Techno-Dialectic

Summing Up Eng 625: Theory and Practice

2009-05-13T17:19:00.003-05:00

Honestly, this has been a great class. I've learned a lot about an area in which my knowledge was weak. Plus, the learning process/experience has been collaborative, interactive, and fun or "serious play" as Dr. James Baumlin would say. Perhaps most importantly, I feel that I will retain my knowledge and abilities indefinitely.

I have learned the most from the course's combination of theory and practice. We've covered a lot of theoretical material that I had never even heard of: multiple digital literacies, "paying attention" to technology, online identity issues, and using technology to enhance pedagogy rather than as a mere tool. Reading Stuart Selber's book, Multiple Literacies for a Digital Age, opened up a new way of looking at literacy in general and technological literacy in particular. Cynthia Selfe's ideas provided an excellent starting point for my critical reflection on the socio-political dynamics of technology, nicely setting up Cheryl Hoy, Kristine Blair, and the many other course readings that took critical views on seemingly innocuous technological and pedagogical subjects. Through the course readings, I learned a great deal about incorporating technology into my teaching in ways that enhanced my purposes instead of serving as a mere tool or unnecessary adornment. In my future classes, I plan to utilize blogs, Google sites, a multimodal assignment, and other technology to more effectively teach audience awareness, purpose, thesis statements, supporting arguments, and other important aspects of rhetoric, not to mention reading and composing in digital environments.

Of course, I would not have learned nearly as much, or as well, without all of the practice that complemented our learning of the theory. By actually creating and completing a blog, a google site, and a multimodal composition, I put the theoretical concepts into practice. When I read about Selber's concept of rhetorical digital literacy, I thought it would be almost impossible for non-programmers to effectively achieve it. However, I demonstrated rhetorical literacy when I constructed my E-portfolio on my Google site and completed my multimodal composition. For instance, I set up my E-portfolio with a link to my technology narrative but once users began viewing the narrative they had to finish it before they encountered a link taking them back to the E-portfolio's introductory page. For another example, the hypermedia in my multimodal composition were carefully chosen to support my rhetoric. While I wasn't creating new software programs, these little touches show that I at least have the intellectual abilities of a rhetorically literate technology user. Without the practice to complement the theory, I would not have realized how these abilities could be developed in an English class, let alone actually developed them.

Thanks to the course's artful blend of theory and practice, I feel fully capable of helping my future students improve their functional, critical, and rhetorical digital literacies through practicing multi-modal composing, reflectively navigating digital spaces, and paying more attention to technology and its social, political, economic, and personal implications. Thanks Dr. Cadle and English 625!

Reading Response: Gaming, Writing, and Teaching

2009-04-30T16:26:00.002-05:00

I am very interested in the potential uses of gaming to teach writing. Of course, games can be used to teach narrative writing. Numerous games include strong narrative aspects, some pre-determined much like a movie or novel and others that are interactive and/or even created by the gamers. World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Fable are just a few examples.

Games' potential for teaching critical literacy is also readily apparent. Students could be encouraged to critically reflect on how they customize their avatars during their initial creation and gameplay, as well as the options provided by the game. For example, students could critically analyze how they choose to develop the avatar in Fable, how their choices are limited or influenced, etc.

Finally, I had not considered how games could directly teach writing, as in Moeller and White's, Bono's, and King's essays in the CCO gaming issue. Creating a game would be an excellent way to teach rhetorical literacy, as students would produce both a narrative and an electronic artifact.

Questions about E-Portfolio

2009-04-22T22:12:00.003-05:00

I have started organizing my e-portfolio on my Eng 625 Google Site, and I have few questions for anyone with answers.

First, how are we supposed to handle the Digital Dictionary? Since it is supposed to be included in Dr. Cadle's forthcoming anthology, should we still include it in our site? If so, is it possible to link to it? Will those with whom it is shared be able to see it as long as they're logged into a Google account? Or should we just copy and paste into a word document and then attach it? Should we try to distinguish between our individual contributions and those of our classmates?

Second, how can I capture/obtain screenshots from websites or web-browsers? I need screenshots of Zotero, Facebook, and Blackboard. I know I can take pictures of my monitor and then post those, but I would prefer to obtain higher-quality screenshots, if possible. I suppose I could take my personal laptop, which has the Zotero research on it, to the Meyer Library, hook it up to the network, print the Firefox-Zotero display, scan the printout, and then post that. Same for Facebook and Blackboard. If someone can point me toward a less convoluted process, please let me know.

