Interactions Grid

Below you will find my Interactions Grid from the lesson that I presented as my final project.

This lesson covers two weeks, or six class periods, of Spanish 101; one hypothetical chapter from beginning to end. 

Day 1 marks the beginning of the chapter. This day is lecture based to maximize the input of the new material. There is a homework assignment due before class on Day 2, using the "Conversations" application.

Day 2 begins with a quiz on the material from Day 1. Class is spent watching an episode of a Spanish television show, El Internado and simultaneously completing a worksheet.

Day 3 begins with a quiz on El Internado. All online homework is also due before class this day. In-class information gap activity. Over the weekend students are assigned a story building blog assignment. 

Day 4 will be spent working further with the blog stories: sentence re-order, add an ending. For homework students have to complete another assignment using "Conversations". 

Day 5 begins with a quiz on the stories. In-class signature search activity. 

Day 6 begins with a quiz. In-class PowerPoint Jeopardy review of the chapter.

The class will also have a Facebook group to post reminders, and for the students to ask small questions regarding assignments. This group will also be used for small participation opportunities, such as "questions of the day". 

	Interaction Type	Resource	Goals	Evaluation
Family tree	One to many	Lecture	Input; Communicate knowledge	Quiz
Quiz on family tree	Individual assessment	Handout; Multiple choice	Comprehension check	Participation grade based on correctness
Vowel Practice	One to one	Conversations	Introduce Spanish vowel system	Participation grade based on completion
Internado & worksheet	One to many	Video & handout	Input; Handout to aide comprehension	Quiz
Quiz on Internado	Individual assessment	Handout; Organization of events	Comprehension check	Participation grade based on correctness
Information gap	Few to few	Handout	Ask questions to obtain information	In-class participation
Group Stories	Few to few	Blogger	Small-scale language production	Participation grade based on completion
Sentence order	Few to few	Handout; Group stories	Organize sentences logically	Quiz
Quiz on stories	Individual assessment	Handout; Multiple choice	Comprehension check	Participation grade based on correctness
Interview	One to one	Conversations	Input; Respond appropriately to questions asked	Participation grade based on completion
Signature search	Many to many	Classmates	Ask questions to receive information	Quiz
Quiz on classmates	Individual assessment	Handout; Multiple choice	Comprehension check	Participation grade based on correctness
Jeopardy	Few to few	PowerPoint	Review chapter materials	In-class participation

Interaction Audit: I-Search Essay Project

The I-Search project provides students with the opportunity to participate in research-oriented facets. In addition to the research component, students are able to incorporate personal procedural content into the process. This multi-dimensional project aims to help my students develop their research, documentation, and technological skills via the submission of a written and electronic presentation version of the project. Since this project includes multiple aspects, the process for completion extends beyond four weeks. During the length of the project, I have my students participate in various activities for learning and encouragement purposes.

Studio Style Interaction (Few to Few): The research process revolves around a particular question. Thus I have to teach students the proper method for developing who, what, when, where, and why questions for inquiry purposes. To do this, I provide small groups with a list of broad topics (such as hiking, health and Internet). As a group, I ask students to: 1) narrow these broad topics (such as narrowing “health” to HIV/AIDS). 2) based on the specified topic, develop an effective who, what, when, where, or why question that can be used for research purposes. Once complete, we review the content as a class and discuss the effectiveness of each group’s developed questions.

Personal Interaction: My students proceed by generating a list of topics of interest. This is the brainstorming process. The goal here is to have my students consider topics that are of significance to them.

Presentation Style Interaction (One to Many): This is the beginning stage of the actual research process. Students bring their generated list of topics (brainstorm) to the computer lab inside of the library (our class meeting location). An online library database tutorial is provided. This helps students understand the online search process and the importance of utilizing credible sources. After the completion of the tutorial, students have time to find articles, books, etc., in relation to their topic online or inside of the actual library premises.

Discussion Style Interaction (Many to Many): Midway through the project, the class has an open discussion. Students provide individualized information on what they have done so far, what they still need to do, and what they are having difficulty with. I (along with other students in the class) provide suggestions for successful navigation purposes.

Consultation Style Interaction (One to One): This is where peer workshop is preformed. Students bring in first drafts of the written project. Each student works with an assigned peer for essay exchange and evaluation purposes. Students use the evaluative feedback for final draft and electronic presentation development purposes.

Various interaction modes are beneficial, as it allows students the opportunity to explore learning via diverse interaction contexts. 

Interaction Audit- Social Media for Business

Last semester I co taught a course on Social media for business that was open to all students and was the first time it was taught. We were anticipating some usual interaction of students raising there hands in class but knew we would lose some or most of them due to technology in the classroom so here is how we altered up the interaction:

1. There were 6 students so we would move groups around and divide the class into 4 and see how they would interact.

- We could see that there were some leaders in the group and with it being such a large group there were many students with side conversations that were not involved in the discussions.

