Portfolio Areas Appearing Below

I approach my teaching planning by always asking myself, "if I was a student taking this class, what information would I need to accomplish my end result (e.g., capstone report).” To do this, I often use an analogy that I also use in the professional training session that I provided to K-12 teachers. I begin with the prompt: “Think about a task that you do every day, such as driving. Now list all the steps that a person learning to drive would need to do to accomplish this task.” Most will always mention as the first step “putting your foot on the brake" or similar steps needed as the vehicle is moving. However, most people that do this activity often forget to add to their first steps basic movements such as “open the car door” or "adjust the mirrors" because these are tasks that are "common sense” to those who drive every day. However, for someone who is not familiar with driving, these first steps are vital. I find it helpful to use this 'Backward Design" approach, particularly when developing content for graded courses or multi-module courses. See samples below.

Goals for Student Learning in the Examples Below

The sample syllabus, assignments, and rubrics below are from an undergraduate course for students enrolled in a pre-med program. The learning outcomes aimed to enhance students’ critical thinking and professional growth. In this course students were expected to communicate scientific concepts to a broader audience. However, the goals for students’ learning expanded beyond grammar and reduction of passive voice. Rather, the goals that I set for my students was directly linked to their future careers in healthcare; the majority of student were in the process of applying to professional healthcare programs at the time of course enrollment. Therefore, as future physicians and healthcare workers, becoming critical thinkers, learning how to communicate medical terminology, and proposing solutions, was vital. 

In this course, students learned to do that by investigating a healthcare related topic, and through research, assess the impact that it had on the population, and form solutions and recommendations based on the analysis of data collected. Students presented this information both in written and oral forms. This was accomplished by the completion of a capstone report, and production of a video presentation. The audience of these products were the general public, and potential patients that do not have a background in medical terminology. To effectively accomplish the learning objectives, I developed a total of 27 modules, and assigned Module task objectives, as well as module learning objectives for each. Linking the activities to patient care topics, allowed me to unpack this information in a way that was easily understood by the students. In this capstone course.  Although the modules and content is structured prior to the start of class, I also remain flexible and adapt to the students’ needs.