Transcript A Tale of Two Classes

A Tale of Two Classes -
Adventures in Contextualization
Charlyn E. Cassady, Associate Professor
The Community College of Baltimore County
The 4th Annual Conference on Acceleration
June 8, 2012
Situation:
Students have been permitted to be enrolled
(concurrently) in Health 101 (credit course) AND
College Reading II (upper-level developmental
course)
Concerns from the Health faculty that students
did not have the reading skills to be successful in
the Health 101 course.
Reality Check
The challenge of understanding complex
expository material and the lack of skills for
organizing and retaining the information
presents an often overwhelming challenge to
the novice learner.
The Plan…
• Develop a college-level reading course
contextualized to the Health 101 course.
• The Health 101 textbook would be used as the
major source of text material.
Goal of Contextualization
To create conditions for more effective learning,
demonstrated by student achievement of higher
grades, course retention, and through
progression in the student’s selected academic
program (Perrin 2011).
AKA - “Contextualized instruction” is also
known as:
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contextual teaching and learning
functional context learning
real-world education
learner-centered instruction
Concepts Inherent in Contextualization
‘Constructivism’ - The learner is a “constructor
of meaning.”
“Constructivism” asserts that learners create
meaning in relationship to experience and the
motivation for learning is the responsibility of
the learner.
Students who place into a developmental
reading course have difficulty reading dense,
expository material at a level of proficiency
necessary for comprehending and integrating
information from their textbooks (Martino et al.,
2001)
Assumptions Guiding Course Development…
• Students should be encouraged to try new methods for
learning, such as drawing graphic representations of
concepts and to display how information is related.
• Students should learn and practice a variety of learning
strategies and develop an individualized repertoire of
tools.
• Self-evaluation of learning and course performance is a
critical component of successful learning in college.
Assumptions Guiding Course Development…
• A systematic method for expository reading is
essential for effective college reading.
• Students should be encouraged to write as a
strategy for comprehension, clarification and
study.
• Students should be taught metacognition and
how to self-regulate their learning.
Self-Regulated Learning
Zimmerman (1989) points to three features inherent in
self-regulated learning:
o
Students are aware of the potential usefulness
of self-regulation processes in their college
learning.
o
Self-regulation involves a “feedback loop” in which
students monitor the effectiveness of their
learning strategies and respond by making
effective changes.
o
Self-regulation is influenced by a wide variety of
motivating factors, such as external reward,
achievement success, self-judgment and selfesteem.
• Students can be described as self-regulated to
the degree that they are metacognitively,
motivationally, and behaviorally active
participants in their own learning process.
Who signs up for the “Safari”?
• 56% of the students registered for Reading for
Health 101 were not registered for Health 101.
“Flies in the Ointment….”
• Registration program did not require
concurrent registration …..students enrolled in
Reading class and were not registered for a
Health 101 class.
• When students tried to register in Health 101
…. No seats were left….
What to do??
Decisions… decision was made to…
• Allow students to remain in the contextualized
class if they purchased the Health textbook.
• Rationale: When they register for Health 101
in the next semester, they would be better
prepared to tackle the material.
The Itinerary (Curriculum Topics)
 What IS Learning?
 Establishing Goals and Modifying Mind-sets
 Making the Textbook Work for You!
 Predicting Questions and Developing Effective
Notes
 Metacognition
 Critical Thinking
 Deciphering Charts and Graphs
 Bloom’s Taxonomy
Materials Used in the Course
• Health 101 Textbook
• Additional Readings:
– Article on “Energy Drinks”
– Article on the epidemic of suicide among the
young (included brain physiology)
– Article on how the brain seeks and “registers”
pleasure
– Articles on cell-phone “addiction”
– History of tattoos
Other Media Used in Course
• YouTube videos on:
– The Fugu chefs of Japan (accompanied an
inference exercise on fugu)
– Experts interviewed about the composition and
dangers of “energy drinks”
– Discovery and analysis of Otzi, the 5300 year-old
man with tattoos!
Reflection Questions/Tasks for Weekly Journal
• Complete Cornell notes for a lecture this week – You will turn
them in as a graded assignment. BUT!! Before I grade them,
YOU grade them – Will these notes help you to be successful
in your Health class?
• Your little brother/sister asks you for help in reading a
textbook chapter and preparing for a test on this material.