Reading Response: Diversity, Discourse, and Identity Construction Online

2009-04-15T17:09:00.003-05:00

Our reading for this week revolves around the themes of diversity, discursive practices, and the construction of identities in and through digital spaces. "But I'm Just White or How 'Other' Pedagogies Can Benefit All Students," Samantha Blackmon provides a very nice pedagogy for incorporating diversity of perspective, discourse, and identity into the classroom. By encouraging all students to explore their social and cultural histories, the uniqueness of each student becomes apparent. This facilitates the opening of students' minds and perspectives, while also making them aware of the discourses that they have always taken for granted, never thinking critically about them since they were too deeply embedded within them. It's hard to see the entire forest when you're deep in the middle of it. Students also learn about their identities and the many influences upon them. I will definitely keep in mind Blackmon's suggestions for the next course I teach.

"Taking Black Technology Use Seriously" was an interesting discussion of African-American discursive practices on a predominately African-American website. Adam Banks shows how even oral discursive practices can be represented through writing. Further, he shows that these practices both create and are created by the identities of those who use them. I especially like Banks' assertion that scholars should focus on how technology is used instead of just access to it. This sets him up to make another key point--that even seemingly frivolous uses of technology (downloading rap lyrics or watching music videos) can be put to critical use. I think it's important to meet student where they are and help them grow.

The last reading, "A Real Effect on the Gameplay," was particularly interesting to me, since I have a rather extensive history with gaming. I've never played Dungeons and Dragons, although I'm familiar with it. I have played a huge amount of real-time strategy games, which typically provide an opportunity to construct or play around with an identity. For instance, in Age of Empires, you can play a campaign as Atilla the Hun. So you get to enjoy being "the scourge of God." If you're playing as your unique character, you essentially assume the roles of King and Conquerer. Quite a heady identity for a teenager. As though the spectacle of the game isn't enough, you get to assert complete mastery at a time in your life when very little seems to be in your control. I never would have thought about these issues if I hadn't read Jonathan Alexander's essay.

Reading Response to "It wasn't me, was it?"

2009-03-30T17:50:00.002-05:00

I found "It Wasn't Me, Was It?" to be the most interesting reading for this week, as far as plagiarism is concerned. "Champing at the Bit" was a nicely comprehensive yet lucid explanation of copyright laws and their trend toward favoring the author, but DeVoss and Rosati's essay hit on some really important points, including:

"American academic writing is full of often conflicting complications, the most obvious of which is expecting students to come up with and develop an original idea, while requiring them to find plenty of material to back up their supposedly new and original idea or perspective on a subject" (155).

The paradox of the original research-paper has always caused students difficulties, ranging from coming up with the original idea to finding sources to support it to preventing plagiarism. As DeVoss and Rosati point out, students often struggle to determine what counts as "common knowledge" versus what must be cited, and they sometimes engage in what Rebecca Moore Howard calls patchwriting in which they work through new concepts or information by splicing an original passage with their own writing. Howard thinks this should be given a positive value as a step in one's progress as a writer. DeVoss and Rosati steer clear of such judgments, focusing on presenting information and discussing the impact of the internet on plagiarism. Essentially, they suggest that teachers engage students in discussions of intellectual property rights, critical online research, and the like.

DeVoss and Rosati miss an opportunity to really consider how the internet is changing--and will change--our views of plagiarism and authorship. If a student scours the internet for information, selects dozens of pieces of information (text, pictures, video, etc.), and then pieces it all together into something new and original, should this be considered plagiarism if none of it is cited? If someone posts something on the internet, isn't that tantamount to saying, "Here, use this."

Let me be clear: I am not referring to copying and pasting text; if I copy and paste someone's writing, then I have copied rather than created, and that is plagiarism simply because my creativity has no hand in the creation. I am also not referring to photographs or other media that are encrypted or protected; obviously, the author of this material is not saying, "Here, use this."

