In working on this lesson, I learned a lot about re-thinking the way a lesson can be transferred to the e-learning environment. Far too often, it seems people assume that online instructors just cut and paste their notes onto the site, but there are so many resources available that allow students to have a rich environment for their learning. Finding the internet-based pre-writing sites was wonderful, and reworking my instructional approach was a great learning experience for me. I really think that the focus on critical thinking has been heightened in this particular lesson. Asking students not only to use various pre-writing strategies, but to have them think metacognitively about the choices they have made should help them in being more cognizant of the choices they make and the effects they have. Lastly, I included a reflective activity so that students could evaluate the way in which they think the activity affected their writing.
This is a lesson that I revamped after reading about the importance of EASyR lessons, which is a focus on Evaluation, Analysis, Synthesis, and Reflection/Revision/Review. The four concepts are taken from the higher order thinking skills of Bloom's Taxonomy, and Lehmann and Chamberlin updated the ideas in their book Making the Move to E-Learning: Putting Your Course Online. The emphasis in this lesson shifts toward focusing on helping students make meaning in a purposeful way by having them focus on EASyR concepts.
*Lehmann, K. J., & Chamberlin, L. (2009). Making the Move to E-Learning: Putting Your Course Online.
*Lehmann, K. J., & Chamberlin, L. (2009). Making the Move to E-Learning: Putting Your Course Online.