Sharing & Feedback

Hi Heather,

I love the idea of a collaborative review of reading strategies for academic articles. It's a nice way to both acquire the content knowledge by reading the articles strategically while also learning more about the process of reading an academic article. I think the activity will lead to the creation of a valuable tool and there are multiple layers of reflective activity, culminating in the one-minute paper at the end.

When reading your description I do feel that I would be compelled to participate, though I am a bit unclear about exactly how that would happen. What do you mean by "collaborative brainstorming" and "collaborative review"? Are you asking them to volunteer ideas vocally in the class? Or write things down? Are they in small groups? Individual? Large groups? Will you use a polling technology to collect ideas? These concepts seem somewhat vague to me, though it may be a disciplinary thing. Perhaps you have more specific directions that you will share with learners?

One thing I wonder about is the first part of the activity on January 15. You are giving them three main categories that they will work with in their brainstorming. I wonder what would happen if you did not define these categories for them?

For example, instead asking a question like:

• "What do you look for when you read an academic article?"
  • Write down on sticky notes as many things as you can think of (one idea per sticky). ~5 minutes
    
  • Now, in your groups, collect all your sticky note ideas and arrange them into 2-4 logical categories. ~5 minutes
  • Now compare your categories and criteria with another group. What did you have that was similar? What was different? What would you keep from each?
    

You've then collected ideas and created the categories at the same time. You could then move to the part where you share your own process, and then revise as per your plan. I suppose you would have to be fairly confident that they will come up with relevant categories and criteria.

I hope this is helpful.

Derek

Heather,

Thank you for posting your activity. It feels like there is a  group consciousness forming out there bringing in activities and questions we may have come up with before this week and now the answers are starting to show up.

Reading your activity in which you plan to help your class design a reading template reminded me of my last two classes. To help my blended first and second language Fundamental English writing class understand the writing process and the "five -finger format", for my first time, instead of handing out the grading rubric, we designed our writing rubric as a class activity incorporating both the writing process and format into the grading guide. Many had never heard of a rubric before, so I knew there would be confusion.  I asked them to think about one area where they thought they might have trouble or be confused and to write it down for sharing in our teaching circle. Later, as each student shared their reflection, I had a student write down the concerns on the board. Then, we discussed each concern as a group and decided how we could "student- improve" our rubric. After having this discussion, many of the students said they now understood more about what a rubric was and how to use it when writing their paragraphs.

After reading your and Derek's activities where you use the benefits of integrating reflection with collaboration to help students better understand and personally relate to the material being taught has supported my thinking on this type of activity. Thank you both.

As you have pointed out, many students seem resistant at first if they think it is just busy work; this may change once they experience the benefits of metacognitive activities in their learning success.  However, even when they know their "review and reflect" journals receive a percentage towards their grade, some of my students still do not write a journal.

Out of confusion comes clarity.

Leonne 

Hi Heather,

It was great to read through your activity idea in your attached doc; you've done some detailed thinking on this already!

I like where Derek is going with suggesting being more open with your prompt to students and finding categories from what they have generated after. I actually thought of the Liberating Structures process called Min Specs when I was reading through your writeup. Do you know Liberating Structures and do you think Min Specs could work? It could help you and your students come up with the "absolute must dos" and "must not dos" for reading an academic article. It might be easier to get them started with this than a large group brainstorm.

I'm curious about the template itself. Is this an authentic learning-based tool that you might encourage students to use every time they read an academic article? It feels somewhat tedious and might not be something very exciting for them to do. Is there a way you can have the students use social media during this process instead? You could get them to the same end result--posting about thesis statements, key arguments, 'so what' pieces and so on--but you could invite them in a way that they might actually more often do it in real life. Could they post on Twitter? On Instagram? Goodreads? Just a thought. I like where you're going, I just wondering if you can get more authentic to their real-life experience. What tools do they use when they are excited about something and they want to share the gist of it with friends? Could they do that here?

Hi Heather,

I appreciate the emphasis placed on the "why" of this activity, I think it was conveyed clearly and if I were a student I would understand the reasoning behind it. I hope this will minimize resistance, simply stating that this is an "essential skill" and that they can use this in future classes as well.  

I think this is a great activity, and if it's safe to assume that these students are geared more toward "scholarly" activities, I would tread with caution around social media. Being a high achieving academic myself, it took a long time to shift from formal papers to digital assignments and blogs as a student. Of course, now I am hooked, but that took years and many baby steps and encouragement ;)

I would present the information also in a creative format, perhaps in a more formal Prezi (https://prezi.com), in addition to a word doc. Some students may still prefer to have hard copies though to read as their time permits. Hope this is helpful.

Viviana