I'm still not really sure what I want to do for my final project. Something I have been interested in is increasing discussion about a text amongst students, where the output is their original thinking in the form of questions, critiques, and comments. I want them to actively think about what they are reading and have opinions about it to share. Perhaps a way to bring technology into this would be to utilize Canvas discussion posts or blogs, as students could complete this work prior to or during class. My reservations with assigning this piece as homework would be that 1) I'd need to establish a homework culture and routine, which I plan on doing anyways next year and 2) Not all of my students have access to reliable internet or technology at home. I think the benefit of these types of assignments are that students can prepare for a class discussion by collecting their thoughts, and students can even respond to one another and gain inspiration before class time. I'd like to find a way to implement this sort of strategy because I also think it would be helpful for MLL students, as they can use scaffolds and translation services in an easier manner with online discussions prior to an in-person discussion. If I wanted to keep it as homework, I could carve out some time during class and then offer time before/after school for students, but I know that some students have other obligations that would make this difficult. I don't want any assignment to create a barrier for students because the purpose of this is the opposite.
Here is a good resource on the value of discussion boards in online learning: https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/education/value-of-discussion-boards
Another idea I came up with while typing is half-formed, but I'd love to use more media in class to accompany what we are reading. I'd also love if students did research and presentations on this. I want to teach the skills of media literacy, research, and presenting. A problem I could see with the media is if it not a part of the curriculum.
Lastly, something I attempted but never fully completed last year was an email writing project with students. The goal was to teach students how to write professional emails, and for them to write one to their chosen person (family, guardian, coach, etc) every two weeks during class to update them about their life, their goals, their school, etc. It is a space for them to reflect, build a relationship, and practice a professional skill. I would like to do this again, but reformed and better thought out, next year. So I could see this being an interesting project to work on as well.
I appreciate how you are considering how some of your ideas would require HW culture and technology access at home. I struggle with the same problem and is something I had to consider when planning out my ideas for this final project as well. I really like your idea of using multi-media to accompany what you are reading in class. With your age group being high schoolers, this seems like a great opportunity to connect their world to class. One of my teachers in HS had us create fake "social media" accounts for characters (twitter, Instagram snapchat, etc.) or ideas from what we were reading. One journalism teacher I had created a project where we had to "live tweet" as we read. Maybe you could find a helpful app that could aid in some of these ideas? Great starting point here, Helena!
ReplyDelete