I read all the reaction papers before class discussion and then use them to integrate
students' ideas into my discussion questions. This means that I am frantic before
class, reading as fast as I can to get through 15 to 20 papers, but it is always
worth it. I walk into discussion knowing what matters to the students, what information
is new to them, and what is confusing. The big payoff is that the response papers
give students confidence during class discussion. They have already started to
digest the reading, and they have my comments and questions in the margins of
their papers to push their analyses further. Student evaluations at the end of
the semester usually mention the response papers as a real opportunity to think
and define the course.