Writing a persuasive essay is the specific learning goal that I face in my classroom, so I think it would be worthwhile to take this goal and look at the instructional design that could be applied to it. I’m hoping to find that one already has been applied, but we’ll see.
Cognitive Information Processing Theory: By the time my students reach my classroom, they have memories of writing. They may not have good memories, but they will be remembering the times they tried and failed or the times they were frustrated. Students who are in developmental writing are likely to not have a strong long-term memory of effective writing. The patterns they have perceived aren’t the right ones, so I have to re-work these patterns to give them tools to begin writing better. We would have to start building a new set of sensory memories so that they build the correct patterns. To engage the short-term memory we have to put writing into classroom practice after these patterns are in place. We can use topics that have a personal interest to the student, allowing for them to use their own experiences to make the meaningful connections. This draws on their long-term memory as well. Last but not least it’s all about the feedback, so a tool that offers instant feedback for mechanics (like MS Word) can provide corrective information. In my grading, I have to also provide feedback that deals with the adequacy of the students performance.
Situated Learning Theory: Using this theory allows for the differences in social and cultural context in my diverse classroom. “One learns a subject matter by doing what experts in the subject matter do” (40). For writing and persuading, we use the essay writing to do the practice. I encourage my students to read persuasive pieces to see how experts use persuasion. Peer review also builds a community of learners in the classroom, so that they can interact as writers and provide feedback as writers.
Then create a table or chart that compares and contrasts those events with the first principles described in chapter 7 and describe how you would apply each of the first principles to the goal you've developed from the first activity in this reflection.
Center for instructional Technology and Training at the University of Florida has Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction in its “toolbox.”
Whole-task Approach
I think persuasive writing has almost always been taught with a whole task approach. At least that is the way that I remember learning it. It was the grammar, but not just the grammar, and the narrative, but not just the narrative. It’s “intertwined skill hierarchies” (75). Step-by-step you learn more complex grammar and more complex writing skills building on the simpler strategies we learn first. You learn to write simple sentences into simple paragraphs and into simple essays. Can you break learning to write a persuasive essay into pieces without practicing the whole process? Well, let’s see …
Scaffolding
When you are first learning to write you begin with vocabulary skills and handwriting, but if you are focused on taking a person who can write (though that may be too broad a term) and ask them to write a persuasive essay there are some lower-level skills that must be reviewed first. A general assessment of a student’s writing ability is what places he or she in my classroom to begin with, so I have a basic sense of where we are starting as a class. To use scaffolding to teach a persuasive essay I would first review the grammar that makes up good writing. Good argument or bad argument matters little if we can’t understand the argument as a reader because of major flaws in the grammar. I next would focus on the parts on a essay: introduction, support and conclusion and we would study how each of theses pieces function within a essay. I would not have students write a full essay until later in the term and I would still ask that they focus on writing a good essay before asking them to write persuasively. Clearly stating thoughts in an expository piece is generally easier than trying to take on the authority necessary for a persuasive piece, especially for writers who are unsure and un-confident of their skills.
Mathmagenic
This is the theory that I am not sure that I understand clearly. I’m just not as clear on how you would go about teaching an intellectual skill through this method, but here’s the only idea I have so far. We can break down the essential pieces of an essay: introduction, support, conclusion, and argument. Each piece can be reviewed to see that they meet the requirements for their role in an effective essay. An introduction should add interest and set the focus for the piece with a strong thesis. Support must be built by giving evidence, appealing to experts, answering the opposition and each of these must directly reflect on the topic without wandering into another area. The conclusion must sum up all the ideas that were put forth and close the argument with an overriding lesson or theme that is resolved. Students must also understand that to be persuasive there has to be an argument not simply a statement of facts or ideas, but that they must use the tools of persuasion to create a argument. It would be very interesting to teach the writing process in this way. I would try to have students diagnose problems with fully written essays using the pieces of the essay as their basis for analysis. Which part was missing or poorly represented in the example? Did the order of the pieces fit the expectations of the audience? I might have to try something like this once.
What I would integrate to motivate learners
Motivation is a tricky thing as it is so individual, but I have one motivating factor that is built into my course. Students can’t begin their chosen course of study, for the most part, until they have passed out of the developmental courses. This can be a double-edge sword, acting a bit de-motivational as it means students have to take courses that won’t directly count toward their degree plan, but it provides a built-in piece that fulfills the Attention portion of the ARCS model. To create Relevance I ask the students what frightens or worries them the most about writing an essay. I have used individual exercises that focus on each student’s grammatical weaknesses and I also provide extensive individual feedback on their essay drafts before the final draft is due. Confidence is difficult because many of my students come to the developmental courses having been told that they were not good writers. I use a rubric that outlines all the pieces of a successful essay so that students have a clear expectation of my grading and my goals for their essay. The rubric also give students a clear opportunity to see what they are doing successfully as well as what areas need work so they can build Satisfaction.
Benefits of design research
Anyone who has ever stood in front of a class should have some idea of why we she should study instructional design. What works one day won’t work the next and what works from one person will not work for another. Without a comprehensive and well-researched model for instructional design, we can’t be sure that students are gaining the knowledge, skills and training that they will need, especially the ability to retain these skills for future application beyond the test and apply this knowledge in real-world situations.
