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Integrative Learning Example The following documents were used to assess students’ degrees of success with Integrative Learning. The course assignment and student work come from English 150 (Introduction to Literature) and Psychology 230 (Human Development), two linked courses that were approved as an integrative learning experience as part of UW-Eau Claire’s Title III bundle pilot program. The rubric and scoring sheet were used by the Title III Assessment Team when evaluating student work from these linked courses.
Contents
Course Assignment Example ……………………………………………………………….………………………….1
Example of Student Work ……………………………………………………………………..………..……………..4
Integrative Learning Outcome Rubric …………………………………………………………..………………..11
Rubric Scoring Sheet Example …………………………………………………………………………………...….13
Course Assignment Example This course assignment describes the Semester Project for the integrated English 150/Psychology 230. Both instructors received and graded the projects in collaboration, awarding a single grade that contributed to each student’s final grade in both classes.
What It Means to Be Human • Semester Projects
English 150 and Psychology 230
Overview
This Semester Project asks you to use what you’re learning from literature in order to “read”
psychology OR use what you’re learning in psychology in order to “read” literature . . . all as a means
of coming to a new insight of your own about the human condition.
We encourage you to imagine this project in different kinds of forms. You might decide to write a
traditional paper, with a clearly articulated thesis, a developed argument with support, and a Works
Cited section. Or you might decide to do a “creative” project: a poem (or series of poems), a short
story, a play, a film, a song (both lyrics and music), or a multi-genre piece that includes textual, visual,
and audio elements. If you take this creative route, you must also write a commentary that explains
what you intended to accomplish with your project, what specifically it has to do with the material in
the courses (make direct references to texts and authors), and why the form you chose seemed the most
appropriate way—given the subject matter—to do what you wanted to do.
Purposes
Develop and demonstrate your understanding of connections between the disciplines of English
and Psychology.
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Demonstrate your insights gathered from the bundle theme: What It Means to Be Human.
Offer you an opportunity to explore more deeply a course topic that has interested you.
Develop your skills in critical and creative thinking, reading, writing, and reflection.
Identify for you some new insight you’ve gained from this experience.
Guidelines
FOR BOTH PAPERS AND CREATIVE PROJECTS
Ask yourself a big question that the readings and discussions have raised for you regarding the
human condition, and then set out to try to answer it.
Narrow your focus to only one or two concepts or themes from the two courses so that you can
cover the material sufficiently. (That is, don’t try to do so much that you end up not doing
anything in enough detail.)
Submit a proposal three weeks in advance so we can offer helpful feedback on your topic,
focus, or format. This proposal should be less than a page long but should identify your topic,
tell whether your project will be a paper or a creative project, and what your plans are for
developing it. If we believe that your topic requires information beyond class readings, this is
our opportunity to let you know in time for you to locate the appropriate sources.
Remember that revision is the single most important step in good writing.
While clear and effective writing is much more important than flawless mechanics, remember
that this is a formal academic assignment that demands adherence to academic standards of
grammar, usage, and punctuation.
If you use outside sources, you must include correct citations to a References/Works Cited
section using the appropriate formal documentation/citation style (i.e., APA or MLA).
If you use outside sources, you must also attach marked-up paper copies of the sources you
used.
When you refer to required readings from the two courses, no References/Works-Cited entry is
needed; author name and page number in parentheses will be enough.
Include a separate title page with title of project, your name, course names, and date.
FOR PAPERS
Be sure to establish a clear thesis that will guide the organization of your paper.
Organize your paper according to its thesis, supporting the thesis with main points which in turn
are supported by argument and information from sources.
Required length: 2400-3000 word count, printed double-spaced.
FOR CREATIVE PROJECTS
Be sure your project enacts or illustrates (“show, don’t tell”) relevant concepts/themes from
both courses.
Look to the authors studied in English 150 for inspiration for creative works.
Be sure your project will demonstrate why the form you choose is necessary for the message
you want to convey.
o One caution on the use of PowerPoint: occasionally in the past, students have used
PowerPoint (and other presentation software) as an end in itself – that is, simply having
the facility to combine fascinating images to accompany text seemed like being creative.
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That’s not what we have in mind. If you find yourself drawn toward the use of
presentation software, see us well in advance about your plans so we can offer
appropriate academic guidance.
Submit your project along with a 900-word commentary (printed double-spaced) that explains
the following.
o Which relevant themes/concepts you’re using from both courses.
o How your project enacts, illustrates, or examines those concepts.
o Which authors helped inspire or inform your ideas and your project.
o For multi-genre pieces, including film and songwriting, show why you needed visual
and/or audio elements to supplement textual content.
o What you intended to accomplish with your project, which specific parts of our course
content it relates to, and why the form you’ve chosen seemed the most appropriate way
to convey what you wanted to say.
