For this activity, I will be writing an 8 week lesson plan for students/trainees on how to reach their baseline after explosive anger while utilizing wikis. This lesson plan will integrate wikis intended for critical thinking. (This topic is relates to my work in group homes.)
TITLE: How to control your anger and get back to baseline
TARGET AUDIENCE: Students, professionals who work with individuals with explosive behaviors, parents.
LEARNING/TRAINING OBJECTIVES: The students and trainees in this course will utilize their critical thinking skills to-
- identify anger triggers
- define the intensity of each trigger
- discuss the ways in which you can get back down to baseline
- recognize a shift in frequency
- prepare a plan of action
- evaluate the ending baseline
RATIONALE FOR THE USE OF THE WIKI: The students/trainees will use a wiki in this course specifically as a collaborative and supportive workspace in order to master the learning objectives. Each student/trainee is responsible for ongoing input and continual discussion.
DETAILS ON HOW WIKI IS USED: The wiki will be set up with pages designed to enhance learning and promote understanding. Their will be a home page that "serves as a table of contents" for the training objectives. Their will also be hyperlinks to specific anger trigger scenarios, which the student/trainees are responsible for navigating and reviewing important instructions and deadlines. The students will be split up into groups, randomly, and then they will each be assigned a set of triggers that an individual might have and from there they will have to use their page to collaborate and navigate through the directions and target activities while creating a small case study. Students should be able to finish activities by their due dates.
SUGGESTED WIKI RELATED LEARNING ACTIVITES/PRACTICES/SCHEDULES:
- In week one of the course, the students/trainees will be introduced to the the concepts of anger and baseline. They will begin to work in small, assigned groups that discuss the basics.
- Week 2 the students will be given reading material to which they will learn how to collaborate with each other on a new platform, while learning ways to define anger.
- Week 3 students will be assigned new groups, randomly, in which they will stay with throughout the remainder of the course. It is in this week that the students will be introduced to wiki. They will have the opportunity to practice discussing the course assignments on their group wiki pages. Students will create a rough draft baseline to anger and back to baseline sample tab on their wiki. This is not graded, just practice.
- Week 4 students will be given a group project where they are tasked with creating small case studies on trigger warnings, how to spot them, how to manage them, and how to remain at baseline more frequently.
- Week 5 students will continue to collaborate on their wiki pages and decide ways to communicate throughout the remainder of the activities (while keeping up with assigned readings and tasks). Students should be using their critical thinking skills to assess the importance of getting to baseline and preventing triggers.
- Week 6 students will be asked to turn fill out a wiki questionnaire on how they feel they are contributing (not graded) and how they feel they the wiki is helping them achieve class objectives.
- Week 7 students will review their wiki, make any last minute changes, and then submit their wiki case studies.
- Week 9 students will evaluate their overall collaboration with their peers, discuss on the boards what was the most productive using the wiki and what was the least productive. Students will read through their peer wiki case studies and comment the observable learning objectives.
WIKI ACTIVITY EVALUATION: Grading criteria:
- Student's contribution to their small group wiki: 10pts
- Student's demonstration on the objectives of the course through their case study: 10pts
- Student's knowledge of anger and baselines: 10pts
- Student's creativeness/page layout: 2pts
- Overall group collaboration: 5pts
- Wiki turned in on time: 5 pts
REFERENCES:
West, J. and West, M. (2009). Using Wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write Web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Tricia, this is a great lesson plan, and I find your topic very interesting.
ReplyDeleteOne question I had for you is about your decision for the students to be in one assigned group in week one, and then different groups starting in week three that are randomly assigned? Do you think that familiarity with group members is an important factor when it comes to groups working on a wiki project? I wonder if there may be downsides as well with too much familiarity?
