Hi, everyone! I can’t believe we are coming to the end of our online certificate program. Thank you all so much for the amazing learning experience. I have learned so much from each of you.
So, I’m going to try to keep this to the one paragraph curry asked. I think I answered a lot of these questions in my video posting of last week when I gave the overview of my English 100 online course I am developing and previewed the structure/organization, tools used, and weekly/unit plans. So here I want to focus a bit more on the experience I am hoping for students as they make their way through my course. I have shared that the theme of my course is going to revolve around living a meaningful or purposeful life. I want the readings, activities, and writing tasks to be inspiring to them as individuals. I will not go in with a “this is what it means to live a purposeful life” as what is meaningful to me might be quite different to another. The goal here is to get students thinking about their life, the advice they receive, observe, and/or give, and the rethinking or reimagining what their life could mean. I am still considering one anchor text, and I am leaning toward The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom written by psychologist Jonathan Haidt. It is not a “self help” book but instead looks at ten different life lessons and views them through scientific and historical lenses. Basically it would serve as a model of the analytical writing that is the focus of the course. I would supplement this text with shorter readings, TedTalks, artforms, etc., that would get students thinking critically about the ideas, making connections to their own lives and observations, and ultimately be thinking about designing their best life, whatever that is. If you have any great texts that you already use or have used that would support this theme, PLEASE SHARE! So through this work, students will build their skills as analytical readers, writers, and thinkers. My dream is that they come to understand and appreciate the power of analytical writing in their life, not just for academic purposes, but beyond. Finally, I want them to become confident in their skillset and take the lessons they learn from the class far beyond my classroom. That would be my dream course.
Links to Prior Postings