But if I synthesize a variety of resources, using my creative transitioning or splicing, then am I plagiarizing, patchwriting, or authoring an original document based on research (a research paper without the artifice of "good paraphrasing"). The power of the internet as a research tool--its ease of accessing, collecting, and copying large amounts of data or media--will eventually force a change in the academic view of plagiarism and authorship. If nothing else, teachers can google images or videos just as easily as the students, thus nullifying the need to cite them, especially since the citation amounts to a "type this into google" instruction.

Teachers can also google the text to check for originality, in which case they may find that their students have done a rather remarkable job of collecting, synthesizing, and presenting a broad array of seemingly disparate sources, in a surprisingly original and individual manner. If this occurs often enough in the future, will we see it as plagiarism resulting from poor research skills or a poor understanding of copyright? Or will we view it as a more honest (and technologically advanced) version of the "original" research-paper?

Multimodal Assignment: Meta-Narrative

2009-03-22T22:52:00.003-05:00

Creating this academic blog was a very fun, interesting learning-experience. I am really glad I chose to analyze "300" in this medium. Another topic would not have been as ideally-suited to the digital environment, and a print medium would have been much too limited for "300." In contrast, the digital environment was perfect because this topic lent itself to using visual rhetoric. The images and videos really support and illustrate my analysis. In fact, they might prove my points better than my writing. There was also a lot of opportunity to use contextual hyperlinks, turning the blog into a great resource for someone who wanted to learn the historical and/or contemporary context of the movie. It would be a valuable resource even for someone who was interested only in Greek history. Inserting all the links was time-consuming but ultimately worth it.

I wish I had been able to make better use of audio clips. There were a couple places where audio would have been ideal, especially where I mention Leonidas shouting "Spartans! Prepare for Glory!" I tried to use embedded audio clips, but I found out that there were only two ways of doing so. The first was to contact the third-party website hosting the clips and get the html code. The second is to use a third-party service for creating and storing your own clips, such as Gabcast. I tried to use Gabcast, but it was very difficult to figure out and I finally gave up. I doubt that the audio-clip site I linked to in my second blog entry will be willing to release the html code for its clips, but I may try at a later date. For now, I am marginally satisfied with linking to the audio-clips. If one of my students chose this method of dealing with a technological impasse, I would be reasonably happy.

When I create a blog like this in the future, I will probably use a very similar process. I will write my text and then go back and insert the hyperlinks. I will do this more often as a I write, rather than entirely at the end. This will make it a little easier and less repetitive. I will also insert images and video to illustrate and support my main points or to simply provide context for my readers. Most likley, I will still do this at the end, after I have written my text. This way, I will know what kind of videos or images to look for. For audio-clips, I will try to find websites that provide html embedding code, just like YouTube does. If anyone knows of such a site, please let me know. In terms of the blog's overall rhetorical effect, I think it is important to choose topics that lend themselves to visual rhetoric and to effectively blend good visual rhetoric and good written rhetoric. I believe I pulled this off in this blog.

Multimodal Assignment: American Values in "300"

2009-03-22T22:04:00.008-05:00

Both the image to the right and the one centered below can be downloaded for free at the official website for the "300" movie and DVD.

To sum up the movie "300," it contains a drug-induced erotic dance (the Oracle-girl), a softly pornographic love-making scene (Leonidas and Queen Gorgo), a hedonistic semi-orgy (Xerxes' court), a multitude of digitally-enhanced pecs and abs (the Spartans), and enough blood and violence to drench a frightened by-stander. It also explicitly and implicitly expresses fundamental American values, including freedom, duty, sacrifice, honor, justice, defiance, integrity, meritocracy, patriotism, and familial loyalty, devotion, and love. Arguments can also be made for other values, especially feminism.

So what does all this mean in the grand scheme? What does it say about American culture that its core values can be bundled with heaping helpings of sex and violence in a mainstream blockbuster movie that makes hundreds of millions of dollars?

Like the Romans 1500 years ago, Americans are awed by decadent spectacle. It is not always enough to tell a good story or to portray epic events, such as the Battle of Thermoplyae, as they really occurred. Americans are bombarded with media everyday of their lives and thus become desensitized to it. Those daily lives are hectically busy, making any time investment in television, film, or literature a cramped luxury. Yet in spite of their busy lives, Americans often go to the movie theater or video store, and they have a virtually limitless selection available. Therefore, film producers must work very hard to make sure their movie compels people to spend their precious time and money on tickets, rentals, and DVDs. Sex and violence are two common methods of gaining and keeping people's attention, but Americans are so inoculated against violence and sexual suggestion that movies must continually up the ante, so to speak. "300" may seem tame compared to films thirty years from now.

