For my teaching artifact, I’ve decided upon changing my lesson for that class. I finalized my decision for this because I realized there is artifact that could benefit the most from making it more student centered. In revamping the assignment, I actually decided to split the class into two days’ worth of material, meaning that we will discuss this chapter for a week. Given that this is a longer chapter in the textbook and students argue that it is an important chapter for applying it to their lives, I focused on ways to make it a combination of lecture and student-centric to make it more engaging. I’ve added in group activities with Google Slides, places for student discussion questions, and a Padlet where students can answer questions without raising their hands. This helps to facilitate student engagement in different ways so that all students can actively participate, rather than a handful of students talking in class. The seminar influenced my decision-making by looking at the different ways to actively engage students. Additionally, the different activities also helped me to develop a better understanding of how to incorporate engagement and attention to relevant topics around well-being and stress.

Here is the link to the course syllabus that I’ve reworked and made (I hope! :-)) more engaging for my students — https://docs.google.com/document/d/179KAyp1PraiYDPse1BWUYfWAvQEJdm_o7OUz1ialfT4/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the link to the scavenger hunt — https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p0Z826_-LLquJMYBlaOnc9xpz3Qmis40C7ewRW1A6pM/edit?usp=sharing

November 30, 2021

Dear Fellow Seminar Participants,

I hope you have had a valuable seminar experience. Our seminar has caused me to think a lot about student engagement in my teaching. I’ve applied what I learned in our seminar and the synchronous webinars, “It’s on the syllabus” and “Social-Constructivist Learning (& Teaching), to revise the syllabus for a new course – Writing II – which I’ll be teaching in spring.

I began the process of revising my concept of designing the syllabus and making it more engaging by creating it as a shared document in Google Docs, so that students can interact with the document as we review it on the first day of class. An example of how students can interact with it is by adding a self-introduction in the space provided in the document. They are provided with a writing model (i.e. my self introduction – discussed in the next paragraph) and writing practice (always a goal in the course). By having a self-introduction on the syllabus gives students a voice and agency in participating in the construction of the course.  

Another element of engagement that I included in my syllabus is my personal introduction. This is the first time I’ve ever thought about making the purpose of my syllabus something other than a means to inform my students about the expectations and policies of the course.  

I have also added images and emojis along with questions as sub-headings throughout. This makes the document more visually appealing and consequently, engaging to the reader.

Finally, I’m in the process of designing a scavenger hunt for the students to complete while we review the syllabus on the first day of class. The purpose of this is for students to know where to find important information on the syllabus and to share this with the class after the hunt is completed but to also have this as a quick guide to finding answers to the most commonly asked questions in the course.

This is a work in progress, so I have a lot more to do to make this as engaging as possible for the students.

I look forward to reading about your seminar experiences and learning from you,

Cate Grundleger

I decided to make my teaching artifact a redesigned assignment that is scaffolded (instead of two separate assignments) for my ENG2850 – Great Works of Literature class in the Spring (fully online). Right now, I assign my students two essays on two different books that we read in full. I give them different prompts about the same book, and I offer them the posisbility of making up their own prompt as well. However, I think it would be more engaging to let them write about the work they prefer rather than a given work (and less tedious for me to grade 20 assignments about the same book!). I also think that scaffolding a slightly longer assignment on one topic, and including peer-review, will give them a better chance to develop the analytical and writing skills aimed for in my course’s learning goals.

The seminar has convinced me that scaffodling is better, and that also matches my experience of scaffolding in other courses. Students have a feeling of working on less numerous assignments, and instead on abigger project that they can put effort in, and hopefully enjoy, since they choose the topic. I still need to adapt this to the texts I will teach next semester. I also may or may not include the option to make a podcast rather than an essay, but I’m not sure I’m allowed to do this… I’ll have to discuss with the department. Maybe I can do this instead of informal, low-stakes Google Doc posts, and keep the traditional essay as the formal assignment, worth 40% percent of the course grade (the rest can be 25% for a short analysis in groups submitted in early weeks, 20% for weekly asynchonous work, and 15% for in-class participation). A lingering concern I have is with traditional grading and percentages… I am tempted to try ungrading for this course, as I did for writing courses before, but I don’t know how to ensure participation in class in that case. I need to reassess after the current semester is finished. Another oncern with giving them the choice of authors to choose from on the syllabus AND having a scaffolded assignment is that we won’t have studied all the authors on the syllabus by the time they need to choose…

