Time: 10 minutes
Students reflected on their preparation for a chemistry exam.
Introducing the Reflection Activity
Taking just a few moments to reflect on both exam performance and preparation can provide useful insight to improve performance on future exams.
Early in the term, the educator assigned a translation writing task. The students selected science or engineering literature that they were interested in, rewrote 4-5 paragraphs in their own words, reviewed it, and rewrote the text for a 4th grader. The educator read and graded the students’ assignments for completion and returned them in the next class meeting. During that class meeting, the educator gave the students a few minutes to write about their observations and the experience of translating technical material. Then the educator facilitated a 20 minute conversation about the assignment and asked students why they felt the 4th grade version was a better than the first translation version.
As a result of the activity, students were able to consider how their technical writing can be understood or misunderstood by both fellow engineers and the general public. They also recognized the iterative nature of technical writing and identified strategies to ensure that their writing could be well understood by others.
Recreating the Reflection Activity
| Step | Description |
| 1 | Administer, grade, and return the course exam. |
| 2 | Send students the post-exam reflection survey via the course management tool. |
| 3 | Give students participation points for completing the entire post-exam reflection survey. |
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| In the words of the Educator: Tips and Inspiration |
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Take the time to talk about it before and after. I put the activity in the context of 4th graders because when you’re writing for the general public it should be right around that reading level. In order to communicate with someone who is outside of your immediate field, you have to take into consideration that they just may not know the jargon or assumptions that you do. In the beginning I also show the “Talk nerdy to me” TED talk by Melissa Marshall. After they do it, I give them a chance to write about the assignment and then we talk. I always give them a chance to write on their own, as it helps to have a substantive conversation as a class. Have them do it more than once. This was a very good exercise in general because it gets students to think about their own voice and style in writing. The next time, I’ll make this a regular exercise instead of changing assignments every week. There were students who picked up really complex technical pieces that were very difficult to translate into language for a 4th grader. It may have frustrated the students to write it, but it’s still beneficial because there is a benefit to trying to simplify these difficult concepts. What was the inspiration for the reflection activity? A lot of the problem with tech writing is not that the material is difficult, but that it is presented in a difficult way. The order in which you go from point A to point B, to C and D is not always in that order – there isn’t always a clear story. When you’re talking to a 4th grader, you have to tell them a sequential story. I want students to take a step back and say “what is the essence of this piece that I just read? What does it actually mean? How do they actually do this?” Then their goal is to tell it to a 4th grader. The other reason I think the 4th grade version is so much better is because they have already done the first draft in their own, more sophisticated words. Then the 4th grade version becomes the second clearer draft. |