Sex, violence, and good old-fashioned American values are the ingredients of a sure-fire recipe for a large audience and huge economic success. The eroticism of "300" attracts viewers based on a fundamental, undeniable human appeal. Its violence fascinates an equally basic aspect of human nature and experience. Any movie that can present either or both of these appeals will find an audience in America. The audience will be larger if these appeals are presented with any artfulness, such as striking cinematography or visual effects. And the audience will be enormous if the movie also offers core American values in a fairly uncomplicated manner. The stunning success of "300" reveals as much about Americans as it does about how to make a blockbuster.

Multimodal Assignment: American Values in "300"

2009-03-21T13:53:00.011-05:00

The image to the right can be downloaded for free from the movie and dvd's official website at http://www.300ondvd.com/300.html.

First things first, there is no doubt that the spectacle of "300" is sexual and violent. As Travers points out, "the soldiers from the Greek city-state of Sparta look gym-ready for battle in crotch-squeezing ensembles that expose as much flesh as an R rating will allow." There is an erotic dance number performed by the drugged-up, half-topless girl whose ramblings are interpreted by the Oracles. And the battle scenes are nothing if not gory and, at times, disturbingly violent (view screen shots). I will not deny the film's overt appeals to testerone-driven males and their reluctant, but eye-candy rewarded, girlfriends.

Nonetheless, a New Historicist analysis of "300" reveals numerous explicit and implicit American values in addition to its sex, violence, and artistic cinematography. Some of the explicit values include freedom, duty, sacrifice, honor, defiance, and integrity. The implicit values include meritocracy, justice, and family values such as loyalty, devotion, and love. Thus, it makes perfect sense that "300" was a smash hit with its American audience.

Integrity is an important American value explictly present in the movie. The Oracles do not grant permission for Leonidas' war-plan, which prevents him from taking the entire Spartan army to Thermoplyae. The viewers see a Persian messenger bribing these Oracles, who are like half-man, half-animal mutants. A key legislator speaks against sending the Spartan army to Leonidas' aid, and it turns out that he was also bribed with Persian gold. He is later stabbed in the gut. Due to his physical deformities, the traitor who betrays the 300 Spartans is hardly recognizable as a human. Anyone in the movie who lacks integrity is portrayed as detestable.

Meritocracy is an implicit American value used to partially justify many of our beliefs, including capitalism, plagiarism punishments, and numerous others. "300" implicitly expresses the value of meritocracy through the Spartans. Each Spartan is the equivalent of the absolute best Special Forces soldier today.

See the Spartans' discipline here:

This video was posted on YouTube by diab0lik5 on May 31, 2007. It can be found with the search, "spartans what is your profession."

The Spartans have trained harder than the Persians or any other Greek. Simply put, they are so good at fighting that it is hard (as an American who believes in meritocracy so thoroughly that this belief is mostly unconscious) not to admire the Spartans.

Early in the battle of Thermoplyae, Xerxes offers Leonidas a tempting deal. If the Spartans swear allegiance to him, he will give them wealth and an honored place at the head of the Persian army, from which they will conquer their Athenian rivals en route to the heart of Europe. However, Leonidas refuses the bargain that would have cost Sparta its independence. The glory of being Xerxes’ elite warriors, marching from conquest to conquest, was outweighed by the loss of freedom that would have accompanied it. This is very similar to Americans' sense of independence as liberty from the tyrrany of others. Leonidas' reason for turning down Xerxes' deal is the same as the Founding Fathers' motivation for revolting against King George.

This scene also features a distinctly American style of defiance and flippancy. Xerxes is trying to have a serious diplomatic conversation with Leonidas, whose every reply drips with sarcasm, disdain, and defiance. To listen to an audio clip in which Leonidas sarcastically reminds Xerxes of the Spartan slaugher of his infantry, click here and scroll down to "Culture.wav."