Hi Paul,
DeleteWhen I was thinking of the group assignments I wanted to do something different than how groups have been made in the past. My whole point in random group assignment was to make the students get out of their comfort zones and collaborate with students to which they are unaware of their wiki experience. I cannot definitively say whether or not familiarity is good for collaboration when it comes to this type of learning. Students who are comfortable with each other obviously have a better chance of superior collaboration: however pushing the students past that barrier might prove to be effective in the long run. West & West (2009) mention that being open brings out an "appreciation for networking, diversity, and new ideas," (p.23) and I think random assignment can encompass this open-mindedness.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing. Although online courses provide opportunities to students who might not otherwise have access to higher education, online students face a variety of challenges unknown to their face to face counterparts (Buono, 2004). Group activities can present different challenges based on a person’s background. When you assign the students in groups, do you have them complete a survey to have a good mix of skills within the group? Have you ever had a student that you had to move to another group due to a conflict? Although, groups present challenges, group activities are also an opportunity to collaborate, learn new culture, and manage conflict.
Buono, A. F. (2004). Leadership challenges in global virtual teams: Lessons from the field. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 69(4), 4-10.
Hi Tamula,
DeleteI decided to assign random groups because I felt like it would bring on a different kind of experience and collaboration amongst the students. Having a good mix of skills is efficient and brings out different levels of expertise that the students are aware of. But randomly assigning the groups will allow for basically a total blind collaboration, challenging the students to overcome learning obstacles. I suppose that if I was creating an experiment and wanted to know the validity or reliability of the abilities of the students, random assignment would be great!
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ReplyDeleteHi Tricia,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. Having witness parents struggle with children who have explosive behavior I would find this class extremely informative. I was wondering how the groups would be assigned? Would there be a survey to access strengths, weakness, technology use, and years working with people with explosive behavior? Would it just be random? Also have you thought about each group creating their own group etiquette, group rule, or group norms? Johnson & Johnson (2006) states that "for newly formed groups, it is important to provide space and opportunity for teams to discuss and define roles and norms. A role can be defined as tasks and behaviors expected of each team member by other members in the group.”
Johnson, D.W. & Johnson, E. P. (2006). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (9th ed). Boston: Pearson Education.
Hi Aileen,
DeleteThe groups are randomly assigned. As I mentioned in the previous comments, I wanted to see how the students overcame obstacles that may arise from not knowing each other's skill level. I suppose it would appropriate for the groups to create their own roles and norms.
Allowing students to create their own roles "provides the students with a larger level of autonomy in their learning, while also encouraging them to use proven structures that will help them be successful," (Burke, 2011).
Burke, Alison. (2011). Group work: How to use groups effectively. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 11(2), 87-95.
ReplyDeleteHi Tricia,
Thank you for sharing your lesson! The first two weeks of your lesson plan set the stage for the students. It allowed for the students to gradually get to know each, while developing a firm foundation for the topic of the course. Will each group be assigned a case study that address or focused on a specific “trigger warning?”
Also, I like the fact that you introduced a case study, which allowed for the students to observe how the topic might relate to a real-world situation. The questionnaire that was introduce at week 6, allowed the students to check their understanding of the material and for the “wiki members to step back and assess how things are going.” (A. & L., 2008. P. 54)
Reference
A., J., & L., M. (2008). Using Wikis for Online Collaboration. John Wiley & Sons.
Hello,
DeleteThanks for the reply! The students will get to pick, as a group, what trigger warning they want to work on. (The list of trigger warnings is endless!) It has been my experience working with the specific individuals that I do that maintaining baseline is very hard for some of them. Even in our daily life, I am sure everyone has something that can set them off easily! This is why I chose a case study for the students.
As for the questionnaire, I felt it necessary to see how the students were doing and if they were able to understand the learning objectives through this type of learning.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed going through your plan. The elaborate breakdown of the weekly activities really show how well thought out your plan is.
One thing that caught my attention was the shuffling of group members from Week 1 and Week 3. Previously I have only worked in same groups. It is great to get to know your group members well, but I believe that shuffling them once or twice forces the students to engage with people of different mindsets and skills. It would be a great way to help them learn more in a short span. I would definitely consider doing so if I were to revise my Wiki plan.
Hello!
DeleteThanks for the reply. I wanted to show the students that they had what it took to create a wiki without knowing the individual's skill level. Learning to adapt to situations that they have no control over is a skill I think they can take with them in the long run.
West & West (2009 mention that "making the first mark," (p. 47) is often the issue the student's struggle with initially. Random group assignment coupled with first mark nerves only allows the student's to become better skilled at starting tasks.