2. We then broke the class up into groups of 4 which had a great mix of domestic and foreign students along with a great range of ages.

- This made the students work more closely and took away the side chatter. This also made each student accountable for their group.

3. We had the normal 5-10 students who would ask and answer questions to the instructors and speakers so we pressed on others to join in and offer their ideas.

- Once they spoke up in front of the group they felt more comfortable asking more questions and giving suggestions.

4. We did an online poll for projects so that the students could share their opinions on the current assignments, speakers, and future assignments.

- This gave them part ownership of the class and made them feel more comfortable.

5. Technology played a huge role with interaction and every student had to join Twitter and Linkedin so we could send messages out to them via social media.

- Although some were reluctant in the beginning, by the end of the semester they were happy they joined once they learned how to use these tools correctly and efficiently.

6. We tried to make some interaction on smartphones with texting but we could mark this up as a fail.

-We assumed that most, if not all students had smartphones and it was not the case in this class.

Interaction Audit: The Dreaded Thesis Statement

Here's my interaction audit for a workshop style lesson on the thesis statement. Though we don't necessarily provide a direct workshop on thesis statements in the writing center, this is certainly a topic I could see coming up in a first year composition class.

I'll first give the interaction model and methods in a low-tech, face-to-face setting and then I'll digitize the lesson.

(Image Credit: Lumaxart on Flicker http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2137737248/)

1. Introducing the thesis: GROUP DISCUSSION
Rationale: Here, I think it's valuable to find out what students already know. One way of doing this, and a way of engaging the students, is to open the floor for group discussion. I might prompt with questions like: has anyone written a thesis statement before? if so, what did look like? what did it do?

2. Filling in the gaps: PRESENTATION
Rationale: It's possible but not likely that all of the important learning points get touched in the group discussion portion. Because of this, I'd want to maybe fill in the gaps or clarify. This would entail me (one) talking to the class (many).

3. Getting their hands dirty: CONSULTATION or STUDIO
Rationale: Sometimes there's no better way to teach than to do. If we're talking about thesis statements, it's probably important to let the students look at available designs and talk about them. I feel like this could be accomplished effectively by letting them work either 1-to-1 or in a small studio group on either thesis statements they've written or on examples that I've provided.
(Depending on how this session goes, it might be valuable to use a sort of hybrid group discussion/presentation style where students share their findings and I have the opportunity to validate their findings.)

Nothing out of the ordinary.

However, if I were facilitating this class digitally, I'd probably have to reconsider what these interactions would look like and how they'd be mediated. Here's my stab at transferring this plan into the land of 1's and 0's.

1. Introducing the topic: GROUP DISCUSSION
Logistics: Here, the rationale stays the same. I want to gauge what students already know and get a sense for their notions of what a thesis is and is not. However, the delivery mode is going to change. Without the high-bandwidth affordances of a face-to-face encounter, I'd probably opt for some sort of synchronous discussion where I prompt students to write short blurbs about what a thesis is. Here, I might use something like Convore to facilitate the real-time discussion, plus the discussion would be able to persist so that, perhaps, students could revisit their early notions of thesis statements later in the semester, hopefully when their view is more seasoned and nuanced.

2. Examples, readings and, hopefully, wisdom: PRESENTATION
Logistics: Here, again, I'd like to fill in gaps (which may be less visible without the real-time feedback provided by the energy of a room or facial expressions), I'd probably give some examples of thesis statements and some readings that annotate or elucidate the examples. This could be done by posting files with comments added, maybe a video, or even a podcast that highlights the things about theses I think students should know.

3. You still gotta do it: STUDIO or CONSULTATION
Logistics: Now that I've seen ELI in action, I'd probably go ahead an upload a review, possibly some examples and let the students have it by reading, rating and responding to a variety of thesis statement. Here, I'd be able to track how consistent or correlated students' views on thesis statements are.

My values here are placed on letting students learn from one another and only intervene when gaps or shortfalls arise. I think by leading with group discussion, students take an active role in creating a class-shared definition of what a thesis statement is. Also, by using presentation-style interaction judiciously, I can validate student responses that are on-point and, hopefully, create a level of confidence amongst students. Finally, by letting students get their hands dirty by looking at examples, they can see, hopefully, the wide-spectrum of thesis statements and get a sense for what's out there. In a studio or consultation setting - with the proper prompting, perhaps - students might be more prone to offer candid feedback about what's working and what's not, which is an important step in becoming a successful writer.

Depending on the nature of the class, these interactions might happen over the course of a couple class periods with the first two probably comprising one session and the final comprising the other.