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Faculty Workshop 2014
This document discusses designing research assignments for students using backward design principles. It emphasizes starting with learning outcomes, what students should be able to do, and developing assignments and rubrics to provide evidence that students are achieving those outcomes. The document provides examples of outcomes, evidence, assignments with scaffolding, and rubric development. It stresses considering all elements - outcomes, evidence, assignments, and evaluation - as interconnected parts of the overall design process.
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Faculty Workshop 2014
- 1. DESIGNING THE PROCESS, ClaremontColleges Library August 2014 IMPROVING THE PRODUCT STUDENT RESEARCH:
- 2. Your Librarians Gale Burrow gale_burrow@cuc.claremont.edu CynthiaCohen cynthia_cohen@cuc.claremont.edu
- 3. agenda 1. The Frames:Backward Design & Information Literacy 2. Outcomes 3. Evidence 4. Assignments (Strategies) 5. Evaluating Student Work 6. What’s Your Take-Away?
- 4. Part 1 –The Frames: Backward Design & Information Literacy
- 5. w i gg i n s & m c t i g h e c o n c e p t s & c o n t e n t s t r a t e g i e s o u t c o m e s T Y P I C A L D E S I G N
- 6. w i gg i n s & m c t i g h e o u t c o m e s e v i d e n c e s t r a t e g i e s B A C K W A R D D E S I G N
- 7. w i gg i n s & m c t i g h e B A C K W A R D D E S I G N
- 8. I N FO R M A T I O N L I T E R A C Y @ C C L Information Literacy at the Claremont Colleges: Engaging Critical Habits of Mind Information literacy is the ability to use critical thinking to create meaningful knowledge from information. The information literate Claremont Colleges student: • Engages in a process of inquiry in order to frame intellectual challenges and identify research needs; • Accesses, evaluates, and communicates information effectively; • Provides attribution for source materials used; • And develops insight into the social, legal, economic, and ethical aspects of information creation, use, access, and durability.
- 9. Critical Habits ofMind 1 Inquiry - interpreting assignments, developing a research strategy, questions, and thesis to facilitate strategic information discovery and access, research tool and source selection 2 Evaluation - resource analysis, inference, and revision of research strategy 3 Communication - synthesis, integration, contextualization, use, and presentation of evidence in scholarship and creative work 4 Attribution - providing clear source documentation in writing as well as media and other non-textual work in order to engage in a scholarly conversation 5 Insight - critical understanding of the social, legal, economic, and ethical aspects of information creation, use, access, and durability I N F O R M A T I O N L I T E R A C Y @ C C L
- 10.
- 11. “ P UB L I S H A B L E Q U A L I T Y ” Why are these things difficult for students to know/do on their own?
- 12. Part 2 –Learning Outcomes
- 13. • Students willknow major themes of the American West, such as migration and settlement • Students will engage with major scholarship on the period • Students will practice basics of historical research methods WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR YOUR STUDENTS?
- 14. When students enterclass... • They don't know the history of the period • They don't know how to find scholarship on the American West • They don't know the important scholars of American West or the major arguments • They don’t know historical research methods WHY WOULD THESE GOALS BE DIFFICULT FOR STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE?
- 15. What do wewant our students to BE ABLE TO DO? L E A R N I N G O U T C O M E S
- 16. L E AR N I N G O U T C O M E S • Specific • Observable • Measurable • Completed by the learner
- 17. • Demonstrate theirunderstanding of historical research methods • Develop an argument in response to the ideas of one of the authors read in class regarding the uniqueness of the American experience WHAT DO YOU WANT STUDENTS TO BE ABLE TO DO?
- 18. Develop an argumentin response to the ideas of one of the authors read in class regarding the uniqueness of the American experience Students will be able to • Clearly define the expectations of the assignment • Engage with the ideas of scholars • Evaluate sources and determine their appropriateness to the assignment • Revise the question based on the scholarly conversation and determine a reasonable argument • Select appropriate support scholarship based on the final question and argument • Integrate their own and scholarly ideas into an effective argument USEFUL OUTCOMES ARE SPECIFIC OUTCOMES
- 19. Part 3 -Evidence
- 20. HOW WILL WEKNOW if our students understand the big picture? if our students have achieved specific learning outcomes? E V I D E N C E
- 21. E V ID E N C E • Observable • Measurable • Action verbs • Not necessarily text-based C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S
- 22. NOT the assignment itself OR aspecific measurement of how much students have achieved or how well students have done E V I D E N C E
- 23. BROAD OUTCOME Develop anargument in response to the ideas of one of the authors read in class regarding the uniqueness of the American experience SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOME • Students will be able to engage with the ideas of scholars. EVIDENCE • Students will correctly cite secondary scholarly sources not assigned in class. • Students will use sources that are consistently appropriate to their argument. E X A M P L E O U T C O M E + E V I D E N C E
- 24. Learning Outcomes What wewant students to be able to do Evidence Observable, measurable indicators that students have achieved a learning outcome Research Assignments Activities that guide students to produce evidence VIEWING THE PIECES IN CONTEXT
- 25. Part 4 –Assignments
- 26. Assignments: Strategies that youdevelop that provide evidence that students are learning – achieving your learning outcomes.
- 27. Why is itdifficult for students to achieve your learning outcomes?
- 28.
- 29. WHAT IS SCAFFOLDING? •A temporary structure used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures. It is usually a modular system. • The sequential support given during the learning process with the intention of helping students achieve learning outcomes.
- 30. WHY USE SCAFFOLDING? Scaffolding… •Explicitly identifies everything students should do to complete the assignment. • Allows for more intervention at the point where it’s most useful. • Creates assignments that build on one another. • Ensures that students include all the steps you want to see. • Increases consistency in grading since students will be less likely to take the assignment in different directions based on their individual interpretations of what they think they are supposed to do.
