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This teaching approach focuses on improving critical thinking skills through the study of contemporary literature, engaging students in collaborative work, question creation, and evaluation of different perspectives.
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Stewart Distinguished Teaching Award Recipients, 2011 Karin St. Pierre Teaching Critical Thinking Through Literature Nick Larocca Building a Thesis
Professor St. Pierre: Teaching Critical Thinking Through Literature LIT 2090 Contemporary Literature Learning Outcomes: Students will demonstrate improved critical thinking skills; students will demonstrate an increased willingness to think critically.
Lesson Plan Stage One, Pre-Reading First month of the semester: • Require students to work collaboratively and individually, addressing questions about major life themes that appear in the novel. • Train students to use a set of generic question stems (see Wolcott; Lynch, 2001) to create their own questions appropriate for the content to be learned. • Require students to answer each other’s questions in small groups.
Lesson Plan Stage Two, During Reading Second Month of Semester a. While students are reading outside the classroom, require them to answer questions more narrowly focused on novel. b. Share with students previous responses generated during stage one. Students, during this stage, should begin to generate their own critical thinking questions about the text.
Lesson Plan Stage Three, Post-Reading Third Month of Semester a. Assign students the task of evaluating published, critical perspectives. b. Require students to compare/contrast the novel with other works of fiction studied during the semester. c. View, in class, the award-winning, critically acclaimed movie adaptation and encourage discussion of the differences between the novel and film.
Teaching Methods Used… • Lecture • Research • Group Work • Online Research • Student Presentation • Discussion • Socratic • PowerPoint
Assessment of Learning Outcomes William Perry, (1913-1998) Professor of Education, Harvard
Timing and Types of Assessments Month 4 Month 3 Month 1 Month 2 LEGEND Short Essay: Topic Choices are “The Best Class or Worst Class I Ever Had” or “How I Learn Best” One-Minute Essay: Topic Choices are “What’s the Most Important Think I Learned in Class Today? Or “What One Question Still Remains”? “Critical Thinking Disposition Self-Rating Form”
Evidence of Student Learning Brian (Pseudonym) 1/5/12 : DUALISM 1/19/12 : MULTIPLISM
Evidence of Student Learning Brian (Pseudonym) 1/31/12: DUALISM2/28/12: MULTIPLISM
“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering bout the big things and asting ‘bout the big things, you learn about the litte ones, almost by accident…The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.” Albert, The Color PurpleAlice Walker
Professor LaRocca – Building a Thesis ENC 1102: College Compostion II Learning Outcomes • Demonstrate original writing using standard written English, including accepted standards of grammar and punctuation. • Use critical thinking skills to develop a clear, focused thesis and content that are appropriate to purpose of the assignment, including argument • Provide coherent, organized support for ideas using relevant, specific details and concrete examples • Maintain a style, tone, and language appropriate for an academic audience • Understand and avoid plagiarism as defined in the Palm Beach State College Student Handbook • Recognize the possibilities to strengthen writing through revision and editing
Overview of Project Feedback Feedback Feedback
Student Example – Working Thesis Nosocomial infections in hospitals develop because of issues related to visitors and staff hygiene; the improper handling of breathing machines and ventilators; the improper insertion or maintenance of catheters and intravenous lines; the failure to follow use of sterile protocol during surgery and transfusions; and the opportunity that bacteria endogenous to the patient find when the patient is in a weakened state.
Student Example – In Essay Hospitals are generally known as places of remedy. Persons who are ill go there with the expectation that they will receive treatment and recover. Unfortunately however, many of those individuals develop an infection as a direct consequence of their stay in the hospital. Infections that are acquired while a patient is in the hospital are referred to as nosocomial infections; a term derived from nosos the Greek word for 'disease'. Nosocomial infections occur worldwide and affect both developed and resource-poor countries. Even though many strides have been made in the progress of public health and hospital care, infections continually develop in patients admitted to healthcare facilities. There are many factors that promote the increase in infection rates among patients. These include: the decreased immunity among patients that gives bacteria endogenous to the patient the chance to develop; poor infection control practices that facilitate transmission of pathogens to the patient and their environment; bacteria that become drug-resistant, rendering antibiotics ineffective; the improper insertion or maintenance of catheters and intravenous lines; the improper handling of breathing machines and ventilators; and the failure to follow sterile and aseptic protocol during surgical procedures.