Assignment prompts are aimed at guiding students about how to handle and write a particular assigned topic. They are mainly designed to build the students writing skills and act as a standardized test practice to prepare the students for more tests. They can take different forms with the most popular ones being persuasive writing prompts, expository writing prompts, narrative writing prompts, and literary response writing prompts. Persuasive writing prompts direct the students to sell their point of view about a topic to their readers while expository writing prompts require them to present facts about a given topic and exhibit their research skills. Narrative writing prompts, on the other hand, expect the students to tell a story about an event vividly while literary response writing prompts require the student to critically examine a work by another author in detail and express their interpretation of the piece. Writing prompts are phrased as open-ended sentences, questions, topics, or scenarios that give the students an idea of what they are expected to write about.
Advancement placement courses play a big role in improving students learning outcomes (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2014). The assignment prompts during the world history course will be critical to improving the students’ writing skills and enhancing their preparedness when taking exams and gain a deep understanding of the topics in the course outline (Kelly, 2016). From the previous year, the assignment prompts need to be improved so that they can better understand the topics and have clarity on what they ought to be researching (Selwyn, 2013). The prompts need to have a clear context such that the students will have an idea of what they are expected to write about to prevent them from undertaking unfocused overly generalized research. The topics also need to be formulated in such a way that the students will have access to the research materials that are required to complete the assignments (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). The language should be unambiguous, concise and easily understandable and the questions should match the academic capabilities of the students’ level of education.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The rhetoric specifications should also showcase the desirable formatting and referencing styles, and a rubric should be provided to direct the students on what is expected and how they shall be graded (Kelly, 2016). The assignment prompts also need to spell out the contribution the task has towards the overall course and what percentage they will contribute to the students’ final grade at the end of the semester (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). The educator should also put into consideration the needs of the special needs students if there are any in the class and adjust the writing prompts appropriately if there are any aspects that can be made flexible to facilitate their completion of the assignment (Cennamo et.al., 2014). Therefore as an educator it is of utmost importance to put these factors into consideration and ensure that the students are allowed a reasonable amount of time to complete the writing assignments.
With the technological advancement in all sectors of the economy, the education sector has also taken up the integration of technology with the conventional classroom practices (Selwyn, 2013). E-learning has been one of the significant technological advancement which enables students to complete courses through distance learning (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). It has facilitated the globalization of education since students can learn from any part of the world and interact with their instructors and fellow virtually. The online schooling tech-driven system also complements the traditional classroom education in blended learning (Edwards, 2012). Technology has also led to the creation of open education resources which are critical for completion of students’ assignments (Cennamo et.al., 2014). They include online libraries, podcasts and online collaboration tools like Google Apps that allow the students and instructors to exchange education resources online in a timely and more convenient manner. Technology has also facilitated the completion of assignment through the introduction of software like PowerPoint, Excel, Word and other computer programs, unlike the traditional hard copy presentations.
Additionally, technology enables the students and lecturers to have a more in-depth learning experience through tech devices like tablets and laptops that can be connected to projectors for better visibility and illustration (Cennamo et.al., 2014). Research shows that the use of illustrators in the learning process increases the students’ perceptiveness and understanding of content which comes in handy in the issuance and tackling of assignment prompts (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). Technology also comes with course management tools like a canvas which enables the organization of all course materials required for the class. The teacher can organize assignments, prompts, reading and all the details about the course on canvas for easier accessibility and dissemination to the students (Kelly, 2016). Instructors are also increasingly using clickers and smartphones for polling purposes to understand their students’ view of the learning process and how they think it can be best improved. Technology has also introduced lecture capture software which enables the lecturer to record their lecturers for students to watch afterward for better grasping of the content (Selwyn, 2013). They include panopto and research shows that the recordings improve the students learning outcomes by affording them the opportunity to replay any part of the lecture they may have missed or forgotten.
