So: today was relatively simple. For whatever reason, many students have been struggling with the CAR format far more than in recent years. To address this, I decided to introduce something slightly more familiar when compared to a more traditional worksheet format: short answer responses. So, today we finished reading through the "Black Death to Reformation" text, finished our QACs, and then moved into the short answer response questions. We used the majority of the time completing these. The goal was to practice reading and writing on a smaller scale, and then to also prepare to respond to the more complex and open ended CAR prompts that we will complete afterwards.
I've said it in class multiple times, but there is a trap in this sort of short answer format: many students just assume that they need to scan through the text, find words and phrases similar to those in the prompt, and then write down the information closest to those phrases. This doesn't typically work for non-textbooks. The better approach is to read through the text, noting down whenever information about a given prompt comes up, and then to synthesize all that information into a brief, detailed response.
In general, the Short Answer Responses only require three things: a generally accurate and specific response in your own words, a complete and understandable sentence format, and the location of the information in page and paragraph number. I'll post the actual questions below. The responses are due next Wednesday.
from_the_black_death_to_reformation_sars.docx |