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The One-Minute Paper: Big Ideas and Burning Questions
by Suzanne Scott, Women and Gender Studies and New Century College
A few years ago, I began ending each class with the one-minute paper described in Ken Bains’ What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard UP 2004). The idea was to ask students to quickly write down one new bit of information they learned in class that day and also to ask about something that remained unclear. Initially, the goal was to assess what students were taking away from the classes and to create a vehicle for revisiting complex material. This practice was also designed to help students clarify their learning and to strengthen their ability to make connections among visual and written texts.
How humbling to read one-minute papers with 27 “take away lessons,” many of which were only tangentially related to my own! After only one semester, the one-minute paper practice evolved to my “big ideas and burning questions” practice—on an index card. Although similar, the emphasis of the practice shifted subtly from what students were (or were not) taking away from the class to what I as a teacher needed to improve.
The “Big Idea and Burning Question” Practice
- At the end of class, hand out an index card to each student and ask them to:
- Write down on one side of the index card the one “big idea” they are taking away from the class.
- Turn the card over, and write one “burning question” that remains for them at the end of the class.
- Type the big ideas, and do not be surprised if they are legion.
- Type the burning questions, and type the answers in red.
- Post the document to Blackboard, send it via email, or print copies for the class.
- Use the big ideas and burning questions as a springboard for wrapping up the previous week’s work and ensuring that you are moving ahead with clarity.
Early in the semester, when students are learning the vocabulary and building a common core of issues, I may spend 20 to 30 minutes at the beginning of the next class talking about misconceptions and filling in the gaps that emerged from their lists of big ideas and burning questions. Some of our best discussions, for example, have arisen from grappling with such misunderstood concepts as “difficult art” and “Orientalism.” As the students’ knowledge and competence grows and my explanatory skills improve, I find that I need to spend no more than 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning of the class on their big ideas and burning questions.
Each semester I ask students if this “big ideas and burning questions” practice is valuable. They report that the process of writing down points from the lesson in a succinct format forces them to make sense of the day’s work and that viewing my responses helps them take their own ideas and questions seriously!
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