As student enthusiasm began to wane for full-class lessons towards the end of the academic year, I pivoted in all my classes to end-of-year research projects in the remote context. Although independent (or small group) research and analysis isn’t always the best way to keep students engaged remotely, it presents opportunities for students to follow their passions and interests, and to engage students in small group contexts where I have generally found them to be more willing to ask questions and share ideas. And, in my experience last year with the pivot to completely asynchronous remote learning, I was really impressed with the quality of student work around their research topics (which at that point focused on pandemic-related issues, historical or contemporary). So, what does research look like in the remote teaching context?
First, I start with a master hyperlink document that includes a calendar of due dates, and different check-point assignments. It also includes starting points for research – a level-appropriate article or two – on a variety of possible Ethnic Studies topics. Although I encourage students to explore anything they can make a link to the course with, unfortunately, I haven’t had much success in actually encouraging students to completely go their own way. The document is set and scaffolded such that a student could complete the project completely independently. Although that is not ideal, and I use remote meetings during class time to provide individual support, the reality is that I currently have a number of students who are not showing up to class. However, they are completing work, and I want to ensure that students can access the project regardless of how present they are during class time. Although their final products will likely not be as sophisticated as students who have benefitted from oral feedback and discussion of their work, in this setting the more important thing is that students have access to the assignment and that it is set up such that they can engage in whatever capacity possible.
Likewise, once we get going, students move at different paces. I have due dates for different checkpoints in the project – a research proposal that includes developing a tentative question, a document of research notes and source evaluation, a document of research analysis that includes developing an argument about what they are learning about, and a proposal for how to creatively represent learning – but again the reality is that plenty of students are either falling behind or speeding ahead, and I want to ensure they can do that largely independent of needing to meet with me. When they turn in a checkpoint document, I provide them written feedback and questions targeted at areas of strength and weakness. For example, on a proposal document, I might congratulate students on identifying some useful starting-point resources, and give them some feedback on the construction of their research question.
After students develop an argument about their learning – hopefully in response to a question they developed at the start that has likely been modified throughout the learning process – the next step is considering how to share what they learned with their peers. Rather than a traditional research presentation, I encourage students to creatively represent their learning in a format of their choice that they are interested in working with. Last year I had students complete raps, poems, artwork, recorded multimedia presentations using a variety of digital tools, and more traditional slide voiceovers. These were then uploaded to a Google site where students were able to check out the work their peers had completed, and leave feedback and comments. This year in the synchronous remote setting, I am planning on doing something similar, but having students share their learning in groups for feedback and questions.
Student energy is at an all-time low right now, but the project format is proving successful for many students, and at least students have the opportunity to explore a topic of interest to them in some depth rather than teacher-guided learning which was failing to engage many students, particularly in my at-level classes which had been losing steam over the last month.