Roanoke IT Informal Report
Kathleen Rowe
Basic Educational Skills
October, 2010
The primary objectives for showing my BE-111 and BE-112 classes a History
Channel DVD documentary on “Roanoke: The Lost Colony,” were to pique students’
interest in a particular history topic, encourage note-taking, encourage research, and
improve writing skills. At the end of the presentation to each class, a survey form was
given to elicit students’ anonymous feedback, and to get an idea of whether or not the
presentation did elicit their interest in further research on the topic.
The homework assignment given at the end of each class session required that
students type up the notes they took during the presentation, and write an essay that
included: 1) background information on Roanoke learned from the documentary; 2) a
description of one main point, issue, or fact that they found interesting and which they
would like to know more about, explaining why they wanted to know more; 3) an
explanation of how the topic related to their life, interests, or education today. BE-112
students were encouraged to write their essays along the lines of CAT-W test
requirements. All were required to write their usual three-part journals.
Overall, there was a marked difference between the essays of the BE-111 class
and those of the BE-112 class. One factor is clear: the BE-111 students had neither the
writing skills nor the study skills of the BE-112 class which is to be expected to some
degree. BE-111 students took fewer notes or none at all. A few of them admitted in their
journals that that had been a mistake which they realized as soon as they attempted to
write their essays. In contrast, the BE-112 notes were fairly copious, and essays showed a
leap forward in development over previous assignments. It was clear from the content of
their essays that a number of the BE-112 students had many interesting questions they
wanted to answer with further research—a clear indication of the foundation of critical
thinking. Furthermore, many of their questions were more focused and detailed than
those of the BE-111 students, although one or two of the BE-111 students did come up
with interesting questions to explore that might be considered even higher-order than
those of BE-112 students.
Twelve BE-111 students attended their presentation; twenty-one BE-112 students
attended theirs, nearly double the attendance of the first group. Even accounting for the
difference in attendance numbers, there were marked differences in some of the survey
results. For example, in answer to the prompt, “I learned a lot of facts from the video,”
only 3, or 25%, of BE-111 students strongly agreed while 10, or 48%, of BE-112 students
strongly agreed. There was a similar marked disparity between the responses to the
prompt, “This video session will help me with what I am learning in regular classes about
preparing to write an essay or research paper.” The latter response could be an artifact of
the differences in skills being taught to each group at this time.
Because this lesson plan was not in any way conducted as a formal pedagogical
research project, I could not draw firm conclusions about the effectiveness of the DVD
presentation beyond the observation of trends in the students’ survey responses and a
qualitative assessment of their resulting written work. In particular, it’s clear that with the
differences in level of skills taught and attained by each group, it would not make sense
to compare them to each other. A short-term longitudinal study (pre-presentation/postpresentation) would have to be done within each class level to control for level of
proficiency.
With regard to the essays of the BE-112 class, I found myself excited by the
detailed development of their essays, by the questions they had posed to themselves in
their essays, and by the unique lines of research they indicated they would follow. For
example, one student wrote that he wanted to find out what the experience of the Indian,
Manteo, had been since the video mentioned in passing that he had actually gone to
England for two years with the Roanoke explorers. Another wanted to learn more about
Queen Elizabeth’s “mission” of establishing colonies in various places. Another wanted
to know how Indians lived “without light” before the age of technology that we so take
for granted. A number of students were interested in exploring the early friendliness
between the English and the Indians, particularly how they communicated with each
other. Clearly, the video was an effective jumping off point for many students’ curiosity
about the times, the people, and the events surrounding the Roanoke incident. From that
perspective, I could not have been more pleased with the results of showing the Roanoke
DVD. There is no question in my mind that it did excite curiosity and motivate a desire to
learn more in a way that a basic lecture or assigned reading might not. In the case of the
BE-112 students, their writing did show more detail and depth than before the
presentation. Therefore, whenever possible, I intend to incorporate more instructional
technology media into my remedial writing classes.
On October 28, both classes will attend library database research training
sessions, at which time they will be assigned the homework task of researching the
Roanoke topic they were most interested in learning more about, and writing a research
report on their findings. I am looking forward to seeing the results.
Name:________________________________
Class Date:___________________
Session 12, Homework Assignment
1.
Complete a three-part journal entry for the session. Be sure to put the date of the
session on it, not the date you wrote it.
Before you print out your journal, proofread it for missing words and grammar
errors and fix them. Do a computer Spell Check to find spelling errors, and fix
them.
2.
Below, jot down any words you have read today that you are not 100% sure of.
Look up their meanings in a dictionary. Write down their definitions or meanings.
3.
First, type up the notes you took during the video showing of “Roanoke: The Lost
Colony,” and on the discussions afterward in class. Your notes should be single
spaced.
Write a 6-10 sentence summary of the information—the key points—that you
gained from the documentary. This will serve as the background information for
an introductory paragraph.
Then, in a separate body paragraph, describe one main point, issue, or fact that
you found interesting, and which you would like to know more about. Explain
why you would like to learn more. The paragraph should be at least 10 sentences.
In a third paragraph, explain how the people and events that you saw in Roanoke
may be relevant to your life, interests, or education today. The paragraph should
be at least 10 sentences.
Write a short conclusion of about 5-6 sentences.
Staple together the typed-up notes and the short essay. Title them, “Roanoke.”
