Periodically, especially for courses where the material is challenging, academically dense, or the class seems to be floundering, I will use the old index card trick. Basically, everyone in the class gets a blank index card upon which they can write any question, concern, or comment related to class, to the material, or to an assignment. If a student has nothing to write, then they can leave the card blank or write something positive about the course. The cards are anonymous, collected and shuffled. Then I take some class time to go through the cards. Here are a few of the kindnesses gleaned from the exercise in my Queer Theory course:
