Engaged learning for moral reasoning and growth

Transcription

1 Engaged learning for moral reasoning and growth Sheilah M. Jones, Ph.D. Loyola Marymount University Lilly Conference, Newport Beach, 2014

2 Table of Contents PARTICIPATION LESSON PLANS Lesson Plan 1: Participation Teach To p. 3 Lesson Plan 2: Know one another VoiceThread p. 4 Lesson Plan 3: Getting to know you VoiceThread discussion board p. 5 ESSAY PROMPTS Prompt for: My Sexual Worldview Essay p. 7 Final Exam Prompt p. 9 Feel free to copy, adapt and use any of these materials as you see fit, but credit the source, please. 2

3 Lesson Plan 1: Participation Teach To With gratitude to Frank Roti, who taught the basic principles Teach To at Lilly Underlying science: Students need to be taught the behavior the individual teacher wants to see. We cannot rightly assume that those who came before us shared our particular desires or expectations. Our brains follow our eyes so we are far more likely to hear and recall what we are looking at while we are listening to people talk. Also, when we make eye contact with people as we speak to them, we can see their reaction, ask questions and thereby engage them more fully in the conversation. The rules : When you are speaking: When asking a general question: scan the room and make eye contact with everyone as you ask When answering a question from the teacher: scan the room and make eye contact with everyone When addressing a particular classmate: Make eye contact with her or him AND always address her or him by name. This also holds true for referring to the statements of classmates (see Lesson Plan 2 below) When someone else is speaking: Look at the speaker and make eye contact whenever her or his eyes are on you. Tips for instructors: 1. Teach the rules as soon as possible the first day before any conversation takes place 2. Follow the first lesson with a conversation so that they may practice following the rules 3. Give students a gentle signal when they need to be reminded to make eye contact, be vigilant about using the signal 4. Remind students of the rules at the beginning of each class for the first week or two and thereafter as needed 5. Model this interaction daily 3

4 Lesson Plan 2: Know one another VoiceThread Lesson Plan 3: If you use a course management system AND have a roster with student ID photos, it is not difficulty to create a quiz to test students recognition of one another s faces and attach names to them. I only assign a point per student. The goal is not to have a large impact on their grade, but to hold students accountable for knowing one another. I give my students two chances on the quiz to get them all right. Remind them when necessary to address and refer to one another by name. (By the way, creating the quiz is a great way for teachers to learn students names too). Of course you want to model this behavior as quickly and consistently as possible. This is how I do it in Blackboard 9: Steps 1. In the photo roster, take a screenshot of each students photo (to save time you could screenshot a few at a time) 2. In the cms test tool, copy each photo or set of photos into a fill-inthe-blank question 3. Create the correct answers I hold students accountable only for the first name or nickname of each classmate. They also get credit for getting their own names right. 4. Note: Misspelled names will be graded wrong. I do not find it onerous to check manually for such errors. If you give students two weeks to learn the names, I find the vast majority gets over 90% correct. It helps to run the following lesson plan before the quiz. 4

5 Lesson Plan 3: Getting to know you VoiceThread discussion board During the first week of class I assign a 1- slide VoiceThread in which students explicate their personal metaphor for sex. Sexual metaphor rubric Photo image Good = 3 points Complete = 2 points Face is clearly Face is identifiable identifiable Incomplete = 1 point Face is not immediately identifiable Comment finishes the statement: Sex is like [fill in the blank] because [fill in the blank] AND Comment explains the metaphor clearly and with specificity Image of the metaphor is relevant, appropriate to the audience and clear Sentence is completed; metaphor is explicated, apt and clever Image is attractive, relevant and clever Sentence is completed and metaphor is explicated Image is relevant, appropriate and clear Image is relevant, appropriate and clear Sentence is not completed AND/OR metaphor is not explicated adequately Image lacks relevance, clarity and appeal Image lacks relevance, clarity and appeal I follow this the next week with this assignment: I. More about your sexual metaphors. We are going to go around the circle and each of you will introduce yourself and finish this sentence based upon your VT: Sex is like [fill in the blank]. a. DB due Tuesday, 1/28: If you did not include a title or description in your VT, please do so a.s.a.p. It should consist of the sentence, Sex is like [your metaphor] but don t include how/why in the title. Then you will each 1. Look at all of the titles and find those that seemed like something you would agree with 2. Watch at least four VTs note the name, face and metaphor of each VT you watch 3. Comment briefly upon each VT beginning with i. Whether the explication of the metaphor was what you expected 5

6 ii. iii. If not, how was it surprising The extent to which you find the metaphor consistent with your worldview 4. If you do not hear any you think you would agree with, choose four that seem most different from yours and comment briefly upon each VT beginning with i. Whether the explication of the metaphor was what you expected ii. iii. If not, how was it surprising The extent to which you find the metaphor consistent with your worldview 6

7 THST 363/Jones Prompt for: My Sexual Worldview Essay THE GOAL of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to think, as slowly and as deeply as you can, about what you really believe to be true about the moral norms that should govern sexual activity. Bear in mind as you think and write that human beings come in a variety of sexual orientations (homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual) and genders (female, male, transgendered). Your essay must take into account the sexual needs, desires, and activity of humans in all their variety. YOUR TASK is to compose a coherent and consistent essay that demonstrates your ability to understand, apply, and analyze what you have learned about worldview, way of life, and ethics to what you believe about sexual relations and the moral norms that should govern them. According to Bloom, to analyze is to determine how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure. In this case, the overall structure you are analyzing, well, that would be you. The parts you will be working with are o Your world view o Your way of life as regards sexual relationships and activity o Your primary ethical system The steps you will take include o Applying what you have learned about world view and ethical systems thus far to your own sexual norms or rules o Analyzing how the primary ethical system under which you operate flows from your personal world view o Analyzing how your way of life as it relates to sexual relationships and activity reflects your world view Here are some questions to get you started. Whatever you do, do not simply answer each of these questions in turn. To do so would only create a laundry list of random ideas. Avoid this at all costs! Take your time dwelling on these questions and any secondary questions they raise for you before you even think about writing. Even better, after some initial cogitating, come to office hours and tell me how your ideas are coming together. In light of the examples of ethical systems in The Walking Dead, which ethical system(s) do you act out of most often? Be sure to keep your response to this question in mind when answering the rest of these questions. Show how that system yields your fundamental view of sexual norms. 7

8 Do you believe sexual desire is governed by nature, social constructions, something supernatural, a combination of two or more of these, or something else not mentioned above? In light of your response to the question above, is sexual desire good and beneficial or bad and detrimental for humans? Or, to put it another way, to what extent is sexual desire good or bad? What kinds of conditions enhance the goods and benefits of sexual desire and activity? What kinds of conditions detract from the benefits of sexual desire and activity? Are there any essential, indispensible criteria that must be met for human sexual activity to be good or beneficial? Are there any sexual acts that are so universally harmful that no one should ever engage in them? Who should decide the sexual norms that people live by? REQUIREMENTS & CONVENTIONS o If you spend adequate time organizing your thoughts, you should be able to do a good job in 5 to 7 pages, double- spaced o Be sure to use MLA or Chicago style rules o This essay is worth 15% of your semester grade o It is due on Connect on Saturday, February 9 th at 6 PM. You may uploaded prior to that date and time if you wish, but we will not have covered everything you will need to know until Feb. 3 rd o Remember to attach it as a.doc or. docx. Do NOT save as Pages or PDF or TextEdit. I will not be able to comment upon it if you use one of these three methods o Make your last name the first word in the file name, followed by WV 2/9/2013. E.G. Jones WV 2/9/2013 8

9 THST Ethics of Christian Sexuality and Marriage Loyola Marymount University Final Exam -Spring 2013 Instructor: Sheilah M. Jones, PH.D. May 6, 2013 RULES TO REMEMBER: I will deduct points from your exam grade if these instructions are not followed. 1. Name your file as follows: Last Name Final Exam At the end of the exam type the following: I hereby affirm that the entire contents and writing of these essays is my work and mine alone. This site will remain open until 4:30 PM today at which time it will shut off automatically. However, submissions that come in after 4 PM will be marked late and points may be deducted. Essay One Revisiting your sexual worldview Combine your answers to the following questions into a coherent, consistent essay. I am looking for breadth rather than depth. That is to say that the more texts, videos, student presentations, etc. that you can bring into your essay and still keep it focused the better. Be sure you have a complete thesis in your first paragraph!!!!! o What do you understand now about worldview and its role in your moral thinking that you did not understand at the start of this course? o Considering all that we have read, seen, and discussed, what has made a significant impact on your worldview? o What impact has the content had on your moral thinking about sex and relationships and what changes might you make regarding your sexual behavior in the future given the impact on your worldview? 9