Furthermore, the Spartans consider it their duty to prevent the Persian Empire from swallowing their homeland, even if it costs their lives. In fact, they are very glad to sacrifice their lives because this is considered the only moral, honorable thing to do in the face of an invading force. They are willing to fight and die for freedom and for the loyalty, devotion, and love they feel for their families, who will be killed or enslaved if the Persian invasion succeeds. In the Spartan worldview, this is implicitly and intrinsically just, good, and noble. When Leonidas screams, "Spartans! Prepare for Glory!" he does not mean that the Spartans will gain glory through a defiant death; rather, they will gain it through a worthy, noble sacrifice. Americans are, and always have been, great admirers of worthy sacrifice. Americans have valorized soldiers since the American Revolution, especially those who knowingly and willingly sacrificed themselves for the greater good.

Of course, Leonidas is not entirely certain of Xerxes' chances of conquering Sparta, as shown here (scroll down to "women.wav").

Multimodal Assignment: American Values in "300"

2009-03-21T10:57:00.009-05:00

A culture's artistic expressions reveal a great deal about that culture, and the film industry is no exception. When millions of people flock to the movie theater to see the latest blockbuster, it is worth considering why so many people were motivated to spend $7 to $15 on this particular movie instead of another. From a Historicist perspective, movies would depend on the social, cultural, and political climate surrounding their production and release. The prevailing zeitgeist creates the need for and influences the content of movies like "Stop Loss," in which an Iraq War veteran rebels against the army policy of extending soldiers' enlistment periods when manpower is needed (for a deeper understanding of Historicism's anthropological origins, go here). A New Historicist perspective, on the other hand, focuses on the movie's reflection of the audience and its context (for examples, see Stephen Greenblatt and his work, especially Practicing New Historicism). Whereas Historicism uses the socio-cultural context to understand the movie, New Historicism uses the movie to understand the socio-cultural context. The more popular the movie, the more it demands an analysis of why it was so popular with its audience.

View the trailer for "300."

This video was posted on YouTube by JohnK92 on December 9, 2006, and can be found with the search, "300."

In 2007, Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel “300” earned over a million dollars per Spartan warrior. It was in theaters for months and generated an enormous amount of buzz for its surprising success, stunning visual effects, and "Sin City" style cinematography (which was also based on a Frank Miller comic series). Some movie critics are puzzled by the movie's huge success, but most view it as a powerful, profitable appeal to simplistic chest-thumping, testerone-driven males. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says, "300 is a movie blood-drunk on its own artful excess" that "dazzles as spectacle." Josh Tyler alternately praises and criticizes the movie's sensuous, erotic style and bombastic battle scenes. A.O. Scott says of the movie, "The big idea, spelled out over and over, ... is that the free, manly men of Sparta fight harder and more valiantly than the enslaved masses under Xerxes’ command." In my New Historicist analysis, however, the stunning success of "300" is anything but surprising or simplistic. Yes, the movie is a violent gore-fest with a healthy helping of sex on the side, but it is also a striking depiction of core American values and beliefs.

Both the novel and the film recount the epic "David vs. Goliath" battle of Thermopylae between the Greeks and Persians. The film begins with the childhood of Leonidas, King of Sparta. According to Spartan custom, he is raised to be a soldier from the time he is a toddler. He endures beatings, is pitted against peers in brutal hand-to-hand combat, and enters manhood after trapping and killing a massive wolf in a narrow pass. The slaying of the wolf is an obvious foreshadowing of the battle of Thermoplyae years later. The movie fast-fowards to Leonidas' adulthood and Xerxes's impending invasion of Greece. A messenger arrives in Sparta ahead of the million-man Persian army and asks for Leonidas' fealty. Leonidas ponders his options and then kills the messenger, even though he knows this will lead to war. By Spartan law, Leonidas must seek the Oracles' approval of his war-plan prior to declaring an all-out war; the legislature will not act without the Oracles' approval. Since both the Oracles and an influential legislator have been bribed by Xerxes, Leonidas cannot convince the Oracles or the legislature of Sparta to commit the army to meeting the Persian advance. Instead, he leads three hundred select warriors in a liesurely walk to "the hot-gates," the narrow mountain pass at Thermoplyae. In this crucial choke-point, Leonidas and the Spartans hold the Persian army at bay until a traitor enables the Persians to encircle the Spartans. They fight until the last man, except for one charismatic soldier who Leonidas sent away prior to the battle's end so that he could share their story and inspire the rest of Greece to oppose Xerxes and his army. (Full Plot Summary and Movie Synopsis).

