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Reading Day

Our university, like many others, has a Reading Day between the end of classes and the beginning of final exams. It makes sense not to ask students to go straight from classes one day to cumulative final exams the next day.

But: many of my colleagues no longer give final exams. Some classes do not naturally lend themselves to exams. I have taught our first-year general studies class a number of times and there is a limit to what can be assessed in that class on exams.

Many classes use the time for single- or group-presentations. That leads to brinkmanship when someone is sick and sidelines a whole group, leading to incompletes for students who are ready to complete.

Many faculty offer lightweight academic experiences (just get together for a shallow discussion) that are not assessment.

I'm older than many of my colleagues, and I'm a bit less flexible about such things. I like the idea of a cumulative final exam as a way of trying to put the entire course in context. In particular I like to save things that can be light-bulbs-over-the-head experiences in the form of a final exam question. I like to teach with my final exams.

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