Students needed to create a teaching unit on the global city for their final project. It resembled a final exam because they had to go back to key readings and distill that material in order to create teaching documents that freshmen and sophomores would understand.
This unit might have been the most creative and may have created the best products (I tend to get the best products at the end of the semester). However, not all of the students see themselves as going into teaching, meaning that the project was less useful for them. The particular example included here was done by a student in Latin American studies with a background in economics who created an international course for business students. I think it is well thought out, with good length and good graphs. It focuses on consumerism, which is a practical way to connect business students to the global city.
This assignment originally called for students to prepare a unit on an unspecified topic for underclassmen on world history. I decided it was less useful than I had originally intended, as these diverse students wouldn't be teaching history in their fields. Instead, I revised the prompt so that the teaching unit focused on the global city. This allowed students to center the project on their discipline so that it would serve their needs when they teach. One student created a teaching unit that she will use this fall at KU, while others created units that they can tap into at a later date.
The students were to have a required teaching presentation; however, I decided that they had done enough projects so I made it optional. Instead, the students decided to share portions of their work by e-mail because they were curious how people from different disciplinary backgrounds would construct a teaching unit on this topic.
The original prompt also had a lecture component, but I didn't think it seemed very useful. I thought the students would be able to construct a lecture without doing a special unit on it. Also, lecturing is not always the best way to get material across, so why was I privileging it? I killed that component in order to focus on the teaching assignment. It is a much better project in its revised form.
The original prompt is included in the student work example (see link at right). The revised prompt is shown below:
Revised Assignment of Teaching Unit for History 808:
You have been invited to teach a broad introductory undergraduate
course on a subject of your choosing.
Prepare a unit of this class that covers the global city. The unit
should comprise two or three weeks of course time.
Prepare a session-by-session outline of the unit that lays out
the topics for lecture and discussion, including assigned readings,
visual materials and any other data that will be shared, and places
the unit in the context of the entire semester.
