In some of our classes we are keen to involve our students in what we do in class, whether it be formative or summative work. One such area is writing a film review and discussing the content of the film. We have used quite a few films in our classes, namely 'My name is Joe', 'Man on Wire', 'Juno' , 'Orphan' and our favourite 'Sweet Sixteen' in the past.
We thought we would try something different and rather than giving the students the film, they would be given the opportunity to pitch their idea to watch their favourite film. Students were asked to identify a film, research the film and present in front of their peers their reasons for their choice.
When a list of films had been supplied, the lecturer then whittled the choices down to around eight and showed the trailers in the following lesson. After all the trailers had been viewed the students were asked to vote for their two favourite films. Feedback from the process was positive and in many cases the films chosen were really good! Sit back and enjoy the trailers.
Friday, 7 October 2011
The 'beauty' of working your way through unknown territory!
As part of a servicing team we teach on many different programmes and this year, Stephen and I were allocated the Beauty Therapy students. Of all the classes I have taught over the years, I have never taught this vocational group but as always we were up for the challenge. We consulted members of the team who had taught on this Programme of study before and they were able to provide some great materials that we thought we would use in our teaching.
In the first session for all Core Skills classes we discuss the flexibility of the curriculum and identify the things we might cover with each group. Essay writing was not top of their wishlists although they acknowledged the importance of learning such a skill. Stephen and I got together to consider what we would cover instead for summative assessment and came up with a reworking of some old materials that were produced some years before.
What we decided on was to put together a 'research and design project' and although we are both following slightly different paths the students will be working on a project that involves all four communication skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.
The project was split into three parts: research, meeting, design.
Research - the students worked in groups to decide whether they would be designing a leaflet or a website. This would involve researching professional beauty therapy salons, examining how they advertise treatments and so on. Once tasks had been assigned and agreed upon, students were asked to consider the following: target audience for the website, purpose of the website, rating the website, improvements to the website etc using their analytical skills.
Meeting - the students took part in a meeting to share their research and make decisions as a group. They were invited to invent a company name, logo, address etc and detail what services this ficitious company would provide.
Design - as part of the marketing strategy and self-promotion the students were given the opportunity to design either:
I think Stephen and I have learned quite a lot about the industry too being involved in such a project!
In the first session for all Core Skills classes we discuss the flexibility of the curriculum and identify the things we might cover with each group. Essay writing was not top of their wishlists although they acknowledged the importance of learning such a skill. Stephen and I got together to consider what we would cover instead for summative assessment and came up with a reworking of some old materials that were produced some years before.
What we decided on was to put together a 'research and design project' and although we are both following slightly different paths the students will be working on a project that involves all four communication skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.
The project was split into three parts: research, meeting, design.
Research - the students worked in groups to decide whether they would be designing a leaflet or a website. This would involve researching professional beauty therapy salons, examining how they advertise treatments and so on. Once tasks had been assigned and agreed upon, students were asked to consider the following: target audience for the website, purpose of the website, rating the website, improvements to the website etc using their analytical skills.
Meeting - the students took part in a meeting to share their research and make decisions as a group. They were invited to invent a company name, logo, address etc and detail what services this ficitious company would provide.
Design - as part of the marketing strategy and self-promotion the students were given the opportunity to design either:
- the company's new website
- a leafleat advertising a new treatment
I think Stephen and I have learned quite a lot about the industry too being involved in such a project!
Energy saving week
Joyce is our resident environmentalist and with Energy Saving Week on the horizon she had some great ideas for an engagement event. This was a collaborative project involving the students and the story is taken up by Joyce below.
The last week in October is Energy Saving Week. Now, I thought, if anyone should be promoting this, it should be my science students. (My environmental group, GreenFerry, was already organising an event in South Queensferry.)
Fresh from my success at the book sale (and having enjoyed chatting with loads of different students) I suggested to my Science Access class that we put on a display/engagement event in the foyer on Thursday 27 October. They were up for it.
So we abandoned examining texts in minute detail, we abandoned lessons on different styles of writing, we abandoned close analysis of structure and language, and opted for a bit of participatory planning and engagement. I pushed back the chairs and brought the tables together. I unrolled a roll of wallpaper, and gave out post-it notes, and pens. We planned out the type of event we wanted. Ideas began to flow, the energy level clearly rising. (No pun intended.)
