Speaker
KEYWORDS
University
Reading
Writing
Motivation
ABSTRACT
Post-covid 19, many university students experienced technology-burnout meaning that online portfolios and LMS-based courses were no longer novel or appealing. This presentation reports on the author's use of student workbooks - notebooks in which the students pasted in handouts and completed classwork - as an alternative to computer-based courses or published textbooks in a university reading/writing course. By literally starting with a blank page, workbooks provided many opportunities for students to individualize or customize their learning, giving them agency over their progress in the course, and a sense of ownership of the output they produced. This flexibility also helped to address the difficulties of mixed-level classes, as well as accommodating students with different learning styles. Finally, using workbooks increased student accountability, as students had a very tangible record of what they had produced in the course at the end.
This presentation will highlight simple ways that workbooks increased student autonomy and motivation in a university reading/writing course, many of which can also be adapted by educators using textbooks or online portfolios. Providing opportunities for students to exercise their agency and customize their learning can increase student motivation and by extension also their skills in reading and writing English.
| TITLE | Student workbooks as a means to increasing motivation, agency, and output |
|---|---|
| RELEVANT SIG | College and University Educators (CUE) |
| FORMAT | Practice-oriented Oral Face-to-face presentation (25 minutes, including Q&A) |
