ESP Facilitator Think and Reflect

“Think & Reflect” activities are not formally evaluated. Their goal is to guide your learning, give you a training preview, and help us understand your current knowledge. Remember: There is always room to grow and opportunities to ask questions during training!

Choose only one question to answer in each section. Your answers should be roughly 100-200 words each. Don’t worry about excellent vocabulary or grammar. Feel free to use bullet points to make the work easier.

Due by August 12th.

Note: do NOT use emojis when responding or else the form will not let you submit your work.

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Consider your current approach to notetaking from lectures/readings. What is working well for you and what is there that still needs improvement? Describe these using some of the ideas on notetaking in the facil guide.

Note-taking

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

How do your current notetaking strategies compare with the recommendations in the facilitator guide? Do your strategies have anything in common with Cornell, Matrix, Concept maps? Why or why not?

What are some pros and cons of handwritten lecture notes? On balance, which do you think is best for you and why?

Motivation and Transferable Skills

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

How has motivation affected how you study? What motivation barriers do you think ESP students might face? Are there any strategies that help motivate you that might benefit your students?

The facilitator guide lists factors that can reduce student motivation in workshops. Choose 2 that you’ve experienced and describe how they affected your motivation.

What are 2 of the most important transferable skills you've learned in your academic discipline? Did your professors make these explicit at the time? If so, how? If not, how might your experience have been different if they had?

Active Learning & Manipulating Content

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

Can you identify situations in which you have used surface/shallow learning? What about active/deel learning? How did these methods affect your learning? How did they affect your motivation?

Having students simply “fill in the blanks" from a reading or lecture is generally not effective. Why do you think that is? What might be one better way to conduct lecture review in a workshop?

Classroom Management

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

While reviewing controversial course material in your workshop, a student makes an offensive comment about the topic. Another student gets visibly angry and calls the first student a #$!*& bigot. What should you do in this situation? What steps could you have taken to prevent this situation? What could you do to ensure this workshop remains a welcoming space in future weeks?

Managing student behaviour is easier if you provide clear expectations and specific positive feedback. Explain how expectations, SPF, and student behaviour are related. Provide examples of SPF you could imagine yourself giving to students (1 for an individual, 1 for a group).

Preventing student misbehaviour is easier and more effective than having to intervene once behaviour gets out of hand. Identify 3 prevention strategies that you think will come relatively easily to you, and 1 prevention strategy that you might find challenging. Explain each of your choices.

Integrate Study Skills with Core Content

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

How and when do you pick out the core concepts in a lecture/reading in your discipline? How do you decide what is “core” vs what is a supporting detail?

Select one core concept from the course you’ll be facilitating and brainstorm at least 2 ideas for workshop activities you could use to review it. Use the guide or browse through the Activities channel in MS Teams.

What are the benefits of workshops focusing on core content rather than trying to review the whole lecture each week? What are the advantages of integrating study skills with content review rather than providing generic study skills lessons that students can apply to any course?

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

Can you identify any instances from your own learning where you have used each level of Bloom's Taxonomy? If you have never reached a particular Bloom's level before, why do you think that is?

Identify a core concept in the course you’re facilitating and identify what students could do with that concept for each Bloom’s Taxonomy level. (See the Supply and Demand example in the section Introducing Bloom’s Taxonomy in Workshop.)

Write a brief summary of the 5-minute video Bloom’s Taxonomy: Structuring the Learning Journey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayefSTAnCR8). Do you think facilitators and students would benefit from watching this video? Why or why not?

Universal Instructional Design

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

Describe a situation where a professor/course/assignment suited you but not a friend? Why do you think you and your friend reacted differently? How might this relate to variety and/or flexibility, the two pillars of UID?

Write about 2 points in the UID section that you found surprising, intriguing, or helpful and 1 point that you thought was unclear, irrelevant, or incorrect. Explain your reactions.

Gradual Autonomy

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

When have you experienced autonomy in your own learning? Discuss how choice and independence affected your learning and how you felt about the course/topic/assignment?

Why is it important to build autonomy gradually? Which of the methods in the guide is least familiar to you, and what questions do you have about implementing it in your workshop?

Preparing to Learn

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

In your studies, do you typically read or otherwise prepare before your lectures? Why or why not? How does your experience change in lectures when you have prepared? (If you don't prepare for lectures, speculate.)

How do you think you can introduce the concept of preparing to learn in your workshop to enhance learning? Review the "How" section of this principle and select the strategy that seems most realistic for first-year students? Explain why you chose that one.

Describe the difference between “preparing to learn” activities and activities that help students to prepare for their assignments. Which of these activities do you think you would enjoy facilitating more? Explain.

For STEM (Science, Math, Economics, Computer Science) Facilitators

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

Consider your own approach to studying for problem solving courses. In what ways does it resemble the “pyramid” approach? In what ways does it resemble the “dumpster” approach? Complete a concept summary for one small concept in the class you’ll be facilitating (see the section Concept Summary Checklist). You can upload a photo for this question if you like.

File

Max. file size: 15 MB.

Select a short problem/equation from the course you’re facilitating and write a dialogue to draw out an imaginary student’s thought process. See the section “Ask Students to Elaborate” for an example. You can upload a photo for this question if you like.

File

Max. file size: 15 MB.

Running an effective take-up involves much more than facilitators demonstrating their solutions on the board or students calling out their answers. Which take-up style do you think has been most and least effective for you as a student (Presentation, Small Group, Large Group, or Board Work Model), and why? If you have not experienced these, use your imagination!

For Arts & Social Science Facilitators

(See Practical Academic Skills in the Theory and Principles section.)

Choose one question to answer in this section. Leave the rest blank.

What are some benefits of taking lecture/reading notes? What are some barriers that prevent students from taking notes, and how might you go about persuading them to do so?

Most facilitators report changing their own approach to reading since first year. How would you describe the changes you’ve made to your students? How well does your current approach align with the advice in the guide?

The facilitator guide includes a list of advice for students on how to annotate and underline effectively. Which point do you agree with the most, and why? Which point you disagree with and why? (If you don’t disagree with anything, write a question or two about the advice given.)

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