Be sure to type up the essay in Times or Times New Roman font, 12 point size,
double spaced. Points will be deducted if you do not.
________________________________________________________________________
Name:________________________________
Class Date:___________________
Session 17, Homework Assignment
1.
Complete a three-part journal entry for the session. Be sure to put the date of the
session on it, not the date you wrote it. Before you print out your journal, do a
computer Spell Check to find spelling errors, and fix them. Proofread the journal
for missing words and grammar errors and fix them. I want to see less and less
“red” on these journals.
2.
Below, jot down any words you have read today that you are not 100% sure of.
Look up their meanings in a dictionary. Write down their definitions or meanings.
3.
Conduct research on the topic that you found most interesting—that you wanted
to learn more about—from the Roanoke DVD presentation. Write a research
report of at least five paragraphs about that topic. You may write more if you like.
At the end of the paper, list the resources that you used (books, articles, websites),
making sure that you include author names, titles, url addresses. Do not reference
Wikipedia (I will check).
Make sure that you write about what you learned in your own words. Do NOT
copy and paste any material that you found. That would be plagiarism (stealing
another’s work), a serious academic offense. (I also check for that.) If you do use
a small quote, make sure that you use “quotation marks” around it.
Type up the report double spaced.
This is an important paper! I will grade it by using the “Grades and
Evaluation Criteria” form that was given to you at the beginning of the
semester. That will give you a clear idea of where you stand on specific
writing skills and grammar skills. You will see what your strong points are,
and what are the weaknesses you need to work on eliminating.
Reminder:
On Tuesday we will listen to some R. Kelly music in class.
Bring your pocket dictionaries, thesauri, Blackberries and/or Smart Phones.
________________________________________________________________________
IT Class Session Survey—Student Comments
The Lost Colony of Roanoke
Shown on October 12, 2010
BE-111
1.
BE-112
I enjoyed watching the video presented.
I enjoy it a little but the video should have
action and adventure.
I enjoyed
It was very interesting.
I do not agree with everything the movie
said. The movie was alright.
It was alright. There was some problem in
the beginning with the video. After the is
was okay I guess.
2.
History doesn’t excite me.
The movie is not my type. I’m mostly into
World War I and II.
I learned a lot of facts from the video.
The facts were interesting.
I had no prior knowledge about the
Roanoke
I knew nothing about “Roanoke.” This is
the first class I heard about “Roanoke.”
I need to read about the subject a little
more.
3.
After watching the video on Roanoke, I would like to know more about this topic.
I have a lot of information.
4.
I like know about what happening to the
lost colony
I am going to do some research on this topic. I want to learn more about:
their culture
the Mystery of Roanoke
I going to research this topic for my
homework and see what other historian say
about this topic
Virginia Dare
I would like to learn more about their
disappearance.
Roanoke and natives
Queen Elizabeth I
Communication between natives and
English
The way they lived and dressed.
What other assumptions or theories that
happen to the lost colony
Queen elizabeth and her mission to
establish colonies in different places
Where the colony disappeared to and what
happened to the port
everything.
What happened to the lost settlers.
the lifestyles/how they survived/how they
lived and what they would wear.
Wars, revolutions.
5.
This presentation will help me to analyze information that I hear about or see.
It could help me
6.
yes
This video session will help me with what I am learning in regular classes about
preparing to write an essay or research paper.
it could have more action
7.
it will help
What I like best about this presentation is...
Wondering about what happened to the
people from the boat
The mistery of Roanoke
I learn new information that I never knew.
The straight forward facts
The way they communicate to each other.
I like how they showed the english people
being friends with the native americans.
The facts were shown not just told
the whole video was just intriguing, I have
no favorite part.
The fact that the video gave great details
and date’s on the events
Learning things I had no idea about.
I got a lot more info about Roanoke then I
did before.
how the colonist and indians get along and
show them what they do in their lives.
it gave everybody insight on Roanoke and
how the state Virginia got its name.
It discussed real facts and history
How 2 cultures reacted to each other.
It gave you alot of information
The battle between England and Spain at
sea.
The visual aspect it better then just hearing
a story
How amazed the native indian was when
he first came in contact with the
Englishmen.
How much conflict was going on.
I liked how they shown the natives and the
exporers worked together and were
fasantated by each other.
How the people who were in this video
explained their thoughts about what
happened to them.
When the Lady talk after they show the the
images, who were explaining about what
also happened.
8.
What I do not like about this presentation is...
how boring it was
I didn’t really dislike anything.
What I didn’t like about this presentation is
how they killed each other for nothing.
A lot of information to retain all at once.
I don’t like history so mainly all of it.
didn’t have any dislikes
it’s a lot of facts
The fact that I couldn’t rewind
When the narroriter was talking too fast
I like this presentation we should have
more of these
How easy they hatted, was hard to get
hates.
Nothing
I couldn’t see or hear clearly. [smart
podium room]
There was nothing that I really disliked
about it.
That it didn’t talk more about Virginia
Dare.
When the English attacked the lost colony
of Roanoke by mistake.
I enjoy the presentation there was nothing
to dislike.
What ever happen to the 117 pioneers that
was on the first voyage to Roanoke.
I was a bit confused about how the Native
would go on and off about being on good
sides with the Indians.
Too much talking.