Presenter: Laurie Lykken, Century College

SEMESTER LONG GROUP PROJECTS IN AN ONLINE LITERATURE-BASED COMPOSITION CLASS

Context• Instructor Expectation of Students:

– Will not previously have written multi-source papers over four pages.

– Will not be familiar with analyzing literature and little experience reading literature for personal enjoyment.

• Additional challenges include:– Getting students to understand the

assigned readings thoroughly enough to write about them competently

– Getting students to discover an area of interest to research for the longer paper the writing of which is centerpiece of the course.

Rationale for Having a Group Project• To supplement each week's reading

assignments with student generated material.

• To increase all students’ engagement in the course material and with each other.

• To prepare students for the research they will do later for their own longer researched paper.

• To make the online environment less isolating...perhaps even less isolating even than the classroom experience.

• To build on the audience awareness students all ready have.

Assignment Overview• Students choose a group to join

based on the topic to be covered in one of 6 weeks of the 16 week course.

• Groups are chosen Week 3; presentations start Week 5.

• Group size is limited to ensure all weeks are covered.

• Group 7 is reserved for individual projects to accommodate students who insist on working alone or who do not respond in a timely manner to the call for expressing group preference.

Group Number Basic Project Theme Week to Sharing

Group One Short Stories: Focus on Kate Chopin or Tim O’Brien: lives, issues during their lifetime, issues presented in work, etc.

Week 5 (2/6-2/12)

Group Two Poetry: Focus on helping class understand how poetry works—words, rhythm, rhyme = more than the sum of its parts.

Week 6 (2/13-2/19)

Group Three Poetry: Focus on Langston Hughes—who he was, when he lived, why he is important…the music in his poetry.

Week 7 (2/20-2/26)

Group Four Poetry: Focus on poetry and visual images/art/video etc. Enhancing poetry with images and poetry based on images.

Week 8 (2/27-3/4)

Group Five Drama: Focus on origins of drama and/or the contribution of Sophocles and his Oedipus trilogy.

Week 9 (3/5-3/18)

Group Six Drama: Focus on August Wilson and the larger vision of which his play Fences is part.

Week 10 (3/19-3/25)

Seven: Individual Projects

Drama/ Poetry/ Short Story: work individually (or with one other person), surprise and entertain the rest of the class. Being last, we expect something brilliant and fun from everyone choosing this option.

Weeks 11 and 12 (3/26-4//1)

Assessment• Assessment is not completed until after all projects

have been posted and viewed.

• Assessment involves has 4 components:1. Instructor assessment based on the published rubric (this

document available on the wiki)2. Student responses to a Survey where they answer specific

questions about each project and then assign each project, including their own, a grade

3. Individual student feedback—required--in which students explain their own contribution to the project and what triumphs or trials they felt their group experienced.

4. Comments left on the discussion board when the project was posted.