Category: Blogs and Musings

EF Showcase – Student Projects and E-Portfolios

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E-portfolio and Presentation Skills – University Preparation, EF
Teaching Statement – Fall 2016
By Dr. Jasmin Bey Cowin

An E-Portfolio is a collection of materials that documents student accomplishments and may include reflections on the learning process and its outcomes.

Benefits:
Requires students to organize their thoughts and materials using an electronic interface similar to a personal web page.
Allows for the presentation and interlinking of various media types.
Easily shared and continuously edited.

Learning Objectives
After completing this course, learners will be able to:

Articulate the benefits of hosting and  E-Portfolio
Use an Eportfolio to showcase projects
Present research projects in various modes
Organize and insert different types of media to enrich the site
Assign visibility controls to site pages

Why use ePortfolios?

The learning purposes of ePortfolios include:
Reflecting upon learning processes and outcomes.
Organizing and presenting learning accomplishments.
Developing self-assessment skills.
Representing learning experiences.
Developing multimedia skills.
Creating electronic text for specific audiences.
Learning how to use technology to support lifelong learning.
The learning benefits of ePortfolios include:

For students:

Personalizing the learning experience.
Allowing students to draw connections between their various learning experiences over the semester and beyond.
Seeing progress over time.
Enhancing critical thinking.

For teachers:

Evaluating and assessing student products and processes.
Assessing course learning outcomes.
Gaining insight into how students experienced a curriculum.

What can be done with the final products?
Students can continue to develop them for their professional careers.
They can be displayed in a common space on campus.
They can be posted on a class website so students can view each other’s portfolios.
They can be shared, with students’ approval, on the teaching portfolio website, or shared with future classes.

A CHINESE GIRL IN NEW YORK a writing project using story book

Imene’s WordPress Website

Illia WordPress portfolio

Larissa – Video Project – Personal Essay

Johnson ePortfolio

Patty’s animated PowToon Project

What Thanksgiving is really about by Dr. J

Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason. Pope Francis

These are excellent guiding words to share Thanksgiving with grace & love and gift international students with an afternoon of that elusive “feeling at home.”    For all of us who have traveled far from our homelands for extended periods, we know about those moments of melancholy.

Yes, academic progress is imperative.  Yes, getting a good score on a TOEFL can be the “make or break” for a successful university application.  Nevertheless, I feel that there is more to teaching.  Teaching is not only planning and delivering the very best curriculum to our students, but it is also an opportunity to model grace, loving kindness and caring.

Every term, before my students go off on their journeys, I cook a meal in my home, and we spend the time to talk, laugh and sometimes make music.  Over the years, I received emails or letters on how important this experience was for them. How the meal, being at “home” was the “light” of their American experience.

Sample Academic Research and College Writing Syllabus

Academic Research and College Writing Syllabus

 Fall 2016

Contact: drcowinjxxx

Academic Research and Writing is a University Preparation (UP) course offered on a rolling basis.  The UP program prepares students for successful entry into US Universities and Colleges.

Course Description

Academic Research and College Writing: 3 blocks at 80 minutes per week plus 30 minutes/bi-weekly individual conferences.

This course introduces students to Academic Research and College Writing strategies through close reading, textual analysis, writing, and revision. PowToon:, students develop their critical thinking skills and a to the fundamentals of college-level research. Students will spend time in individual conferences, collaborative learning activities, presentations and peer review.

Prerequisites to take this course are:

  • Passing the entrance exam for UP program
  • Passing the language assessment exam for the UP program
  • Enrollment in the UP Program
  • Successful completion of the SAT, and Toefl courses

Time and place of course meetings:

xxxxxxx

Room xxxxx, Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday from 2 pm – 3:20 pm

Contact Information

Office Location: Room xxx Academy Hall

Phone number: xxxxxxx

Email address:  xxxxxx

Office hours: Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday xxxx

WhatsApp:  All students are required to be part of the Academic Research and College Writing group on WhatsApp.  This group will be used for instant communication, collaboration between class members and me. Assignments, reminders of due dates, and general questions will be posted on both WhatsApp and the Assignment Share Document.

DO NOT WHATSAPP DURING CLASS!

Required Texts

Students are asked to secure a copy of either:
“The Elements of Style,” by W. Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, any edition ISBN­13: 978­0205309023, Amazon.com, $9.95
or
“The Chicago Manual of Style,” by The University of Chicago Press Staff, any edition.
ISBN­13: 978­0226104201, Amazon.com, $37.70

Also, this course will work with  Open Educational Resources

Resources:

Our Department has multiple computer labs and copiers available for your use.  Please consult your School App for details.

Information on Assignments:

All assignments are due on the stated date.  They must be shared via Google Docs with me.  All emails and Google docs should have in their subject line: Last Name, First Name, UP Program, Academic Research & Writing.