Movie critic Josh Tyler states, "Snyder’s take on the film is a fantasy, the way the battle would have looked in the minds of the Greeks, as they tell the story of the 300’s sacrifice." It is very important to note that this story is told from a Spartan perspective. From a historical viewpoint, the movie is wildly inaccurate and exaggerated. But many of the film's most fantastic elements become understandable when one realizes that the voiceover present throughout much of the movie belongs to the lone Spartan survivor of the battle, who is now sharing the tale to inspire the rest of Sparta and Greece to honor the 300 Spartans by kicking the living daylights out of the Persian Army. The Oracles are described as (and look like) "in-bred swine." The traitor, who shows Xerxes a second pass, is inhumanly deformed and wretched. The Persian army utilizes ferocious monsters and creatures that exist only in Frank Miller's imagination. Xerxes is seven-feet tall and incredibly hedonistic. All of the movie's fantasy is a realistic portrayal of how the Spartans memorialized the tale. Moreover, the movie's exaggerations enable it to more acutely represent American Values.

Brainstorming for the Sample Multimodal Assignment

2009-03-20T21:10:00.003-05:00

It might just be my general level of exhaustion and near-burnout, but I am considering some off-the-wall topics for my sample multimodal assignment. I said to my wife, "I need a topic for my academic weblog." She replied, "What?" I clarified, "I need an academic topic." Then before she could reply, I said, "How about Human Trafficking?"

On the one hand, the thought of a non-English-related topic was refreshing and exciting. On the other hand, I realized how depressing it would be to write about Human Trafficking.

Then I thought of a more fun topic: a New Historicist analysis of the movie "300." I have presented this analysis to my writing students as a way of introducing analysis as a concept, practicing analysis, and discussing analytical frameworks. So I am familiar with it, and I know it can be applied to teaching. Plus, this topic could easily lend itself to multimodality and hyperlinking.

Well, I guess I've talked myself into it.

Explanation of Multimodal Assignment

2009-03-20T20:49:00.002-05:00

For Eng 625, our next assignment is the creation and completion of a multimodal assignment. I came up with a blog assignment in which students develop an academic blog focused on a particular theme or topic. Multiple entries and modalities (text, visual images, video, and audio) are required. Students are supposed to state, develop, and support a thesis, using hyperlinks and multimedia in much the same way block quotes are used in academic writing. Before beginning the assignment, students may choose to conduct brainstorming on their blogs. Afterward, they are required to blog a meta-narrative in which they reflect on their creative processes, explain the rationale behind their processes, and evaluate the overall learning experience. During and after completion of the assignment, there is an emphasis on reading and commenting on other students' blogs. Since there is an audience, there is (hopefully) an impetus for doing quality work. Now that I've explained the assignment, I'm going to begin completing it. Hopefully it will be quality work.

Regarding the Departmental Furor Over Grade Inflation

2009-03-16T23:04:00.002-05:00

I completely agree with Dr. Baumlin's assessment of the "English Department Grade Inflation" situation. Even before I read his reply to Dr. Blackmon's e-mail, I was telling fellow teaching assistants that our department's grades should be higher because we use process-oriented pedagogy. If our students' first round of essays adhere to the standard bell curve prior to revision, then the combination of peer feedback, instructor feedback, and student revision should increase each student's grade. If the quality of their writing and thus their grades are not increasing from draft to draft, or assignment to assignment, then we are not doing our jobs as teachers of the writing process.

I also agree with Dr. Baumlin that assuming a stubborn, intransigent stance toward the administration will not do us any good. Instead, we need to closely analyze the context of the grade inflation numbers and justify our pedagogy. If we do indeed need to adjust our standards, then we can do that. But we should do it for good pedagogical reasons, not because a decontextualized, irrational fear of grade inflation says we should.

Finally, I partially agree with Jean Stringam's caustic indictment of the administration for encouraging retention (i.e. easier classes, higher grades) and then expressing shock and awe at grade inflation. I do not share her belief in the administration's hypocrisy. However, I do think it is rather interesting that we (as educators and a society) demand improved education and then question ourselves when assessment shows improvement. With this kind of attitude, we will never be happy with our educational institutions. They will always either be failing or coddling students.

