In the course that I am designing, a 300 level health communication class, I would like to have the following activities enhance learning in my classroom:
- A high stakes writing assignment will be due at some point in the semester. I will either make it a midterm type assignment or have it due towards the end of the semester. Regardless of which date I make this assignment due, I want to make sure I would have enough time to correct and return the papers to the students. My pet peeve as an undergrad was putting so much time into final assignments and never seeing any feedback. As Learner Centered Teaching and McKeachie (p. 197) suggest, I will let the students choose topics to write about that interest them. The main focus of the assignment will be to choose some communication phenomena that is present in the media and analyze the impact of the media. In this high stakes writing assignment, students will be able to demonstrate how much they have learned and understand by applying course theory and an analysis method. I will pay careful attentention to grammar, structure, and the level of application of theory and analysis. As McKeachie suggests on page 198, giving the students an assignment sheet detailing exactly what is expected of them will be very beneficial. I will make one of these for this assignment giving further detail of what should be included and what I am evaluating based on. Low stakes writing assignments can also be given throughout the semester with this high stakes assignment by having students turn in multiple drafts or having pair and share days to get feedback along the way. This will also keep students on track so they do not leave the entire assignment until right before it is due. McKeachie describes this best on page 199 and reminded me immediately of my undergraduate theory class. If I correct the students' drafts by spending time early on to give feedback, I will hopefully ensure an even better final paper because the writing will improve. In my theory class, we had one major paper. The paper was due in different sections that my teacher would correct and give a grade that had less of an impact than the final paper itself. If students chose not to turn the draft in, they lost out on those points and the invaluable feedback. When it was time to turn the final draft of the entire paper put together, I was very proud of my work, and the teacher barely had to spend any time grading because she had already gone through each section once.
- Another assignment I will encorporate into my class reflects McKeachie's findings that "teaching results in better learning than being taught" (p. 215). I would like to incorporate the "learning cell" approach to encourage reading of the textbook. This 300 level health communication class will more than likely be the first class students will have regarding health communication specifically, so getting the main theories, definitions, and general information regarding interaction, media, culture etc. will be vital for other classes and professional careers. I would like to have students write any questions they have while doing the readings and spend the beginning of each class addressing these questions in pairs. Students can ask each other for further clarification. If at the end of the designated time questions are not answered, I would open it up to the entire class for someone to share their knowledge. Finally, I would address or give additional information. If I did this with every reading, I would need to have this very well planned out and make sure students are on task. As McKeachie shares on page 217, students will then be more likely to speak out during discussion possibly while I am lecturing to add additional information or ideas because they have had time to clarify and confirm their findings.
- A final active learning assignment I am 100% positive that I will incorporate into my class is the use of case studies. I think case studies in health communication are one of the best ways to illustrate and demonstrate the need for health communication. I will choose case studies and have students analyze what communication is happening and whether it is effective or not. Students will be able to see where the problems are in each case study and how the communication was successful and suggest how it can be improved upon. Case studies in regard to health campaigns and patient-provider interaction are very common. There are many health communication case study texts, but I think I would use "Health Communication in Practice: A Case Study Approach" edited by Eileen Berlin Ray. As McKeachie suggests to do while teaching with case studies (p. 225), I would try to stay back and let the students lead the discussion and report their findings. Perhaps partnering students up after they form initial thoughts about the cases will spark more discussion to contribute to the whole class. I will be there to further probe and promote deeper analysis and clarification. Looking at these case studies will give students more experience with what happens in health communication before entering real settings as professionals themselves. They can learn what went wrong in health campaigns or how to better interact with patients and other providers to prevent or enahnce the situations in the case studies.
As we discussed in class on October 15th, Learner Centered Teaching is sometimes the easy way out for teachers to lecture for 20 minutes and then depend on an activity to fill the rest of the class. I think when this is the case the activities are not well planned out and become busy work for the students. I have learned this is the case in my COMM 110 class. I have a great idea for an activity but the students either are not into it, the activity ends quicker than expected, or is unclear so the students start to become off task. As I have observed from my own teaching and watching the teaching demonstrations in class, there are many aspects that must be considered for an activity to be successful. First, the instructor should know exactly how the activity should go, how long it will take to complete and fully debrief, and have outcomes and examples ready to share. The activity must have clear directions. There is always at least one student that will not understand and then veer off task while they are supposed to be working, possibly taking their whole group with them. We also talked earlier in the semester about telling students why they are doing an activity and why it is not just busy work. Letting them know how the activity will help them learn the material before and after the activity is beneficial. I also have found that walking around the class early in the activity is beneficial. In my COMM 110 class I did not do this for one of the first activities I assigned. The students were looking at sentences on a worksheet I had printed for them. When I finally made my way to a group in the back it turns out I had given them the last page of my lesson plan notes instead of the worksheet, so those students were completely lost. Proper debriefing of an activity is also a good way to enhance understanding. Students sometimes do not have that "aha moment" while doing the activity, but afterwards create those connections of understanding with further explanation or examples. Planning out the amount of time will also help with this because you want to have sufficient time to wrap the activity up and transition into what comes next.
Grading Writing
This website gives more tips for grading and giving feedback. At the bottom, there is a section about using grading rubrics or grids. You can click on the plus signs to expand the information. McKeachie suggests the use of a grading grid to make grading easier and consistent on page 199, but I was still unclear about what exactly this all entailed, so this site helped clarify a bit more.
Peer Review Tips
These are a few more tips regarding peer review and what the reviewer should think and ask themselves while reviewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment