Summary of the article :
The article outlines a learning module focused on understanding and utilizing motivation to enhance learning and resilience. It emphasizes the connection between motivation and resilience, describes different types of motivation, and provides strategies to apply motivation to learning.
Learning Goals:
Recognize the connection between motivation and resilience
Describe different types of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic)
Apply motivation strategies to learning
Success Criteria:
Identify and explain how motivation helps overcome difficulties
Explain how extrinsic and intrinsic motivation relate to learning
Set learning goals using intrinsic motivation elements
Create a motivation sheet to guide learning
Key Concepts:
Intrinsic Motivation: Pursuit of goals with personal significance, driven by curiosity, challenge, control, cooperation, competition, and recognition.
Extrinsic Motivation: Pursuit of goals for external rewards like financial gain, grades, or praise.
Angela Lee Duckworth’s Insights on Grit:
Success requires time, effort, and perseverance in areas of personal interest and passion.
Activities:
Reflect on Duckworth’s concept of “grit” and personal experiences demonstrating grit.
Explore intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
Identify personal learning goals based on elements of intrinsic motivation such as curiosity and challenge.
Goal Setting:
Develop specific, intentional goals for the course.
Reflect on how intrinsic motivation elements can guide goal setting.
Reflection:
Consider personal experiences with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
Think about how motivation affects learning outcomes.
The module encourages self-directed learning by understanding personal motivation and setting realistic, meaningful goals to enhance learning experiences.
The course guide emphasizes the importance of reflective thinking and writing for self-directed learners. Students will create a motivation sheet and engage in “Try It!” activities to apply learning and prepare for assessments. The course, guided by Nigel, focuses on resilience from personal, community, and human perspectives, using critical lenses to examine texts. The culminating project involves creating a reading journal based on an independently chosen novel.
Students will develop transferable skills such as critical thinking, creativity, self-directed learning, collaboration, communication, global citizenship, and digital literacy. Keeping an organized notebook is essential for active learning and tracking progress.
The course encourages storytelling, particularly through personal essays, to explore resilience. Strategies for reading personal essays, such as analyzing form and style and using paragraph titles, are introduced. Students will read “The Step Not Taken” by Paul D’Angelo, examining its structure and themes to understand resilience better.
The article defines and elaborates on several key transferable skills essential for students, emphasizing their application and development:
Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship:
Involves turning ideas into action to address community needs through leadership, risk-taking, and independent thinking.
Students are encouraged to ask insightful questions, experiment, demonstrate leadership, and motivate others.
Self-Directed Learning:
Entails taking ownership of one’s learning, having a growth mindset, and employing strategies for planning, monitoring, and reflecting on goals.
Students should understand their learning preferences, seek support, set goals, practice new skills, and adapt to change.
Collaboration:
Requires effective and ethical team participation, versatility in roles, and learning from diverse perspectives.
Students should participate respectfully, contribute to team learning, manage conflicts, and network with varied groups.
Communication:
Involves receiving and expressing meaning in various contexts, understanding global perspectives, and using media responsibly.
Students should communicate effectively across media, maintain a positive digital footprint, listen to understand, and appreciate the cultural importance of language.
Global Citizenship and Sustainability:
Focuses on understanding diverse worldviews to address critical global issues and being an engaged, responsible citizen.
Students should make responsible decisions, understand Indigenous contributions, promote equity, and participate sustainably.
Digital Literacy:
Includes solving problems using technology safely, legally, and ethically.
Students should use digital tools effectively, technology to support mental health, explore new digital tools, and responsibly manage their digital footprint.
The article encourages students to note which skills they aim to develop in their course, monitor their progress, and reflect on their growth in these areas.
Essay policies:
1.3 Assignment: Personal essay
You have explored storytelling through personal essays. Now that you have become familiar with this specific type of storytelling, you have the opportunity to apply what you know about personal essays to tell your own story. For this assignment, you will be using the writing process to develop, plan, organize, and write your own 750-1000 word personal essay about a significant moment or event in your life.
