Effective Communication (EC) Students will enhance their fundamental EC competency by means of producing a learning log and/or a literary expression of what SkiBums Say.
Purpose: To advance knowledge about effective communication, exploring the rhetoric of the ski bum lifestyle and the syntax of learning to ski/ride.
Effective Communication definition:
From the APU Catalog:
Effective Communication
Effective communication involves writing, presentation of ideas in public forums, sharing of information through networks, systems, and organizations, and has as its goal to affect the knowledge or behavior of others. Effective communication requires clarity of one’s own expression through various formats and media, with appreciation for meaning, tone, style, nuance, and content of others’ expression. Effective communication is essential to success in all of life, from education and employment to parenting and relationships. Effective communicators construct clear and persuasive presentations of ideas and concerns, elicit and share information in ethical ways, and foster collaborative and civil discourse.
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Foundational Competency – Students demonstrate skills of written communication, public presentation, and media literacy with the ability to argue particular positions and situate information for inquiry purposes in forms and formats appropriate to different research contexts
Step One: A continuous assignment… KEEP A LEARNING LOG !!!
All students will document their learning, everyday, creating a written log that will eventually consist of 14 entries, one entry for each field day of the course.
For each day of this course complete a written entry of your learning log.
For bonus, create media or photographic evidence of every day. Photography and media is not a substitute for written log entries. Instead, the visual media parallels, supplements, or creatively expands the written work. Memes work, too.
Your written entry should have at least three elements. Other log formats are permitted, the following is a default guideline. You may invent your own on the condition that it is thoughtful and rigorous and consistent as the following default guideline.
1) List and describe your learning activities. Examples include lessons, peer coaching, structured practice, practicum with Challenge AK.
2) List and describe your daily skill development, examples could be, linking turns, riding chair 3 for the first time, euro-carving. Review the skill progression pages for details of your progress: know thyself as ride, and know thyself as skier.
3) Link your activities and development to enduring understandings. Describe any ‘lasting learning’ or ‘generalizable knowledge,’ as they relate to your daily efforts in this course. These can be any large themes that you will carry into the future, examples could be: the nuances of persistence, the value of slowing down, laughing and learning, dynamics of learning theory, and simple fun. Enduring understanding include any insight you may gain from your experience that can transcend this course.
Complete a learning log entry every day. Submit your updated log to Michael Kaplan each weekend.
BONUS CREDIT: Create a chart, graph, or diagram of your learning log. Supplement your narrative with a visual mode of representation. On additional tact, design or create art that represents your learning.
GO LIVE or REMAIN PRIVATE. Your learning log is assumed to be private, just for the instructor and you, the student. Kaplan respects student privacy, recognizing it as an essential element of successful learning. Respecting privacy builds trust and rapport. During this course, many students focus their learning upon personal and private concerns. In no way does Kaplan seek to pressure any student to share such concerns beyond their interests. However, some students eagerly seek to share, publicly. This learning log can become a platform for public sharing, for developing an on-line identity. Additionally, a public on-line identity is becoming an increasingly large expectation for outdoor professionals, of all types. This course offers an opportunity to practice (and explore) the creation of a live, on-line identity as an outdoor adventurer. Feel free to go public with a wordpress blog, social media, or other virtual venue. We can link it to this course website. If you decided to go live, great! Just please respect the privacy of the other students and submit to the editorial judgment of Kaplan. Understand that you will be representing yourself AND this course.
STEP TWO: READ
Wayne K. Shledrake Instant Karma The Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum
and/or
Ir77 Elements of Snowboarding. www.ir77book.com
and/or
and/or
‘Legacy’ by Edie Thys Morgan from Ski Magazine Spring 2017 p. 80. by Click for Legacy
STEP THREE: PLAY WITH CREATIVITY
Creatively explore a major theme of learning to ski and snowboard. Your theme could involve commitment, joy, frustration, pain, adventure, or any of the concepts expressed in one of the above books. Your creative exploration can assume any medium including literary or visual or design. Your work can directly build upon, or reflect the reading. It could be as simple as decorating your snowboard, composing a short poem, starting a dance craze, or creating a digital short video such as: Shit Skiers Girls Say . Shit Telemarkers Say. Shit Snowboarders Say. How to Speak Shredder. Shit Instructors Say. How to be a Skier .
