Each Flipped Learning Module (FLM) is a set of short videos and online activities that can be used (in whole or in part) to free up class time from content delivery for greater student interaction. At the end of the module, students are asked to fill out a brief survey, in which we adopt the minute paper strategy. In this approach, students are asked to submit their response to two brief questions regarding their knowledge of the module.
In this FLM, students are asked to view three videos, covering the purpose and importance of outlining as well as how to create outlines for reading and writing.
Key Terms
purpose, reading comprehension, hierarchy of ideas, main idea, sub-point, phrasing, structure, reverse outline
Module Overview
- The Purpose of Outlining: Creating a Visual Representation of a Text
- Outlining for Reading Comprehension
- Understanding the relative importance of ideas
- Phrasing and Structure
- How to create an outline
- Creating an outline for reading comprehension
- Outlining throughout the writing process
Download Video Transcripts
Video 1: The Purpose of Outlining: Creating a Visual Representation of a Text
Video 2: Outlining for Reading Comprehension
Outlining Online Activity 1
Read the following example of patch writing and judge whether or not it is plagiarism.
You and your classmate are working on summaries of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Gifts.” Your friend asks you to give her some feedback on her first draft. She wrote the following:
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, it degrades people to receive gifts because it makes them less independent. Whether it makes them happy or sad, “both emotions are unbecoming.” He says that if the gift is bad, it means the giver isn’t really your friend because they don’t know your spirit, but he also explains that if the gift pleases you too much, you should be ashamed because you love the gift and not the giver. True gifts should maintain a flow between the giver and receiver. The water should be at level, and in a true friendship, people share everything equally: “All his are mine, all mine his.”
It sounds familiar. You take another look at Emerson’s essay, and find the following passage:
He is a good man who can receive a gift well. We are either glad or sorry at a gift, and both emotions are unbecoming. Some violence, I think, is done, some degradation borne, when I rejoice or grieve at a gift. I am sorry when my independence is invaded, or when a gift comes from such as do not know my spirit, and so the act is not supported; and if the gift pleases me overmuch, then I should be ashamed that the donor should read my heart, and see that I love his commodity, and not him. The gift, to be true, must be the flowing of the giver unto me, correspondent to my flowing unto him. When the waters are at level, then my goods pass to him, and his to me. All his are mine, all mine his.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Gifts.” The Oxford Book of American Essays, edited by Brander Matthews, Oxford University Press, 1914.
Has your friend committed plagiarism? Why or why not? Explain in 1-2 sentences.
Video 3: How to Create an Outline
Template of a Basic Outline
Outlining Survey
Please answer the following two questions, and submit the responses to your instructor.
- What was the one most important thing you learned from this module?
- Do you have any unanswered questions for me?
Outlining In-Class Activity
Writing an outline of a course text
Goal: To practice distinguishing the relative importance of ideas in a text.
Task: Work in groups of 3-4 students and practice creating an outline of a text your professor has assigned. You will then share the outlines with other teams, and review and evaluate each outline’s effectiveness as a visual representation of the reading material.
Download Worksheet
Download Digital Implementation of the Activity
