We’re going to work with you over the summer to write lesson plans for the first two weeks of your class.
To begin to think about that, skim through the sequence of lesson plans we’ve posted on the 110 site. What do you notice about the sequence, and what do you wonder?
Each of the plans covers one class meeting. Each meeting lasts for an hour and 15 minutes of meeting time plus 30 minutes of group conference/small group meetings.
[SIDENOTE/VOCAB: That last 30 minutes is “the conference hour,” as in, 30 minutes x 2 / week.]
You may notice that the lesson plans are broken up a lot, so the students move from one activity to the next. You may also notice an emphasis on group work and workshopping. We intend to make every day a writing day, and you will see this intention reflected in the lesson plans, too.
What do you glean about the intellectual purposes of “low-stakes writing” when you notice these kinds of things?
And what apprehensions do you have as you begin to envision your first two weeks of teaching at QC?
I am curious about asynchronous versus synchronous approaches–assuming we are online. Do you/QC generally have preferences in this regard? Also, how have you handled being more lenient in the moment, while simultaneously ensuring that the core requirements/skills the course provides, have been taught? Is this more of a case-by-case basis? Offering extra credit? I’d be interested to know!
“Also, how have you handled being more lenient in the moment, while simultaneously ensuring that the core requirements/skills the course provides, have been taught?” –– YES
Also, if there are any sort of universal “definitely do this” or “definitely don’t do that” tactics that you’ve become aware of, both in terms of this specific moment/online teaching, and in “normal” times that would be great to know! If there approaches that have just generally never worked for this kind of course I’d love to have that knowledge….
Also, what does the online training look like for this?
Well, I’ll second Nicole here in asking similar questions re: synchronous/asynchronous. In terms of lesson planning how do we incorporate some of the needs around universal design and which platforms have QC profs used that might be best suited to ENG110 specifically? Likewise, what forms of tech accommodation and accommodation for folks with disabilities have been made by QC, particularly around teaching online this spring and for the fall?
What do you notice about the sequence, and what do you wonder?
What I notice about the sequence of lesson plans is that it begins with a general understanding of ideas, questions, and strategies presented in a text. It then progresses into understanding the broader context of a text, how to read it closely and how to connect it to other works/use it as a source. It seems the main focus of the lessons in the beginning is understanding the work, and then from there, learning how to write about that work. I wonder about the additional lesson plans and addressing those topics while still staying on course.
What do you glean about the intellectual purposes of “low-stakes writing” when you notice these kinds of things?
I notice a lot of drafting and free writing in the lesson plans. I think both of these strategies (especially free writing) are really helpful in taking pressure off students, therefore they can write what comes to mind rather than write what they believe needs to be written. It gives the student autonomy by asking them to write about what they notice, thus they can build a stronger argument.
And what apprehensions do you have as you begin to envision your first two weeks of teaching at QC?
One concern I have is I noticed a lot of the lesson plans say “in small groups”- I’m wondering how this would look online. I too am curious about any leniency during this time. For any final research projects, students may not have access to the resources they need.
Seconding Daniella’s analysis of the free writing section, which I share 🙂 I wonder if people have experimented with e.g. asking students to keep informal diaries of their free writing work (even just asking them to put it all in one Google Doc etc.)
Not to belabor the question any further, but I too am thinking a lot about how we’ll map these lesson plan models onto a distance-learning situation. Will we still be expected to operate under the assumption that we’ll have assignments due twice weekly. How will the group workshops work? Is a discussion board an adequate replacement for those sorts of collaborative activities?
Just seconding the concerns which Mitchell has mapped out here, and which I share!
Another thing I’ve been *thinking about* re: online learning is if there are specific ways we can work with the fact of online instead of just trying and failing to replicate IRL learning. That being said, the switch to “distanced learning” already places additional strain on students, so I also want to streamline tech logistics and keep things as simple as possible for them.
Hey Charlie,
I’m about to start my second semester of online teaching this summer. I think, and we’ll probably end up talking about it, etc, but giving students asynchronous and synchronous options and opportunities and setting timelines that are a bit more open-ended for lower stakes writing has been helpful (so, like, discussion forums, etc), and I have been making one central “reading” available but with the general idea to be discussed (if it is a synchronous class) approachable through a number of different types of media, styles, etc.
