Student Learning Activities

As part of my directed teaching experience in this course, I modified two assignments: the Article Review assignment and the AAC Resource Assignment.

According to Stanley (2019), rubrics provide a great way to grade authentic experiences because they allow the instructor to measure the actions of the student against the expectations of the task. For each of the the learning activities described below, rubrics were provided with the assignment description so that students could also use the rubrics to self-evaluate their own performance throughout. Rubrics additionally allow for students to receive specific feedback from instructors (Stanley, 2019). Along with the feedback within the rubric, I provided additional feedback to students using feedback guidelines of being descriptive and specific (Portner, 2008).

Specific information related to modifications I made and student work samples are provided below.

Article Review Assignment

This assignment was to be completed early in the course, and the primary goal of this assignment was in line with the Bloom's Taxonomy level of understanding. In previous iterations of this course, a recorded presentation was part of this assignment. I modified this assignment to include a summary in the style of The Informed SLP rather than a recording. This alteration allowed for the class to to contribute to a resource that could be printed or saved to be used as in future clinical experiences. After all products had been graded, I compiled all the brief summaries into one PDF document a that was shared with the class so they could download it. Below is the adapted assignment sheet I created. You will note that included in the assignment summary are the rubrics that were used to grade each component of the assignment. Students had access to the rubrics as they began the assignment.

Student Work Sample

Below is a student work sample that met the criteria in all areas of the grading rubric.

Evidence of Student Learning

Maximum points for this assignment=25

• Range of scores: 19-29

• Average score: 22.2

• Median score: 22

• 40% of students scored between 90%-100%

• 55% of students scored between 80-90%

The above scores indicate to me that the assignment instructions and expectations were clearly communicated to students. They also indicate that students from this course have the ability to independently read a research article, identify important components of the article, and briefly summarize the research and results. This is a skill they will be able to take with them into clinical experiences.

Example of Feedback

Below is an an example of feedback I provided to another student. This example is descriptive (critical information was left out), specific (such as describing what collaboration looks like or directions for future research), and directed toward something the student can change (Portner, 2008).

"Thank you for your hard work. Points deducted were all deducted for the second part of the assignment. Some of the most critical information is left out of the shortened summary, such as describing what good collaboration looks like or directions for future research. One point was also deducted for your additional resources, as not all the title words should be capitalized in APA."

AAC Resource Assignment

During my directed teaching experience, I added more detail to this assignment. In previous iterations of this course, only students who had previously taken another AAC class were required to complete this assignment. For this semester every student was required to complete the assignment individually or in pairs. The assignment was comprised of two main parts 1) development of the mission statement and 2) development of the resource and user guide.

Students met with both Dr. Wegner and myself individually or within pairs to present their proposed mission statement for this project. At this meeting, I gave feedback to students to help them narrow the scope of their proposal, brainstorm product that might be useful (e.g., powerpoint slides, brochures, posters, handouts), and gave more specific requirements for their specific product (e.g., page limits). I kept notes on what was discussed in this meeting for reference if student questions came up while they were working on projects and for reference during grading.

At the end of this assignment, student resources were compiled into an online folder and made available to everyone in the class. Because students were able self-select goals for this project, develop projects that could be used clinically, and at the end had access to each group's resources, this assignment closely aligned with my teaching philosophy.

Student Work Sample

Below is an example of student work that scored very highly on the rubric. The sample provided is the user guide that was created for the product. This student created five pamphlets to be used to share specific information about AAC to caregivers or e-helpers to AAC communicators.

Evidence of Student Learning

Maximum points for this assignment=25

• Range of scores: 20-25

• Average score: 23.50

• Median score: 23

• 90% of students scored between 90%-100%

• 10% of students scored between 80-90%

The above scores indicate to me that the assignment instructions and expectations were clearly communicated to students. They indicate that students were able to decide what information was relevant to meet the need set forth by their individual mission statements and present that information in a way that was appropriate for their target audience.

Example of Feedback

Below is an an example of feedback I provided to another student. This example begins with what they did well (provided a good resource of information). It is descriptive (does not meet the criteria of mission statement), specific (is not in language appropriate for target audience and it's not clear how to put together the actual resource) (Portner, 2008).

"This is good resource of information, but I'm not sure it meets the criteria of your mission statement. First, it has a mixture of terminology and resources that might be more appropriate for an SLP than a parent (SIG 12 is not available for parents). It also never mentions school or curriculum access, which is what your mission statement set out to do. I am also a little confused about the actual flip book, because I didn't see it in the document. Do you cut the paper up to be the flip book? Are there instructions on how to put it together? Because of these questions, I had to deduct points from the organization and usefulness portions of the rubric. I added one point to the organization because it was well organized, you just didn't make clear how to put it together."