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Example of Student Work This is an example of student work submitted for the Semester Project in English 150/Psychology 230, and for evaluation by the Title III Assessment Team for Integrative Learning outcomes.
A Former Life: Adolescence Semester Project
English 150 & Psychology 230 STUDENT B25
Skin
It has been stretched, and pulled.
The old peeled away, new and raw revealed.
It feels too loose and too tight.
I want to pull it in in some places,
Using my needle and thread to try and make sense of it,
And let it out in others—
Eyes are watching and they have noticed.
I can feel them piercing me,
if a look could kill.
My vulnerability, pure and untouched,
My new skin.
To Be a Best Friend
She only needed one.
To understand without speaking,
To look without seeing.
Always a mirror image, no dissonance.
She needed only one.
To capture tears with telltale hands,
To hold secrets bound at pinkies.
Always a mind alike, a body apart.
She needed one only.
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In Lust
I. Prologue
A poem was written for her.
It said: “I'll love you forever.
And until the End”.
II. Without Words
He wanted interlaced fingers,
And a love too shy to name.
She wanted sweet dreams,
And a boy too soft to have.
Together they grew,
A tree of new beginnings.
And their branches once apart,
Were intertwined.
A wordless love,
Made by gentle a single touch.
III. Name
It couldn't have been too late,
But it really is never too soon.
A matter of two became only one.
Boundaries smeared and stretched, undefiled,
And not cut between fine lines.
They were no longer two people,
And walked in one pair of shoes.
Most called it lust.
“So young, they are crazy”.
But the pair of one had a name,
They called themselves love.
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I Know You.
A snake with eyes so green,
None of which paint this world.
Your tongue licks the air,
Scents so sweet as you taste one so delicate.
A charismatic smile,
Dripping with the venom of your words,
Ones which so easily deceive.
As you methodically make your way up my body,
I feel your bite and your puncture.
My heart.
I know you—
They call you heartbreak.
Your Ocean
The sun dances on his skin,
cheeks burn red.
A piece of ocean locked within his iris.
His sails await me,
And I find myself lost in his ocean.
No map, nor compass.
None of these things are him.
I want him to be my confusion, a sightless destination.
As his waves envelop me, I am senseless.
Stained his blue,
We become infinite.
No boundaries, no direction.
Lost in each other;
But to be lost is to be found.
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Commentary
When reading the literature in English, as well as psychology, I found that I could
always relate and identify with the pieces that involved adolescence. In particular, I felt that
subject areas dealing with love and friendships were what I was most interested in. I enjoyed
the writing style of Alberto Rios in Theater of Night because it was clear and concise with
short verses. I also thought he depicted the love of Clemente and Ventura with effective
metaphors, especially his exploration with boundaries. However, I also used the metaphor of
oceans—the dark and unknown, but capable for renewal—that Linda Hogan frequently used
throughout her poetry in Rounding the Human Corners. Also, the idea of young love, as
presented in the tragedy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, was portrayed as intense,
impulsive, and passionate—feelings which I have felt similar to in my own life. Using the style
of Rios and some of the same ideas from Hogan and Shakespeare, some characteristics of
developmental psychology also played an important role in writing these poems, such as
puberty, friendship, and dating relationships.
Skin
In this poem, I concentrated on how the skin alone felt, as if it were a piece of clothing
that needed mending, because that’s how it felt to me. In Rios’ poems, he focused specifically
on the changing body of Ventura and when she noticed it in “The Mermaid Comb”, she was
intrigued by it as she stared at herself in the mirror, and examining changes she hadn’t
noticed before. This was common to my experience.
I specifically recall a time in my life, between fourth and sixth grade, where my body
just felt weird and uncomfortable. I felt disproportional and awkward. It wasn’t what I wanted
it to be, and I was growing in areas I didn’t want to, such as the thighs, hips, and chest. It just
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didn’t feel right at this time, but it was clear I was going through puberty. It felt as though my
peers gawked at me because I started puberty earlier than other girls. Research shows that
Caucasian girls who mature early or late have an increased risk of a depressed mood (DeRose,
p. 1330). However, I don’t believe I was depressed; I was just struggling with my body image
and eventually I had no issues with it. Research says that girls who mature early have
problems in early adulthood with relationships, smaller social groups, and low satisfaction
(Berk, p. 371), but as I’ve gotten older and reached early adulthood, I’ve had no lasting
troubles from my negative experiences and feelings during puberty.
