Thought Vectors and Nuggets
Difficulty: 4 (rated by author; 1=easy <--> 5=difficult)
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Module: Teacher for Learning
Find and make meaningful a “nugget.”
Review The Faculty Patchbook, a collection of faculty authored overviews of specific pedagogical skills. Then, select one article that resonates with you. Select a passage from the article that grabs you in some way and prepare to make that passage as meaningful as possible.
It could be a passage that puzzles you, or intrigues you, or resonates strongly with you. It could be a passage you agree with, or one you disagree with. The idea here is that the passage evokes some kind of response in you, one that makes you want to work with the passage to make it just as meaningful as possible. A good length for your nugget is about a paragraph or so. Too much, and it becomes unwieldy. Too little, and you don’t have enough to work with.
How do you make something as meaningful as possible? Well, use your imagination. You’ll probably start by copying and pasting the nugget. Or if you’re feeling very multimedia inclined, read your nugget aloud and make an audio file. From there, consider hyperlinks, illustrations, video clips, animated gifs, screenshots, whatever. Make the experience as rich and interesting as you can.
Obviously, one of the main goals of this assignment is to get you to read carefully and respond to them imaginatively. Your work with “nuggets” should be both fun and in earnest. It should demonstrate your own deep engagement and stimulate deep engagement for your reader as well.
This activity is part of the Metacognition section of the Teacher for Learning Module. It was borrowed from the course syllabus for Thought Vectors in Concept Space, designed by Dr. Gardner Campbell for an undergraduate research and writing course at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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