1. The Creative Classroom
New York City College of Technology
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)
March 21, 2019
Engaging Student Understanding through Active Learning Techniques

2. Workshop Goals/Outline
Discuss advantages of active learning using WAC principles
Offer and demonstrate strategies for creative classroom activities and writing assignments

3. Warm-Up Activity: Graffiti
Think about the learning environment in your classroom. Free-write for 2 minutes describing your current teaching methods and how students respond.
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4. Warm-Up Activity: Graffiti part deux
Look at what you have written and identify one or two major adjectives that describe the learning environment in your classroom. 
Write these adjectives on the board.
This should lead to a discussion about the learning environments that we construct in our classrooms. How does the way that we teach influence the way that our students learn? Are we satisfied with the way that students are learning in our classrooms?

5. What is Active Learning?
“Active learning is generally defined as any instructional method that engages students in the learning process. In short, active learning requires students to do meaningful learning activities and think about what they are doing... The core elements of active learning are student activity and engagement in the learning process.” (Prince 2004)

6. Why Use Active Learning?
Focus time is limited
Learning and memory are improved by:
Multiple methods of delivery / sensory input
Relevance and Emotional salience
Interaction
Technology – expands the classroom
Focus- According to neuroscience research, our brains can only maintain focus for approximately 15-20minutes at a time. It’s no wonder that our students zone out during an hour-long lecture. Active learning activities provide shifts in the learning environment that allows us to reset our focus.
Multiple Methods of Content Delivery and Learning- Not all students learn the same way. Some students are aural learners while others may be visual or tactile learners. Involving students in the process of learning with different types of activities, engages different parts of the brain and allows learning on multiple levels. (Mention Lynda.com series on “Neuroscience of Learning.”
Interactive- Active learning gets the students involved in their own learning process. Through these activities students learn how to learn rather than just passively receive information from a lecturer. This allows them to take ownership of the course concepts they learn and deploy them in their own thinking and work.
Technology- Your students are already using technology: cell phones, google, twitter, Wikipedia, etc. Rather than fighting these technological habits, how can we use digital technology to our advantage. Incorporating techonology into our classrooms expands the limits of learning beyond the classroom walls—students can interact with course material, students in other classes, professionals in the field, and “real world” situations to explore core course concepts. We will see ways that this can work later in the workshop.

7. Developed by Edgar Dale in 1969, the “cone of learning” demonstrates the idea that as learners we only tend to remember 10% of what we read, while we remember 90% of what we do. The more actively involved learners are in the learning process, the more they will remember. How much are our students retaining from what we are trying to teach them?

8. WAC and Active Learning: The Connection
Informal writing is a pathway to developing critical thought
When we write in our own voice the concepts become our own
Active learning Writing
(1) At writing across the curriculum we advocate the belief that writing, particularly low-stakes writing, is a pathway to developing critical thought. (2) Through writing we engage with ideas and concept by putting them into our own words and working through them in a way that we take ownership and can deploy the concepts in a variety of settings. (3) Through active learning students can embody and explore these concepts in different ways that reinforce their learning and retention.
Should also note: Throughout the workshops we have presented this semester, The W.A.C. Fellows have presented a variety of ways to incorporate writing into your courses many of which are also active learning techniques. As with the graffiti exercise, writing can be an integral part of the active learning process.

9. Group Work in the classroom
Activities should:
 Promote debate
 Generate a written product 
 Be accomplishable in a specified time limit 
 Be directed toward course learning outcomes 

10. Group Work continued When structuring an activity: Create ground rules
your role as mediator; assigning a spokesperson; respectful etc
 Form groups (self-selection or instructor-assigned) 
5-6 students, smaller for group projects at home or peer review 
 Assign directives that are visible to all 
 Consider outcomes 
Ask students to persuade rather than summarize
Leave enough time for full class discussion and critique

11. Different Types of Learning Activities
No-Tech Classroom Activities
Tech Classroom Activities
Tech Out of Class Activities