Assuming I stick with the traditional essay for 40% portion of their course grade, here is a draft of how I am planning my teaching artifact:

Final project: writing academically about your favourite text, one step at a time

Assignment specs:
– 1500-1700 words
– Worth 40% of your course grade
– Detailed draft needs to be ready for class on Thursday, March 24th
– Submit finished product via TurnitIn on Blackboard by May 8th

We will work gradually towards the most important assignment of this course. Here are the steps and timeline to the finished assignment:

• February: After choosing a text by an author on the syllabus, you will pick one aspect of the text that you found either beautiful, strange, confusing, or otherwise meaningful.
• Early March: You will brainstorm ideas to structure your analysis over two class workshop. You will then come up with a detailed draft with a structured introduction containing a thesis statement and an outline of points to address in your essay, including selected quotes and evidence to back up your interpretation of the text.
• March 24th: You will bring your detailed draft to class for peer-review in Breakout Rooms (pairs). You will swap your draft with your pair and get feedback based on a checklist. I will then review each draft and advise you on your next steps towards the finished essay. (This step is a crucial part of your assessment for this essay. If, for any reason, you cannot participate in the class eeting on that day, please email me so we can make up for it)
• April: Using the feedback you got from your paired classmate and myself, you will write out your essay according to your detailed draft. We will have in-class workshop on the following topics and you will have the opportunity to request workshops on other topics: Will Power; Inserting Evidence in an Argument; ”Painting the Structure Red”: Making your Argument the Continuous Thread that Holds your Essay Together; Keeping Your Reader With You: Writing Transitions and Reiterating your Argument; Proofreading and Editing. The in-class workshop will contain an in-class writing portion where you will be able to work on your assignment while having the option to ask questions at any time and join a Breakout Room if you need one-on-one help.
• May 8th, 11:59pm: your essay is due on BlackBoard, via a TurnitIn link under ”Course Documents.”

General Checklist to use before submitting your essay:

Thesis/Argument	Is the main “point” of my essay clear throughout? What insights does it offer, or what argument does it make, about my chosen topic? Considering the existing literature on this topic, what do I bring to the table? What are my “findings”?
Support of Thesis	Do I provide details that walk my reader through my argument, step by step? Do I provide rhetorically persuasive reasons and specific evidence to support my thesis in the framework of what has already been argued in the field (remember that your paper is part of a larger academic discussion)?
Quality & Integration of Quotes	Do I summarize, paraphrase, and quote directly in in a logical way from the text I’m analyzing? Do I acknowledge the text correctly, and is th formatting of my quotes appropriate?
Counter-arguments	Do I address the arguments and beliefs of those who may disagree with my position (in a respectful way)?
Organization	Do I organize my paragraphs in such a way that my readers can clearly follow my main argument? Do I announce my structure in the introduction, and do I write transition sentences when I move on to another point? Can my readers easily follow how I develop and support that argument in each paragraph? Does each paragraph contribute to my thesis, and if not, did I delete unnecessary ones? Do my paragraphs smoothly transition into each other using transition words to signal my reader where my argument is going? Do I group information that goes together? Do I use a new paragraph when I “switch gears” to a new subject? (No whole pages without paragraph splits).
Style, Grammar & Editing	Have I used the Word spelling and grammar check tool? Have I proofread myself at least twice to avoid typos and mistakes that would distract my reader from my story? Is my document well presented? Is the layout easy to the eye (Font 12 Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman, justified alignment, 1st line indent, etc.) Does my writing contains few if any “to be” verbs (these are only descriptive, not analytic)? Am I concise, formal, and compelling, emulating the tone of the academic sources I have been using?
Overall Respect of Instructions	Did I respect all instructions on this page? Am I submitting a Word document, using the template provided, and saved as instructed? Did I respect the word count by 10% under or over 2000 words? Did I answer the “Writer’s Letter” questions at the end of the template? Am I on time for the due date? If not, did I request an extension at least 48 hours prior to the due date?

