Part III – COURSE CONSTRUCTION
Week 8: Strategies of Course Construction
(Conceptualization of course, syllabus, setting goals.)
READINGS :
McKeachie et al, Teaching Tips , Chapter 2 (“Countdown for Course Preparation”)
Sharon Rubin, "Professors, Students, and the Syllabus," The Chronicle of Higher Education , Aug. 7, 1985 .
Kathleen T. Brinko, "Visioning Your Course: Questions to Ask as You Design Your Course," The Teaching Professor , February 1991
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, “What is Backward Design?” from Understanding By Design , pp.7-19 [N.B. This work was written largely in response to the problems encountered in K-12 classrooms, and it will be necessary for you to adapt it for use on the college level.] At the request of the publisher this piece has been removed.
Lendol Calder, "Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey," Journal of American History, Vol. 92, Issue 4 (March 2006), pp.1358-1370.
ASSIGNMENT :
Create a brief description of a course that you would like to teach. Indicate the subject matter, the level at which it would be taught, and the nature and size of the presumed student body.
Prepare a draft of the syllabus for this course, including topics for lecture and/or discussion for each class period and an introduction for the students in which you describe the subject matter, the requirements, grading procedures, the benefits of the course, and any other information which you think appropriate. It is not necessary at this stage to indicate the readings.
Email me a copy of both the course description and the syllabus by Monday morning at 10:00, and I will put them in the “Resources” section of OnCourse. Try to read the material of your classmates before class.
(NB: You will be working with this course through the rest of the semester. Therefore, you may wish to focus on a subject which you really may teach some day and which might be helpful to you on the job market.)
ESSAY 5 – What pedagogical principles and ways of viewing student learning have shaped the formation of your course?
Week 9: Lecturing
(Basic techniques of organizing and presenting a lecture; student reception of lectures)
READINGS :
McKeachie et al, Teaching Tips , Chapter 5 (“How to Make Lectures More Effective”)
Peter Frederick, "The Lively Lecture - Ten Variations," College Teaching , Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 43-50.
Joan Middendorf and Alan Kalish, “The ‘Change-up' in Lectures”
Maryellen Gleason, "Better Communication in Large Classes," College Teaching , Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 20-24
Nancy Goulden, “Improving Instructor's Speaking Skills,” Idea Paper , No. 24 (1991).
Link:
A "periodic table" of visualization methods that might be useful in lectures may be found at http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#
ASSIGNMENT :
Observation of a large class due
Compose an outline (1-2 pages) for a lecture in the course that you are designing.
Place in the OnCourse Drop Box one-page critiques of each of the course descriptions and syllabi produced by your team members and e-mail a copy of each to the author
Week 10: Assessment and Writing
(Getting feedback on student learning, creation of exams, paper assignments, materials for students, etc.)
READINGS :
McKeachie et al, Teaching Tips , Chapter 6 (“Assessing, Testing, and Evaluating”) and Chapter 8 (“The ABC's of Assigning Grades”)
Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers , pp.3-11, 25-59 (In History Department Pedagogical Library)
Robert Blackey, “A Guide to the Skill of Essay Construction in History,” Social Education (March 1981). Reprinted in Robert Blackey, ed., History Anew: Innovations in the Teaching of History Today ( Long Beach , California : California State University Press, 1993, pp.49-58
Ann McCormick Scott, “Life is a Multiple Choice Question,” Perspectives, December 1983. Reprinted in Robert Blackey, ed., History Anew: Innovations in the Teaching of History Today (Long Beach, California: California State University Press, 1993), pp.59-72.
Ray W. Karras, “A Multidimensional Multiple-Choice Testing System,” Perspectives, February 1984. Reprinted in Robert Blackey, ed., History Anew: Innovations in the Teaching of History Today (Long Beach, California: California State University Press, 1993), pp.73-81.
John C. Bartul, “Teaching the Value of Inquiry Through the Essay Question,” Perspectives, November 1989. Reprinted in Robert Blackey, ed., History Anew: Innovations in the Teaching of History Today (Long Beach, California: California State University Press, 1993), pp.85-89.
Alfie Kohn, “Group Grade Grubbing versus Cooperative Learning,” Educational Leadership 43 (5), pp. 83-87.
Gaea Leinhardt, “Lessons on Teaching and Learning in History from Paul's Pen” in Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Wineburg, eds., Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History : National and International Perspectives
Young, Kathleen McCarthy and Gaea Leinhardt, “Writing from Primary Documents: A Way of Knowing in History,” Written Communication , 15 (1) (1998), pp.25-86.
ASSIGNMENT :
Using the procedures outlined in Angelo and Cross define a learning goal for the students in the class that you are designing and adapt one of the classroom assessment techniques from their books to your class. (Please include the number of the technique you are adapting to your class.) Be sure to describe your goal as explicitly as possible and explain how the assessment technique will measure student learning in the area that you specified and how it will be carried out in the context of your class.
Week 11: Collaborative Learning, Active Learning, and Other Alternatives to the Traditional Classroom
READINGS :
McKeachie et al, Teaching Tips , Chapter 15 (“Active Learning”), Chapter 16 (“Problem-based Learning”), Chapter 18 (“Teaching Large Classes”), Chapter 20 “Facilitating Experiential Learning”), and Chapter 21 (“Using Project Methods”)
Larry K. Michaelsen, “Three Keys to Using Learning Groups Effectively,” Essays on Teaching Excellence , Vol.9, No.5 (1997-98)
Barbara Gross Davis , “Collaborative Learning: Group Work and Study Teams” from Tools for Teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993)
Larry Michaelsen, "Getting Started with Team-Based Learning," from Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publisher, 2002), pp.27-51.
