A Recipe for Success (part of a faculty toolkit)

Earlier this month, I posted an item about a success toolkit for faculty (https://www.devmathrevival.net/?p=1266). Most faculty know that building student success is not a ‘one and done’ type of effort — feedback, suggestions, and problem solving are needed. Today, I want to share an update of a tool I like quite a bit — a “Recipe for Success”.

The idea for the Recipe for Success is that students — especially in developmental math courses — do not think enough about HOW they are approaching the course, that they often do not employ meta-cognitive skills. Meta-cognition is a very complex zone to work in, and getting students started can be a challenge. For years, I was not sure how to structure this component of success in a math classroom.

Last year, the faculty at Grayson County College (TX) shared a document called ‘Recipe for Success’ — originally developed by Stanley Henderson, who was kind enough to share it with me. After using it and revisions, the start of the form looks like this:

The form has 4 areas like, with 5 to 7 questions within each. After checking off a “ROSFA” rating for each, the student does the most important parts — a summary and a plan for improvement. The bottom looks like this:

I assign points for completing this activity, which I normally schedule about the fourth week of the semester (enough time to have a pattern of working on the course). Besides judging whether students were honest in answering the questions, I write some brief feedback on most of them (usually circling a couple of questions to think about).

If you want to take a look at the entire document, here is a link (PDF format): Recipe For Success in Math (Rotman Sept2012)

This type of activity can be a critical step in the process of building student success. The form itself does not cause an improvement — it’s students thinking about learning, and instructor comments, that make the difference.

Developmental Mathematics Revival!

Bringing a new vitality to college mathematics 2011 to 2019