I would appreciate any feedback on this assignment draft. Do you think it’s manageable? What do you think of grading with percentages, as opposed to ungrading (giving only feedback and asking them to self-assess at the end of the semester to determine a letter grade)? Also, I know the provisional title is lousy… I’m just not inspired at this stage fo the semester…

Teaching Artifact Letter

In my teaching artifact, I chose to revise my participatory writing activity: the Writer’s Journal. This semester, students wrote one post per week based on a prompt I shared. Typically these prompts asked students to share a piece of their writing process or reflect on that process. At the end of the semester students use these posts as data to write their Autoethnography, a reflective project where they research their own writing process and growth during the semester. These posts receive “Complete” grades, meaning they are not graded for content, style, or against any rubric.

Though I enjoy the way students writing in this format is reflective and semi-private. Though I have access to these journals and other students can also peruse them, students don’t currently have to engage with one another’s’ posts. I do notice however that my current students seem unsure what to do with these posts and they aren’t quite as engaged in doing the activity consistently as I would like.

In my revised version then, I have created multiple points of engagement throughout the week for students to participate in. Having students return to these posts and engage with them multiple ways—including emphasizing them during our synchronous sessions—will raise student buy-in and reinforce their function in the larger course content.

Right now, I’m not sure how these prompts will look or where they will live in my Blogs@Baruch site. I have a pretty clear site structure already for my asynchronous course, but I think this needs to change to accommodate the unique needs of the synchronous sessions and move students through the content in a different way. I’ve seen a few good examples of module format in this workshop as well as elsewhere, but I’m not sure what it looks like for my course just yet. I’d love feedback on the format or what this might look like.

Writer’s Journal

WRITING TASK

Throughout the semester you will record and reflect on your writing process and experiences in this course. You will respond to prompts on our Blogs@Baruch site before, during, and after our weekly class sessions. You will use this text as primary source material later in the course when you write the Autoethnography. In that project, you will have the opportunity to summarize, quote, code, and otherwise analyze your posts to reflect and demonstrate how you achieved the course learning goals.

APPROACH

The Writer’s Journal will take the form of a series of posts on Blogs@Baruch throughout the semester. Though the posts will be saved in our Blogs@Baruch site, I always recommend drafting in a Word/Google doc first and saving it to your files in case you lose Wi-Fi or the post doesn’t save.

To fully complete the weekly posts, you will need to develop and maintain a system for recording notes on your writing. This could be a Google doc, a Word doc, a notebook, or notepad entry on your phone. Any time you sit down to write or conduct primary/secondary research for projects in this course, you should take a few moments to record some brief notes you can review at the start of your next writing or research session. You’ll have a lot of notes—and a lot of data—by the end of the semester.

LEARNING GOALS

Course Learning Goals

This writing task reflects the following course learning goals:

• Write your own texts critically
• Compose as a process

Through recording, analyzing, and reflecting on writing, you will better understand not only your process but the components that comprise strong academic writing.

Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing

This writing task asks you to engage with and apply the Council of Writing Program Administrators’ “Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing” habits of mind essential for success in college writing:

• Curiosity – the desire to know more about the world.
• Openness – the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world.
• Engagement – a sense of investment and involvement in learning.
• Creativity – the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas.
• Persistence – the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.
• Responsibility – the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others.
• Flexibility – the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.
• Metacognition – the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge.

REQUIREMENTS

Each week, you will complete three posts:

Invention (before class)

This response is due before our first class session for the week. These prompts will be brief and do not require you to have read or completed all the work for the week. Often they will ask you to give your initial thoughts on a subject, reflect on past writing experiences, or develop questions you have for the class session.

Discussion (during class)

This response is due during our first class session for the week. This prompt will be shared during our class session and you will add your response to the Blogs@Baruch site at that time. Often, these prompts will ask you to reflect on something we discussed in class or otherwise contribute to our shared knowledge as a class.

Writing Log (after class)

This response is due after class by Sunday at 11:59PM. This response should include the following details every week.

