Final Self Reflection

I am taking away two things from this course:  #1 - I am on the right track, so keep plugging forward, and #2 - I can still improve in making my classroom even more engaging.


I have come to understand, through my supplemental reading book, Promoting active learning: Strategies for the college classroom by Meyers and Jones (1993) and our discussions that I have created an active learning environment in my classroom that inspires, excites, and motivates students to step outside of their own learning comfort zone and strive for more.  I have learned that my crafted activities promote my students to take responsibility for their own learning, encourage self reflection and build intrinsic motivation.


In terms of improving my classroom, I have already begun the process as I have identified 8 Video journal prompts, have contacted my school's blackboard 9.1 guru for assistance in designing a quick tutorial on using the blackboard blog option, and I have networked with David Robertson to assist me in teaching the personal narrative paper for my class.  Unfortunately, my course expectations - 30 total contact hours - limits my ability to create a 100% service learning component, however I am working with my department chair and a fellow teacher to create a peer tutoring program to provide a form of internal service learning within the college.  Additionally, I have spoken with my Student Services department to possibly devise a "Write to Know" brochure for students to receive during their initial orientation program to the college.  While I have listed off many learning strategies that I have initiated over the past four weeks, they are grounded in a deep rooted belief that an actively engaging environment that requires students to take control of their own learning by making my role a "human google" where students find resources and information.


In the end, I am taking the resources we have explored and I am permanently adding them to the classroom so that I can become a stronger and more proficient teacher.


To this end...check out the following video prompt, as I think it represents how I plan to teach in the future - by pushing my students even harder to maximize their limits:

Instructional Plan - Module 5

Title:

My Personal Narrative

Description of the students/course:

This unit will be used in my ENC 90, Foundations of Writing developmental class at Gateway Community and Technical College.  The students are between 18 – 60 years of age and have various life and academic experiences that cause writing apprehension and hesitation.  The class will consist of one faculty member, one co-teacher, and 20 students  and will take place over the course of two weeks.

Concepts addressed:

• Students will be able to (SWBAT) employ simple strategies for planning a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT address writing to a specific audience for a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT effectively organize a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT develop ideas adequately for a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT write an effective beginning, middle and end for a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT compose complete, cohesive sentences for a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT apply methods of revising for a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT use editorial techniques for a personal narrative essay.
• SWBAT create impromptu creative writing assignments by writing “mini stories” to the video journal prompts provided in class.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Students will be able to improve their self efficacy and social integration by writing a personal narrative that encompasses the entire writing process and accurately applies the principles of narrative writing (dialogue, story, voice and authenticity).
2. Students will be able to engage with their college community by creating a 2 – 3 page “Personal Narrative Writing Guide” insert; this insert will be included in the Orientation to College brochure passed out during new student orientations.  (Future classes will revise this insert and changes will be made on a semester basis in the Orientation to College brochure).
3. Students will be able to improve their self efficacy and academic integration in writing by improving their impromptu writing skills via daily video journal prompts.
4. Students will be able to improve their self efficacy and academic integration in writing by self evaluating and monitoring their own writing in comparison to writing samples within the Writing Workshop.

Description of the assessments and rubrics

Assessment 1 – Impromptu Journal Blogs

Students will receive full credit by completing the daily writing prompt and sharing their journals with their writing workshop group. 

Assessment 2 – Personal Narrative

Students will successfully write their Personal Narrative essay by completing all portions of the writing workshop process: Brainstorming, organizing, researching, outlining, rough draft, at least 3 revisions, and the final draft.  Please see appendix A for a copy of the college provided writing rubric that must be used to grade this essay.

Assessment 3 – Personal Narrative Brochure

As a class, students will design and create a “Personal Narrative Writing Guide” insert that will include the steps of the writing workshop process and the following narrative elements: description, elements of a story, dialogue, voice and use of emotion. 

Assessment 4 - Self Reflective Essay

Upon completion of the unit, students will write a 1 – 2 page essay that answers the following questions.  As long as each answer is a college level paragraph in length, students will receive full credit for the completion of the self reflection.

1.      What have I learned about personal narrative writing?

2.      Now that my entire paper is complete, how do I feel about my essay?  How did the Writing Process help me?

3.      What was it like to help create the “Personal Narrative Writing Guide?”  How do you think it will help future students who enter ENC 90?  How did it help you understand the elements of writing a Personal Narrative essay?

4.      If you were to mentor an ENC 90 student next semester, what advice would you give him or her?

Use of technology

Technology Component 1 – Video Journal Prompt

            Directions – After watching the video, create a 2 – 4 paragraph dialogue between two of the characters in the video.  Make sure that your dialogue is realistic and includes tone description.

• Free Hugs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd
• Dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
• Johnny the Bagger: http://www.stservicemovie.com/
• Wedding Dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Technology Component 2 – Writing Workshop Revision Worksheets

            Directions:  Students will be asked to make revisions to a provided personal narrative sample paragraphs.  Upon completion, students will share their answers with their writing workshop partners.  As a writing workshop team, they will create a “master” revision form.  Finally, students will review the revision “key” that will be transmitted via blackboard and the LCD projector.  Softchalk will be enabled and all revisions will be posted for future review on blackboard.

