In a presentation by Amy B. Mulnix, Director, Franklin and Marshall College, she described one quality of good teaching as having “equity mindedness” or approaching classroom interactions with the goal of closing achievement gaps that exist within your class. “I want to move us away from always thinking about equity-mindedness in terms of what we do in the classroom, to the kinds of assignments that we give, and the kinds of content that we cover. Equity-mindedness for me means that you’re finding ways to mirror your student’s identities, their strengths, and their experiences. You’re embracing the diversity in the classroom, and actively finding ways through assignments and content to engage with individuals. That you’re also searching out and embedding social justice, and an examination of power dynamics, so that you’re
changing your content up, as well“. Equity minded assignments and content include alternative kinds of engagement with students, that can become a substantial part of their performance evaluation in your class or classes.
changing your content up, as well“. Equity minded assignments and content include alternative kinds of engagement with students, that can become a substantial part of their performance evaluation in your class or classes.
Some scaffolds that help support equity mindedness in the classroom include scaffolded structures for your teaching that help students complete their assessments.
The article: Scaffolding as a RoadMap: Guiding and Supporting Student Learning, provides describes four such supports are described with examples. Excerpts are below:
1. Organize a large assessment with a matrix
This technique, the assignment can be broken into various parts to help students digest large amounts of information.
A matrix can help organize this and puts the entire project into perspective for a gradual build without overwhelming the student. A well-structured matrix can cover benchmarks like goal(s), timeline, approximate page length, and due dates.
How you can use this now: If you have an assessment which has several steps or multiple due dates, a matrix keeps everyone on track. Especially now, students need to record due dates so that deadlines do not fall through the cracks. With everyone’s mental load at full capacity, the matrix is a compassionate way to support students and ensure that assignments are submitted in a timely manner. See the article for a downloadable example.
2. Invite students to use a mind map and brainstorming tools
Mind maps can include details about the relationship between various concepts, or they can be simply linked diagrams. Either way, this exercise gets students’ creativity flowing and helps them take ownership of the process.
This is also a good time to craft a hypothesis or thesis statement, which informs the next stage in the scaffolding process, (i.e. the research organizer).
How you can use this now: Before students write a first draft, ask them to record their brainstorming process. Students can use mind maps in Miro or simply take a picture of their ideas and upload if they have used paper and pencil. Checking the beginning process of a paper allows you to offer support and feedback if students need to course correct. See the article for a downloadable example.
3. Support the research process with an organizer
If you want to support your students through the research phase of an assignment, using a simple research organizer allows you to see if students are on the right track and too quickly notice who may have gone down a rabbit hole.
It helps tremendously to hone in on key words and concepts to arrive at relevant sources in the research phase. In addition to basic words, it is recommended to do a brainstorming session for synonyms, too.
Depending on the area of research, other citations may come into the picture like brochures, annual reports, dissertations, and theses. Finally, a list of potential people to interview can be added to this section, too.
How you can use this now: If you’d like to experiment with a research organizer in your classroom without assigning a large research paper, collect student-generated questions on various topics and then ask students to research a topic using the research organizer as a guide. Using shared documents will allow you to easily check on students’ progress, and classmates can also provide feedback on each other’s research process. See the article for a downloadable example.
4. Offer clarity through templates, exemplars, and rubrics
Take the guesswork out of what the final product will look like. A template for a paper shows students exactly what you are looking for. You create the structure and then the students use their research skills and creativity to make the paper their own.
One document that helps students calibrate their time is the rubric. Students can see the major components of the paper, the weight of each section relative to other sections, and understand how each block flows in the sequence. See the article for a downloadable example.
Leave a Reply