My plans for the hybridized Multicultural Literature course are beginning to take a more concrete shape. Actually, one of the most valuable pieces of information for me this week was Dr. Datta Kaur Khalsa's response to a question posed by one of my classmates.
She gave this advice:
1) Write learning objectives
2) Develop activities needed to accomplish the learning objectives
3) Decide on what evidence I will need to be assured that the learning has occurred
4) Decide which assessment tool would help to acquire this evidence
This sequence of planning seems like a simple thing, but seeing it pared to such clear and basic form was helpful for me.
In addition to completing the readings for this course, I am also avidly devouring literature for possible use in my class. I have a good collection of somewhat older works by Hispanic, Native American, and African American writers; now I'm searching for and finding contemporary literature more reflective of the experiences of younger generations of Americans, who struggle with an entirely different set of cultural and identity issues. A fantastic collection of essays I'm reading this week is "Border Line Personalities: A New Generation of Latinas Dish on Sex, Sass and Cultural Shifting", edited by Robyn Moreno and Michelle Herrera Mulligan.
This week's reading helped me fill in some gaps that I had regarding how to assess students in terms of helping them develop their skills in responding to literature. My goal is to offer a great deal of formative assessment, moving them toward the ability to set their own goals and self-assess. I appreciated the ribrics in the CyberCoaching paper and will use them as a guide for developing my own in the next several weeks.
As well, I'm preparing for "selling" this hybridized course to my principal. I'm putting together a PowerPoint presentation incorporating a great deal of the information I've obtained through my readings for this course, specifically justifying a constructivist, "cybercoaching" approach. I'm so excited about how online components could energize and deepen the class experience for my students and for me.
I'm going to try to upload "A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning" from the North American Council for Online Learning." It contains some excellent information about online learning, which I will use as well to support my quest for online components in this ITV Course.
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I wasn't able to upload the Primer, but it can easily be accessed on the NACOL website, which is a rich resource for educators:
http://www.nacol.org/
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1 comment:
Susan, your sharing of this good news is exhilarating! I hear your 'aha moments' that have enhanced your confidence and plans to promote great educational change - good for you!
I've written a couple of articles on diversity as it relates to education (you can email me for a copy if you like). Some of my favorite authors on this topic are:
Ehrenreich;
Fine;
Tatum;
and bell hook
So glad this course has helped you in some ways!
Datta Kaur
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