Having to approach the issue of “what is too much sharing?” has been a constant challenge. As a student, I know that I wouldn’t say no to all the answers being given to me. But on the other hand, you need to look at it from a teacher ‘learning’ perspective in this assignment as well. I don’t think it’s that useful overall to give students the answers straight up; otherwise they won’t be able to think for themselves. That’s why I chose to publish a lot of starting points rather than full answers, so everyone can expand their own ideas and take something more valuable away.
I’ve decided to put on poem annotations for Heaney, some sample introductions and a sample essay from really early on in the course in the way of “giving”. All the other information on the site is pretty general, and has links to other resources where I got my information. This was a particularly important choice, as I think linking to articles and essays instead of summarising them for the website user guarantees the user will have to engage with the resource fully if they choose to use it.
Another choice I had to make came with was what to include in my information about the course and the texts. It was a similar line of thinking – what is too much sharing? So my main approach was doing a simplified ‘introductory’ lesson on each text, then guiding students into ways to analyse the text themselves. The most important aspect to include was linking the texts back to the rubrics, and making sure the students have the resources to competently do it themselves! (Because to me, that’s what the whole point of the course is!)
Another choice I had to make came with was what to include in my information about the course and the texts. It was a similar line of thinking – what is too much sharing? So my main approach was doing a simplified ‘introductory’ lesson on each text, then guiding students into ways to analyse the text themselves. The most important aspect to include was linking the texts back to the rubrics, and making sure the students have the resources to competently do it themselves! (Because to me, that’s what the whole point of the course is!)