What will you tell him/her?
• What have you discovered about your personal strengths and
abilities? Describe how you use these? We all have
areas/habits/strategies that we need to improve upon –
describe one area that you feel you need to “focus” on.
Reflection Questions/Tasks for Weekly Journal
• It is now around the middle of the semester. Describe where
you are at” in your college life right now. Have you
experienced success? How did it feel? Was there something
you were not pleased about? What actions did you take?
• What strategy/tactic that we have learned or discussed has
been the most useful for you in college so far? Why?
• What actions have you taken to get ready for next semester?
Have you registered for classes? Why or why not?
Portfolio Project
Objective: This project is designed to allow you to
explore and improve personalized strategies for
learning. Even if you think you won’t “like” a particular
strategy, try it out! You may find it to be useful in
Health or in another course. This project counts for
40% of your final grade. Your grade will range from 0110% (the extra 10% is the “WOW! Factor)
Portfolio Project
Instructions: You will select ten (10) learning
techniques/strategies/products that we have
discussed/practiced this semester and apply them to
your course and material in Health 101. Select
strategies and tools that will assist YOU in learning the
Health material and doing well on your quizzes and
exams.
Portfolio Project
Learning strategies/techniques: You may select from the following learning
strategies/techniques:
• Two-column (Cornell) notes (use lecture or textbook – 2 complete pages of notes)
•
Summary (minimum 2 pages of textbook – indicate pages from Health book)
•
Text annotation (Make copy of 2 pages of textbook and include annotations –
highlighting, margin notes, etc.)
•
One question for each of four lower Bloom’s levels (include page numbers of
Health book)
•
Analysis of a health claim article from a popular magazine. (Handout for analysis
will be provided)
•
Graphic Organizer, such as Cause and Effect; Process/Sequence/Steps; Compare
and Contrast. Another tool (Please have your idea approved by me!)
•
Another tool (Please have your idea approved by me!)
 REQUIRED :
Reflective statement about how this class assisted your learning
in Health or another college course)
For five (5) of your products, type a short paragraph of how this
strategy was useful in your Health or other college class.
Lifespan of the Two Classes…
Class A
Students registered for Reading for Health: 18
(Students registered for Health 101:
12)
No Shows/dropped after 2 classes:
5
Students not interested/rarely seen:
6
Student with major medical problem:
1
Remaining students:
6
Students successfully passing:
6
(5 of 6 were enrolled in Health 101)
Lifespan of the Two Classes…
Class B
Students registered for Reading for Health: 18
(Students registered for Health 101:
9)
No Shows/dropped after several classes:
6
Students not interested/rarely seen:
2
Student with major medical/family issues: 2
Remaining students:
8
Students successfully passing:
8
(7 of the 8 were enrolled in Health 101)
Student Barriers During the Semester
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Child custody court dates
Relationship break-ups
Colds
Wisdom teeth extraction
Conflicting work schedules
Sick children
Reproductive problems
“Academic non-responsiveness”
4 versus 2!
• The course may have attracted students
because of the reduced number of
classroom hours, NOT because of the
wonderful opportunity to learn and apply
college skills to a credit class.
Customer Satisfaction – Assessment!
Customer Satisfaction? – Reading Skills
• Because of this reading class, I now feel more
confident about my ability to do well with
college-level reading.
No way! – 0
Not really – 0
Not sure (n=2)
Yes! (n=7)
Absolutely! (n=5)
Customer Satisfaction? - Journals
• Writing the journals weekly helped me to
think about my college performance.
No way! – 0
Not really (n=3)
Not sure (n=1)
Yes! (n=6)
Absolutely! (n=4)
Customer Satisfaction? – Portfolio
• Preparing the portfolio as a final project was a
good way to display the skills I have learned.
No way! – 0
Not really (n=1)
Not sure (n=1)
Yes! (n=6)
Absolutely! (n=5)
Customer Satisfaction – Favorite Class
Activities
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Group work (4)
Graphic organizers (3)
Cornell Notes (2)
Portfolio
Group discussions
Articles we were assigned/tattoo article
Customer Satisfaction – LEAST Favorite
Class Activities
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Article reading (3)
Portfolio preparation (2)
Bloom’s Taxonomy (2)
Reading aloud
Fugu article
Customer Satisfaction – Favorite
Readings
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History of tattoos (5)
Fugu (3)
Pleasure on the Brain (3)
Energy drinks
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Cell-phone addiction
Would you recommend this course to other students
who need RDNG 052 and Health 101? Why or why not?