To Be a Best Friend
Beginning in sixth grade, I had many friends and we were all a part of a close group,
but one girl was my best friend and she still is to this day. From sixth grade until we graduated
high school, we were attached at the hip, regardless of other friends or boyfriends. We knew
everything about each other and always knew what one another was thinking without actually
speaking. We’ve gone through our darkest and happiest times together and no one really
knows anything about our friendship except us. This characterizes what friendships look like
during adolescence, having intimacy, mutual understanding, and loyalty (Berk, p. 417). I
believe she was a crucial part to what makes me who I am today, and it is said that friendships
are important to development throughout a lifetime (Hartup, p. 79).
In Lust
I chose to write this poem because I had my first boyfriend when I was a freshman in
high school, and we were together for over two years. It took a while before our relationship
was actually serious, and we broke up a couple of times in between. I recall thinking during
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the relationship that it had been the most in love I had ever been and would ever be. Now I
laugh at myself, especially during psychology class when we talk about “personal fables”,
because I had a personal fable with this person. In the textbook, it is described as “Certain
that others are observing and thinking about them, teenagers develop an inflated opinion of
their own importance—a feeling that they are special and unique” (Berk, p. 387). We thought
“nobody understood our love and nobody would ever be able to” (my thinking at the time).
I named this poem “In Lust” because looking back, I strongly believed we loved each
other, but it wasn’t mature love and we were more infatuated with one another more than
anything. I strongly relate this to the love story of Romeo and Juliet, of how intense their love
was for one another, but it lacked maturity and was full of impulsive actions. Obviously my
former boyfriend and I were not to the extremity of Romeo and Juliet, however, I definitely
identify with their strong feelings. What I mostly took from Romeo and Juliet was that it is
common to have these feelings, but it’s also okay to let them go. I think, personally, I was
really just too young for something that seemed too mature for my age, and I was the one who
ended this relationship because I wanted to move on and the seriousness of it scared me.
I Know You
This poem was written about my second boyfriend, and the metaphor for a snake
depicts him perfectly. I also took more of an animalistic view, as Hogan does in her poetry,
and uses animals as metaphors for the human condition. Although this is a rather negative
poem about a bad relationship, it did not hinder me in the long run because I have learned
what type of person I should not have a relationship with, and as stated above, relationships
are crucial for development.
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Your Ocean
This poem is about my current boyfriend, and I felt that Hogan’s uses of ocean
metaphors fit very nicely here. She talks about oceans being dark and mysterious, yet full of
light and opportunity. She states in “Whale Rising”, “No one returns from there unchanged”,
which could mean that oceans are a place for finding adventure, and people always learn
something from an adventure. My boyfriend is like my own personal ocean, he helps me figure
out who I am and who I want to be. I combined the common theme of the exploration
between two people’s boundaries in Rios’ poetry with Hogan’s metaphors for the ocean.
Boundaries were often explored in Rios’ poems about Clemente and Ventura, specifically in “A
Marrow of Water”. Here, their boundaries are described as “blurred”, almost as if they are
becoming one person, and is how I feel about my boyfriend currently. In my poem, the ocean
gives way to no boundaries and one large being.
References
DeRose, L., Shiyko, M., Foster, H., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2011). Associations Between
Menarcheal Timing and Behavioral Developmental Trajectories for Girls from Age 6 to Age 15. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 10(40), 1329-1342.
Hartup, W., & Stevens, N. (1999). Friendships and Adaptation Across the Life Span.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(3), 76-79.
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Integrative Learning Outcome Rubric When Title III faculty assessment teams began evaluating student work approximately three years ago, they first used AAC&U’s VALUE Rubric for Integrative Learning in its original form. During the course of their work, the assessment teams revised and improved the AAC&U rubric for use on our campus. The resulting rubric, shown here, was used to evaluate the Semester Project from English 150/Psychology 230, as well as the student work from numerous other integrative learning experiences.
Learning Outcome
Below
Benchmark
(0 Points)
Benchmark 1
(1 Point)
Benchmark 2
(2 Points)
Benchmark 3
(3 Points)
Capstone
(4 Points)
LO #1 - Connections
to Experience
Student connects
relevant experiences
and academic
knowledge.
Makes no
connections to
relevant experiences
or academic
knowledge.
Identifies connections
between life
experiences and content
presented in the
academic setting
(course, texts, etc.) that
are perceived as similar
and related to own
interests.
Compares life experiences
and academic knowledge,
to infer differences as well
as similarities, and
acknowledge perspectives
other than own.
Selects and develops
examples of life experiences,
drawn from a variety of
contexts (e.g., family life,
artistic participation, civic
involvement, work
experience), that connect
two or more fields of study.
