Pre-Class Discussion Board Prompt
Required:
Options: (Choose one)
What assumptions have you seen manifest in your classrooms either as students or as TAs? Are there voices or perspectives that are more represented than others? What kind of content in your classes lend themselves to inequities or conflict? How might you approach them?
How do you respond to work that represents a particular dialect? What is Standard English? What dialect of English do you speak? Does knowing that influence how you view dialects?
- Read Saunders and Kardia’s, “Creating Inclusive College Classrooms”
- Watch the following videos (UMD student #2, Katarina, Florencia), and found at: http://thestamp.umd.edu/multicultural_involvement_community_advocacy/programs/inclusive_language/videos
- Complete this quiz only after you finish reading one of the readings below: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html
Options: (Choose one)
What assumptions have you seen manifest in your classrooms either as students or as TAs? Are there voices or perspectives that are more represented than others? What kind of content in your classes lend themselves to inequities or conflict? How might you approach them?
How do you respond to work that represents a particular dialect? What is Standard English? What dialect of English do you speak? Does knowing that influence how you view dialects?
In-Class Materials
The following slides were used at the beginning of class as a brief introduction to one of the topics my partner and I discussed during our lesson plan
The following image shows a poster similar to those we used in class, provided by UMD's Inclusive Language Campaign. During this activity in class, students were asked to choose a poster that resonated with them, write a short reflection on the back explaining their connection to its message, and then had a choice of sharing how they felt about the poster in class.
Lesson Reflection
This project was something I enjoyed doing immensely. Picking out readings and activities for such an important and interesting topic was very enjoyable, and Sanna was amazing and completely cooperative to work with throughout the entire process. While working on our discussion board and presentation, Sanna and I communicated initially through text message and and then video chat to speak more about the details we would like to include. Our creation of the discussion board was a little more constructed and planned out than the lesson plan, done over two video calls and collaborative work in a google doc. Our actual lesson plan was vaguely planned out in the same document, but in the week leading up to the actual presentation we talked over text and then met in person to finalize details before class. Both were collaborative and equal in effort, but in the end I believe the ideas Sanna brought to the actual lesson were the most useful and enjoyable.
When making selections for the reading, both of us picked pieces that we thoroughly enjoyed reading and thought the other students in our class would enjoy reading too. We each put readings in our shared document and read the ones the other shared, then made decisions of which to include based on which one we believed would be more interesting to read and informative for the other students. Sanna and I tried to structure the discussion board so it would provide a good foundation of information and provoke thought that we could elaborate on during the actual lesson. After reading the responses to the post, both of us were both a bit disappointed. While the post clearly had two segments of questions they had to answer, some only answered one or hardly addressed both. It was also clear, given the responses, that not everyone did the quiz activity we had assigned, and even fewer did any of the readings (this, however, may have been partially our fault because the questions did not directly address the readings).
In order to address the fact that a majority of the class had not done the readings, we had to accept the fact that it would be unwise to make them a prominent part of our lesson plan to avoid boring anyone or make the lesson less accessible. I think Sanna and I were both disappointed by this because of how much we had enjoyed the readings, and looked forward to hearing what our classmates had thought of them. In order to make up for this, we focused more on the activities we had planned, which I think was in the end very enjoyable. However, a part of the beginning of our lesson was spent with what seemed like us talking at the class, and I think this could have been avoided in favor of a dialogue if the students were more familiar with the reading material we had been assigned.
In the end, I believe we were pretty successful in making the students reflect on the ways race, religion, gender, sexuality, and other aspects of a person’s identity can play into education. Our conversations and activities were meaningful; I was really touched by the stories my classmates felt comfortable to share with the rest of the class. As I have said earlier, I believe the conversation could have been more rich and productive had more students demonstrated that they had done the readings, but perhaps because of that Sanna and I should have taken more initiative to introduce the more specific information from these readings ourselves.
While making and presenting my own lesson was certainly a thought-provoking experience, it was an especially wonderful privilege to be taught by my classmates as they presented their lesson plans. While all of them were well well-planned and resulted in really rich and productive conversations, the lessons I especially appreciated discussed peer-review and the digital classroom. The peer-review lesson helped me consider different methods of working with or editing students papers, which was not something I believe I had ever actually discussed in a university-level class before. Practicing discussing grades and changes with students was entertaining and good practice, and I was actually able to take some of the techniques we discussed in class and use them in my own ENG101 class the next week. In addition, I think the Digital Classroom lesson was really important because it challenged the pretty firm feelings I tend to have towards technology. While I personally do not like using a lot of technology in the classroom, especially to read long pieces or interact with other students, it was nice to get to hear other points of view on the subject, many of which were very pro-tech. Discussing different ways in which technology can be used in the classroom and using technology during the lesson itself was a fun experience, and made me re-consider some of the beliefs I had about the productivity of classroom technology.
When making selections for the reading, both of us picked pieces that we thoroughly enjoyed reading and thought the other students in our class would enjoy reading too. We each put readings in our shared document and read the ones the other shared, then made decisions of which to include based on which one we believed would be more interesting to read and informative for the other students. Sanna and I tried to structure the discussion board so it would provide a good foundation of information and provoke thought that we could elaborate on during the actual lesson. After reading the responses to the post, both of us were both a bit disappointed. While the post clearly had two segments of questions they had to answer, some only answered one or hardly addressed both. It was also clear, given the responses, that not everyone did the quiz activity we had assigned, and even fewer did any of the readings (this, however, may have been partially our fault because the questions did not directly address the readings).
In order to address the fact that a majority of the class had not done the readings, we had to accept the fact that it would be unwise to make them a prominent part of our lesson plan to avoid boring anyone or make the lesson less accessible. I think Sanna and I were both disappointed by this because of how much we had enjoyed the readings, and looked forward to hearing what our classmates had thought of them. In order to make up for this, we focused more on the activities we had planned, which I think was in the end very enjoyable. However, a part of the beginning of our lesson was spent with what seemed like us talking at the class, and I think this could have been avoided in favor of a dialogue if the students were more familiar with the reading material we had been assigned.
In the end, I believe we were pretty successful in making the students reflect on the ways race, religion, gender, sexuality, and other aspects of a person’s identity can play into education. Our conversations and activities were meaningful; I was really touched by the stories my classmates felt comfortable to share with the rest of the class. As I have said earlier, I believe the conversation could have been more rich and productive had more students demonstrated that they had done the readings, but perhaps because of that Sanna and I should have taken more initiative to introduce the more specific information from these readings ourselves.
While making and presenting my own lesson was certainly a thought-provoking experience, it was an especially wonderful privilege to be taught by my classmates as they presented their lesson plans. While all of them were well well-planned and resulted in really rich and productive conversations, the lessons I especially appreciated discussed peer-review and the digital classroom. The peer-review lesson helped me consider different methods of working with or editing students papers, which was not something I believe I had ever actually discussed in a university-level class before. Practicing discussing grades and changes with students was entertaining and good practice, and I was actually able to take some of the techniques we discussed in class and use them in my own ENG101 class the next week. In addition, I think the Digital Classroom lesson was really important because it challenged the pretty firm feelings I tend to have towards technology. While I personally do not like using a lot of technology in the classroom, especially to read long pieces or interact with other students, it was nice to get to hear other points of view on the subject, many of which were very pro-tech. Discussing different ways in which technology can be used in the classroom and using technology during the lesson itself was a fun experience, and made me re-consider some of the beliefs I had about the productivity of classroom technology.