Week 4: Developing Assessments and Discussion Prompts
This week we needed to create an assignment and two discussion prompts. Check out mine below!
Assignment: Final Essay
In my course, the students will be learning about how to write 5-paragraph essays. As a summative assessment at the end of the course, the students will submit a complete essay, building upon the other assignments that they had to complete throughout the course (e.g. how to write thesis statements, topic sentences, essay outlines and different types of paragraphs).
​
The learning objective this assignment connects to in my IDD is:
5. Compose a five-paragraph essay of at least 750 words
​
Assignment instructions:
Welcome to your final assignment! For this assignment, you need to utilize the thesis statement, topic sentences and outline you created for previous assignments to write a full essay!
​
The essay requirements are:
-
Write the essay in a word processing software (such as Word, Google Doc, pdf, etc.)
-
Write a minimum of 750 words
-
Maximum 800 words
-
Use the thesis statement, topic sentences, and outline from previous submissions (we will check this)
-
Include a title for your essay
-
Use correct citations if using information from external sources (such as internet research, videos, books, research papers, etc.)
-
Tell us which citation style you chose (if you needed to cite)
-
Submit the document (NOT A LINK) in the submission box below
Your essay will be assessed based on the rubric for this assignment which includes how well you integrated the thesis statement and topic sentences into the essay, how well you adhered to the topic presented by the thesis statement, cohesion, point-of-view (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), and clarity.
Remember, this assignment will be processed through Turnitin, so DO NOT COPY AN ESSAY OFF THE INTERNET. Any plagiarism will result in a complete failure from the course and you will not receive a certificate.
You will receive your final grade for your essay (and the course) within 2 weeks of submitting the essay.
You have only one (1) attempt at this assignment.
If you have any questions, please contact the instructor!
------------
To access my course, use the login info below and either copy/paste the following link into your browser or click the link below!
​
Final Assignment Link: https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/5618464/assignments/33952332?module_item_id=76079561
LOGIN INFO:
Email - myteststudentacc@outlook.com
Password - mytestacc1
Discussion Board 1
We also needed to create two discussion boards for our courses. The first discussion board I made is for the students to practice making thesis statements and give/receive feedback on them before they need to complete a graded thesis statement peer review later in the week. This will provide the students with practice giving and receiving feedback before the peer review and also give students a chance to have more practice making thesis statements with other learners.
I used Canvas to make my discussion board because it will making checking participation easier for the instructional staff and also reduce the cognitive load on the learners by not having to switch platforms.
​
This connects to learning objective 2: Write a thesis statement
​
​
Here is my discussion prompt:
Hello! In this module's discussion forum we are discussing and practicing making thesis statements!
First, you need to make 3 thesis statements, ONE about each of the three prompts below. Then, you need to reply to at least 2 other students with feedback for what they did well and how they can improve their thesis statements.
Please note that you must first post your response to the prompts and then you will be able to see others' posts.
Use the feedback you receive from the discussion board to help you write your final thesis statement for your peer review assignment!
Remember that everyone in this course is here to learn so please be respectful of your peers. Please also avoid writing in ALL CAPS and do not use foul language.
This activity is required but ungraded, meaning that you MUST complete this to pass the course but you will not be graded on your responses because this is a discussion to help you practice your writing skills.
If you have any questions, please contact the instructor.
Prompt 1: What is the best diet?
Prompt 2: Should exams be removed from education?
Prompt 3: Should children have restricted use of technology
​
--------------
​
​
To access the discussion, use the following login info and either copy/paste the link into your browser or click the purple button below!
Discussion Link 1: https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/5618464/discussion_topics/16501827
LOGIN INFO:
Email - myteststudentacc@outlook.com
Password - mytestacc1
Discussion Board 2
For my second discussion board, I decided to make an ungraded, open forum for the students to ask each other and the instructional staff questions at the close of the course before the final essay submission. Some students might feel uncertain about writing the essay and others may have questions about course material so this forum is a place where all those questions can be asked in one location. By doing this as a discussion board and not only via one-to-one chat with the instructor, students can also help and be helped by their peers and repeat questions can be answered in a "public" place and thus be accessed by all learners.
​
This connects to learning objective 5. "Compose a five-paragraph essay of at least 750 words" because it is the final discussion about all course content which will be needed and used when writing the final essay.
​
Here is my discussion prompt:
Hello everyone!
Congratulations on making it so far through the course! At this point you are all preparing your final essays so this forum is a place for you to ask questions about the assignment, ask questions about the course material you have learned so far, give feedback to others, etc.
Please don't post your full essay in the chat! You may post sections of it, or ask specific questions, but don't share the full essay.
The instructional team will also assist in answering questions when needed but please also help your peers if you know the answer!
Posting questions and answers helps everyone in the course because maybe you are not the only one who has this question!
Anyway, we look forward to reading your posts and eventually your final essays!
--------
To access the discussion, use the following login info and either copy/paste the link into your browser or click the purple button below!
Discussion Link 2: https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/5618464/discussion_topics/16501834
LOGIN INFO:
Email - myteststudentacc@outlook.com
Password - mytestacc1