1. Describe the writing you did this week(your first entry won’t include this)
   Examples:
   1. Wrote the introduction for the Incident Analysis
   1. Read two sources for the Researched Project
   1. Conducted an interview with a research subject
2. What worked or went well this week
3. What was hard or didn’t work this week
4. To-Do list for next week
5. Where you left off/the last thing you did
6. How you feel or felt about the week, your project, and/or your writing

To complete this post, you will likely need to maintain a separate system for recording notes on your writing. As mentioned in the Approach, any time you sit down to write or conduct primary/secondary research for projects in this course, you should take a few moments to record some brief notes you can review at the start of your next writing or research session. At the beginning of your next work session, I recommend you open your journal and review the last entry. Doing so will help you know what tasks you have to complete and remind you of what you accomplished the last time you wrote. You can also make a quick note about what plans you have for the current session, even if it’s just to copy your To-Do list. You could also make a comment or note in your document.

This writing log might feel tedious at first or like busy work. As you do these log posts, please make them work for you. Find a system that allows you to keep track of your writing and reflect on it quickly and effectively. Remember, I won’t see your notes but your notes and these logs will become the data you use to write your Autoethnography project at the end of the semester. You’re creating the source material for that project every time you write.

EXAMPLE

Writing Log

This is a sample writing log I completed for a project I was working on in fall 2020. I don’t always use this exact format for my individual writing, but I do frequently take notes like the ones I recommend you do for this writing task. Creating notes and comments in my project documents has helped me remain consistent while I write and dive back into my writing quicker. I can often get started writing much faster when I have these kinds of notes than when I have left a project for days or weeks with no idea where to start when I return to it. Notice that your writing log doesn’t need to be lengthy. Feel free to use bullet points, fragments, or any other method that makes sense to you.

Saturday September 19, 2020

Peer Observation (PO) Project

1. What I did:
   1. Read through three examples of peer observation documents
   1. Added multiple sources to Zotero
   1. Downloaded additional PO docs to review
2. What went well:
   1. Zotero organization feels good. I have a separate folder for the project now.
   1. There’s multiple examples available for me to review.
3. What was hard:
   1. Having a hard time concentrating on the project/early stages of getting interested and invested in the work.
   1. Reading these on the screen without ability to annotate is frustrating.
4. To-Do list:
   1. Read additional PO documents I’ve downloaded
   1. Begin source organization chart to look for themes amongst the documents
5. Where I left off:
   1. Added notes on NYU PO document in Zotero
6. Ultimately a bit frustrated by my slow progress. I’d love to have one afternoon or day where I could sit down for two or more hours without distractions (ha!) to work on reading and organization. Maybe, I should set a goal of reading one PO doc per day?

Hi everyone!
1. For my teaching artifact, I’d like to redesign a very classic essay assignment I give my students in ENG2850 – Great Works of Literature. It is a 1000-word essay on Candide, by Voltaire, which gives them four prompts (including a develop-your-own-topic one). There is no use of external sources for this essay; it is a rhetorical analysis only. The results on this assignment hasn’t been great, and students seem to have felt lost as to how to approach an academic essay, even though they are sophomores.

2. I would like to scaffold that assignment into more steps that help them break down the task and develop a good writing methodology that they can take beyond my course.
I am also condiering giving them more choice as to which book they choose to analyze, among the ones we have studied. The trouble is that there are few texts we read in full, hence my assigning this text and giving them only a choice of prompts on the same text. I did get sick of reading essay after essay on the same text, and no one chose to come up with their own prompts, so I may still offer more liberty next time and require them to do more research on texts we haven’t read in full.
Some tools I could use to scaffold this assignment are:
– StoryMap (they can build a visual map of their background research on the author and literary movement, or use it to trace a character’s journey);
– Slack channels (for peer-reviewing one another’s drafts and brainstorming ideas);
– A Google Doc (for building a group essay together maybe, though I’m unsure about that one, as we already use a Google Doc every week for presentations on the readings, and I’m not sure a group essay would really give students the opportunity to develop their individual writing skills. They do get another short essay in the semester, so maybe I could give them one essay to write in groups of 2-3 and one individual essay).
– I also want to reduce the amount of instructions on the essay pages of my website and give them advice more efficiently.
– Finally, I want to consider “ungrading” for this course (giving only feedback, but no grades, except the final grade required on the Baruch transcript. I have done that fro my ENG2150 and ENG2100 courses before, and it has removed a lot of pressure off both the students and I.
To determine their final grades, students keep track of their own work (just as I do keep my own records, where I suggest letter grades) and they fill in a self-assessment form. The letter grade they suggest for themselves is rarely very different from the one I suggest. Often, students underestimate themselves.

