After completing Developing your open pedagogy activity using backward design, post your open pedagogy activity or assignment in the comments below.
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5 thoughts on “Humanities activities/assignments”
Learning goal or outcome: Students will evaluate a text for young people to gain a better understanding of the genre of YA literature/YA media and the genre of the review
Knowledge: Students will gain better understanding of forms and functions of reviews, especially reviews for texts for young people; the functions/qualities of YA literature; roles of adult readers/gatekeepers in shaping teen/young adult cultural forms
Skills: Writing; critical reading and thinking; research; collaborating; engaging with different opinions on a text
Assessment: Students produce a review of a review of a young adult book (or a film/television series for teen audiences)
First Exposure: A session devoted to talking about various examples and forms of reviews
Activities: Students discuss parameters of assignment and collaborate on instructions; Students take turns offering reviews of assigned texts (they can engage with other reviews—their review can be a response to a published review of the text OR they can discuss/debate about the text in class); Have class identify qualities of a good review (and share samples with class)
Content: Reviews available online (including podcasts and videos); Google Doc and discussion boards can be used for sharing ideas and collaborating on assignment guidelines
I appreciated Jean Amaral’s article on asset pedagogies. I have always incorporated culturally sustained pedagogies and trauma-informed pedagogies in my courses. It is even more important at this time. Just this past summer, in my Group Discussion Course, I had students who were essential workers, one of whom had a 5-year-old Autistic child, and a student who was dying of kidney disease. Ours is a nurturing profession and we must show compassion and understanding.
The article by Paris and Alim reminded us that racism is not only embedded in our culture but in the classroom as well. The purpose of CUNY has always been to serve the underserved of this city and we must always remember this.
Because I teach Communication courses, I have always used backward design although I did not call it that. Since my students have crippling stage fright, I have always moved from very low stakes simple communicative assignments to the most complicated researched ones. The following is an example:
This is a Forum which is set up for you to review two speeches which will help you prepare for the upcoming Persuasive Speech. This discussion is meant to bolster what we have discussed in class and what you have already read in your textbook You are to post your thread discussing and commenting with regards to this post.
You will review and comment on two speeches which I have posted in “Course Materials”, FDR’s Day of Infamy Speech and Michelle Obama’s speech to the 2012 DNC.
First, you will determine if each has followed Monroe’s Motivated Sequence consisting of the attention step, the need step, the satisfaction step, the visualization step and the action step. There is, on Blackboard, a visual aid outlining the steps of Monroe’s motivated sequence.
Second, you will determine whether either or both employed any knowledge we have gained from Schutz’s FIRO Theory.
Third, you will review each speaker’s delivery and determine what aspects of good delivery they employed or did not employ such as eye contact, passion, confidence, body posture and action, conversationalism, vocal variation, etc.
Fourth, you will look for each speaker’s use of reasoning and denote which of the forms of reasoning, if any, they employed, to wit: Deductive, Inductive and Causal.
Fifth, as a conclusion you will give your overall thoughts as to the quality of these two speeches and the speakers. You will incorporate your positions on the above into a final cohesive appraisal of the content and delivery of the speeches.
In all of the four categories above you are required to compare and contrast their use in each speech. You should review the similarities and differences and indicate which of each was effective and why it was, as well as what you found ineffective and why. You are required to be specific and not give general unfounded opinions but opinions that are based on what you have learned with appropriate attribution. Opinions should also give you thoughts as to whether those things that comprise each of those groups could have been better utilized. In total I am looking for not only a review based on theory but also a review based on how you were or were not persuaded and why. The idea is to put forth ideas which will increase our discussion of the subject matter and encourage and promote discussion among you, the students to better prepare you for the upcoming Speech. Using examples from your personal life to support your positions would be a good addition and help reach those goals.
Your contribution both in in your post and in response to classmates must be more than just cursory. Your responses to other’s posts should show that you did more than just read it and agreed or disagreed. I must see that you truly read it, gave meaningful thought to it and drafted your response accordingly. You should respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. Your posts and responses are due no later than prior to our next class session.
Grading shall be done pursuant to a grading rubric which is available to you. Please read it before you commence so that you will have a clear understanding of what is expected and how you will be graded.
This is a Phonology of Spanish course.
Learning goal or outcome: Students will design a Spanish pronunciation class for non-Spanish speakers in order to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical matter.
Knowledge: Students will gain a better understanding of what is the utility of linguistic theory in teaching practice.
Skills: Listen, use of symbols, analysis, critical thinking
Your Open Pedagogy Assignment: Create some materials from previous research.
First exposure: Read a chapter before class about dialectal differences.
Show different examples of the pronunciation of some dialects of Spanish.
Discuss the ideas on these differences.
Activities: Record a couple of samples from different dialects.
Transcript those samples.
Describe the phonological features of each sample.
Content: Choose a phonetic/phonological feature to teach in a pronunciation class.
Write a brief description.
Use the previous transcription and audio to teach it in a class.
Backward Design:
Using Graphic elements to communicate concepts.
Learning goal or outcome
Use graphic elements to communicate concepts.
Explores various aspects of dynamic layout.
Knowledge
Using graphic elements to communicate concepts.
Skills
Ability to manipulate abstract design elements to communicate compelling, and meaningful ideas.
Assessment
Assignment: Demonstrate 3 gestalt principles of design using geometric shape
First Exposure
In class slide presentation and discussion
Activities
A form “glossary” handout is provided to each student.
Breakout round-robin to identify a group of 10 unlabeled forms
Class review of results
Homework assignment:
• Manipulate shape to create examples of 3 different principles
• Upload jpg of final images to blog
• Comment on 2 other images, do the shapes meet the criteria
• Students can complete projects by hand, or in digital program of choice
Homework is accessed in breakout groups, then shared with class
Content
A form “glossary” handout
Individual pdfs of square, triangle and circle shapes.
Learning goal or outcome: Students will evaluate a text for young people to gain a better understanding of the genre of YA literature/YA media and the genre of the review
Knowledge: Students will gain knowledge about the research process including research questions, hypotheses, sampling strategies, research designs and statistical analyses required to draw conclusions.
Skills: Students will be able to formulate hypotheses appropriate to the research question, determine a research method and select and run statistical tests to evaluate the hypotheses
Assessment: Using a given data set, students will design a study, select a sample, run analyses to test hypotheses
First Exposure: Research scenarios will be presented which look into various research questions.
Activities: Students will answer questions identifying variables, formulating research questions and hypotheses.
Content: Audio lectures with PowerPoint slides will be posted, Wikis, Journals and Blogs will be used to engage students in discussion and to encourage them to ask questions and get clarifications.