Talk:Drama Games as a Teaching Strategy
-- Marcyzicari (talk) 08:27, 23 November 2014 (EST)
Hi Luke,
First off- I love the topic. It is very interesting and I am looking forward to reading the other units as you put your mini course together.
You home page is very thorough and comprehensive. It sets up very clear expectations for you course. (I need to work a lot on mine.)
There are quite a few grammatical errors and it detracts from your course. It just needs to be edited more closely. There are a lot of run-on sentences and some other awkwardly worded sentences.
For example:
“The truth is, that drama games have been proven to boost confidence, encourage collaborative skills, increase creative thinking, analytical and problem solving skills and promote literacy all while helping to develop a respectful and supportive classroom culture and environment.” This would be clearer if it were 2 sentences. It’s a lot of stuff to list and gets a little lost.
“Drama games in the classroom should accomplish this, they should not just be the go to on the last day before a break or something to do just for fun, they should be an integral part of a dynamic learning environment.” This is a awkwardly written.
“Explain that the games are supposed to be fun but will only be that way if we're all involved, together, if one or two people just start doing their own thing then it stops the game from being fun for everyone else.”- run-on
“To those of us in the know we are aware that it is in fact in chaos but it is controlled chaos, and we are always the ones who are in control.” This is not clearly written it is missing commas and could be written in shorter sentences.
The Reflection could include more specific questions and maybe an area to have them post responses. Dr Zhang talked about linking to blogs to allow student-student interaction. I am not sure how to do this but am considering it for my course. Also, are you having the learner keep a journal for the course to answer these questions while they reflect?
I really like the organization. I love the ideas you are presenting, but they are a little confusing. This is mostly because it is written like you are speaking aloud to the learner. I understand that this will make the learners feel like they are having a discussion with you, but you have to be careful of grammar. I had to read many of your sentences over because they lacked proper punctuation or were run-on sentences. This made it difficult to understand and it might make the learner feel a little frustrated.
When you corrected my course, you recommended having my article page links open in a new tab. I can see why you recommended this. When you click on the article, it makes you feel like you are leaving the lesson. You have to back button to return the course page. I don’t know how else to link these pages without using the back button. If you figure it out let me know. I think it would make the lesson feel like it has more of a flow to it.
I hope this helps!
Developmental Tryout -- Emma Farison (talk) 22:04, 29 November 2014 (EST)
Hi Luke,
I apologize for my belated comments on your course, but I hope to make up for that by providing feedback on more than just your first unit.
Portfolio Page: I know Marcy commented on some grammatical errors that distracted her, and I am finding the same thing. For example, "The topic that I could like to cover is "Utilizing Drama games and activities in non-performing arts based classes", <-- Insert a period between "classes" and the end quote.
This would be a mini-course in how drama activities can be used within classes to build supportive and respectful learning environments, as a classroom management tool, increase student engagement, AND provide variety within instruction to assist with student understanding."
My suggestion here (and I plan on doing this myself as well) is to copy and paste each part of your course into Word. I know this sounds tedious, and there may be spell/grammar check on the Wiki, but I think it would be worthwhile.
Your learning outcomes are very specific, which is great! I also think you did a very nice and thorough job on your needs assessment and analysis of the learner. Your portfolio page looks really well done.
Course Page: Your introduction is great. The first few paragraphs give a good explanation of why this course is useful for teachers, and why drama games in the classroom can be beneficial.
Module 1: I like that you have divided each module and lessons into different pages - it really helps to break things up. I like that you write very conversationally, though like Marcy said, you may want to proofread this again. You've done some really interesting and useful writing in Lessons 1-3! I find it very interesting. I'm just wondering if you should have activities for the participant with each lesson, instead of just at the end of the module, which leads me to my next question. I'm not sure how you feel about this, but I feel like it may be more beneficial to put the reflection activity based on the readings on the same page as the readings. It may be more helpful for someone who starts with Lesson 1 one day, then moves on to Lesson 2 another. If you'd rather leave the reflection at the end, maybe ask participants to write in a journal their initial thoughts on Drama games based on the readings, and then have them refer back to their journal for the lesson 3 reflection?
Module 2: You have Modules 1, 2, and 3, but within Module 1, you have Lessons, and Module 2 has Units. Is there a difference between Lessons and Units, or did you just use different names to differentiate between the Modules? I found this a bit confusing. I love how you have set up Units A-D. The page is short and sweet, and has a really useful activity for the participant. This is the type of format the I would suggest for your lessons for module 1. The games seem like a lot of fun, and I like how you build from Unit to Unit, and that the games go from introductory games, up to games that encourage deeper thinking. Your sequencing makes sense.
You have done some really great work and I can tell you have put a lot of time and thought into this course. I plan on checking back in before the end of the semester to provide some feedback on Module 3. I really hope this is helpful, and again, I apologize for the late comments.
Great job!
Emma
instructor comment on your mini-course -- Jianwei Zhang (talk) 15:53, 1 December 2014 (EST)
Hi Luck,
This is a great mini-course, with solid content to address the learning objectives. Your peers' comments are very helpful.
A few suggestions:
- Objectives: A few of your objectives need to be refined to use performance verbs that describe what the learners will be able to do AS A RESULT of taking this course (identify, apply, create), their work not during this course(e.g. read, watch, learn...). Keep this in mind when re-reading your course level objectives as well your unit-level objectives carefully.
- Objective-content mapping: Your task analysis and curriculum map (in the portfolio page) currently only list what the learner will do in each unit. You need to be modify them to show how these units will address your course level objectives. The same consistency needs to be clearly reflected in your course intro page. Please double check.