Post 328: What is Proposal Idea Thread, Argumentative Topic thread, Reflection Thread?, Course Logistics thread and a Lesson Preview Thread?

What is a Proposal Idea Thread, Argumentative Topic Thread and Reflection Thread?

Scott Warnock in his online English class ENGL 102 at Drexel University, depicted in his book, Writing Together Ten Weeks Teaching and Studenting in an Online Writing Course introduces different forum activities per week to keep students engaged and interested in the class.  Warnock introduced 15 different kinds of forum topic posts in his ten weeks of ENGL 102 class. I will go over a few of them at a time with each blog post.

You can also read Scott Warnock's blog entry on the subject of Different Kinds of Message Board Posts.http://onlinewritingteacher.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

 

What is a Proposal Idea Thread?

In this thread, Warnock asks students what possible topics they will write about for their paper. Students interact with each other to discuss possible topics for their upcoming writing projects. Students talk about the viability of these topics. Students help each other with research ideas.

What is a Argumentative Topic Thread?

In the Argumentative Topic Thread, Professor Warnock posts a controversial subject, like abortion and students talk about the pros and cons of abortion. Students discuss with each other why abortion is moral or why abortion is immoral. In their arguments, students are required to use proper MLA formatting and back up their arguments with valid evidence.  The more students learn to back up their premise with credible evidence, the better students learn the art of argumentation and persuasion.

What is a Reflection Thread?

The Reflection thread tends to come at the end of the class where students are asked to reflect on what they have learned in the class.  Reflection, evaluation and analysis are considered high order cognitive skills in the Blooms Taxonomy because it involves students applying what they have learned to their daily lives and telling other students how they will apply what they have learned to their daily lives.

What is a Course Logistics Thread?

The Course Logistics thread is usually placed in an ungraded forum where students can ask questions about class navigation, syllabus directions, where to find the quiz, readings, and either the other students can answer these questions or the teacher can answer these questions.  Students discuss with each other class navigation, where to find the online readings etc...

What is a Lesson Preview Thread?

In the Lesson Preview Thread, the teacher posts to students what  to expect for upcoming assignments, and the teacher can post a summary of what has been learned so far and tie these concepts with upcoming concepts in future weeks. For me, I give my lesson preview when I write my weekly online announcements and when I write my weekly summary posts. I usually post my weekly summary posts as the last post of each week to make them easy to find for students for weekly lesson review.

Warnock, Scott. Writing Together: Ten Weeks of Teaching and Studenting in an Online Writing Course