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2.10 Discussion Board IV: Connections (Required to earn certificate)
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Posted by CUNY Mindset Initiative on March 11, 2024 at 10:57 am💬 Discussion:
- In your course(s), how can you assist students in connecting the course content to their current & future personal lives?
- How will students connect what they care about to what they are learning?
- How will they actively engage in the process of making these connections?
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As support staff, helping students explore how their own personal immigrant story has a before, during and after. Helping them idenitfy the part of their immigrant experience that connects to their current learning experience as a part of their bigger story. encouraging them to use their writing assignments to explore these connections as a self-reflective tool.
I constantly revise my assignments to include current issues at the national and international levels and to create projects that students can complete individually and in groups to gather information, analyze data, and create advocacy plans for improving living conditions for children and families in their community. Through these activities the students integrate many skills, different types of knowledge, and experiences to build relationships and make meaningful connections themselves. One of the activities that I use is a Mini Ecological Study with 3 parts, whereby the students walk through their neighborhood to map out existing resources, public spaces, and institutions that cater to children with special needs and their families. In part 1, I encourage them to use their cell phones to take pictures, make short video clips, and interview residents to collect data for generating a report in the form of a research paper, a PowerPoint presentation, or a short film documentary that they will share in class. In part 2, the students analyze the quality of the services in their neighborhood or lack thereof, any issues impacting the lives of the residents, and anything they did not know existed in their residential area or the neighborhood where they work (e.g., some students opted to carry out the study in the neighborhood where they work, and I allowed them to do that). In part 3, the students develop an individual or group advocacy plan to address any problems that they identified and analyzed in part 2 and propose solutions to those issues or concerns. In the fall of 2023, I modified this project to integrate computational thinking and equity principles to help my students deconstruct problems, apply algorithmic decision-making skills, and expand the range of skills and sociological imagination in addressing structural challenges in their communities. I am also collaborating with faculty colleagues in my department who are tinkering with the idea of integrating computational thinking and equity principles to boost student motivation and engagement in my courses. It is a challenge that I wholeheartedly embrace, and I am willing to learn from my students in this process, as well.
I connect my student’s life with their current and future life by providing them my previous life’s example and relate my current and future life with previous life. they can relate their future life with the content. They practice in the class all the skills like EKG, Venipuncture, so they can be success in their future life.
Hi Jean,
This project sounds fascinating! Would you be willing to share a little bit more about the phrase “computational thinking and equity principles”? Does this phrase refer to one blended concept or to two separate ones? Do you have any links to research/articles/examples that would help me and others understand it? Thank you!
Hi Narendra,
I have found that sometimes it helps to connect my own life experiences to the content I am teaching or to share from my own experiences with students, but I am also learning that my students have a diverse range of life experiences, and my story and experiences do not always connect with them. It is much harder, but seems more beneficial, to help students make their own connections between what they are learning and what they encounter in their personal lives.
Yes! Reminding students that we all have our own stories to tell – and getting them to share them as part of the learning process can help students engage with content and positively affect the learning community in the classroom.
Sometimes, students feel like they are only there to take in information, but reminding them that learning in a transaction where we each bring something to the conversation can help change this.
Hi Carrie, I have done a considerable amount of research in genealogy and family history and I find the stories of my ancestors to be so fascinating!
What can be more personal, relevant and individualized than a student’s own experience? Showing students that their story has value and they should express it, analyze it and use it in their work should help them develop their own voice.
What kind of assignments do you ask students to express their immigrant story within?
This makes it easy for students to connect most concepts to themselves or their loved ones. This is when learning and the importance of education become easier to understand. Most students bring these conversations into the classrooms, and students learn from each other.
Your approach to encouraging students to explore their immigrant experiences through their writing assignments is a powerful way to foster self-reflection and personal growth. By guiding students to connect their past, present, and future, you helps them see the value in their own stories and how these narratives enrich their learning journey. This practice not only aids in developing their writing skills but also in understanding their identity and experiences within a broader context. So fascinating…
You innovative assignments that involve students in community-based projects not only engage them academically but also socially and civically. This method of integrating computational thinking and equity principles into these projects encourages students to apply a systematic approach to addressing community issues, thereby enhancing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills while fostering a sense of social responsibility. I wonder if you can share more details…
You practice of sharing your own life experiences with students as a means to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application exemplifies the power of storytelling in education and in general. Storytelling was a mean to hand down knowledge for centuries. By relating your past to your present and future, you offer a model for students to see the relevance of their studies in their own lives, thereby enhancing their motivation and engagement.
Your observation that relating academic concepts to students’ personal lives or those of their loved ones can significantly enhance the learning experience underscores the importance of personal relevance in education. By facilitating discussions that allow students to learn from one another’s experiences, you create a classroom environment where education is seen as both personally meaningful and collectively enriching. My students usually complain in the beginning of the semester and then thank me for the opportunity at the end of the semester 🙂
Seth,
We have a great site for computational thinking and equity practices https://citelearning.commons.gc.cuny.edu/equitable-cite-pedagogy/
We are doing this work in teacher education across CUNY.
My colleague teaches genetics and allows the students to choose their case study topic. Most students choose a disease/disorder that someone in their lives has/had. There are many subjects/topics where we can do the same. Allowing students choice gives them a chance to connect to their lives and/or interests.
In the past, as part of an ungrading approach, I have assigned self-reflections to get students to think about how they might relate concepts in critical thinking to their everyday lives and academic studies. In a self-reflection assignment, I have pointed out that, for instance, that some argument forms we have covered are probably the most common forms of reasoning they encounter in their lives as well as in their classes. I ask them whether they agree with this assessment and to give examples from their lives of these arguments forms.
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