Annotated Bibliography
The annotated bibliography assignment is built to offer students plenty of room to fail. Because secondary academic research is a hard activity to grasp, students will turn in two versions of the assignment so as to have plenty of feedback to apply for before receiving a major assignment grade. Further, whereas the final research assignment will require 10 secondary sources, students are encouraged to only find 7 for this phase of the course so that they will learn first-hand the recursive nature of a research project. Students will be required to find at least three more sources for their final version of the project. They will also be encouraged to abandon sources that proved unhelpful.
The reason there is such strong emphasis on this assignment's room to fail and its recursive nature is because I believe it is critical for students to obtain a foundation of research experience at this moment. If students aren't course corrected during this step of the process, the following assignments will also lose their effect on the course's learning objectives.
Class activities during the week leading up to this assignment include lecture about scholarly vs popular research, how-to lessons on database use, and identifying academic conversation. A group activity will be conducted in which the class will create a small annotated bibliography together on a simple topic so that they may acquire experience before attempting it on their own.
The bolded terms in the prompt will link off to handouts and other class materials so that students will know what to reference. I believe it is imperative to offer students every opportunity to succeed in this step, which requires clear and accessible resources organized for their convenience.
In order to maximize transferability of research processes, I hope to create the opportunity for students to generate genuine curiosity so they will be internally motivated by their own inquisitiveness. Grading criteria will focus on students' success in applying feedback and demonstrating understanding of the process and function of an annotated bibliography. Imperfect work will be expected and accepted.
The reason there is such strong emphasis on this assignment's room to fail and its recursive nature is because I believe it is critical for students to obtain a foundation of research experience at this moment. If students aren't course corrected during this step of the process, the following assignments will also lose their effect on the course's learning objectives.
Class activities during the week leading up to this assignment include lecture about scholarly vs popular research, how-to lessons on database use, and identifying academic conversation. A group activity will be conducted in which the class will create a small annotated bibliography together on a simple topic so that they may acquire experience before attempting it on their own.
The bolded terms in the prompt will link off to handouts and other class materials so that students will know what to reference. I believe it is imperative to offer students every opportunity to succeed in this step, which requires clear and accessible resources organized for their convenience.
In order to maximize transferability of research processes, I hope to create the opportunity for students to generate genuine curiosity so they will be internally motivated by their own inquisitiveness. Grading criteria will focus on students' success in applying feedback and demonstrating understanding of the process and function of an annotated bibliography. Imperfect work will be expected and accepted.