The various technologies in the education sector will, therefore, inform the formulation and editing of the prompts from the previous year (Edwards, 2012). Assignment Prompt One reads “discuss the powerful movements that transformed European society during the early modern era. Briefly describe the origin of each, and how each movement affected society as a whole.” The prompt will be edited into a persuasive writing prompt so that the students’ ability to be creative and convincing using grammar can be tested (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). The new prompt will read “Powerful movements transformed the European society during the modern era positively (Kelly, 2016). Do you agree or disagree? Use specific examples from the origin of the movements and their various effects.” For the first assignment, prompt integrating the web quest technology will be most effective.
Web quests are learning tools which are useful in stimulating students’ imagination and creative thinking during the research process through the integration of technology and traditional learning concepts (Selwyn, 2013). Bernie Dodge who came up with the web quest concept defines them as inquiry-based learning activities whereby most or all of the information in an assignment is extracted from the internet (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). Web quest assignments allow the students to have an in-depth interpretation of the learning material and enhance knowledge retention compared to traditional in-class teaching. The web quest technology integration is divided into several blocks with the introduction block entailing the explanation of the learning process to the student and what they’re expected to do (Cennamo et.al., 2014). It is aimed at sparking the interest of the students and making the assignments seem interesting and not tedious.
The task block details what the learner should accomplish during the readings and the research process (Edwards, 2012). The instructor can direct them to make a power point presentation, a word document, a speech presentation or an essay. The process block details the steps the students should undertake to complete the assignment (Kelly, 2016). The teacher explains how to subdivide the assignment into subsections for easier completion and also offers tips on how to best complete the task. The resource block lists the sources the teacher has come up with to guide the students on the topic with the aim of guiding their activity online to avoid deviation from the research subject when online (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). They can be journals, web pages, case studies, books or articles and other academic sources either online or available at the library in hard copy. In web quests resources are mostly internet based but not restricted to just the internet. The final evaluation block lists the rubric and explains how the students will be graded. The rubric in this assignment would examine six aspects of the task with four benchmarks (Kelly, 2016). The final block is the conclusion part which sums up the web quest and calls for the students to reflect on it and informs them how they can reach the teacher for further help.
The assignment prompt and the web quest will target the spatial and linguistic intelligence of the students (Edwards, 2012). The reason for the choice of the technology is that this assignment is general and a more focused approach is needed which will be achieved by providing the students with learning resources (Kelly, 2016). The technology integration will lead to increased interest in learning by the students, better understanding and interpretation of the assignment and also help narrow down the students’ research parameters by pointing them in the right direction (Selwyn, 2013). The method is, however, likely to face some challenges during the learning process. Some students may be reluctant to research beyond the provided sources thereby limiting the information they gather about the topic. Plagiarism is also most likely to be a challenge since when given the content to read some students may not take the initiative to go an extra mile (Cennamo et.al., 2014). Since the web quests are mostly internet based, they could lead to the distraction of the students unlike in the traditional research tools like books.
The second prompt will be edited into an expository assignment prompt requiring the students to research and explain a historic event and support their findings using relevant resources (Kelly, 2016). The prompt will read "Explain the advancement and the abolishment of the Atlantic slave trade." On this assignment, the students will be expected to do extensive research on the topic using the filamentality technology integration model (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). The model entails the integration of online information with the learner's creative thinking capabilities during an assignment. It is aimed at spurring the students' critical thinking and research skills to enable them to analyze a past event objectively and accurately and interpret it using their analytical thinking skills (Selwyn, 2013). The teacher creates an online password protected platform where they can interact with their students by providing them with guided learning materials.
The filamentality technology integration provides the learners with a hotlist which is a guide to links with the information relevant to completing the assignment in this case about the Atlantic slave trade (Edwards, 2012). The filamentality also incorporates a web scrapbook with photos about the topic if the students have a general background of the topic which in this case they do (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). Scrapbooks have been reported to boost memory retention in students and make research and studying more interesting. The filamentality will also include a treasure hunt education game for the students to find internet sources with information on the Atlantic slave trade with texts, graphics, and audios (Cennamo et.al., 2014). The incorporation of this technology will make studying less tedious and exciting to the students, and it will also get to interact with background materials on the topic. At the end of the hunt, they will have identified the resources to use in their assignment and then answer the assignment questions. The filamentality technology tool will also have a subject sampler where the students will have access to links with information on the assignment (Kelly, 2016). The subjects are engaging and seek to make the students reflect on the topic and have an opinion about it beyond just answering the assignment question.
