Procedure

Facilitator Notes:

Steps 1-4 should be given no more than 10 minutes in total to complete. Assure the students that they may miss something, but that only by forcing themselves to read under time pressure will they break the habit of reading word-by-word and begin to read as they do in their dominant language, in chunks. No one expects them to extract or understand everything from a single pass through.

Step 1: (Suggested time for reading: 1 minute per page)

Distribute the hardcopies of the instructions and different colour pens or highlighters if students do not have any. Instruct the students to skim through the instructions and mark anything they understand to be an absolute requirement for the assignment. This means they must mark instructions, that if not followed, will result in failing the assignment. They must read this quickly (suggest one minute per page).

Facilitator Notes:

The focus on reading quickly is important here. Many students, especially those students who are reading in their additional language, often read single words rather than phrases or chunks. One of the skills engineering students need is to be able to read something quickly and take advantage of several quick reads to extract relevant information. An enforced time limit helps them to break the reading word-by-word habit.

Step 2: (Suggested time for reading: 1 minute per page)

Repeat the reading process with a different colour pen to highlight/underline anything that would be beneficial to include in the assignment but is not required.

Step 3: (Suggested time for reading: 1 minute per page)

Repeat the reading process with a different colour pen to highlight/underline anything that students must not do as per the assignment instructions.

Step 4: (Suggested time for reading: 1 minute per page)

Repeat the reading process with a different colour pen to highlight/underline anything that is explanatory or provides information about the expected content.

Step 5: (Approximately 20 minutes)

Put students in groups of 2-4 (proximal is usually best so time is not wasted in moving around). Ask students to produce three lists on a large sheet of paper using their underlined/highlighted instructions as the source. Provide 1 piece of chart paper for each group, and have students make 3 lists on this page as shown below:

List 1 – Assignment requirements (what MUST be done)
List 2 – What must NOT be done
List 3 – What would be nice but is not required

Step 6: (~10-15 minutes)

Bring student attention back to the whole group. Using the lists from the groups, construct a shared Checklist. Instruct students to write a copy of this checklist down in order to use for future reference.

Facilitator Notes:

This is where the instructor can model the expected outcome/deliverable for the activity, which is a checklist that the student can use to plan and check that they have completed the assignments according to the requirements. This is also the time as the instructor moves through the list to ask students why they interpret something as a requirement, as beneficial to have, or as explanatory information. It is also when the instructor can draw attention to engineering specific use of certain words — changing them from everyday words to engineering words and the subsequent changes/shifts in meaning. This also facilitates discussion of the characteristics of engineering language (precision, directness, a level of formality or maybe even the equivalent of business casual).

Analysis of the language used facilitates noticing of specific vocabulary, collocations and how they are used. Students should be encouraged to look for these same patterns in other sets of instructions as they will help them predict what the expectations are. Noticing language patterns in order to predict expectations is a generalizable skill that evolves as students move into junior positions and part time jobs.