Submit: Share your creative work with Kaplan .
STEP FOUR: REDRAFT/REWRITE YOUR LEARNING LOG INTO A COHESIVE CREATIVE ESSAY. Select from one of the following formats:
1) Describe in detail a learning moment during a lesson. This learning moment could be a singular breakthrough, or a more gradual improvement in skill. Please be specific regarding the instructional details and your learning response or style. Can you link this learning moment to an enduring understanding, something that will transfer beyond this course?
2) Discuss the joys and/or frustrations of learning to snowboard or ski. Use specific examples from your experience.
3) Explain your understanding of the SkiBum Lifestyle or Define ‘living the dream.’ In your essay develop your discussion with specific examples from Sheldrake and your own experience.
4) Analyze your snowboarding learning chart. Do you notice any patterns in your learning? Design a infographic of your learning log and explain it with technical and descriptive narrative.
CRITERIA:
Assignment #5 Rubric
| Novice | Competent | Proficient | Excellent | |
| Content | The thesis is not clear, Much of the material may be irrelevant to the overall topic or inaccurate. Details are lacking. Appropriate sources were not consulted. | The thesis may be somewhat unclear. Some material and evidence support the thesis. Some of the material is relevant, and some is not. Details are lacking. Information may include some inaccuracies. At least some sources were appropriate. | The thesis is clear. An adequate amount of material is relevant. This material includes details. Information is mostly accurate; any inaccuracies are minor and do not interfere with the points made. Appropriate sources were consulted. | The thesis is clear. A large amount and variety of material and evidence support the thesis. All material is relevant. This material includes details. Information is accurate. Appropriate sources were consulted. |
| Reasoning and Evidence | Information is not related to the point(s) the material is intended to support. Information is not organized in a logical manner. Material does not flow. Information is presented as a sequence of unrelated material. | Some of the information is related to the point(s) the material is intended to support, but connections are not explained. Information is not entirely organized in a logical manner, although some structure is apparent. Flow is choppy. Introductions, transitions, and other connecting material may be lacking or unsuccessful. | Information is clearly related to the point(s) the material is intended to support, although not all connections may be explained. Information is organized in a logical manner. Flow is adequate. Introductions, transitions, and other connection materials take the listener/reader along for the most part. Any abrupt transitions do not interfere with intended meaning. | Information is clearly and explicitly related to the point(s) the material is intended to support. Information is organized in a logical manner and is presented concisely. Flow is good. Introductions, transitions, and other connection materials take the listener/reader along. |
| Clarity of Written Expression | Major errors of grammar and usage make meaning unclear. Language style and word choice are ineffective and/or inappropriate. | Major errors of grammar and usage begin to interfere with meaning. Language style and word choice are simple, bland, or otherwise not very effective or not entirely appropriate. | Some errors of grammar and usage; errors do not interfere with meaning. Language style and word choice are for the most part effective and appropriate to the project. | Few errors of grammar and usage; any minor errors do not interfere with meaning. Language style and word choice are highly effective and enhance meaning. Style and word choice are appropriate to the project. |
| Effective Communication | Information is not rooted in the student’s own documented experience. Conclusions and implications are absent. | Information is loosely rooted in the student’s own documented experience. Conclusions and implications are incoherent or unrelated. | Information is rooted in a reasonable amount of the student’s own documented experience. Conclusions and implications are weak in relation to the thesis. | Information is deeply seated in the student’s own documented experience. Conclusions and implications show a fluency in enduring understandings, and are tied directly to the thesis. |
SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY FEB 4th on the course blackboard site. LINK
SHREDEDX 