Synthesizes connections
among experiences outside
of the formal classroom
(including life experiences
and academic experiences
such as internships and
travel abroad) to
understand fields of study
and to broaden own points
of view.
LO #2 - Connections
to Discipline
Student makes
connections across
disciplines and
perspectives.
Makes no
connections across
disciplines or
perspectives, or
confines analysis to
one discipline.
Identifies varied
approaches to issues,
problems, or questions;
Begins to see
relationships between
more than one field of
study or perspective;
Presents examples,
facts, or theories from
one other field of study
or perspective, but
without intentionally or
purposefully tying
together or showing
connections.
Demonstrates an ability to
draw on more than one
discipline to address or
gain insight on a particular
problem, issue, or
question;
Intentionally utilizes
multiple perspectives in
forming responses;
Attempts to connect
examples, facts, or theories
from more than one field
of study or perspective.
Demonstrates an ability to
effectively connect examples,
facts, or theories from
multiple fields of study or
perspectives to address a
particular issue, problem, or
question;
Develops a position which
utilizes multiple perspectives
and disciplines;
Creatively incorporates
evidence from multiple
disciplines/fields.
Demonstrates holistic,
interdisciplinary
understanding of a
particular issue, problem,
or question.
Creatively draws and
supports conclusions by
intentionally combining
examples, facts or theories
from multiple fields of
study or perspective.
Interprets and explains the
conclusions using
sources/examples from
multiple relevant fields of
study and/or disciplines.
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Learning Outcome
Below
Benchmark
(0 Points)
Benchmark 1
(1 Point)
Benchmark 2
(2 Points)
Benchmark 3
(3 Points)
Capstone
(4 Points)
LO #3 - Transfer
Student adapts and
applies skills,
knowledge, or
methodologies gained
in one academic or
experiential context to
a new academic or
experiential context.
Does not use, adapt
or apply skills,
knowledge, or
methodologies
gained in one
academic or
experiential context
to a new context.
Uses skills, knowledge,
or methodologies
gained in one academic
or experiential context
in a new context in a
basic or non-explicit
way.
Intentionally uses skills,
knowledge, or
methodologies gained in
one academic or
experiential context in a
new context to convey
knowledge, or explain
problems or issues.
Intentionally adapts and
applies skills, knowledge, or
methodologies gained in one
academic or experiential
context to a new context to
solve problems or address
complex issues with
sufficient support.
Creatively adapts and
applies skills, knowledge,
or methodologies from one
academic or experiential
context to a new context to
solve difficult problems or
explore complex issues in
original ways.
LO #4 - Integrated
Communication
Student demonstrates
ability to utilize
appropriate
communication forms.
Does not use
communication
forms appropriate to
the assignment.
Fulfills the
assignment(s) (i.e. to
produce an essay, a
poster, a video, a
PowerPoint
presentation, etc.) using
an appropriate
communication form.
Fulfills the assignment(s)
by choosing a format,
language, or graph (or
other visual representation)
that connects in a basic
way what is being
communicated (content)
with how it is said (form).
Fulfills the assignment(s) by
choosing a format, language,
or graph (or other visual
representation) to explicitly
connect content and form,
demonstrating an awareness
of purpose and audience.
Fulfills the assignment(s)
by choosing a format,
language, or graph (or other
visual representation) in
ways that enhance
meaning, making clear the
interdependence of
language and meaning,
thought, and expression.
LO #5 - Reflection
and Self-Assessment
Student demonstrates
a developing sense of
self as learner and/or
of changes in own
viewpoint, values, and
understanding.
Does not identify
own viewpoint,
values, or
understanding.
Can identify own
viewpoints, values, or
understanding.
Realizes how own
viewpoint and values are
formed (impact of own
personal history,
experiences, and
interactions with others).
Evaluates changes in own
learning over time,
recognizing complex
contextual factors (e.g.,
works with ambiguity and
risk, deals with frustration,
considers ethical
frameworks).
Envisions a future self, and
possibly makes plans that
build on past experiences
that have occurred across
multiple and diverse
contexts.
Able to reflect on how own
viewpoints, values or
understanding have
changed (i.e.:
acknowledges the
contributions of others,
need for diverse viewpoints
and approaches for solving
complex problems).
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Rubric Scoring Sheet Example
This is the scoring sheet produced by the Title III Assessment Team that evaluated the Semester Projects from English 150/Psychology 230. The sample work contained in this document came from Student B25 (line #6). Note that the Semester Projects were designed to address Learning Outcome 1 (Connections to Experiences) and Learning Outcome 2 (Connections Across Disciplines). As you can see from the scores, there were considerable differences in students’ degrees of success with these two outcomes.