- 31. What if youwant your students to do research, but you don’t plan to assign a research paper?
- 32. Part 5 –Evaluating Student Work
- 33. Learning Outcomes What wewant students to be able to do Evidence Observable, measurable indicators that students have achieved a learning outcome Research Assignments Activities that guide students to produce evidence Evaluating Student Work Measures extent/quality of student achievement VIEWING THE PIECES IN CONTEXT
- 34. Evaluating student work requiresrethinking evidence through the lens of your assignment.
- 35. How do youevaluate students’ research skills?
- 36. is conducted duringthe course and provides information useful in improving or shaping student learning. F O R M A T I V E A S S E S S M E N T
- 37. occurs at theend of an instructional unit or course and measures the extent to which students have achieved the desired learning outcomes. S U M M A T I V E A S S E S S M E N T
- 38. Developing a Rubric OutcomesLevel Initial - 1 Emerging - 2 Developed - 3
- 39. INDIVIDUAL OUTCOMES • Developan appropriate research question • Engage with the ideas of scholars • Revise the question based on the scholarly conversation and determine a reasoned argument • Select appropriate support scholarship based on the final question and argument • Integrate your own and scholars' ideas into an effective argument • Attribute sources appropriately, be consistent in using bibliographic style OUTCOMES GROUPED • Make a reasonable argument/claim • Evaluate/select appropriate sources • Effectively integrate and synthesize sources to support argument/claim Building a Rubric – Outcomes
- 40. • Evaluate/select appropriate sources •Initial -- Sources chosen seem random, only direct quotations are cited, and citation style is inconsistent. • Emerging -- Most sources are appropriate to the argument. Occasional missteps in citation make some sources difficult to identify. • Developed -- Sources are consistently appropriate to the argument and are cited correctly. Evidence in Rubric
- 41. Developing a Rubric OutcomesLevel Initial - 1 Emerging - 2 Developed - 3 Make a reasonable argument/claim Evaluate/select appropriate sources Sources chosen seem random, only direct quotations are cited, and citations are inconsistent. Most sources are appropriate to the argument. Some missteps in citation make some sources difficult to identify. Sources are consistently appropriate to the argument and are cited correctly. Effectively integrate and synthesize sources to support claim
- 42. Part 6 –What’s Your Take-Away?
- 43. Learning Outcomes What wewant students to be able to do Evidence Observable, measurable indicators that students have achieved a learning outcome Research Assignments Activities that guide students to produce evidence Evaluating Student Work Measures extent/quality of student achievement B R I N G I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R
Editor's Notes
- #4 I would also like to welcome you and ask that you introduce yourselves, your college and department, and perhaps a little about the course you’ll be thinking about in today’s workshop. Here’s a brief overview of what you can expect in today’s workshop. As you can see, here and on the agenda in your notebooks, we’ll be covering a variety of topics. Using the frame of backward design, you’ll be developing learning outcomes, evidence, assignments, and assessments. Our presentations will focus on student learning in the frame of information literacy. We know that there are also other frames that you will be thinking about as you work through this process: for example, course content and effective writing. But backward design and information literacy are the 2 frames we’ll emphasize today. Throughout the workshop you’ll have several opportunities to ask questions and work individually on your course assignments.
- #11 This is just an example of an outcome that you might want to see in student writing. If you were going to translate this into outcomes related to information literacy, what would this look like?
- #15 “Establishing stakes,” taking into account what kind of scaffolding needs to happen
- #17 Publishable quality
- #18 The “big picture”
- #19 These specific learning outcomes = what you want to have in mind
- #26 So you’ve identified your learning outcomes and the evidence that will let you know students have learned. Finally, you are ready to think about the assignments you want your students to do to provide that evidence.
- #27 As this slide illustrates, learning outcomes provide the base from which evidence and assignments develop. For example, in a library workshop with students, one of my LOs might be that students can create an effective database search query from their topic/question. Strategy following instruction: ask each student to write a search statement for their topic on the board.
- #28 See scaffolding handout, with Bean list of difficulties.
- #29 One of the challenges for students is to clearly understand and accomplish all aspects of an assignment. And if they don’t accomplish all those pieces, then you don’t have the evidence you want to know whether or not they have learned what you wanted them to learn.
- #30 Scaffolding assignments so students must go through the appropriate steps in the process and not just turn in a single finished product can make a lot of difference in their success
- #31 The scaffolding handout offers a suggested sequence for scaffolding assignments in the research process. There are many different options, depending on the evidence you want to see that reflects student learning. And as you think about scaffolding a sequence of assignments, also think about the various places in that process where support from a librarian might be especially valuable for your students.
- #32 There may be times when you don’t want to assign a formal research paper or project, yet you want students to be able to situate their thinking on an issue within a scholarly conversation. Consider an alternative assignment that asks students to demonstrate some of the same learning. The alternative assignments handout offers several ideas.
- #34 Although we often think that assessment means grading and comes at the end, assessment is most valuable for students if it comes throughout the learning process and can help them focus on improving in areas where they are weak. This can also guide your day-to-day planning when you see things that many students seem to be struggling with. You may assess evidence that students have achieved your LOs in a variety of ways. Back to my example with search statements—my assessment won’t carry a grade, but I will observe levels of success and point out some search statements that look especially effective and ask for fixes for some that have problems. This For those assignments that you will grade, it’s very valuable to plan your assessment at the same time you determine the evidence you want to see and the assignments that will allow you to observe the learning. That can be as simple as notes to yourself on what an A/B/C/D will mean for each LO/evidence, to something as forma and sophisticated as a rubric.