This is an academic reading course for teachers in training, aimed at sharpening their reading skills and training them on academic literature. Effective readers monitor their understanding, and when they lose the meaning of what they are reading, they often unconsciously select a reading strategy (such as rereading or asking questions) that will help them reconnect with the meaning of the text.
Within this academic reading course the teacher explores a new pedagogy. Students are asked to apply a more effective reading strategy in which they prime on predefined topics (by teachers) while they are reading.
The FeedbackFruits Comprehension tool is set up in such a way that it supports the process of focusing on topics during both individual text analysis as subsequently in a collaborative learning experience.
Students have to read a paper. For a report or research paper, students first read the abstract. Students may also find it useful to read the conclusion in full. If a section of the paper is short, students read it in full. If it is long, they read the first sentence of each paragraph. Skimming for the most important sentence will give students an overview of the main content of each passage. In the tool, the students see the topics that are central to the text. The task is to identify the passages that relate to each of these topics, annotate these relevant passages and optionally summarize mulitple annotations. The annotations made by students are used to fuel an in-class discussion.
The instructor randomly assesses the quality of inline comments on annotations. The placement of the annotations revealed whether the students could identify the structure.
"The tool provided a medium to activate unengaged/shy learners to participate and give relevant input." - Lisbeth Elvebakk, Lecturer, Oslo Metropolitan University
By creating multiple smaller group assignments for the collaborative part (up to 10 students in a group) collaborative learning is more likely to take place, otherwise the document can become too cluttered.
Imperial College London utilizes Group Member Evaluation to elevate self and peer assessment process for the students
Texas A&M University School of Public Health decided on a campus-wide adoption of the FeedbackFruits tool suite to enhance student engagement and implement authentic assessment.
Explore how FHSU utilized FeedbackFruits’ solutions to elevate the peer feedback process and stimulate collaborative learning, and what encouraged FHSU to let FeedbackFruits be a supporter in achieving their pedagogical goals.