Here is my assignment sheet as it currently is (it’s quite rigid, and admittedly, it testifies to my French academic education…):

Short Essay #1

Date due (via TurnitIn, on Blackboard): Friday, October 15th by 11:59pm EST.
Please use the assignment template provided below and write your essay directly into it. Kindly save your document as ENG2850_LastName_FirstName_Essay1.ENG2850-Assignment-TemplateDownload

Instructions

Your first essay will be on Candide, by Voltaire (1759). It should be 1000 to 1250 words long. You should organize your argument in two or three parts and choose specific examples to illustrate your point, duly presenting your quotes in quotation marks and indicating the page number in parenthesis.

Here’s a tip: divide up the word count into your two or three main points. You can title each part of your essay if you wish, or simply lay out your page so that the different parts of your analysis are clearly discernible, but don’t forget to write transitions for your reader when you switch parts.

In any case, you should have a separate paragraph for your introduction (in which you will explain your topic, formulate the questions you will attempt to answer, and outline the structure of your analysis) and another paragraph for your conclusion (in which you will reiterate your point and open up towards further questions your analysis will have prompted).

Very important: Give a clear outline of your essay structure in your introduction. Clearly state what are the different parts of your essay, and you arrive at your argument or thesis. There should be a clear thesis statement in your introduction, and it should be clear in your conclusion as well.  You can even say plainly: “this essay will argue …”; “first, I will analyze…”; “second, I will analyze…”; “Ultimately, this essay finds that…”

Please choose one of the following prompts to guide your analysis:

1. Analyze the concept of optimism as depicted through the story of Candide (the character).
You may choose to focus on the character (characterization), on plot, or on any other aspect through which you read the text. How is optimism pictured in the text? Can you associate this depiction of optimism to any political or philosophical position? How can you tie it back to the historical context of Candide, which was published in France in 1759? Make your analysis as specific as you can by focusing on one particular aspect of the story which conveys a depiction of optimism (character, plot, etc.). Note that “optimism” does not merely refer to a way of thinking positively, but to a dangerous theory of Voltaire’s time: the Church was using the theory that all is part of God’s plan (aka. optimistic determinism, by Gottfried Leibniz) to justify evil done in the name of God (e.g. burning people at the stake and other persecutions). To avoid psychological or philosophical flat statements in your essay, focus on the specific literary devices through which the text criticizes optimisic determinism. Analyze some of these devices’ effects on the audience, in relation to the specific historical context of the novel.  Organize your argument in two or three parts and choose specific examples to illustrate your point, duly presenting your quotes in quotation marks and indicating the page number in parenthesis.

2. Discuss the use of satire as a literary device in Candide. How do you recognize satire in the text? What are specific examples of it, and what effect do these passages produce? What is their intended audience? How can you relate those satirical passages to the whole plot, and more broadly, to the historical, social, and/or political context of 18th-century France?

3. Discuss the representation of religion in the passage below. Closely analyze the passage below through the lens of religion. Relate it to the whole chapter, the wider plot, as well as the wider context of Candide. Two or three points should emerge from your reading of this passage: make them the different parts that structure your essay. What does the passage suggest about religion? Additionally, is there anything the text suggests about the female gender, in this passage?

Candide fled quickly to another village […] The orator’s wife, putting her head out of the window, and spying a man that doubted whether the Pope was Anti-Christ, poured over him a full…. Oh, heavens! to what excess does religious zeal carry the ladies.’ (Chapter 3)

This is how the passage begins and ends: please analyze the whole passage contained within the […].

Tip for close text analysis: Read the passage a first time without taking any notes. Pause at the end and listen to your thoughts. What does it make you think about? How does it make you feel? Why? Take note of where your head takes you, and read the passage again, now influenced by your particular perspective. You now have your topic angle, and from a second and third reading should emerge some subpoints to structure your analysis.

4. Formulate a question of your own, which you will first discuss with me to ensure it has the potential to yield analysis. This is a good option if you read Candide through a perspective you do not see represented in the prompts above.