Using Mindmeister, electronic mind-mapping tool, I began to record the different elements of their plan. From this, I will “invite” the students to add more ideas in their own time. (Mindmeister is a free on-line collaborative planning tool.)
Soon (very soon – we only have three weeks, remember) I’ll allocate tasks, students will write letters, beg favours, prepare a display, leaflets, posters, organise photographs etc. And, come the day, they’ll stand with me, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to talk to other students, share their project findings (if that’s not too “heavy”) and gather energy-saving ideas.
If we’re VERY lucky, we’ll persuade the college, or another sponsor, to come up with a prize for all students who enter our competition. Maybe an i-pod. Maybe I’ll win.
Approaches to teaching and assessing communication within the science curriculum that aren't necessarily always scientific!
As a servicing team within the college, the Communication and English lecturers have taught Core Skills (Communication) to numerous Applied and Access to Sciences cohorts over the years. Historically we have taught Science students in semester two, where learners have already been working on projects with the vocational team on subjects such as 'Science Heroes' and 'Sustainable Solutions.'
In the past, this has meant we have assessed students on their report writing and research skills, but we have had to adapt our approach this year as we were scheduled for semester one teaching. Four lecturers from the team are involved this year and we have liaised with John O'Neill as lead lecturer to ensure lines of communication have been open and clear.
Students are expected to put a research proposal together before semester two, an agenda for further research if you will and as we like clear direction ourselves, we held a meeting to draw up a template for students. This was done in using participatory methods and there is no doubt that the old adage 'two heads are better than one' was true as both lecturers came up with different ideas as to how the brief could be written. The result is noted below and should help lecturers and students alike produce a detailed proposal on the subject of sustainable solutions. Sustainable Solutions is the theme of a Comenius project that Mark is now involved in. Due to a team member unable to attend, a short presentation will be delivered by Mark in Rome in mid-October. The conference will be attended by colleagues from the following countries: Italy, Poland, England, Holland and Spain. The presentation is noted below.
The team work closely with the Head Librarian in many aspects of our teaching and due to Alma Wardrope's skill in adapting her research methodology sessions to any given vocational area, I have attached her wonderful talk given to the Science students. This ties in nicely with issues such as plagiarism that were discussed in some of the classes, how to access Science based materials, how to start a research project and how the research process works. We are always very grateful for Alma's input.
The proposal for the proposal
In the past, this has meant we have assessed students on their report writing and research skills, but we have had to adapt our approach this year as we were scheduled for semester one teaching. Four lecturers from the team are involved this year and we have liaised with John O'Neill as lead lecturer to ensure lines of communication have been open and clear.
Students are expected to put a research proposal together before semester two, an agenda for further research if you will and as we like clear direction ourselves, we held a meeting to draw up a template for students. This was done in using participatory methods and there is no doubt that the old adage 'two heads are better than one' was true as both lecturers came up with different ideas as to how the brief could be written. The result is noted below and should help lecturers and students alike produce a detailed proposal on the subject of sustainable solutions. Sustainable Solutions is the theme of a Comenius project that Mark is now involved in. Due to a team member unable to attend, a short presentation will be delivered by Mark in Rome in mid-October. The conference will be attended by colleagues from the following countries: Italy, Poland, England, Holland and Spain. The presentation is noted below.
The team work closely with the Head Librarian in many aspects of our teaching and due to Alma Wardrope's skill in adapting her research methodology sessions to any given vocational area, I have attached her wonderful talk given to the Science students. This ties in nicely with issues such as plagiarism that were discussed in some of the classes, how to access Science based materials, how to start a research project and how the research process works. We are always very grateful for Alma's input.
The proposal for the proposal
Write a proposal of 500-750 words which outlines your chosen topic for the Sustainable Solutions Project. You may find the headings below useful.
Your proposal should be formal, laid out in report format (in numbered sections and sub-sections) and submitted electronically.
This proposal will become the basis of your longer report, and your oral presentation. (We will supply suggested structures for these later.)
Target audience (Who is this report for?)
Topic/Issue
(What have I chosen to investigate and why?)
Background
(What’s the precise problem? Who is this a problem for? Why is this a problem?)
Key points of information
(What do you know already? What do you expect to have to find out about the situation/problem as it is at the moment?)
Recommendation
(What’s my solution? What can be done to offset this problem? Why is this a good solution?)
Key/further information
(What do you already know about your solution? What more do you expect to find out?)
Methodology
(Where will I go now to find more information? How will I record my research?)
