Reflective Reading on Islam

By Diane Shea, Dawson College

At a Glance

Discipline

  • Social sciences
  • History

Instructional Level

  • College & CEGEP

Course

  • Western Civilization - General Studies
  • History

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

  • Individual
  • Group
  • Whole Class

Type of Tasks

  • Discussing
  • Analyzing

Technical Details

Useful Technologies

  • Low tech AL classroom

Class size

  • Small (20-49)

Time

  • Single class period (< 90 mins)

Instructional Purpose

  • Consolidation & metacognition

Overview

In this activity, students are expected to use the homework questions to prompt a deeper engagement with the reading material in order to generate a better class discussion on the topic.

In class, the instructor provides the students with guidelines for the assignment and ensures that everyone has answered the questions in their homework book individually by initialing their homework books at the beginning of the class.

Students are divided into groups, and each group is assigned one or two questions to answer. Each group discusses the best answer to the question (or questions) and then writes their answer(s) on a whiteboard (or chalkboard). A presenter from each group shares their answers with the class, providing other students the opportunity to ask questions and discuss. As a class, students go through each group’s answers to the questions, correcting their own work and each other’s as they go.

The instructor can use this activity as a springboard for a greater discussion on the topic now that students have a deeper grasp of the material.

Instructional Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Acquire the background knowledge to the topic before it so that they are prepared to learn it throughout this activity (without the traditional lecture format).
  • Exchange within groups and to share ideas, answers and acquire knowledge.
  • Engage in the material through various perspectives during a peer editing, self-corrective exercise.
  • Understand the topic in the present context and to go deeper than the stereotype(s) they may have entered the class with.

Workflow & Materials

Workflow

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow

Contributor's Notes

Benefits
Challenges
Tips
Benefits
  • Students learn the topic in an interactive method now that they have some background knowledge
  • Students are also more equipped do contribute to class discussions on the topic
  • Rather than instructor having a set lecture on the topic of Islam, the presentation by the students with the complement of class discussion and teacher interjections is equivalent to the lecture on the topic.
Challenges
  • Sometimes in the groups, students have not equally prepared and are not equally able to participate in the discussions.
Tips
  • Make sure to assign a participation grade to answering the question at the very beginning of class to make sure that everyone has attempted to answer the questions at home.
  • While the students are discussing, engage them with questions and present relevant slides.
  • In order to make the students understand the relevance of history today, present the topic in its current context. Make the comparisons to the present day using lecture slides.
  • Before beginning each group discussion, get the students to discuss their previous knowledge on the topic and ways in which the reading and questions challenged or deepened that.

Applied Strategies

Reflective Writing

Formal preparatory reflection

Peer Instruction & Think-pair-share

Communication, conceptual reasoning and reflection