12. I. No-Tech Classroom Activities
Graffiti
Debates/Roleplay
Real-World Problems
"Conference" Panels
Chalkboard Annotation
Instant Feedback (Green, Red, Yellow post-its)
Think-Pair-Share
Snowball
Games (Bingo)
Concept Maps
Go through these different activities briefly explaining how they function as active learning.
Marianna's ATM example.
George's roleplay example: in a fiction class, writing a character and then coming into class as that character and getting interviewed 

13. Activity: Chalkboard Annotation
Choose a quote from course readings and write or post it on the board. Have students respond to the quote in the space around it on the board. Then have students respond to each other’s responses. (Inspiration: Ann Berthoff’s dialectical notebooks)

14. II. Tech Classroom Activities
Controversial Video/Discussion
Audio Recording/Discussion
Video Demonstration (Khan Academy)
Online Activities, Tutorials, Lectures
Digital Instant Feedback (iClickers)
Web-Based Activities (e.g. Desmos for math)
Jeopardy
You don’t have delve into high-tech activities. There are low-tech activities as well. Video and audio, while still relatively passive can shift the learning environment and allow for the reset in focus. The video/audio should lead to a low-stakes writing prompt and a discussion to make them more active.
Online lectures can lead to a flipped classroom model where the content delivery of the course happens outside of class while class time is devoted to activities that reinforce the key concepts.
Digital instant feedback, such as iClickers or Poll Everywhere, allow students to engage in the course by answering questions and providing feedback during the lesson.

15. III. Tech Out of Class Activities
Digital Galleries or Timelines (Omeka)
Student Blogs (OpenLab, Tumblr, WordPress)
Communal Annotation of Text
CommentPress (Future of the Book)
Google Doc
Social Media-Based Assignments (Twitter)
Recording Podcast
These activities engage students through digital platforms that create interactive learning experiences. Programs like WordPress and Omeka allow students to curate exhibits, galleries, blogs, and interactive timelines related to course materials. CommentPress (Future of the Book) is an open-source theme and plugin for Wordpress that allows users to comment on blog text. You could also incorporate social media (Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook) into assignments depending on what you are trying to teach. In addition to making learning active, many of these activities also develop students’ writing and communication skills, and develop vital digital citizenship skills.
As mentioned earlier in the workshop, technology can expand your classroom. Communal annotation provides a good example. (Show UKoment example.)
Students engage with the text, the professor, and their classmates while reading and thinking about the reading.
With UKoment, students, you could ask students to explore the internet looking for articles that contribute to a conversation in class, upload them to the site, and begin conversation. This allows them to engage directly with current issues or debates within your field or in the world.
The conversation continues beyond the conversation in the classroom.
REMEMBER: Anytime you ask your students to use technology make sure to provide them with adequate access to technical support and ensure that they have access to whatever platform you are assigning.

16. Example: CommentPress

17. Strategies for Active Learning
Be specific in your assignments. Provide written instructions. 
Be transparent about the function of the activity. How does it relate to course objectives?
Be mindful of time and length of activity components.
Provide models.
Ensure students have necessary technology and can easily seek help.
Make activities specific to your field/class – it’s your creative classroom.
Make sure to stress the importance that ALL activities derive from the learning objectives for the course and lesson. They are not just thrown in. This requires planning.

18. Activity: Think-Pair-Share
Think about a concept that your students have a difficult time grasping. Free-write for 2 minutes about ways that you might incorporate active learning techniques to teach that concept in the future. Pair up with the person next to you and share your ideas.
Include a reminder that WAC Fellows are available to discuss implementing and revising writing assignments and active learning activities as you plan for your spring courses.  
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19. Questions?

20. References
Emerson, T. L. N., & Taylor, B. A. (2004). Comparing student achievement across experimental and lecture-oriented sections of a principles of microeconomics course. Southern Economic Journal, 70(3), Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillian. Knight, J. K., & Wood, W. B. (2005). Teaching more by lecturing less. Cell Biology Education, 4, Metros, S. E. (2008). The educator’s role in preparing visually literate learners. Theory into Practice, 47(2), Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. (2007). Interactive multimodal learning environments. Educ Psychol Rev, 19, Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3),