Carroll, Ryall. “The Merits of Giving an Extra Credit Quiz.” College Teaching, vol. 62, no. 4, Fall 2014, pp. 151–52. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.lscproxy.mnpals.net/10.1080/87567555.2014.935698. 

I chose to revisit “Making the Grade” By Kurt Wiesenfeld from week 5, partially because I could still feel the echo of embarrassment being like the grade-begging students he was describing in his article. 

I found an article that takes a different direction on the LSC Library Database, “The Merits of Giving an Extra Credit Quiz” by Ryall Carroll.

The thesis of this article shows there is another way to keep students engaged in class and avoid them grade-begging later. Carroll’s technique was to hold an extra credit 2-question quiz at the beginning of every class and have the points go towards their future quizzes. Addressing the problem of getting students to arrive to class on time and read the study materials, Carroll explains, “The quiz starts promptly at the beginning of class and lasts for three minutes. If a student shows up late, they miss their chance to take the quiz.” instilling student responsibility.  

Before creating the 2-question daily quiz, Carroll experimented with alternative methods of quizzes, such as implementing weekly for-credit quizzes, however, it would be on topics that the students had not yet discussed in class, so the quizzes didn’t make sense to either the teacher or students. Another method was to take quizzes away altogether, but it was soon discovered that students would procrastinate reading the class material until the unit tests. Carroll described this resulting in “diminished classroom dialogue and interaction.” Carroll states that there is a direct correlation between quiz scores and the student’s exam and final grades that have consistently shown in his classes throughout the years.