Faculty creating writing intensive courses at LaGuardia are teaching either Urban Studies or Capstone courses. Both call for a staged writing assignment. The capstone also requires research. To begin developing a staged writing assignment, please read Bean, Chapter 13, "Designing and Sequencing Assignments to Teach Undergraduate Research." If you are not teaching research, specifically, read the chapter selectively. Here are some recommended sections that will help you with your assignments:
1. Examples of critical thinking (short) assignments that can be blended into longer assignment: pp. 242-244.
2. Recommendation memo: p. 234.
3. Skills and Knowledge Needed to Produce Expert Insider Prose in a Discipline: p. 254
For those teaching the research essay, the following may be especially helpful:
Backward Design Assignment Sequence: p. 246
YOUR BLOG ASSIGNMENT WILL BE TO CREATE, POST, TRY OUT AND REFLECT UPON ONE SHORTER ASSIGNMENT THAT WILL LEAD TO (BE BLENDED INTO) LARGER ESSAY.
(In Blog # 6 you will submit all parts of that staged essay assignment and, at end of semester, include uploaded samples of student work.)
For this assignment, I actually worked backwards in my head and chose the larger essay/paper first. The paper that the students are responsible for writing in my class (Community Health) is a Community Health Report. The basic idea for the paper is for the students to pick the borough of NYC that they live in. Next, they are to summarize, analyze, and explain health data for their specific borough/community.
ReplyDeleteThe shorter assignment that I chose was as follows:
Students had to choose one health issue related to their area of study. For instance, prospective nursing students had to choose from Asthma, Cancer, Chronic Disease, etc. I broke the students up into groups based on their field of study. I had them review a community health atlas together in the group. The atlas provided an extensive amount of information on types of health related issues and lifestyles in the boroughs of NYC. It also included the population, median household income, demographics, poverty rate, and different percentages of data related to that issue. Next, they had to pick one borough (the one in which most people from that particular group lived in) and write a one - page summary on what they thought were the contributing factors to the either positive or negative statistics of that health issue.
I thought the assignment went well. The students enjoyed working in a group and were happy that only 1 essay was due from the group. I was happy because it was almost like a low stakes writing assignment that was easy to grade (not to mention that I had less papers due to the groups!) However, I’m not 100% sure if the group assignment was the appropriate activity to do with this step of staging a major writing assignment???
Any thoughts would be appreciated……….
Hi James--I like the way you gave them the community health atlas--that must have had a lot of useful information. One of the biggest problems with research is students often don't know where to start. Sounds like your course is really focused in this regard. Just a note to you and everyone that by end of semester we would like to create a blog section where you can post some samples of student work. Am going to ask the Writing Fellows to help me with this part!
DeleteHi James,
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are pros and cons to making this exercise group-based.
I think it is definitely a worthwhile exercise if each student was forced to individually contribute to the project as a whole, rather than everyone's name simply going on the assignment. If that were the case, I'd suspect social loafing....some group members sitting back while others took the lead. In that case, those group members are not getting much out of the exercise.
I think it is great to stage the assignment and build in a low-stakes assignment as part of a larger project. I also like how you make the subject matter relevant to their every-day-lives by welcoming health-related issues that affect New Yorkers. There's plenty of room for quant. reasoning exercises built in here as well....statistics by borough, age, demographics, etc. The next step would probably be to teach the students how to spot an accurate statistic from an inaccurate stat (source, sample size, etc.) and to encourage a healthy sense of skepticism as they interpret a statistic.
Brett
For this assignment, I chose the shorter assignment that blend into a longer assignment since I am not actually teaching a research course. This is a nursing pharmacology course where students were placed into four groups and given a topic related to the class to review.
ReplyDeleteGroup Project comprised of a presentation and a PowerPoint. The class worked in groups of 5 to 6 students and was assigned a topic to research and present. Presentation outline explained the oral portion of the presentation, and was written with references from reliable sources, including web sites. The presentation included the following information: Introduction, Definition/ Explanation of Diagnosis/Problem, Statistics (Relevant), Implications, Proponents, Opponents, Moral- Ethical Issues and Conclusion.