FAQ:  Do I need to print out my papers?

ANSWER: No, instead of printing you will export your final paper into a PDF file and email the PDF file to me.

FAQ: How will I know what to revise?

ANSWER:  Revision suggestions will show up as comments on your Google document.

Requirements and Regulations at our School

The UP program has a rigorous attendance policy for students. Success in this class depends on regular and punctual attendance. Failure to adhere to the UP-attendance regulation will result in your inability to receive a UP Diploma.

The UP Programs policy for multiple section courses such as this one is:

  • UP students need an attendance rate above 90%  to remain in the program.  This is the total attendance required for all courses.
  • Students in classes that meet three times a week may miss no more than three (3) sessions per semester.
  • Four or more (4+) absences are grounds for failure.
  • Missing 10 minutes of class, arriving late, departing early, or leaving during class, will be noted as “Late.”  Three (3) lates per week, this includes other classes in your section, constitute one (1) absence.  (3 lates = 1 absence)
  • LATE SHOWS  lower your attendance percentage!

Grading Policy:

Academic Research and College Writing includes four formal writing assignments: two formal papers of 3-6 pages and an annotated bibliography assignment that assesses, vets, and analyzes 3 – 5 sources. All formal papers in Academic Research and College Writings will be written under “revision” conditions.  A Gmail account is necessary, as is Google Docs. Drafts will be shared for feedback on content and organization by fellow peers and me, your UP facilitator.

Two formal papers                                                      40% of the final grade

Paper 1                        20%

Paper 2                        20%

 

Annotated bibliography assignment Paper 1              10% of final grade

 

Annotated bibliography assignment Paper 2              10% of final grade

Observation journal                                                     10% of the final grade

Blog                                                                            20% of the final grade

Participation and elevator pitch                               10% of the final grade

 Academic Integrity Statement and Plagiarism Guidelines

http://Plagiarism Guide by OWL

It is acceptable to build on others ideas in your work, but you must give them credit. The final product must be predominantly the result of your work. All academic integrity violations in Academic Research and College Writing will result in an F on the assignment, and/or, a failing grade in the course, plus a referral to the Head of the UP Program.

Course Goals
Students successfully completing this course will have engaged in and practiced the skills necessary for the clear delivery of information via the written word. This course will activate and/or develop critical reading and thinking skills necessary for successful writing performance in both a professional and academic setting. It will do this by engaging students in a review of reading and writing as a purposeful act of observation, reaction, analysis, planning and execution. The best way to understand writing is through reading, so students in this course will engage in frequent reading and writing assignments, and through this will discover and use the process of writing to better express themselves and their ideas in both their professional and academic life.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Describe the four elements of writing (purpose, audience, thesis, supports).
  • Use a selection of tech tools in your research, writing and presentations: such as Diigo, WordPress, Citation Machine
  • Describe and demonstrate examples of the four primary types of writing (narrative,
    persuasive, expository, descriptive).
  • Demonstrate examples of primary styles of writing such as essay writing, blog writing, concise, emails, writing for the media, writing for the web, writing a research report,
  • Successfully create, write and deliver an elevator pitch
  • Demonstrate the use of drafting, analysis, and revision to improve weaknesses in
    writing.
  • Read and listen critically and analytically, including identifying an argument’s major assumptions and assertions and evaluating its supporting evidence.
  • Demonstrate research skills using appropriate technology, including gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing primary and secondary sources.
  • Support a thesis with well-reasoned arguments, and communicate persuasively across a variety of contexts, purposes, audiences, and media.
  • Formulate original ideas and relate them to the ideas of others by employing the conventions of ethical attribution and citation.

 

Course Outline of Assignments and Activities

Reading critically and being able to articulate feedback is vital to your success as a writer so that you will engage in active discussion and review of your classmates’ work. It is often easier to identify specific strengths, weaknesses, and strategies for improvement in other people’s writing, something we will practice accordingly. As you become better at analyzing the effectiveness of other people’s writing, you will learn to more efficiently analyze your own.

Tech Requirements:

  1. Install Chrome and Google Apps
  2. Download and install WhatsApp on your cell phone
  3. Create a Gmail account:  Last Name, First Name, Academic Research Fall 2016.This email address should look like this (with your name!): Example: smithjohnacademicresearchfall2016@gmail.com
  4. Create a free account on WordPress WordPress.com: Create a free website or blog
  5. Create a free account on SlideBean Slidebean: Presentation Software, Online Presentation Tools
  6. Create a free account Padlet Click here for Padlet Link
  7. Create free account on Diigo: Your personal Diigo library for research
  8. Create a free account on Powtoons PowToon : Online business presentation software to create free, cool …
  9. Install Citation Machine for your citations

Assignment Breakdown:
Guided and unguided discussion forums
Homework assignments
Observation Journal – WEEKLY
Demonstration of writing types

4 Critical readings
Style Guide Review

Annotated bibliography assignment
Reverse Outline
Email practice
Elevator Pitch

WordPress Blog Creation
Blog Posts
Project 1
First Draft
Peer Review

Final Draft

Project 2

First Draft
Peer Review
Final Draft

 

Academic Research and College Writing Timeline*:
Week 1:           Introductions and discovering the four basics (purpose, audience, thesis and supports).