The link to the webpage with student work from last year is: http://sussol.stevenson.ac.uk/
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Sometimes you Kant beat a drop of participatory motivation!
Adopting the participatory method for analysing reasons for actions in the Higher Philosophy class turned out to be particularly useful not only for engaging students in the activity but also in terms of providing a very clear visual representation of Kant's theory of moral motivation. As it turned out, only one of the reasons provided (the post-it on the right) coincides with Kant's idea of duty as the only appropriate motive for moral behaviour. The exercise therefore clearly highlights all the other motives that Kant would reject.
Click on the photograph twice so that you can see the great work by the students and the lecturer.
Higher English Textual Analysis - how to cut down your marking
Sometimes good ideas are planned, sometime they are instinctive and sometimes they just need to be shared! I (Mark) was teaching in Music Box 1.23 the other day and saw post-it notes with lots of writing on them. I recognised the energy of the students. I had to know more and I knew it was a 'Joyce initiative!' What was all think wonky donkey business I asked myself. I will leave the explanation to Joyce...
I’d like to say I had this planned all along but this lesson emerged from desperation – I was just way too busy to take on any more marking this week.
I’d like to say I had this planned all along but this lesson emerged from desperation – I was just way too busy to take on any more marking this week.
I knew we had to tackle a ‘proper’ textual analysis before the October break. To date, we’d been having fun examining the techniques in different texts, and trying out a bit of writing to see how difficult it was. But now they had to get serious.
I had two options (I thought). One: Go over a text in class. (Boring – I hated those days when the teacher did all the work and we had to sit in passive listening mode.) Two: Introduce and read the text, and set them the task or writing their answers individually. (Tempting that – then I could get on with other marking.)
I chose neither. On the way in, in the car, I struggled to think of a way to make this a participatory exercise. I decided I would divide them into teams. When we had read the text together, each team had to come up with a single answer for each question, and write it on a single post-it note.
On the wall (my magic paper whiteboard) I put the five team names as columns, and listed the question numbers down the side. A “runner” from each team came out and placed their answer, as soon as they had it, under their team name. As the lists of answers grew longer, I could tell which teams were working more slowly. One of those had a particularly bright group of girls. Turned out they were spending too much time working out the best ways to phrase their answers. Their answers were good, but they came last because they didn’t complete enough of the questions in time.
After 45/50 minutes, I stopped everyone. Working as a class now, I displayed my answers (one at a time) on the smart board. For each question, students copied my answer from the board, and then I read out the five answers on the wall.
This meant I could also do a live commentary on the common mistakes students make (eg not using inverted commas, writing answers which are far too long, writing incoherent answers, not evidencing a good answer, over-writing etc.) I put marks on each post-it answer with a red felt pen. And I asked student to keep a separate sheet called “Hints and Tips for Textual Analysis” which we created together as more and more “mistakes” became evident.
At the end, we tallied up the scores (I was fairly generous) and I made it clear that they were obviously quite capable of doing this – they just needed a bit of exam technique, better focus on the question, to work faster etc.
Comments from students afterwards were very positive. “I didn’t realise there was such a simple answer.” “I’ve never seen that done before”. “Really enjoyed that.” “Now I know why I always run out of time.” And I also have a semi-permanent feature on the wall which can refer to for revision.
My only regret – I didn’t organise a tube of Smarties for the winners. (Maybe next time.) At least I didn’t have any marking.
Joyce
Raising money for Alzheimer's Scotland and Breast Cancer Care
English Department Book Sale - Joyce
The installation of computers into one of our classrooms meant that we had to lose a few cupboards, and, consequently, a few books. Heart-broken (it goes without saying) we decided to hold a book sale during Freshers' week. I was not looking forward to it. I was wrong not to look forward to it. Completely wrong.
On the day, we had six boxes of books taken down to the foyer outside the canteen. I stood there with my voice amplifier (redundant from classroom use last year when I had voice problems) and announced my presence. “Book corner over here. Great bargains. All profits to charity. Come and have a look.”
I sold two thirds of the books straight off (we were there for just over an hour) and was pleasantly surprised at the many conversations I had with both staff and students. I found a teacher in Legal Studies, for example, who ran a drama club. She went off with a set of short Scottish drama texts. And I found students (many students) excited by the prospect of a particular author or a text they hadn’t read. A good few even wanted to try reading Shakespeare. (Amazing)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)