*No other texts than Candide are required for this essay, but if you would like to use any additional sources, please feel free to do so, as long as you acknowledge them. Please note that the rubric does not take into account any use of external sources for the calculation of your grade.*

Rubric

This assignments counts for 25% of your course grade.

Here is how I will assess your essay:

• Clarity of Argument: 30%
• Organization of Argument: 20%
• Support of Argument with Specific Examples from the Text: 20%
• Attention to Reader (clear transitions and multiple formulations of the points addressed): 15%
• Language, Grammar and Layout: 15%

Please use this rubric as a checklist before you submit your work.

The points gathered out of 100 will determine your letter grade as presented in the table (cf. syllabus). You will be given a letter grade for this essay, but it is your score out of 100 which will determine the 25% of your final grade that this essay represents. At the end of the semester, the points gathered in essay 1, essay 2, participation, and the final exam will give a total score out 100, and you will see the corresponding letter grade on your transcript.

 

I’m still back and forth about what I want to revise but here are the following options:

1) my behavior modification project, which is a scaffolded assignment where students use a motivation theory and learning theory to help them set a goal/track their behavior/develop an intervention. While I do think it is student-centered, I want to see if there’s any way I can help modify it to make it engaging for students (relevant ways to engage)…but also help reduce some of the load on me with giving feedback. I find that the way it is formatted, students are limited in the type of goal they can have. With that, I want to work on changing the directions, providing them resources for it, and editing the rubric.

2) the other option I am considering is modifying my personal control beliefs lecture. This is a really important lecture because it focuses on a lot of meaningful topics to students (e.g., learned helplessness, self-efficacy, personal control, motivation frameworks), but I find that it is very lecture heavy. Because it is so relevant for students, I want to make it so they can actively engage in the class and be able to apply the concepts in their lives and reflect on them. I would want to provide class activities, polls, discussions, and maybe break this up into 2 different days to discuss.

I completed both asynchronous activities to help me better design them. Because I teach a motivation class, I do have students that openly talk about barriers to motivation (e.g., their own psychological distress, work-life issues, mental health), and I’ve found this to be apparent in-class lectures and in their behavior modification project. With that, I took the Kognito training to help better design these materials with an idea of how I might address student issues/topics that come up in the project or in-class discussions. I also took the training on student body engagement, which is also relevant for both possible artifacts. For the class lecture, I can work on implementing breaks and well-being techniques to help the focus. For the behavior modification project, I can also help them with positive visualization during the presentation part of their project.

Hi! Nice meeting you! Could you introduce yourself? What department are you from? What courses are you teaching or have been teaching? What are the classes you teach like, such as format or class size? Is there anything you want to tell us about your teaching, research, or other projects?

Hi everyone! My name is Kaitlin Busse and I am a 3^rd year doctoral student in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program at Baruch College. My research focuses on Occupational Health Psychology, specifically with work-family issues, stress/well-being, and gender. I am currently an adjunct instructor for the Psychology of Motivation and Learning course. While I taught the class online last year, this is my first semester teaching it in-person to a 30 students.

Could you talk a little bit about that course you’ll be working on during this seminar?

I would like to work on my Motivation and Learning course. Like I mentioned above, this is my first semester teaching it in-person, and therefore, I want to make it more engaging for students.

What are the listed learning goals of your course? They could be ones provided by the department, or ones that you have written for your syllabus? Please list them (pasting is fine!).

• Develop an understanding of motivation/learning science
  • You will leave this course with a general knowledge of motivation/learning theories and principles. This means that you will be able to identify, explain, and discuss motivational/learning theories, concepts, and findings.
• Discuss and compare multiple approaches to motivation/learning science
  • You will explore how multiple approaches and perspectives attempt to explain the motivation/learning process.
• Critically examine motivation/learning topics through a scientific lens
  • An important aspect critical thinking is becoming aware of and exploring values (yours and others) to make active and intentional choices in your life. Throughout this course, we will apply critical thinking based on scientific principles to encourage you to observe behavior carefully and consider other explanations for behavior.
• Apply motivation and learning principles
  • This course can help you learn to change your behavior, especially in applied setting. I encourage you to apply these concepts to your own life and your observations in real world situations (e.g., personal, interpersonal, community, and workplace situations).
• Create and design evidence-based interventions to enhance motivation/learning
  • An important aspect of the motivational process in humans is the ability to set complex, realistic goals and work to achieve them. During the semester, you will design and test a behavioral change intervention through motivation/learning theory in an area of your choice (e.g., schools, the workplace, etc.).