Comps are Over, Thesis virtually Complete

2009-03-15T10:24:00.002-05:00

Once again, the title says it all. I took my Comps yesterday morning. Got some good questions, wrote some good answers. I am happy with myself. I tormented myself with the formatting of my thesis for the rest of the day.

I happened to catch a presentation on writing a thesis on Friday afternoon (long story), which focused almost entirely on lower-order concerns such as page numbering, formatting, etc. So I went to my office and spent pretty much all of friday night studying for comps, working on my thesis, and talking to fellow TAs about various topics of interest (including, of course, comps). Then Saturday afternoon and evening I spent hours reformatting tables, double and triple-checking page numbering, messing around with my signature pages because of page numbering snafus (looooong story), writing a cover letter for my oral comps portfolio, and completing a couple semi-overdue homework assignments.

On Friday night, I got home a little before midnight and Saturday night I got home a little before nine. This, after I had planned to spend a couple hours putting the triumphant touches on my thesis and then having fun the rest of the day and night. At least I allowed myself to watch "Wonder Boys" when I finally got home.

I suppose it was all worth it. I learned a ton of useful material thanks to studying for so many questions, and I will be able to submit the review copy of my thesis on Monday. I've already put my oral comps exam portfolio in one of my reader's mailboxes. Now I need to get off the computer and the couch and go to work until 9 p.m. Yay.

To end on a bright-spot: I really, really enjoyed the relaxing, fun lunch with all my friends. We deserved it after Comps.

Studying for Comps

2009-03-11T22:26:00.002-05:00

The title basically says it all. I have been cramming for the last week or so. I'm not sure how the English Department expects us to study for comps while keeping up with our course reading, paper writing, teaching, grading, and off-campus jobs (which most of us have because we're paid so little). Somehow we do it though. I know most TAs are studying harder than I am. I've been very fortunate in having some great classes that have really prepared me for the comps exam. My thesis also helped. One of my TA friends said he's read about forty articles in the last week. If I combine journal articles, anthologized essays, books, and portions of books, I must have read the equivalent of sixty, maybe seventy articles for my thesis. Plus, I have a nice background on Plato, Aristotle, and other notable rhetoricians. So it hasn't been that bad, but I definitely have a headache.

Seminar Paper Brainstorming

2009-03-06T22:15:00.003-06:00

Right now, I am planning to write my seminar paper on the use of Facebook as a teaching tool. I had never thought of using Facebook for teaching, but it makes a lot of sense. While Blackboard has an academic, "teacher-ish" feel to its interface, Facebook has plenty of "street-cred" with college students. They are accustomed to using Facebook to connect and interact with friends, often through silly applets, groups, status updates, etc. Whereas students usually feel obligated to get on Blackboard for class purposes, they may actually enjoy getting on Facebook since they can do so many non-class related things on it. At the least, they may not mind taking the time to visit the course Facebook group while they're sending people bumper-stickers or writing on someone's wall. The increased social capital of Facebook would be one its biggest advantages. Its only disadvantage (that I can think of right now) would be the lack of a "gradebook." Other than that, I think a Facebook group can accomplish everything else you can do on Blackboard.

I've found a surprising number of articles on the use of Facebook in teaching. I haven't had time to actually read through them yet, but the titles are promising.

Zotero: Truly the Next Generation of Research Tools

2009-02-25T14:20:00.003-06:00

I started working on my Zotero presentation today, using it for some very preliminary research for a paper I will eventually write for my Modern Rhetorical Theory class. And I really, really, really wish I had discovered Zotero a long time ago.

Zotero allows you to compile in one place all of your research on library websites, databases and indexes, and the WWW. Within the same web-browser, you can view a source found on JSTOR, then look at a website, then go to a search result for a book, and then return to the JSTOR source. How do you add all of these sources to your Zotero library? When you find them, click on the little icon in the URL address bar. It's that easy. Even better, you can minimze Zotero so your view of the browser window is unobstructed; yet the archiving function works whether Zotero is visible or minimized.

Once you have all of your sources collected in this one place (the Zotero extension on your Firefox Browser), you can then organize them into folders, add notes about them, or even use floating digital sticky-notes to annotate the digital text. You can even highlight. You can search certain key-word tags that Zotero automatically establishes as you build your library; this enables you to quickly find which source or sources relate to a certain concept you're writing about. You can also add your own tags as needed. And you can search for terms or keywords within the documents in your library, making it even easier to cross-reference sources.

