1. Get your students to read the text before class without overloading yourself with grading. Make questions on the text to be turned in before the discussion. Randomize your electronic grade book each time and grade the top five. Call on the top five in class to give their responses.
2. Get your students to think more deeply. In class help your students analyze a familiar story, such as a fairy tale, using Bloom’s Taxonomy. Use a Bloom checklist as part of a rubric for grading written work.
3. Get your students to attend classes regularly and on time. Make a point system that has serious consequences for failure to attend and for being late to class as part of your syllabus and refer to it in class.
4. Make it safe to be creative in your class. Attack perfectionism head on!! Make at least one assignment where you ask students to make the worst mistakes they possibly can on purpose. Read their examples in class, thanking individual students for making the mistakes as an opportunity for learning for everyone. Ask the class first what is right about the example, and then how they would correct the errors. Be sure to very clearly and sincerely thank the person who gave the example in front of the whole class. In subsequent classes, refer to mistakes as learning opportunities.
5. Help students clearly see their own progress or lack thereof. Many students have a fragmented, distorted and fatalistic view of their school experiences. Try grading by portfolio for a more integrated and realistic view. Have the students collect their work over time in one place and present it to you. Provide checklists and rubrics so students will be clear on your expectations. Provide frequent opportunities for students to update portfolios and re-submit poor work. Retain the poor work with the better work as part of the portfolio. Randomize names and grade the top 5 frequently to keep students sharp and yourself sane.
from Sza again.