References

Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The ‘‘what’’ and ‘‘why’’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268.

Meyers, C. & Jones, T. (1993). Promoting active learning: Strategies for the college classroom. Jossey - Bass: San Francisco.

Tinto, V. (1975). Dropouts from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent

research. Review of Educational Research, 45, 89–125.

Co-Teacher Plan

Co-Teacher Plan for ENC 90
Developmental Writing at GCTC

Partner #1 – David Robertson, published writer and novelist.

A. David Robertson is the author of three previous biographies, of the slave rebel Denmark Vesey, former U.S. secretary of state James F. Byrnes, and the bishop James A. Pike, and of a historical novel about John Wilkes Booth. His poetry has appeared in The Sewanee Review and other journals, and he has provided political and literary commentary to ABC News and The Washington Post. He was educated in Alabama and lives in Ohio. In addition to his writing, David is also an English Composition instructor at Southwestern College in Cincinnati, Oh. He can be contacted at 513 – 421 -3212.

B. Personal Narrative Composition: David will assist me with teaching Personal Narrative writing. During the 3rd week of my 8 week quarter I will teach the principles of narrative writing to my students with a variety of activities. During the 4th week David will be my co-teacher and lead the writing workshop for this essay. He has agreed to prepare and present the following mini lessons: “Voice, Description and Melodrama” and “He Said What?” David will individually assist each student as he or she completes the personnel narrative writing process. We will use the LCD projector for writing workshops and David several James Patterson “Books on Tape” audio clips. He has not yet determined which ones he will use during his lessons.

C. Curriculum Standards:

1. Employ simple strategies for planning

2. Address writing to a specific audience for a specific purpose

3. Effectively organize a short writing assignment

4. Develop ideas adequately

5. Write an effective beginning, middle and end

6. Compose complete, cohesive sentences

7. Apply methods of revising

8. Use editorial techniques

D. Assessment: The assessment for David’s co-teaching will be the completion of their Personal Narratives. Students will be required to turn in the following: Brainstorming, organizing, researching, outlining, rough draft, at least 3 revisions, and the final draft. Additionally, each student’s grade will be based on the following topics: author’s voice, descriptive language, authentic emotion, and authentic dialogue.



Partner #2 – James Pilcher, Journalist, Cincinnati Enquirer.

A. James Pilcher: James is the Enquirer's personal technology columnist. He can be contacted at pilcher@enquirer.com

B. Illustrative Composition: James will assist me with teaching illustrative writing. During the 5th week of my 8 week quarter I will teach the principles of illustrative writing to my students with a variety of activities. During the 6th week James will be my co-teacher and lead the writing workshop for this essay. He has agreed to prepare and present the following mini lessons: “Examples and EXAMPLES” and “Professional Voice?” James will individually assist each student as he or she completes the illustrative writing process. James plans to use the internet and the LCD projector to pull illustrative writing examples from the Cincinnati Enquirer’s website: www.cincinnati.com

C. Curriculum Standards:

1. Employ simple strategies for planning

2. Address writing to a specific audience for a specific purpose

3. Effectively organize a short writing assignment

4. Develop ideas adequately

5. Write an effective beginning, middle and end

6. Compose complete, cohesive sentences

7. Apply methods of revising

8. Use editorial techniques

D. Assessment: The assessment for James’s co-teaching will be the completion of their Illustrative essays. Students will be required to turn in the following: Brainstorming, organizing, researching, outlining, rough draft, at least 3 revisions, and the final draft. Additionally, each student’s grade will be based on the following topics: five paragraph structure, professional voice, and use of examples.

Mastering English Composition through Service Tutoring

Title of Project:                                              Mastering English Composition through Service Tutoring

             

Grade Level:                                                   Developmental Writing, Community College

Number of Students Participating:                10

Contributed by:

            Teacher:                                  Kerri McKenna

          School:                                    Gateway Community and Technical College

          District or County:                  N/A

Overview/Description of Project:                 Developmental writing students will be able to reinforce their skills through structured writing workshops between two various levels of writing.  Additionally, students will create, as a culminating activity, a 5 page brochure explaining "College Level Writing" that will be distributed at the campus bookstore and the Student Advising Center.  

Goals:

1.       Students will personally become more confident in their ability to critically think, critically write, and critically evaluate college level writing assignments.

2.       Students will become more confident in their ability to complete their future coursework at the college level.  

3.       With added confidence, students will find greater intrinsic motivation and expand future opportunities.

4.       Students will create a valuable resource for their fellow classmates in the “College Level Writing” brochure.

5.       Faculty will better understand and assist the needs of their students by learning from their students.

Course Objectives:

