Last year, I came up with what I thought was a fun and eventful “finale” for my nineteenth-century art history course. But when I was talking to a student in the class right prior to the start of the final exam/finale period, she uttered words that made me pause: “Presentations are the worst!”
I gulped. I asked her, plaintively, as we were about to go into the finale class period, I had no time to make a course correction, and they were, in fact, going to be presenting. I asked her, probably rather plaintively, “Why?! Why are they the worst?” She noted that everyone is bored, people read off the page, and no one really cares about what is being presented.
I realized at that moment that I hadn’t asked my students about what would be a good finale experience for the class. My plan had been that each student would engage the rest of the class in a visual analysis of a work of art, and that each student explained his or her Reacting Game character’s future, which is what often happens in the debriefing part of a Reacting to the Past game. The students had a good experience in the Art in Paris game in this, the 2017 run. But this “finale” was anything but.
For those who have moved away from final exams, how often do we ask students for their input on final experiences? I have moved away from final exams because I think that they play to only a small sub-set of students who do well on memorization and leave behind many students who do not do well with such recall of information. Plus, it’s a shallow area of learning – memorization and recall. I am working for deeper understanding than knowing the dates and titles and artists of paintings and being able to spit back at me and the stress of composing an essay under time pressure to demonstrate understanding.
I have moved to "finale experiences," which count less than overall grades related to class participation (which always include active learning), written critical analysis papers, visual analysis papers, speeches from Reacting games, museum papers and other interpretive work. In thinking about "finales" for my classes I am considering this:
- Let them choose a group or pairing and work with students with whom they feel comfortable. I will tell them that they will need a group on the last day of class so there is time for them to get paired/grouped up and I can facilitate if anyone can’t find a group or a partner.
- Give them a painting when they come to the finale to lead a class discussion about – we do this in class during the semester, but I am thinking I will give them a painting that is from the future – past 1889 when the class ends.
- They will get the painting when they arrive in class, but they will have time in the period to research it and plan what they will ask the class.
- I will circulate around the class and help them. And I will have to choose images carefully for such a finale project.
But this will do two things. First, it will have them use the skills that they were developing in the class and will build confidence in their abilities to talk about works of art to a setting of students and work in teams. And second, it hopefully won’t be “the worst” because they will be talking with and to each other.
What do you all do for finale experiences in a class rather than a final exam?
