Course Activities: Process Approaches
I'm using real-world data from the US Census Bureau to address an immigrant issue.
We're interacting with professionals about their most difficult cases.
Our team is completing a simulation based on a real-world scenario.
Rather than just creating activities for your learners, think about designing active learning environments that engage learners with course content.
Once you've identified the thinking expectations, design course assignments that actively involve the student in meaningful learning experiences that demonstrate these outcomes. Rather than just asking factual questions with basic answers, help them construct knowledge and transform information into understandings through engaging assignments
Great Engaging Learning Experiences
As you design activities, think about ways to incorporate the following major components:
- Springboard Activities. Motivate students and help them recall prior learning.
- Information Exploration. Help students construct knowledge, learn concepts and build skills.
- Student Involvement. Help learners practice with feedback, solve problems, and create projects.
- Closure/Transition. Ask learners to draw conclusions, apply new knowledge and skills, and transfer ideas to new learning situations.
To learn more about lesson planning, go to Teaching and Learning Strategies from Virtual Inquiry.
Adapt Existing Lessons and Resources
You may not have the time or skills to develop activities from scratch. Seek out the work of others and adapt it to fit the needs of your course.
The web contains lots of great resources for lesson planning ideas. For instance the National Park Service provides resources for Teaching with Historic Places.
Go to Thinkfinity. This national project searches lessons from the major national education associations.
To learn about adapting lessons, go to Adapting Existing Materials from Virtual Inquiry.
Reminders!
Design active learning environments that engage learners with course content.
Adapt existing lesson and resources.
Incorporate springboard activities, information exploration, student involvement, and closure/transition into learning experiences.
Apply It!
Search for lesson ideas at Thinkfinity.
Adapt ideas for your own instructional situation.