The technology integration will target the linguistic and logical intelligence since it will involve analyzing and examining an event and logically critiquing its significance in history (Selwyn, 2013). The assignment prompt is aimed at testing the research and analysis skills of the students, and the technology is appropriate because it incorporates reading resources and web-based learning. The reason the technology is most appropriate for the assignment prompt is that ten graders may find reading tedious and boring but with the interactive activities, it will be more interesting (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). The activities will facilitate the completion of the assignment, increase the knowledge retention in readiness for exams and improve the students learning outcomes.
The third prompt will be a literary response assignment prompt where the students will be expected to showcase their presentation skills (Kelly, 2016). The edited prompt will read "Religion has been named as a contributing factor to terrorist activities. Examine the impact religion, and other factors have had on the rise of specific terrorist groups" (Edwards, 2012). The assignment prompt will integrate multimedia presentations for the assignment whereby the students will be expected to present their final assignments using a technological tool as opposed to the traditional hard copy hand in (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). Multimedia presentations are mainly aimed at building students’ presentation skills and making them not just consumers of technology but also creators (Cennamo et.al., 2014). Multimedia presentations unlike the web quest and the filamentality technologies involve the student using technology to showcase the final result of the assignment using technology tools.
The technology integration entails the use of tools like podcasts, powerpoint presentations, podcasts, concept maps and print graphics (Edwards, 2012). The PowerPoint presentation will be the method of choice since it is the most appropriate tool to use for the ten graders according to their technical competency levels. It is a great presentation tool whereby the students get to organize their ideas in slides (Niess & Gillow-Wiles, 2015). They can then present their research findings on the topic using a projector to the rest of the class which will help build their self-expression and presentation capabilities in and out of class. The PowerPoint presentations incorporate graphs and charts as data representation tools which help the student to explain their findings fluently (Kelly, 2016). They can also use concept maps which guide them in presenting the relationship between two or more data variables.
The multimedia presentation technological integration targets logical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and linguistic intelligence (Selwyn, 2013). Logical intelligence will be tested by assessing the students thought process when debunking the question while interpersonal intelligence will be evaluated based on how they make the presentations in front of their peers (Kelly, 2016). Linguistic intelligence will be showcased in both the presentation and the layout of the PowerPoint presentations. Apart from the technology being appropriate for the competency level of the students, it is also appropriate because it is more interactive than the conventional presentation where they read from a hard copy (Edwards, 2012). The technology tool aids them in explaining their points eloquently and also provide rigor and challenge for the student since they will be graded by how well they present their findings to their peers.
The technology integration in this particular assignment prompt aims at increasing the learners' participation in the classroom by providing them with a platform to engage their peers in the short presentations (Cennamo et.al., 2014). It will also prepare the learner for their upcoming academic levels like college and university because they will leave high school with the basic knowledge of using and incorporating technology in their learning processes (Kelly, 2016). It will also sharpen the students’ data evaluation, analysis and organization skills but the technology integration is also expected to experience some challenges (Selwyn, 2013). The students may experience problems with making the presentations using the PowerPoint presentation, but the tutorial and clear instructions will be provided before they begin the assignment.
In sum, technology integration has become a critical part of the learning process since whereby technological tools complement conventional teaching and learning techniques. In the formulation of assignment prompts the aim will be to provide an all rounded learning experience where the learners work on different types of assignment in this case persuasive, expository and literary response assignment prompts. The technology integration has been selected to maximize the learning outcome from each to include web quests, filamentality, and multimedia presentation tools. The tools will focus on improving the linguistic, logical and interpersonal intelligence of the students and increase the interactivity levels in the classroom.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. D., & Ertmer, P. A,. (2014). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: a standards-based approach . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning.
Edwards, A. D. (2012). New technology and education . London: Continuum.
Kelly, T. M. (2016). Teaching history in the digital age . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan University Library.
Niess, M., & Gillow-Wiles, H. (2015). Handbook of research on teacher education in the digital age . Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, an imprint of IGI Global.
Selwyn, N. (2013). Education in a digital world . New York: Routledge.
