Week
4 – Final Project
Lesson Plan—Sociology
465 One-Shot
Situational
Factors
Sociology 465 is an upper-level
class during which mostly college juniors will learn to design and conduct a
small sociological research project.
This will include conducting a literature review. There will be 18 students in this one-shot
live library session. The professor believes that they are inexperienced
researchers. Fortunately the session will be 75 minutes, so there is time to
include some active learning.
The library session the professor
has requested is quite traditional. The professor has stated that she would
like students to develop the skills to do a comprehensive literature search by
using appropriate keywords, related citations and author searches. She would like them to gain experience using
a traditional database as well as Google Scholar. She would also like a review of APA style
citations. The challenge will be to try
to move the content beyond showing students where to point and click to the
realm of significant learning as defined by Fink and which is in keeping with
the Framework concepts, dispositions, etc.
Technology
My lesson plan calls for a combination
of traditional pen/paper activities to some newer technologies. Even though
this is a fairly low-tech class, one could argue that traces of the Horizon Report trends can be found. The tutorials are a component of online learning. The Google form lends itself to using some analytics, and the active learning
components are part of the students as
creators trend, as is using Padlet for sharing the citation maps. The Padlet technology is really the only
technology that could really enhance the class.
I think that it will help motivate students to complete the task by
sharing their work with others, and being able to review all the results by
looking at them together will enhance the discussion.
Motivational
Theory
I will be using aspects of the ARCS
Model for this class. In general, this
class should provide Relevance to
students because it is based on helping them what they need to know in order to
complete a specific class assignment.
Also, by “setting the scene” in describing a possible future scenario
when they might need these skills, I can gain their Attention. Providing the
class agenda also provides motivation
through the learning requirements
component of the ARCS model. The lesson
plan also provides success opportunities,
a component of Satisfaction, by giving students a chance to think about and
assess the information in the articles they find. Finally, given the nature of the class and
its time constraints, I will mostly be able to provide extrinsic rewards by
providing individual feedback during the class.
Resources
Paper
and pencils to make the concept map.
Video
tutorials about searching 2 specific databases.
Video
tutorial about how to read a research article.
Google form.
Citation mounted on cardboard and
cut into elements.
Slide(s) of APA citation elements.
Padlet site.
Class
Introduction
Presentation:
Ask students to imagine that their first job out of college
is to be a research assistant for a sociologist. Their supervisor is designing a research
project, but needs background information about the topic and asks them to
write an annotated bibliography of what they find. The activities in this library class will
prepare them for this work.
Present a slide with the class agenda and discuss how this
class will mimic major parts of the research process.
Learning
Theory:
By “organizing the material by chunking it into meaningful
parts” I am using a cognitivist approach.
Learning
Goal: Students will identify their research idea and related topics in order to
define their research question.
Presentation:
Using brainstorming, briefly illustrate how to make a
concept map and how to decide on their question, then let them start.
Student
Activity:
Using prior knowledge, make a concept map about your area of
research.
Assessment:
Concept Map which includes writing their research
question. I will provide individual and
group feedback as they complete these and all of their activities.
Learning
Theory:
Activating prior knowledge is another cognitivist approach.
Learning
Goal: Students will indicate the most important concepts of their research
question in order to design database searches and find two relevant scholarly
articles.
Presentation:
Discuss identifying keywords/search terms/search notation.
Student
Activities:
Prior to class, review appropriate database tutorials.
Complete the Google form indicating their research question,
and their database search strategies.
Assessment:
Evaluate this part of the form with the following rubric:
|
High Achievement
|
Moderate Achievement
|
Low Achievement
|
|
Students will successfully
identify the key concepts contained in their research question on a
worksheet.
|
Students identify more than one
key concept of their research question on a worksheet, but also choose
extraneous wording from their question.
|
Students are unable to
successfully identify more than one key concept contained in their research
question on a worksheet.
|
|
Students use a combination of
their key concepts and proper search syntax to design and carry out a
database search.
|
Students find any two articles,
but they are not particularly relevant or they did not design their search
properly.
|
Students are unable to find
relevant results in a database search because they use improper search
phrases and/or proper search syntax.
|
Learning
Theory:
Asking students to design their searches is a behaviorist
approach, though being able to identify the most important concepts in their
research questions demands some reflection, a more constructivist activities.
Learning
Goal: Students will assess two articles they find in order to decide whether
they are pertinent to their research project.
Presentation:
Briefly review what they learned from a brief video about
reading a research article.
Student
Activity:
Prior to class, view a video about how to read a research
paper.
Using the Google form, ask students to reflect about why or
why not the articles they found will be helpful to their research.
Assessment:
Students perform self-assessment by reflecting about the
articles and then share their reflections with another student.
Learning
Theory:
Reflecting on the articles to determine whether they meet
students’ information needs is a constructivist activity which is strengthened
by sharing their thoughts with another student.
Learning
Goal: Students will be able to identify APA citation elements in order to find
resources from a reference list.
Presentation:
Describe and illustrate with slide(s) the elements of book
and article citations.
Student
Activity:
Participate in a kinesthetic activity. Give students elements of a citation printed
on cardboard and cut up and ask them to arrange themselves in proper order.
Assessment:
Students can determine whether they are physically in the
correct places.
Learning
Theory:
This is a behaviorist activity.
Learning
Goal: Students will illustrate the connections among at least 5 scholarly
articles in order to begin to understand the development of a scholarly
conversation.
Presentation:
Discuss how one tracks citations and how they can be mapped. Once students have posted their maps on
Padlet, discuss what these illustrate about scholarly conversations.
Student
Activity:
Students will choose one of the articles they found in the
above activity and map 2 citations forward and 2 citations backward. They will also identify the type of resource
from knowing the citation elements.
Assessment:
Post maps to Padlet and discuss.
Learning
Theory:
Constructing the maps is a behaviorist activity and
reflecting on them and the scholarly conversations they represent is a
cognitive activity.
Final Thoughts
This lesson plan is extremely
ambitious for even a 75-minute class, so I have to be prepared to pare it down
if necessary. I will also need the
support of the professor to require the students to watch the videos prior to
class.
Many of the ideas behind course
design were familiar to me. I have
worked with learning outcomes, active learning, and assessment quite a
bit. However, thinking about
incorporating learning theories and motivation theories was new to me and I
struggled with figuring out how to fit them into the planning. I will have to continue to think about those
and how they can continue to inform my
teaching in the future.
