_ Moving Beyond our Biases Project
Special instructions: Internet accessibility must be available for lesson to run efficiently.
Grade: College Freshmen
Period and Location: 10:00-10:50 A.M.
University of Detroit Mercy, Rm. 230
4001 W. McNichols, Detroit, MI 48221
313.993.1287
Instructor: Mrs. A. LongBenton, MA, PMC
I. Background information
A. Goal of the Lesson Study Group
1. Students will be exposed to various technologies to gather data and present their research findings.
2. I would like to incorporate students’ technological savvy skill sets into their research project
presentations. Today’s current students, especially males, use technology in their daily lives. Yet, I
would like for them to use it in their educational studies as well.
3. Technology will be used in this lesson to expose students to available technologies that they may not
have been aware of. Also, I want students to present their research data outside of the normal
PowerPoint presentations that many students have already mastered.
B. Narrative Overview of Background Information:
Because I am dually enrolled (as an instructional technology education specialist and a reading, language, and literature doctoral student) it is quite fitting to incorporate technology into my college English classroom. My students are college freshmen who are taking Academic writing (a research writing course commonly known as Composition II). These students have either taken or tested out of Composition I so basic college English skills have been mastered. Because students use their cell phones as minicomputers, I decided to incorporate this technology into our classroom. Because of their seemingly obsessive cell phone usage, I figured technology clearly motivates them. As a result, I want to capitalize on their current knowledge base.
II. Unit Information
A. Name of the unit: Research
Research Project Presentation—Moving Beyond Biases
B. Goal(s) of the unit:
Students will conduct primary research—firsthand—on a personal bias that they have. This bias must be against a particular minority groups, e.g., ethnic, gays, religious, etc. Their goal is to explore this group firsthand and gather data. After their data collection is complete, students will write a research paper and determine if their personal biases have changed.
C. How this unit is related to the curriculum:
This unit is related to the Academic Writing curriculum of the English department because students are required to write multiple research papers for this course.
D. Instructional sequence for the unit:
This lesson is the first lesson within this unit. Students will be exposed to various technologies early in the semester so they will have nine weeks to collect their research, write their papers, and prepare their paper presentations. Subsequent lessons will include a lesson on graphics—explaining the components of a table and other figures, such as pie, bar, and line graphs. These components include: titles, headings (horizontal and vertical columns), segment labels, and captions. Other helpful tips will be addressed as well, e.g., color usage and contrast, font size, all capital letter avoidance, etc.
Special instructions: Internet accessibility must be available for lesson to run efficiently.
Grade: College Freshmen
Period and Location: 10:00-10:50 A.M.
University of Detroit Mercy, Rm. 230
4001 W. McNichols, Detroit, MI 48221
313.993.1287
Instructor: Mrs. A. LongBenton, MA, PMC
I. Background information
A. Goal of the Lesson Study Group
1. Students will be exposed to various technologies to gather data and present their research findings.
2. I would like to incorporate students’ technological savvy skill sets into their research project
presentations. Today’s current students, especially males, use technology in their daily lives. Yet, I
would like for them to use it in their educational studies as well.
3. Technology will be used in this lesson to expose students to available technologies that they may not
have been aware of. Also, I want students to present their research data outside of the normal
PowerPoint presentations that many students have already mastered.
B. Narrative Overview of Background Information:
Because I am dually enrolled (as an instructional technology education specialist and a reading, language, and literature doctoral student) it is quite fitting to incorporate technology into my college English classroom. My students are college freshmen who are taking Academic writing (a research writing course commonly known as Composition II). These students have either taken or tested out of Composition I so basic college English skills have been mastered. Because students use their cell phones as minicomputers, I decided to incorporate this technology into our classroom. Because of their seemingly obsessive cell phone usage, I figured technology clearly motivates them. As a result, I want to capitalize on their current knowledge base.
II. Unit Information
A. Name of the unit: Research
Research Project Presentation—Moving Beyond Biases
B. Goal(s) of the unit:
Students will conduct primary research—firsthand—on a personal bias that they have. This bias must be against a particular minority groups, e.g., ethnic, gays, religious, etc. Their goal is to explore this group firsthand and gather data. After their data collection is complete, students will write a research paper and determine if their personal biases have changed.
C. How this unit is related to the curriculum:
This unit is related to the Academic Writing curriculum of the English department because students are required to write multiple research papers for this course.
D. Instructional sequence for the unit:
This lesson is the first lesson within this unit. Students will be exposed to various technologies early in the semester so they will have nine weeks to collect their research, write their papers, and prepare their paper presentations. Subsequent lessons will include a lesson on graphics—explaining the components of a table and other figures, such as pie, bar, and line graphs. These components include: titles, headings (horizontal and vertical columns), segment labels, and captions. Other helpful tips will be addressed as well, e.g., color usage and contrast, font size, all capital letter avoidance, etc.