Document Type
Assignment
Publication Date
Spring 5-1-2024
Abstract
This assignment was included as the research essay component in an introductory composition course. The topic was the impact of AI on their desired career or profession. Students were required to find four sources: a primary source with whom they conducted an oral history, and three secondary sources; one from social media, one from a reliable but not peer-reviewed source, and one peer-reviewed scholarly source. They had to submit the oral history transcript and incorporate data from it into the essay. At the end of the semester, they also had an option to do a dramatic reading of the oral history and a reflection of that process.
NEH Oral History Seminar Lesson
Class Information:
Instructor Jayashree Kamble
CUNY campus LaGuardia Community College
Class title Composition I / Composition I Accelerated
Class Information--code/date/time ENG 101-0749/ENA101-0708
Lesson Description:
The connected assignment was part of a month-long lesson on doing a research essay in an online synchronous course.
Lesson Plan:
The research topic was the impact of AI on the student’s desired career or profession. We spent several class periods discussing different types of sources and their applicability in a college essay, including a lesson on library tools and resources by a LaGuardia librarian.
Students were required to find four sources: a primary source with whom they conducted an oral history, and three secondary sources; one from social media, one from a reliable but not peer-reviewed source, and one peer-reviewed scholarly source. They had to submit the oral history transcript and incorporate data from it into the essay. They also had to include an annotated bibliography of all the sources, including the oral history. At the end of the semester, they had an option to do a dramatic reading of the oral history and a reflection of that process.
Success and Challenges
I gave students plenty of time to think of who they would interview. This helped them pick an accessible source. But while my idea had been that they could use this source to establish the history of their chosen professions, and this would add interesting anecdotes to their introductory paragraphs and conclusions, many ended up just asking the source about their work experiences at the moment. It still yielded good insights but they were far more informational than the history component I was hoping they would include.
Reflection
I’d break the assignment down further and have two lessons: one where we would brainstorm (as we did this time) the questions they might ask to elicit historical information, and then another lesson specifically focused on helping students develop the introduction and conclusion of the essay in a way that incorporated the oral history.
Final reflection