What class materials are you planning to develop? What goals do you have for them?

I’d either like to revamp my Behavior Modification Project, which is a paper that helps them apply motivation and learning into their life. If I were to do this, I’d like to work on making a rubric and flushing out the assignment to make it more meaningful to students. Alternatively, I’d like to work on some ways to boost students’ engagement in the class. Currently, I’m struggling with a handful of students participating. Therefore, I’d like to find a way to make the class fun and engaging for all!

Description

Currently, in my writing courses I have an assignment called the Writer’s Journal. Students maintain a blog where they record their experiences and writing process throughout the semester. They then use that journal as primary source material for their end-of-semester reflective Autoethnography project.

In its current format, students create a Blogs@Baruch site that they host and then share as a link in a Blackboard assignment. Each week, students get a prompt that they respond to. In addition to their response, they compose a Writing Log where they describe the writing they did that week, what worked or what went well, what was hard and didn’t go well, their to-do list for the next week, where they left off/the last thing they did, and how they felt about the week, their project, or writing in general.

Currently the project is low-bandwidth and low-immediacy.

I’ve also attached the current assignment sheet for this project to this post.

Learning Goals

This writing task reflects the following course learning goals:

• Write your own texts critically
• Compose as a process

“Through recording, analyzing, and reflecting on writing, you will better understand not only your process but the components that comprise strong academic writing.”

More informally, I want students to see writing as a social process wherein they pull from multiple places and perspectives, even if that social nature doesn’t happen in real time.

Rationale

I think I do a good job of humanizing my course generally, but this aspect of the course could be stronger. This semester, I noticed that using the blog format did not foster as much engagement as I thought it would. I anticipated students being able to view each other’s blogs and give each other feedback but that didn’t happen to the degree I wanted it to. Instead, the student blogs felt and feel more like individual silos that give students space to write about their writing but not effectively communicate with each other or with me.

To change this ongoing project, I want to keep the prompts in Blogs@Baruch, but instead of asking students to create their own blogs, have them reply to a post/page on our main course blog. I’d create the prompt there and then students can reply via the comment feature.

To also encourage more interactivity, I want to create multiple avenues of participating and interacting with the prompts. Since I’ll have a synchronous session this semester, I want to create three methods for interacting with these posts:

1. Before our synchronous session, students post their initial thoughts. A specific question or piece of the prompt will engage students in this activity. It will be clearly labeled “Before Synchronous Session” or “Initial Thoughts.”
2. During the synchronous session students will read through their colleagues’ posts and we’ll either summarize them as a group or discuss particularly compelling posts and responses.
3. After the synchronous session students will follow up by engaging with a piece of the prompt labeled “After Synchronous Session” or “Dig Deeper.” This will include the prompt for their Writing Log, but also a secondary prompt that asks them to reflect on the session or take their response one step further.

In this way students aren’t forced to “respond to two of your peers” or “comment on each other’s posts!” but instead meaningfully engage in real time and then return to their own writing. This reinforces the idea that writing is social but that the social nature of that work can be created in many ways. Likewise, it encourages students to “write their texts critically” and engage with other texts critically. They can see their colleagues’ writing develop from initial ideas to further developed drafts and note “compose as a process.”

This revision shifts the workload from pre-semester/Week 1 and individual student labor to a more equally spaced out workload that is dependent on instructor labor. Though the activity is still low-bandwidth, it does add some higher immediacy to the activity by giving us a way to engage with the Writer’s Journal in real time. I think this shift will cut down on some of what was frustrating for students (and me) at the beginning of the semester: trying determine which Baruch/CUNY accounts allow access to which tools; how to create a Blogs@Baruch site; and how to submit their links for their blog. It also reinforces the learning goals more clearly.

The current assignment sheet for the Writer’s Journal can be found here.