Discovering writing styles: narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive

Tools to support your writing (style guide review) Tech Tool: Padlet

Workshop: Grammar review

Workshop: Writing Styles 1- narrative

Observation Journal

Week 2:           Annotated bibliography assignment Tech Tool: Diigo and Citation Machine

Basic Steps to put together a research project

Workshop: Writing Styles 2 – descriptive

Mini Workshop: Running a Boolean Search

Mini Workshop: Similes and Metaphors in writing

Observation Journal

Choice activity: Take a selfie at the Library and post to WhatsApp

Week 3:           The reverse outline

Start project research

Describe research project/Paper 1 Tech Tool: SlideBean

Workshop: Writing Styles 3 – expository

Workshop: Vetting research, creating a bibliography, narrowing your topic.

Mini Workshop:  Creating strong topic sentences, adding details and staying focused.

Observation Journal

Choice Activity: Class Google Hangout Discussion Party 1 with me/evening          Time: TBA

Week 4:           Writing effective emails (five sentence process)- describe research project/Paper 1

Annotated bibliography

Outline paper 1

Workshop: Writing Styles – persuasive

Mini Workshop: How to use closing punctuation. How to use commas in a series.
Observation Journal

Reflection

Week 5:           WordPress Blog Creation Tech Tool WordPress

Posting Annotated bibliography for Paper 1 on your blog Tech Tool WordPress

Workshop: Writing for a blog

Mini Workshop: How to create charts and pies. How to insert charts and graphics

Observation Journal

Critical Reading 1

Week 6:           Writing an elevator pitch about Paper 1

Workshop: Creating a good elevator pitch

Choice activity: Google Hangout Discussion Party 2 with me/evening Time: TBA

Delivering, capturing and posting elevator pitch on blog about Research Paper 1

Observation Journal

Critical reading 2

Week 7:           Peer Review Paper 1

Revision paper 1

Workshop: Common revisions needed, revision checklist, constructive feedback

Observation Journal

Critical reading 3

Week 8­ – 9      Paper 1 submission – PDF File!

Paper 2 – describe research project Tech Tool Padlet

Annotated bibliography

Writing outline Paper 2

Observation Journal

Critical reading 4

Choice activity: Google Hangout Discussion Party 3 with me/evening Time: TBA

Week 10:         Paper 2:

Blog post: description of project (5 sentences) Tech Tool WordPress

Elevator pitch presentation: Paper 2

Annotated bibliography Tech Tool Diigo

Workshop: Analysis of Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail

Click this link for MLK Letter

Observation journal

Choice Activity: Go to a lecture as an EF group with me TBA/evening/NYC

Draft 1, Paper 2

Week 11:         Draft 2, Paper 2

Peer Review Paper 2

Choice activity: Google Hangout Discussion Party 4 with me/evening Time: TBA

                        Observation Journal

                        Reflection

Week 12:         Blog on Paper 2 Tech Tool WordPress

Submission Paper 2 – PDF File!

Class Evaluation REQUIRED:  via Survey Monkey: Follow the link and answer all the questions

Class Presentations Paper 2 Tech Tool SlideBean or PowToons

Reflection and wrap-up

 

*Please note that this timeline is subject to change per student need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personalized Learning Networks (PNL’s) and VW’s

Exploring new technological resources such as VW’s and their unique environments opens new dimensions of the formative teaching and learning process. Current space-temporal barriers are opening and disrupting up the ESL teaching field. The contexts within VW’s requires thoughts about how the role of ESL teachers in VW’s. Also, an exploration of the dynamics of ESL students entering VW’s, their learning, the interaction between peers, teachers and ‘drop-ins’ or visitors is necessary. Exploring, sharing and learning in a VW unfolds venues of student network collaborations, leading to Personal Learning Networks (PNL). ESL language acquisition cannot be understood without this social and educational perspective.

