Thread by @kawaiilovesarah

[thread: teaching methods / participation]

i see a lot of content this term about lack of/no participation, inactive engagement, silent classes... etc. my class is here to show you some alternate ways into participation that are multimodal, disability friendly and udl designed.

okay so i'll start with "there are SO MANY REASONS for quiet classes, including apocalypse time/covid time/tragedies happening literally constantly". so this is NOT A FOR-ALL METHOD and these will not work EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME. i'm not magic, i'm just a grad student lmao, SO:

in my mind, my classes aren't quiet because of the ways they've been invited to participate - and this of course starts with your "base building block", the syllabus. i wrote a WHOLE THING about just this component and it's free via sparkactivism.com/beyond-the-abi…

the tl;dr is next >

tl;dr if you build your class to emphasize community and overreward interactivity (and build in MANY FORMS of "interactive" learning), you are teaching them course content AND how to be a more empathetic scholar that builds up others. making them care about others = participation

so how does that transpire? i have a couple answers for that, the first being "your syllabus needs to address access and inclusivity FIRST". that says a lot about your priorities. your priority isn't rote knowledge memorization (i know that!), it's everyone learning together.

you are the "role model" in the room: your ability to constantly invite people inside the circle will reinforce your community-first classroom style. nothing is more important than everyone's ability TO BE in community. you are modelling that, and they will model after you.

so let's get more technical. how else can i reinforce that? i use a lot of TEAM PLAY in my classroom. but i'm using it for more than just a group work component. it needs to *matter* to them beyond an assignment component, it's a minicommunity, it's accountability, it's care work

first day, i make 5 teams of 5 students (remix as needed). they choose their team names. that's their ride or die team for my class this semester. i run activities as "team play", "individual", or "all play" (full class). they work with their teams a lot, and use those lessons >

> for individual assessments. i'll give you an example. my sci comm class did a SHORT INVESTIGATION "group work" essay midterm as team play. they did the traditional essay thing, BUT they also did a "meta-methodology" document component for me. they had to tell me how they

divided the work, how they kept organized, time tracking, using strengths/weaknesses of team members, putting it all together, and what they learned if they got to start over. these docs were AMAZING. and i'm there to reinforce what they learned from this, or gently correct them.

they use everything they learned from "literally writing" the short investigation (team play) to DO IT AGAIN on a different topic: the MAJOR INVESTIGATION is individual. they got to work together to "practice", and they still have their team to help them edit individual essays

using their shared experiences, using their meta-reflections, using feedback they got from me. team play taught them a LOT that i can't in 12 weeks. and they TRUST their teammates more. this is care work. they can rely on more than JUST ME with their major term essay - i am just

one person! + because i always have first year students: they are so overwhelmed. of course they can come to me, but they also have their class community, AND they have their teams that they work with so frequently for my class. 1st year uni is HARD! support networks = team play.

so let's get even MORE technical. let's look at an actual assessment. hot take, i think "peer feedback" classic models are bullshit. i use a "cheerleading framework" instead. my students have to do a presentation component - everyone hates this. my students end up loving it. why?

bc i intentionally build it to be a care community where we dial down the pressure together. i am the ONLY person giving negative feedback: let me be the villain here, i'm getting paid. CLASSMATES are CHEERLEADERS: they are there to make sure we are building confidence together.

this is the "technical stuff": my job in this comms class is to teach 1Ys "science communication". there are 3 "Teach-Around" (pres) days. we are building our community learning all term, reinforced with this hint sheet i'll give you here w/ "material":
docs.google.com/document/d/1WV…

so you can see i do lectures where we explore together what is: "rhetoric", "believability", "compelling", "accessible" - and i make these definitions harder and introduce more complications as we move through term. so at the 2nd presentation round, we already have advanced talks

these words matter because we BUILT those definitions together - they're not just straight-up memorizing shit i'm saying. i am ofc mediating to make sure these investigations move in productive directions, but THEY are discovering: you are just facilitating these discoveries.

WITH THAT HINT SHEET (which is also lowkey content review lol), they use Jamboards to cheerlead in live classrooms!!

READ THEIR LIVE COMMENTS.
most grad students can't deconstruct talks that well. these students are first year undergrads. it's amazing.
jamboard.google.com/d/1tJ_HnOeFImR…

so not only are they reinforcing material to each other, they're watching OTHER TEAMMATES or classmates DO IT in real time. this is achievable, this is worthy, this is active learning.

it's also doing a lot of cool other udl shit, SUCH AS：
- low pressure engagement
- low-tech

- anonymous posting (the sticky notes they generate)
- sync OR async engagement
- preservation time for review later
- non-audio focused
- high contrast / bolded font defaults
- multimodal and can port "classic" methods (like writing things down > recording it online @ home)

i remind them before talks start that we're cheerleading on the jamboards, and when talks end, i ask teams to tell me something they loved. we have great conversations that build up the presenter, but also reinforce core material that i can complicate for them in the classroom.

as a result of this method, they LOOK FORWARD to their presentation time instead of dreading it in all 4 classes i've ran this method, and they feel like this is a SAFE community to have these discussions. that's NOT RANDOM Y'ALL that's on purpose! that's design! you can do this!

participation can look like jamboards. it can look like chatting with me in an all-play context about what they liked. in lab investigations, we do team play that gets them used to talking academically with peer academics they (somewhat) trust. and i reward all this with grades.

participation is also knowing how to redirect anxious energy, or burnout.
i TELL THEM they can doodle on jamboards as long as they're still here. they're still passively listening - and i trust that they will reengage when they can. i encourage stim devices. i use decompressions.

forced engagement is bad engagement. i meet them where they're at, on their terms. 3 times during term i run asynchronous "wellness check in" surveys, and we TALK ABOUT those results in 20min "fireside chats" in class a week after the survey ends. i have everyone sit on their >

> desks (as a very visual/kinetic interrupt) and we talk a little bit together about "how things are right now". i am extremely visible about meeting them where they're at - and i'm modelling how they can check in meaningfully with others, including their teams. inc friends. etc.

the syllabus, the cheerleading-based input, the wellness surveys, the fireside chats about wellness and mental health and "what's hard right now" -- that builds trust with me. at the end of the day, they will participate if they trust you. but you have to build things that way.

i want to give you everything you need to make community-first environments. i want more empathic higher ed classrooms.

this is my assessment design for the SHORT INVESTIGATION (team play) - it's a standard "group work essay" that you can remix:
docs.google.com/document/d/1bD…

this assessment scaffolds into the MAJOR INVESTIGATION (individual) with more build-ins provided from the Short Investigation for support, and i'll give you that assessment (super standard course final / major course essay) for you to remix as well:
docs.google.com/document/d/1de…

my syllabus might help you see how this scales out, and if you want to talk to me about any of it, I AM HAPPY TO. i really am. this is for a fully IN CLASS classroom, but i have other threads about fully online classrooms + syllabi + materials ❤️.

docs.google.com/document/d/1o4…

if you want my standard wellness check-in, i can give you that. if you want some of my activities / investigations / team play assignments, i have threads about those.

apocalypse time is hard. build back better by modelling the classrooms we should have had all along. ❤️♥️🤍

okay this methods thread will interest @NDPostgrads @AcademicChatter #Neurodivergent @DisabledAcadem @RadMadLab @theADHDacademic @PhD_Genie aaaand @CASDW_ACR @AcademicsClass

it's also @udlhe and @CAST_UDL relevant. building in for disability + teaching students this works!