• “I would – gets it over faster and you learn a lot.”
• Yes, because it gets you out of going to class 3 times
a week with 2 hours of lab work.
• “Yes, I would recommend this course to other
students because it can get the student more ready
for what Health 101 will be like by having Reading
052 and Health combined.”
Would you recommend this course to other students
who need RDNG 052 and Health 101? Why or why not?
• “I will recommend to a lot of new students because
you can learn different ways of studying and also will
revise their knowledge from high school.”
• “Yes, I would recommend this course to other
students. This course teaches students how to
prepare for other college courses. Read actively,
study effectively, comprehension skills, note-taking
and reading skills.” ( 4 similar comments)
Would you recommend this course to other students
who need RDNG 052 and Health 101? Why or why not?
• “I would – gets it over faster and you learn a
lot.”
• “Yes, because it gets you out of going to class
3 times a week with 2 hours of lab work.”
• “Yes, I would recommend this course to other
students because it can get the student more
ready for what Health 101 will be like by
having Reading 052 and Health combined.”
Do you think that taking this 2-hour contextualized course was
more effective than taking developmental reading and Health
101 as completely separate courses? Why or Why not?
• “Yes, gives you skills you need to perform in harder
classes.”
• “Yes, cause the Health 101 and this class connected.”
• “Yes, because the curriculum for this course was guided
by the Health 101 textbook.”
• “Yes, way too much effective than taking Health. This
course was to the point and we had time to study. But in
Health too much going on, also every class there was
new things to study.”
Do you think that taking this 2-hour contextualized course was
more effective than taking developmental reading and Health
101 as completely separate courses? Why or Why not?
• “Yes, I think taking these courses together has really
helped me out because I wasn’t lost as I would have
been if I was just in Health.”
• “Yes, because this course tackles important points
you need in your day-to-day life.”
• “Yes, because it’s like learning information twice.”
Do you think that taking this 2-hour contextualized course
was more effective than taking developmental reading and
Health 101 as completely separate courses?
• “I found that this class, Reading and Health together,
was not beneficial. I wished I took the classes
separately/No, because each course goes into more
detail.” (2 similar comments)
• “No, I do not think so. She showed the students how
to apply her teaching to other courses. The
information she taught is helpful for day to day
activities and school.”
• “No, because we only focused on the Health book for
about the first 3 weeks.”
What reading skills did you gain from taking this
course?
• “I gained college reading skills. I know how to
read a story. I know how to dissect and make
it my own/Breaking down harder readings. (2
similar comments)”
• “Cornell notes, I refreshed my mind on them
and know how to do them the right way.”
What reading skills did you gain from taking this
course?
• “The skills I learned and gained was notetaking and reading.”
• “Comprehending while reading. Being able to
understand exactly what it is I (am) reading
the first time instead of re-reading.”
• “On how to be a critical thinker and analyze
things better.”
What reading skills did you gain from taking
this course?
• “Everything I gained – how to analyze articles and
summaries. I also like the graphic organizers, I
plan to use them a lot.”
• “I learn the faster way to do assignments by
breaking down the readings. It’s much quicker to
answer the questions now.”
What reading skills did you gain from taking
this course?
• “I learned that I could highlight stuff and
annotate it. Like the cell-phone articles.”
• “Reading skills that I gain(ed) from taking this
course would have to be highlighting the
important parts, make notes on the side of what I
am reading.”
What suggestions do you have for
improving this course?
• “Maybe more class participation. Reading
aloud, presenting materials.”
• “Keep going the way it is/none” (2)
• “I would say more physical activity because
not everyone is a visual learner.”
• “I don’t have any suggestions” (3).
Lessons Learned
• Students really do think that they gain
valuable and applicable skills from a
contextualized course.
• Continue infusing “outside” readings into the
course for breadth, substance, and challenge.
• Include more interactive activities and have
students teach each other.
• Questions?
• Comments?
• Suggestions?
To contact me:
Charlyn E. Cassady
Contextualization Safari Guide
[email protected]
443-840-1458
THANK YOU!