Guidelines for Instructors of Math
Guidelines for Instructors of Math 1426 (Calculus I) Jan '07
Beginning in Fall 2003, the Calculus Committee implemented some changes (such as standardizing testing and grading) in the curriculum of Calculus I and II. The goal of these changes is to produce students who are better prepared for the next course in the sequence. In order to achieve this goal, the instructors of these courses must cooperate in the writing and grading of exams, the writing of labs, and other issues. This cooperation requires that instructors give up some of the autonomy that they are accustomed to exercising in their classes. If you cannot agree to this cooperative teaching policy, you should request another teaching assignment.
Course Coordinator:Michaela Vancliff < >
Grade Allocation:Midterm 120% Midterm 225%
Final Exam35% Lab20%
Midterms and Final:approx. 50% show-work problems & approx. 50% multiple choice
LABS: The instructor is 100% responsible for planning lab activities (more on this below) and is required to be present in the lab at least 50% of the time. This part of the course should be divided by time equally between 2 components: recitation and problem solving.
Recitation consists of working on problems from the assignment sheet. You (or the assisting GTA(s)) may answer questions and/or you may have students present their solutions. There should be some grading of this component: quizzes and/or taking up homework. You need not attend recitation but your GTA must.
Problem-solving activities should be done in groups, generally 2-4 students. You and your GTA should be available in the lab to answer questions, but the help you provide should be more in the nature of hints or suggestions, rather than detailed explanations (see the GTA guidelines for some examples).
Instructors usually share the writing of the problem-solving activities (with the coordinator's approval) and all sections usually work on the same problem-solving activities simultaneously. However, if you do not like a certain problem-solving activity worksheet, you may – with the coordinator’s approval - substitute a worksheet from one of the following sources:
the departmental list contains appropriate problems from the text
past problem-solving activities are kept in a drawer of a filing cabinet in the Math Office
some PC labs that can be found at http://www.uta.edu/math/Calculus
Keep in mind that problem-solving activities should involve some independent thought on the part of the student and should not be the type of skill-building exercises that are found on the assignment sheet. If you are teaching the course for the first time, you may wish to review some of the past labs to get an idea of the type of problems that we work on in lab.
Labs written for the PC should not try to teach students how to use MATHEMATICA or any other computer software. Labs should use the software to solve a problem or as a visual aid to demonstrate a concept. (See the PC labs on the website above for how to teach a concept without spending time teaching the software.) Your students should spend no more than 8 hours per semester in the PC Lab. Instructors book the PC Lab for the times they need in advance, by writing the details on the white board in the PC Lab soon after the semester starts.
A suggested allocation of the lab grade is to give equal weight to the components of the lab grade: quizzes/homework and problem-solving/review activities.
A suggested allocation of your time is to have the GTA conduct the recitation sections one day per week and to have a problem-solving activity the other day. Both you and the GTA should attend class on problem-solving days. During the week of each midterm and the final, you will probably want to devote both lab periods to questions.
GTA DUTIES: Guidelines are provided to your GTA(s); a copy of them is included in your information packet. In summary, your assigned GTA(s) will
assist you in lab on your problem-solving days
on recitation days, GTAs will answer questions in lab from students regarding problems on the assignment sheet and on graded papers that have been returned
administer quizzes (no more than 15 minutes in duration) in lab (if you need a proctor for the midterms or final, see Shelley Worley <>)
have office hours each week (2 hours)
grade quizzes, problem-solving activities and other lab activities (GTAs do not grade any part of the midterms or final)
attend lectures at your direction.
OLD EXAMS: Practice midterms and practice finals can be found online at the math department's website; click on the link to “Sample Tests''.
CALCULATOR POLICY: On exams and major tests, students should be allowed to use any calculator that does not have internet or e-mail capabilities and that does not have a QWERTY keyboard. Cell phones should be switched off and out of sight.
DROP POLICY: Unlike last semester, the drop date will be the official UTA drop date of March 30; this is the same date as Midterm 2. Typically any student who gets lower than 70% on Midterm 1 does very poorly on Midterm 2 and fails the class.
WRITING & GRADING EXAMS: The procedure for each exam is as follows:
instructors submit potential exam questions to the coordinator;
instructors and coordinator then meet together to choose which problems will be on the exam;
after the exam is finalized, the grading assignments are determined & each instructor typically grades one question on each exam;
each instructor then writes a preliminary grading rubric which is distributed to the other instructors and coordinator (further details on this step are given below);
after the exam, the scores are compiled and recorded by the coordinator. The course grades are determined at the end of the semester in a meeting of the instructors, the coordinator, the Associate Chair and possibly some others. A score of less than 50 on the Final means a student cannot get a course grade better than a D. You should inform your students of this at the start of the semester.
GRADING RUBRICS: Each instructor writes a preliminary rubric for each exam question that s/he will grade. The preliminary rubric should be as detailed as possible with regard to point deductions for possible errors. During the grading of the exam, an instructor may find it necessary to modify his/her rubric. These changes should be communicated to the other instructors immediately.
Before the exam, the preliminary rubric is distributed by the instructor to the other instructors and to the coordinator, who may ask questions for clarification and may suggest changes or additions to the rubric. Each instructor is expected to review all rubrics but each person will be assigned one rubric for which s/he is to be particularly responsible.
Some general guidelines for your rubric are as follows.
Identify the possible methods of solutions. For each method, enumerate the steps in solving the problem and allocate a portion of the total points to each step.
Try to allocate points for each step independently of previous steps. That is, a mistake at a preliminary stage should not result in no points being earned for subsequent steps in the problem.
Try to identify the possible errors students will make and describe the deduction for those errors.
If there is any error that you consider so egregious that no credit can be awarded for any part of the problem, you should clearly state that on your preliminary rubric. Making such a change in your rubric after grading is completed is usually problematic.