The four topics that I assigned was as follows:
1. Detoxification of Alcohol and Heroin.
2. Drug Resistant Bacteria, Routes Of Transmission, And The Approved Methods Of Treatment.
3. Pain Management In The Terminally Ill Client.
4. The Effects of Chemicals and Alcohol On The Fetus.
The first group commented on the ease of working with each other, and I thought that they presented well. There are 3 more to go let's see how well the other groups came together.
This might not have been the best approach… any thoughts?
Hi Roxanne--this is a really elaborate and detailed assignment--love it that you did it as group project and that students enjoyed working together. It also seems like a perfect assignment to stage. Would you have time to have them share (in pairs for example) for maybe 15 minutes of class the first three parts and then revise them before adding the next steps as there are a lot of steps which can be daunting! Antoinette may have some suggestions as the Fellows have been working on the topic of staging. Look forward to hearing how the other presentations went.
ReplyDeleteFor the ‘Assignment 5’ blog I took the same approach as Roxanne choosing a shorter assignment and blending it into a longer one. I am teaching “Science and Art of Nursing-Introduction to Practical Nursing” and it is not a research course. Thus this assignment might not be one of my strengths. In this course the students do a couple of essays, discussions, writing assignments and they are now working on a group project.
ReplyDeleteThe group project was divided into five (5) groups with three (3) students in each group. They were given the topics to research, the criteria for the presentation and the rubric for grading the presentation as well. The rubric for the presentation consists of: Content accuracy, sequencing of information, effectiveness, use of graphics, text-font choice & formatting, and spelling and grammar.
The objectives/goals for this assignment is for the students to utilize what they have learnt in the course and to be able to make the connections with knowledge and its application and to prepare them for success in the nursing program and beyond.
The students will be presenting on December 6, 2013.
The assigned topics are as follows:
Topics for Group Presentations:
1. Compare the Healthcare System in the United States (U.S) and the United
Kingdom (U. K).
2. What is the “Affordable Care Act? “And “How will the Affordable Care Act affect
nursing today and in the future?”
3. What are the “Trends of Nursing in the 21st Century?” How will these trends
affect nursing now and in the future?
4. What is Diversity? What is Culture? What role/s (If any) will Diversity & Culture
play in nursing today and in the future?
5. What is Health? What is the Health Belief Model?
Does Culture play a role in Health/Wellness? If so how does Culture play a role
in Health/Wellness?
I am not able to give any feedback on the students’ performances as yet since their presentations will be done on Thursday December 6, 2013. However, I will incorporate Dr. Van’s suggestion and have the students take about fifteen (15) minutes to share their experiences on how they felt working together as a group… whether they had any difficulties etc. (This was done in another college and it seemed to be effective).
I will keep you all posted.
Hi Faith,
DeleteI think that this type of group work sounds like a great lead-up to the final assignment. I also really like how you're asking them to connect what they're learned in the course to outside issues--this type of task definitely engages higher-level critical thinking.
I'm curious as to how specific you were in terms of the sources you'd like students to use in putting together their presentations. What sort of resources should they be looking for outside of the textbook? Is there any sort of requirement in terms of how many and what kinds are appropriate?
If you think it would be valuable, you could try having the students write up a formal version of the presentation on their own as a next step (possibly developing ideas further). One of our faculty in the other session of this seminar tries a similar approach and finds it very helpful. She says that the presentations function almost as peer review, as it allows both peers and the instructor to comment on the content before the student finalizes it in writing. Obviously, this may or may not be appropriate for your course, but I thought I'd share!
- Meredith
Very fascinating topics. I would be curious if you told the students upfront (now) that during the fifteen minute end-discussion, they will be asked to explicitly state their individual roles that they took on as part of the team (in addition to just the difficulties)....This may help them avoid social loafing and prevent one student from carrying the load of the work for the entire group.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! Have a great day!
Brett
Thanks for your advice Brett!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your day!
Faith
My apologies:
ReplyDeleteThe students assignments are due Thursday December 5, 2013 not December 6, 2013.
I did give the students other sources outside of the textbook and the group leaders meet with me if they have any concerns or questions. So far they all seem to be on the right track.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your suggestions Meredith!
Faith