This assignment is worth 10% of your course grade.
Instructions
Prewriting:
Brainstorm a list of significant moments or events that have made a difference for you. How did these moments or events change you? Another approach is to think about the larger ideas of identity, belonging, and resilience, and how they relate to your own life. Feel free to use an online tool you are familiar with to collect your ideas as you brainstorm (i.e. Padlet, MindMeister, etc.). You may also choose to use this Mindmaps digital tool(Opens in new window) to generate mind maps to help you brainstorm.
Now that you have brainstormed significant moments or events in your life, you will need to choose one of them and create a thesis statement for it. Ask yourself: What is the main idea that I am trying to help the reader understand? You will need to directly state your thesis in your personal essay. If needed, explore the following Guidelines for creating strong thesis statements.(Opens in new window)
Once you have developed your thesis statement, you are ready to plan your personal essay and develop your essay outline. Fill out either the Personal essay form and style planner(Opens in new window) or the Paragraph titles chart(Opens in new window). The planner or chart will serve as the outline for your personal essay. You will be required to submit the completed essay outline along with the final copy of your essay at the end of the writing process.
Writing:
Write the first draft of your personal essay. Your personal essay should be 750-1000 words, in 12-point font, and double-spaced. If you use external sources in your essay, they should be properly cited according to MLA citation style. Check out the MLA Citation Guide(Opens in new window) to help you cite sources. You will be required to submit the first draft of your essay along with the final copy at the end of the writing process.
Responding & Revising:
If possible, ask a trusted friend or relative to read your essay and provide you with feedback by filling out the Peer Editing Checklist. If you cannot find a trusted friend or relative to provide you with feedback by filling out the Peer Editing Checklist(Opens in new window), you may review your essay yourself and fill out the Peer Editing Checklist to provide yourself with feedback. Use the feedback you receive to make any changes you feel are necessary and create a revised draft of your essay. You will be required to submit the completed Peer Editing Checklist along with the final copy of your essay at the end of the writing process.
Editing:
Now, you need to edit and proofread the revised draft of your essay to ensure your final copy is clearly written and free of errors. Use the Editing and Proofreading Checklist(Opens in new window) to help you review your work.
Publishing:
Once you have finished editing and proofreading your work, complete the final copy of your essay. Make sure the final copy of your essay includes your MLA-formatted Works Cited page if you used external sources. Review the rubric to ensure that you are meeting the expectations to the best of your ability.
For this assignment, you will need to submit the final copy of your essay, along with your completed essay outline, first draft, and your completed Peer Editing Checklist.
Your teacher-marker will grade and provide feedback on your work using the following success criteria and rubric. Before submitting your assignment, review the success criteria and rubric. If you are unsure about how to format your assignments or citations, or what constitutes plagiarism, please review the following support pages:
Referencing and Formatting Submission Guidelines(Opens in new window)
Avoiding Plagiarism Guide(Opens in new window)
Science and Mathematics Submission Requirements(Opens in new window)
Success criteria and rubric
Demonstrates understanding of the writing prompt with accuracy
Conveys the significant event with clarity
Includes insights that are logical, relevant, and significant
Demonstrates depth of understanding with an insightful explicit thesis
Merges the elements of storytelling with essay-writing appropriately
Provides examples that are relevant and support the thesis
Writes clearly and concisely
Demonstrates a strong command of the English language
Uses a clear first-person voice appropriate for a personal essay
Adheres to the conventions of grammar, sentence structure, and spelling
Uses an effective and meaningful hook in the introduction (anecdote, definition, rhetorical question, external quotation, or other persuasive device)
Applies the personal essay structure with accuracy
Demonstrates clear use of the writing process with evidence of feedback and revisions (through completed essay outline, first draft of essay, and completed Peer Editing Checklist)
Please note that you will not be able to access your assignment rubric until all previous assignments have been graded and returned to you.
