Instructor: Lauren Ashley Malone

Site: Ross  H 0131

Class observed: English 250

Date: 11/12/18         

Time: 9:00 AM – 9:50 AM

Lesson topic(s): Revising a previous assignment, choosing a suitable media for the assignment, discussing the culminating project

Peer: Shamini Shetye

Principles taught in the class

The class was geared to cater to the needs of a diverse learning community of students in STEM fields, mostly hailing from varied engineering backgrounds. The class appeared more like a workshop where students were given instructions about modifying one of their previous assignments choosing a media from five different categories: Podcast, Website, Mixed Media, Game, Video. Instructor Lauren Malone also allowed some time for students to work in their groups to discuss their projects.

Although initially, the technical jargon used for communication in the class seemed abstruse to me, later the objectives became clear. Instead of following the conventional way of revising work, fostering creativity and giving students an autonomy to revise a previous assignment in a style that showcased their technical capabilities and strengths seemed astounding to me. About the subject Lauren spelled out the details and the amount of work needed for each aforementioned category, either in terms of pages or words, or time; if it was a game, she offered different kinds of game options. A considerable amount of time invested in careful planning was evident in the way, she specified the requirements for different classifications. As a teacher, the number of deterministic efforts invested to ensure that her classroom assignments were challenging, yet engaged her students and involved the same amount was impressive.

The reason the principles were taught at that particular time in the semester was that students were working on their ePortfolios and they needed to revise one of their previous assignments and show progress in the same. This method of motivating students to think of a prior assignment through a different lens and to give it a different dimension was extraordinarily brilliant, in my opinion. In the past, when I suggested to some of my students that their essays need a few structural changes, I noticed that they showed reluctance and merely edited their essays to correct the minor flaws. Therefore changing students’ mindsets and outlooks towards their assignments by encouraging them to embrace new avenues was a phenomenal takeaway for me.

Methods/Materials used to teach the concepts and curricular coherence

The class met in a traditional room, and since the curricular was technology based, students brought their own laptops to the classroom. After the initial announcements,

Lauren assigned students to think individually about their revision assignments for about ten minutes. Later, students were encouraged to share their thoughts with their group members. This model similar to the think-pair-share activity but in groups, allowed students to create a concrete outline for their assignments individually and then share it with their peers for suggestions and thus gain new ideas in the process. I have used this strategic and methodical process in my classroom before, nonetheless, I thought that this approach worked better in Lauren’s classroom because she allowed twenty minutes for the groups to share their ideas. So, each student had about five minutes to present and get responses from peers in the group, which was reasonable considering the number of group members. Students appeared engrossed in their discussions with group members. Observing this class taught me a lesson that would be useful for my future classes that setting a moderate pace for activities is conducive to engendering deeper thought processes among students and permitting more exchanges of ideas between them.  

About curricular coherence, Lauren after setting expectations for the revision of the assignment, she asked students to think about the time they have used similar digital platforms in the past, and what experiences they gained from those that they could take it forward to their new projects. Furthermore, she hinted students to make connections with the past assignments and closed the class by explaining that we always need to improve and better ourselves. She urged students to revise their previous assignments to improve their skills. At the same time, she discussed how the assignments accommodated different audiences and made them think about the audiences for their ePortfolios, and then convinced them that therefore it should portray the best outcomes of their work creations. Another way she created a connection between assignments was by making students identify what sections of WOVE it could be linked to. This plan was similar to Anik’s and I look forward to applying some of these principles learned in the classroom, because if students fail to make connections then the curriculum would appear random and disjointed to them.

Classroom dynamics and ways the instructor dealt with problems

By arranging the classroom set up a certain way, Lauren created an atmosphere that she thought would be fitting for her class. She strategically seated her students and chose their groups early on in the semester based on an online test that she used to discern their cognitive abilities. In her opinion, grouping students with peers who are at their level brought the best out of them. I have always wondered if students should be grouped according to their skills levels, or there should be a diversity among groups. Seeing the dynamics and student interactivity, I thought the former one stands true, and hence I am espoused to the idea of grouping students according to their potentials for my future classes.

Students also seem to enjoy a lively chat before the class started. Lauren had created a custom to begin the class with five students sharing their “what-went-well-stories”. Five students would volunteer to tell something that went well before the previous class and I thought that was a terrific way to start the class on a positive note. Students sharing simple joys like, “Project moved on to Friday” and “survived the weekend” created a ton of positive vibes and grins among students. Therefore thinking of ways to be innovative and starting the day with some activity that bolsters positivity and sets the right atmosphere for the class would be felicitous.

Post-observation discussion and implementation of effective strategies in my classroom

After the class, a discussion with Lauren was like taking a tour of the backstage of a live performance event. Lauren explained the nuts and bolts of the mechanism of her class and how much detailed planning was involved in making this game community successful. It took her about fifteen days in summer to design an elaborate plan. The reason she had to find time to do something different was that she wanted to motivate the learners with some rewards. Lauren added that when learners feel motivated with some kind of challenges, they yearn to achieve higher than what they potentially could. And these rewards were basically game points or leadership points. It had nothing to do with the actual grades of the system. Each team strived to be the highest on the leaderboard, by gaining some “XP” points or game points. The team that managed to stay at the top of the leaderboard at a certain established time as per the rules designed by Lauren got the say in a choice of activity for the next class or some kind of reward.

This reward system without actually using the grades of the class was a brilliant way to get students excited and take control of their learning. The whole semester I have struggled to find something that would motivate students to work harder without the promise of any extra-credit assignments. Therefore finding a way to create a parallel point system not linked to the actual grade system would be worth giving a try. The reason it would work because again it would promote some friendly competitive spirit among students and keep the students working towards their final learning goals.

Another process that Lauren created that merits emphasis is using the concept of the easter egg hunt. She got her students to stay tuned to the current notifications and announcements or messages on Canvas using the same concept. She placed images of easter eggs throughout the Canvas system. Each “egg” was worth some XP points and when students spotted the eggs they were rewarded those points. Class members thus stayed notified about any current changes in Canvas and browsed the contents of Canvas efficiently. In my class, I have experienced that students do not show any interest in any additional resources or materials posted on Canvas. Even at times messages posted on Canvas seemed to be ignored unless I bring it to their attention. Using a similar concept to help students stay abreast of the Canvas notifications and additional resources is definitely something that I look forward to employing in my classroom.

Observing Lauren’s classroom brought a wealth of new ideas about cultivating interests in students for learning. Giving students autonomy and letting them be the architects of their learning plans would make them take an active role in establishing their goals and work diligently to meet them. Offering varied choices and approaches to learning would be instrumental in maintaining their interests in learning. Setting adequate time for class discussion and working in groups would help with exchanging ideas and working as a team. Finally finding ways to reward students to engage in the learning process would be helpful in keeping them motivated towards achieving their goals. Carefully planning all these ideas and meshing them in my curriculum for future classes would inculcate interests and enthusiasm and create a value to the learning system.