To give an example, I’m having my students look at the ACT UP oral history archive (where there is audio as well as text), but also read/listen to a section from Sarah Schulman’s People in Trouble, and we will collectively watch How to Survive a Plague (I am going to host a Zoom stream of it where students can comment if they like in the chat, but it is also available freely online so they can watch it and return to it at their own pace.) For each of these readings, there’s a discussion thread (they only need to respond to two of these threads, and each other), and then when they actually do the ‘higher stakes’ writing, they can pick among these sources to respond to, but there’s enough redundancy and reinforcement that they don’t need to be super exacting in their reading/listening/watching of any single one of them.
If I were in-person with students, that would likely look very different in that we’d likely all be more “on the same page.” By giving options for pacing, engagement, etc, I’m hoping it will actually lead to more meaningful engagement with the material and greater texture to the class. Sorry for the longwinded response but maybe that’s helpful in some way?
I share similar concerns with Daniella, particularly about group work. I believe that thinking in a group and sharing the thoughts of a group to the class puts less pressure on individual students and probably encourages more people to share their thoughts. I can’t think of a way to do this over Zoom, so I wonder how we can accommodate group work if we have to continue distance learning in the fall.
I realized the questions I posted on the syllabus page might be more apt for this post, so I copy-pasted them: I’m wondering how group work/peer reviews would look like in a remote/distant learning setting (blog posts? google doc?), and how in-class discussion would look like if synchronous learning is not accessible to all students (more blogging??).
I agree with Charlie that we shouldn’t be trying to replicate IRL teaching. That said, I guess what I’m struggling with the most is trying to create a sense/feeling of community/togetherness between students, in an online classroom setting, that may not be synchronous.
“I guess what I’m struggling with the most is trying to create a sense/feeling of community/togetherness between students, in an online classroom setting, that may not be synchronous” –– exactly
Reading through these lesson plans, I notice that there is a lot of scaffolding involved, and I can already see how even the lesson plans for the second and third day are laying the foundation for the final research project at the end of the semester.
Like many of my colleagues have already mentioned, I am also curious about synchronous/asynchronous sessions. I could see this being useful on the days when major assignments are due because it would give students more time to work on their papers. My professors have used this approach in some of my graduate courses, and it has been pretty successful. However, as Sukie points out, it may be difficult to create a sense of community/togetherness in an asynchronous class. Has anyone taught asynchronous classes before? If so, how did it work for you?
Additionally, I am also really worried about group work. From what I can remember from my time in English 110/130, small group work is a major component of the course. However, as most of my colleagues have pointed out, online mediums like Zoom, Google Classroom, and QWriting do not really lend themselves to group work. I think this will be particularly challenging during peer reviews. If students break apart into virtual groups, it might be difficult for some students who aren’t tech savvy to toggle between tabs or share their screens. I would be interested in knowing how professors who taught this semester approached this issue.
I have the same questions and concerns as most of the rest of you about group work, synchronous/asynchronous class time, and class community building. I’m guessing a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous time will be a good way to strike a balance — blog postings are useful in “normal” times and I imagine will prove even more useful going forward.
Another concern is reliable internet access — what if that’s harder for some students?
I love all of the space for free writing/low stakes writing and also second (third?) what Daniella had to say about that. This sort of writing is also crucial because it creates a rhythm and hopefully a comfortableness; it might seem obvious to say, but the more often we come to the page, the more accustomed we become to doing so. The more comfortable we are with writing regularly, especially in a low stakes manner, the easier it might become to do more “higher stakes” work. Which is to say, it’s a form of training.
I’m overwhelmed by the number of materials! I think some of my greatest questions–are we free to take these & implement them? And/or make them our own? Like are they OER/creative commons?
Another key question–as far as the minutia of syllabus planning (lesson plan of how much detail vs. syllabus/schedule), what are you seeking us to send or share with you for course set-up review? It’s unclear to me what may be Practicum requirement (full backwards design model seemingly) vs. routine syllabi submission for all faculty of certain courses.
**Apologies to my fellows to jump into all the pedagogy jargon!
One more note– I forgot! I am curious to learn Perusall, an annotating tool that may allow some “group think” on readings, live or not. Anyone familiar at QC?
Happy also to talk pro/con of different video-conference platforms! I am pro polling away! What are other’s experiences of break-out groups in live sessions? And also ways to help students gain comfort level too?