1.      Employ simple strategies for planning

2.      Address writing to a specific audience for a specific purpose

3.      Effectively organize a short writing assignment

4.      Develop ideas adequately

5.      Write an effective beginning, middle and end

6.      Compose complete, cohesive sentences

7.      Apply methods of revising

8.      Use editorial techniques

PARC MODEL STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

STEP 1: PREPARATION

1. Faculty will seek and obtain approval from the necessary school administration to conduct this project.
2. Faculty will identify ENC 91 and ENC 90 faculty members that are willing to partake in this project.
3. Faculty will create a structure for how this process will take place during a semester of class; once the general expectations have been created specific expectations will be identified by the students involved in the writing workshop tutoring project.
4. Faculty will determine classes that will be paired for tutoring based upon participating faculty.
5. Faculty will determine weekly reflection journal prompts for both ENC 91 and ENC 90 students.
6. Faculty will guide students through their creation of a "College Level Writing Brochure"

STEP 2: ACTION

1. ENC 91 students and ENC 90 students will work together once a week class writing workshops; a minimum of 90 minutes of class time will be provided.
2. ENC 90 students will work with their peers and make appropriate revisions to their compositions.
3. Both ENC 91 and ENC 90 students will complete a weekly reflective journal prompt and post it to the appropriate blackboard discussion thread.
4. Faculty will meet weekly to discuss progress, trouble shoot and address questions.

STEP 3: REFLECTION  ( Reflection is not sequential; rather it is encouraged throughout the lesson)

 Both ENC 91 and ENC 90 students will complete a weekly 2-part journal prompt that identifies 3 big ideas concerning the current writing assignment and the use of rhetoric; all journal prompts will be placed on the blackboard discussion board.

1. Both ENC 91 and ENC 90 students will be required to write a final, cumulative & summative reflection on the entire experience.

 STEP 4:  CELEBRATION/DEMONSTRATION

1. Students will be rewarded by advancing to the next level of English Composition at the college.  This reward exemplifies intrinsic motivations - as it shows the commitment to learning is essential for future success.
2. Both classes will meet for a writing luncheon where final reflections will be shared for further understanding.

Video Journal Prompt #1

I plan on using this Youtube video as my first journal prompt of the semester next year. I chose this prompt because I believe it will capture the interest of my students while simultaneously showing the importance of education in our world today.

After students watch the video, I am going to ask them to respond the the video - what are they thinking, feeling, believing.  After they have finished, I am going to pose the following three revision questions:

1. How many sentences do you have in your paragraph?
2. What are the three main supporting ideas in your paragraph?
3. What is the topic sentence of your paragraph?

From here, I will guide students with a discussion on these three areas in writing.  At the end of the discussion, I will allow students to revise their paragraphs and turn in both copies for a participation grade.

Video:

WebEnglish Teacher Is A Lifesaver!!

As a Developmental Writing Instructor at Gateway, I often find myself struggling to find age appropriate materials to use with my students. Too often I find materials with the skill level appropriate language is accompanied with “kiddie” pictures and exercise topics.

Fortunately, WebEnglish Teacher has an array of resources that are not necessarily “kiddie” oriented. Especially when dealing with writing prompts, sample essays and grammar explanations. The materials truly span K – 16.

I also like how there is an entire section devoted as “just for fun”. This section provides English games, activities and writing prompts to emotionally engage the learner and allow him or her to look past the “ugh, I have to WRITE?” whine that we deal with on a regular basis.

The last section of the website is Professional Resources. This section brings all the best online resources to you in one easily searchable area. It also helps you with classroom management, dealing with parents, and support groups.

I know that I will many of these resources. One section of the resource has pooled some of the more thought provoking videos that exist on Youtube, Teachertube, etc. I had already been toying with the idea of using Youtube videos as my “journal” prompts in class. This resource will help me cut out hours of my own searching to find the best ones.

Overall, I am very happy with the resource and I plan to share it with others at Gateway.

Currently Engaging College Students

Good Afternoon Everyone!!

As a college professor, I use my "summer" semester to review my materials, lessons, and textbook to determine what I can do to better engage my students in the classroom. To this end, I am in the process of preparing an active learning environment for the upcoming school year.

The first step I have taken is to revise my syllabus so that it reflects the new textbook I will use during the 2010 - 2011 year at Gateway. Per Meyers and Jones (1993), in their book Promoting active learning: Strategies for the college classroom, one of the most important elements for creating an active learning environment is to clarify course objectives and content. A professor is able to create an empowering environment with clear expectations. When students are aware of what is expected they are better able to take ownership of their daily studies.

Second, I am planning opening activities for each class. These activities are a balance of ice breakers, socio - emotional growth and academic understanding. Some activities will be small group (so that we can become more comfortable with each other), some will be whole class (so that we can see how far we've come), while others will be independent work (so that we can reinforce understanding and build confidence). In turn these activities will create a "positive tone...that excites students' interests and encourages their participation" (Meyers & Jones, 1993). When students have to be a part of every aspect of their classroom they are more likely to stay engaged on a regular basis.

Finally, I am trying to develop a service learning activity that will pair my students with a local elementary / high school so that my students can assist kids with their writing. The end purpose of this project would be mutual learning of how to write efficiently and effectively. If any teachers would like to "partner up", please let me know!

In addition to these activities I am also creating more "hands on" writing assignments and revision worksheets to help make learning how to write more hands on in nature.

Please, feel free to offer suggestions! They will be greatly appreciated.

Meyers, C. & Jones, T. (1993). Promoting active learning: Strategies for the college classroom. Jossey - Bass: San Francisco.