L. Dee Fink, “Beyond Small Groups Harnassing the Extraordinary Power of Learning Teams” in Larry K. Michaelsen, Arletta Bauman Knight, L. Dee Fink, Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching (Westport, CT: Praeger Publisher, 2002), pp.3-23.
Elizabeth Green Musselman, “ Using Structured Debate to Achieve Autonomous Student Discussion,” History Teacher , Vol. 37, No. 3 (May 2004), pp. 335-350.
Robert D. Marcus, Nonreaders Anonymous: Reading History Collaboratively, The History Teacher, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Aug., 2000), pp. 453-468.
ASSIGNMENTS :
Prepare a second draft of your course syllabus. This time include readings. You do not have to provide the exact page numbers, but you should indicate whether the materials will be a course reader.
ESSAY 6 – What methods of teaching do you intend to use in your course (lecturing, discussion, collaborative learning, paper writing etc), how do you intend to use them, and why have you chosen this mix of approaches?
Week 12: Teaching Basic Skills and Critical Thinking
READINGS :
McKeachie et al, Teaching Tips , Chapter 13 (“Teaching Students to Learn Through Writing”), Chapter 23 (“Teaching Students to Learn”), and Chapter 24 (“Teaching Thinking”)
Robert F Berkhofer, Jr., “Demystifying Historical Authority: Critical Textual Analysis in the Classroom,” Perspectives (February 1988). Reprinted in Robert Blackey, ed., History Anew: Innovations in the Teaching of History Today (Long Beach, California: California State University Press, 1993, pp.21-27).
Michael Robertson, "Writing and Responding" in Mimi Schwartz, ed., Writer's Craft, Teacher's Art: Teaching What We Know (Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1991), pp. 115-124.
Joan Middendorf and David Pace , “`Decoding the disciplines: A Model for Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking” in David Pace and Joan Middendorf, eds., Decoding the Disciplines: Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking ( New Directions in Teaching and Learning , Vol. 98 (Fall 2004), pp.1-12.
David Pace , “Decoding the Disciplines: An Example of the Process” in David Pace and Joan Middendorf, eds., Decoding the Disciplines: Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking ( New Directions in Teaching and Learning , Vol. 98 (Fall 2004), pp.13-21.
Keith C. Barton, "Bossed Around by the Queen" in Linda Levstik and Keith C. Barton, Researching History Educaton: Theory. Method, and Context (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp.159-182.
Keith C. Barton, "Narrative Simplifications in elementary students historical thinking" in Linda Levstik and Keith C. Barton, Researching History Educaton: Theory. Method, and Context (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp.
Robert B. Bain, “Into the Breach: Using Research and Theory to Shape History Instruction” in Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Weinburg, eds., Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives ( New York : New York University Press, 2000), pp.331-352.
Charles A. Perfetti, M. Anne Britt, Jean-François Rouet, Mara C. Georgi, and Robert A. Mason, “How Students Use Texts to Learn and Reason about Historical Uncertainty,” Mario Carretero and James F. Voss, eds., Cognitive and Instructional Processes in History and the Social Sciences (Hillsdale, N.J.: 1994), pp.257-283.
ESSAY 7 – Discuss what skills are needed for success in the course that you have designed. If you intend to make the teaching of some of these skills a part of your teaching strategy, explain how you would go about it. If not, be as precise as possible concerning the types of operations you expect the students to be able to perform when they come into the course. How do you intend to deal with students with different levels of skills and different preconceptions about history?
Week 13: Students Prior Conceptions of History and the Use of Technology
Readings:
Linda S. Levstik, “Articulating the Silences: Teachers' and Adolescents' Conceptions of Historical Significance,” in Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas, and Sam Weinburg, eds., Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives ( New York : New York University Press, 2000), pp.284-305.
Sam Wineburg, “Making (Historical) Sense in the New Millennium,” Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts ( Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2001), pp.232-255.
Keith C. Barton and Linda S. Levstik, "'It wasn't a good part of history': National identity and students' explanation of historical significance," in Linda Levstik and Keith C. Barton, Researching History Educaton: Theory. Method, and Context (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp.240-272.
Claude Cookman, “Using JITT to foster active learning in a humanities course” in S. Simkins and M. Maier, eds., Just in Time Teaching Across the Disciplines and Across the Academy ( Sterline , VA : Stylus, 2009),
Patricia Seed,"Teaching History With the Web: Two Approaches," Perspectives, 36, 2 (February 1998)
Michael Coventry , Peter Felten, David Jaffee, Cecilia O'Leary, Tracey Weis, Susannah McGowen, "Ways of Seeing: Evidence and Learning in the History Classroom," Journal of American History, Vol. 92 Issue 4 (March 2006), p1371-1402.
Kelly Schrum, "Making History on the Web Matter in Your Classroom," The History Teacher , Vol. 34, No. 3 (May, 2001), pp. 327-337
Recommended :
Chad Berry, Lori Schmied, and Josef Chad Schrock, "The Role of Emotion in Teaching and Learning History: A Scholarship of Teaching Exploration," The History Teacher, Vol.41, No.4 (August 2008), pp.437-452,
[This article looks at the impact of strong and neutral imagery on students retention of historical information.]
Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web ( Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
ASSIGNMENT:
Find at least one web site that would be useful in the course that you are designing and briefly explain how it (they) might be used.
You might find these sites useful as a beginning:
World History Matters:
http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/whmfinding.php
History Matters:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
|