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Developing Learning Activities

“activity zine” by Flickr user Jen Collins

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Constructive Alignment

Course

Learning Outcomes

Teaching and Learning Activities

Assessment

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Review: What is an ePortfolio?

ePortfolios are multimodal compositions in which people argue that they are members of one or more Discourses by curating a collection of their performances.

To create ePortfolios, people

Collect artifacts from throughout their careersSelect artifacts from that collection that align with the activity of the Discourses they want to join or with which they want continue their involvementReflect, explain, or argue that their selections qualify them as a member of the DiscourseDesign, build, and publish a multimodal composition that embodies their central arguments

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Multimodal Composition

Students draw on multiple semiotic resources—including written, oral, visual, electronic, and gestural/non-verbal—as they engage in meaning-making activities

The idea of “multiliteracies” forwarded by the New London Group in 1996 suggests that literacy is semiotic and not limited to a single mode or language

Scholars in rhetoric and composition often imply this conception of meaning making when they speak about “composition” or even “writing”

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Digital Affordances

ePortfolios enable students to collect and curate a wider range of performances than traditional portfolios

Learning-outcome design, assignment design, and assessment need to acknowledge the range of semiotic resources upon which students can draw

ePortfolios, in essence, remediate the curriculum: not in the pejorative sense, but in the way they “mediate again,” causing us to reexamine the performances in which we have our students engage

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Designing solid performance opportunities

Provide guidelines about the range of appropriate performances

Explore the expectations

Provide supporting materials and activities

Gardner, Traci. Designing Writing Assignments. Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English, 2008. Print.

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Remediating Assignments

Who will read the text? Can I choose an alternative audience?

What stance will students take as writers? Can the assignment as for an unusual tone?

When does the topic take place? Can the assignment focus on an alternative time frame?

Where will the background information and detail come from? Can the assignment call for alternative research sources?

Can students write something other than a traditional essay? Can the assignment call for alternative genres or publication media?

Gardner, Traci. Designing Writing Assignments. Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English, 2008. Print.

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Remediation and Genre

Producing representative literature reviews or annotated subject bibliographies

Framing a research question and designing an experiment

Creating, organizing, translating, visualizing, or introducing data

Designing questions, written protocols, and a research framework for interviews, plus conducting, transcribing, translating, editing, and introducing the results

Making informed comments on widely-read weblogs or developing and participating in a class blog

Writing documentary pitches, scripts, and storyboards

Shooting, editing, publishing, and publicizing a film

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Remediation and Genre

Composing op eds and other journalistic pieces for real submission to publications

Revising Wikipedia articles or contributing to a course wiki

Composing arts reviews for print or digital environments

Writing, recording, and submitting for radio opportunities

Developing a disciplinary magazine with a team of writers and editors, then “selling” that magazine to people in the field in a formal presentation

Developing finely tuned and succinct field notes in an investigation

Writing complete notes and copy for use in a radio broadcast or sports announcing

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Alternatives: Audiences, Timeframes, Sources, Genres

Gardner, Traci. Designing Writing Assignments. Urbana, Ill: National Council of Teachers of English, 2008. Print.

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Alternatives: Assignments, Tools

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Mobile Assisted Language Learning

MicroevidenceVideo, dialogue, and text captured on a mobile device

AppsStudents work with apps in target language in and outside of class

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Domain of One’s Own – Multimodal Composition

Domain setup

Blog posts (cyclical)

Aggregation, curation (with accompanying interpretation)

Online essay (or narrative)

Multimodal essay (or narrative)

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Domain of One’s Own – Multimodal Composition

Visual representation of data/reading

(Stand-alone) Video or presentation

Application-mediated interaction or collaboration

Mode-inflected genres (writing to learn)

ePortfolio/Reflection

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“Remediated” Evaluation Essay

Early, S. (n.d.). ENG 101 Assignments | Shanna Early. Retrieved from http://shannaearly.com/eng-101/assignments/

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Broadly sketch a new or revised assignment for your course that will enable students to achieve one or more of the learning outcomes you developed during the previous exercises.

Design this assignment with stages (scaffolding) so that in the process of its completion you can provide formative feedback as the student produces a genre that meaningfully intersects with your field.

Note what you’ll have to cover with instruction to help facilitate good performances from students.

Compile this information on the “Assignments” page of your mini portfolio.

Folio Thinking