Virtual Worlds are emerging as a strong educational phenomenon because they enable participants and in-world travelers to meet and socially interact with others in a variety of online environments. Users navigate these online environments utilizing an avatar. Avatars are personalized by the user and act as their ‘alter ego’ in their chosen virtual setting. There is a multitude of virtual worlds focused on education. Here a small sample: ScienceSim, Heritage Key, Active Worlds Educational Universe, Secret Builders and WizWorld Online.
VW’s invite and require a certain degree of self-organization in the personalized trajectory of improving L2 language skills. The importance of self-organization as a learning process is stated by Wiley and Edwards:
“Jacobs argues that communities self-organize a manner similar to social insects: instead of thousands of ants crossing each other’s pheromone trails and changing their behavior accordingly, thousands of humans pass each other on the sidewalk and change their behavior accordingly.”
In her article, Wendy Drexler, University of FloridaI, “The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy” states:

“Principles of networked learning, constructivism, and connectivism inform the design of a test case through which secondary students construct personal learning environments for the purpose of independent inquiry. Emerging web applications and open educational resources are integrated to support a Networked Student Model that promotes inquiry-based learning and digital literacy, empowers the learner, and offers flexibility as new technologies emerge.”

Balancing the benefits of technology and real-life experiences in the experiential realm will be a challenge for the educational system at large. The benefits of VW’s are anchored in participants’ ability to create PLN’s; enhance their imagination; to grow and learn; to create with one’s mind and fingers a world that existed only as a representation and then enter that world as active learners. One future of education is the establishment of learning communities where we come to learn with each other and from each other in a collaborative process. Collaborative processes give rise to vibrant cultures of growth and development with the result of a harvest of student achievement filled with a growth mindset, mental flexibility, curiosity, risk taking and intrinsic motivation.

Teaching Philosophy

20160831_134638Jasmin B. Cowin, Ed.D.

As a teacher and facilitator, I establish learning communities where we come to learn with each other and from each other in a collaborative process. Collaborative processes give rise to vibrant cultures of growth and development with the result of a harvest of student achievement filled with a growth mindset, mental flexibility, curiosity, risk taking and intrinsic motivation. My approach to teaching is student-centered with the aim to open the doors of knowledge not only empirically but emotionally as well. As a facilitator and ESL learner, I sat where my students sit today. Genuine sympathy and sincere empathy for their struggles, aspirations, successes and failures guide my teaching philosophy. My former ESL professor at Rice University (a life-time ago) gifted me her guiding quote on teaching ESL writing: Caelum video lussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultu (He bid them look at the sky and lift their faces to the stars.) Ovid.
Technology is changing the context of education. Cultivating digital literacy is an essential part of a writing course. In today’s workplace, digital literacy is essential. But teaching and learning should go beyond access to basic technology based tools. Students must learn to apply digital resources to creatively solve problems, produce innovative projects, and enhance communications to prepare for a career in any field. My writing courses encourage a dialogue between technological tools and students to achieve polished, in-depth pieces highlighting a mastery of analysis and form.
I reflected deeply on Driscoll’s (2000) definition of learning as “a persisting change in human performance or performance potential…[which] must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world” and rely on Siemens’s reflection (2005) on that definition; “[Driscoll’s] definition encompasses many of the attributes commonly associated with behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism – namely, learning as a lasting changed state (emotional, mental, physiological (i.e. skills)) brought about as a result of experiences and interactions with content or other people,” in the context of technology a modern, yet common sense approach in higher education classrooms. “Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized,” and going on to say that, “the field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.”
Academic ability is not necessarily an indication of intelligence as talent is diverse. Often instructional methods are preoccupied with academic ability. I prefer a common-sense approach where the writer’s mind focuses on both the practical and analytical. Interactive, collaborative, and personalized instruction address the hopes and aspirations of nascent writers. I encourage diversity in writing with a broad curriculum to feed the spirit; writing about issues which resonate; fostering creativity in the writing process while embracing and consistently applying essential cornerstones of the writing process.
Beyond grammatical skills, writing a college-level essay requires the following: a thesis; factual support; and clear lines of logic to link the factual support into arguments either supporting or refuting the thesis. Regardless of the topic; from art to business, from journalism to international relations; any compelling essay will require these elements. Therefore, in our essays classes use Google based fact sheets to scaffold their arguments and delineate thinking in a clear, organized method. These personally developed Google instruments provide writing exercises through which students can concentrate on the logical components of the writing process by choosing relevant facts, analyzing them, and developing clear arguments based on such facts. This fosters a writing approach which lends itself to writing across disciplines. Our elevator pitches focus on the topic and infuse the course with real-life presentation experience using various technology suites while simultaneously fostering fluency, strong delivery and a sense of real-life application for ESL students.
The Experiential Learning Philosophy and authentic learning in a student-centered classroom are the cornerstones of my educational approach. My primary goals in teaching writing are: First, increasing students’ metacognitive awareness so that they better understand themselves as learners and enable students to take responsibility for their learning. Second, providing a clear lesson structure with objectives and aims for students. Third, improving students’ understanding of, and ability to accurately use English in speaking, writing and reading. My overarching goal is to develop communicative competence.