Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
Transforming the Learning Environment
April 4-6, 2004
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Jeanne Altstatt, Chair, English and Humanities Track 2 - Promoting Transformation in the Learning Environment |
Abstract
Because instructors are not constantly present in an online class environment, they must do everything they can to actively engage the students in the learning process and keep their interest focused on the course materials. This session provides alternative, creative assignments used in teaching American Literature for NSCC and the Tennessee Board of Regents Online Degree Program. These assignments not only help keep the studentsí interest, but also address alternate learning styles and allow students to express themselves through difference media Participants will leave this presentation with actual material that they can use immediately in their classrooms.
Description
Because instructors are not constantly present in an online class environment, they must do everything they can to actively engage the students in the learning process and keep their interest focused on the course materials. This session provides alternative, creative assignments used in teaching American Literature for NSCC and the Tennessee Board of Regents Online Degree Program. These assignments not only help keep the studentsí interest, but also address alternate learning styles and allow students to express themselves through difference media. In the presentation, participants will see a wide variety of lessons from online course in American Literature I, American Literature II, and Introduction to Research.
One lesson is on ìThe Death of the Ball Turret Gunnerî where students access the Web site of John Briol, a WWII ball turret gunner, read his diary and compare the experiences in the diary with the experiences in the poem. The course site also includes a streaming video of Art Olinger, a WWII ball turret gunner, talking about his combat experiences in the ball turret.
In another lesson students study the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, who used rhymed verse. So students can learn that rhymed verse poses a challenge to a poet and teaches a kind of discipline, the students are instructed to write a clerihew. A clerihew, a poetic form, was invented almost two hundred years after Wheatley's death, but it is an excellent example of a poetic form that contains rhymed verses. Clerihews consist of two couplets with lines of uneven length and irregular meter. Line one rhymes with line two, and line three rhymes with line four. The first line of the poem usually contains the name of a well-know person. After visiting a Web site that explains the clerihew form and gives examples of poems, students write their own poems using the correct form. (See assignment below.)
* Welcome to the Mystery Clerihew Site
* http://www.smart.net/~tak/clerihew.html
* Study the clerihews
* Write your own clerihew using a well-known person in history, entertainment, politics, or sports. Be sure to rhyme the appropriate lines.
Others lessons include creating a character mandala as a character stretch using "Snowbound," comparing Franklin's two epitaphs and creating an epitaph, listening to the jazz of the Harlem Renaissance, and analyzing Phoenix Jackson in "A Worn Path" using Joseph Campbell's journey of a hero.
Also, the use of graphics, photographs, and animations as interest holding devices will be explored and discussed. Participants will leave this presentation with a packet of materials that they can use immediately in their classrooms and ideas for creating alternative assignments for Web courses.