Academic Poster Projects for Advanced 2 Leor Cohen An Exemplar Academic Poster Projects for Advanced 2 Leor Cohen

The Mandate of Our Courses Prepare for 21st century challenges Real life skills and tools Academic and Professional Collaboration – Group Work Construct knowledge through action Take advantage of the opportunity Communication skills Engage in conversation – natural and academic contexts Purpose – Missed opportunity How to instill better writing practices in our classrooms Not just speaking – also engaging with texts 21st century skills

Problems in Assignment Design Traditional: Develop a thesis statement and support it using items in the literature. Cherry pick quotations Westernized Cultural Framework Prompts for plagiarism Individualism → solipsism Student’s voice ‘Dream-up-a-thesis-in-a-vacuum’ Pedagogy Graduate school If not responsive, not heard Tree in the forest

Using the CEFR CEFR Learning Outcomes: Reception/Reading – Can obtain and synthesize information, ideas and opinions from multiple sources... Production/Writing – Can summarize and synthesize from a variety of sources… Production/Speaking – Can give a clear prepared academic presentation… Reception/Listening – Can follow the essentials of lectures, talks…. Not easy to do. Easier said than done.

Rebbeca Moore Howard Patchwriting Plagiarism vs. Patchwriting Intention Teachable moment

Problems in Composition Almost no Summary or Synthesis Patchwriting Sentence to Sentence match-up across source and student text Jamieson & Moore 2013: Little Summary / No Synthesis List of Book Reports What kind of thinking do students need to go through to produce such surface level use of source texts? Inspired my pedagogy

Howard, Serviss, Rodrigue 2010

A Literature Review-based Research Proposal The Poster Project A Literature Review-based Research Proposal ((Introduce and move on.)) To alleviate and address the issues set forth by RM Howard.

The Poster Project Literature Review game Choosing Article 1 Summary Process Choosing Article 2 + Summary Choosing Article 3 + Summary Synthesis Describe Relationship Dialogue Project: Literature Review based Research Proposal - Poster Purpose – get students to react to literature Lit Review Game– Article Contest Introduce Project – Form groups; Choose article Notes, Paragraph, Summary, Gist Advantages: cycles away, revision Repeat. 2nd and 3rd article Synthesis Constellation Description Dialogue Bring 3 authors into one room Pit contrasting positions against one another Arrive at fresh insight Logical next step – what to explore next? Not an opinion; result of negotiation – not something invented, but found. Trans-Genre exercise

Swales CARS Model

Dialogue from Physics

G1 – Smoking causes depression. G2 – Smoking and Depression connected, but not causally. G3 – Depression causes smoking. Notice the various positions across these items of the literature!

G1 – Smoking causes depression. G2 – Smoking and Depression connected, but not causally. G3 – Depression causes smoking. G1+2 – Causal vs not causal G1+3 – What’s the cause of what – smoking or depression (chicken and egg)? G2+3 – Age causes depression and depression causes smoking (they missed this at the end).

Generalized should be: Different opinions on relationship between smoking and mental illness. Half the semester Submissions – check + feedback (language)

Poster Background and References Gists, Syntheses, Dialogue Motivation/Critique of Literature Swales Move 2 Objective – Research Proposal FROM DIALOGUE Rest of Poster Method, Hypothesis, Implications Now let’s look at some assessment tools.

Assessment: Rubrics

An Exam: Midterm

Debrief/Discussion Listen in on a small academic discussion → contribute Use one text as a lens to analyze another text Not opinion – analyze positions → best way forward → find insight See the big picture → Join the discussion Labor intensive → Sociolinguistic Competence Academic Communities of Practice Use the wisdom in the CEFR – internalize its spirit for a communication-centered pedagogy. Students’ voice In Academia, Free Speech is not a natural and inalienable right It is bought and paid for with Summary and Synthesis

Thank you!

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