Essentially, Zotero allows you to build and organize your very own customizable database. Oh, did I mention that you can export fully-formatted citations in one of about twenty different styles? You don't have to input any data or even know what is required by your citation style. This feature alone makes using Zotero more than worthwhile. I am looking forward to sharing the Zotero fever in class tomorrow night.

On Stuart Selber's "Rhetorical Literacy"

2009-02-12T12:07:00.002-06:00

Since Rhetorical Computer Literacy builds on and utilizes both Functional and Critical Literacy, this is clearly Selber's crown jewel of technological literacy, so to speak. The key distinction between Rhetorical and Critical Literacy is that the former entails thoughtful production in addition to thoughtful observation and/or utilization. To produce interface systems, however, requires a great deal of technical knowledge that many Humanities and English faculty may not be able to obtain. If Humanities teachers were technologically inclined, they probably wouldn't be humanities teachers. Of course, many Humanities teachers can and do master advanced technology. However, I think it will take a great deal of education and effort to teach students to be Rhetorically Literate if we must first learn and then teach how to produce computer interfaces. At the least, one would have to take programming classes to learn to create software, a task for which many very smart people get paid very big bucks.

Of course, the above critique assumes that teachers and students are aiming to produce interfaces from scratch. Google, in its democratizing philosophy, has made it incredibly easy for the average computer user to construct a website. Yet the structure, content, and dissemination of a Google site are all influenced by Google's software design, if we accept Selber's arguments. To truly break free of any influence, we need to create our own interfaces, putting us back at the conundrum of mastering advanced uses of technology without extensive technical training and knowledge. It seems to me that Computer Science/Engineering students should be reading Selber along with English and Humanities students, who could potentially help Computer Science/Engineering students to recognize the political, social, and rhetorical influences of their work.

Well...

2009-02-12T11:56:00.002-06:00

If everyone else has been as busy as I've been lately, then no one has had time to work on their technology narratives, let alone post feedback on others' narratives. So this general feedback shouldn't be wasted. I was going to post individualized feedback, but it's been a week since I saw all the narratives and I'm not sure which narrative goes with which person. Plus, I'm not entirely sure about the ownership of all the blogs. In any case, posting general comments to my blog is probably more efficient anyway, since theoretically everyone will read this post.

In general, I liked the content and creativity of each of the narratives. Each site featured the author's unique perspective and approach. The text, graphics, and other elements all reflected cohesive narratives that informed the audience about the author's experience and the broader issues/concerns of technological change. In terms of constructive criticism, I noticed that most of the sites did not incorporate graphics or other media in a rhetorical manner. In other words, the pictures were usually placed between blocks of text without aesthetic consideration. I've noticed that most professional websites place graphics, buttons, videos, etc. in a way that directs the viewer's attention to them while simultaneously allowing the viewer to ignore or skip over them to focus on the text itself. Obviously, we're all beginning web-designers who are still learning how to use google sites, so I'm sure that our revisions will vastly improve in this area.

Meta-Discourse on Technology Narrative

2009-02-04T09:28:00.003-06:00

In my narrative, I am progressing chronologically through my most noteworthy experiences with computers. I started with my first major experience and moved on to the major experiences/uses of my youth. I plan to describe my more recent experiences using technology as a teacher/student. Finally, I will conclude with some general reflections.

Interestingly, I've been focusing on the textual aspect of my narrative and neglecting other media. It makes sense that I would want to devote most of my energy in the early stages to something I'm already comfortable with, while saving the things I'm less comfortable/experienced with for later stages of my "composing" (I use composing loosely since this narrative is multimedia). This way, I can rest assured that I have a strong base that can only be complemented effectively or ineffectively, not destroyed or marred. To use a house-building analogy: once I lay the foundation and build the frame of my narrative (website), I can more freely experiment with the wall-paper and carpeting.

The above makes sense for any kind of "composing" (or creative systems-building, if you will). George Jensen and John DiTiberio describe in "Personality and Individual Writing Processes" how writers have "preferred" and "non-preferred" writing processes based on their personality traits; writers tend to use their preferred processes early in the writing process and then consciously use their non-preferred processes when revising in order to round out their writing. Not only is this concept really helpful for understanding one's own writing process, overcoming writing blocks, etc., but it also greatly aids teaching.

On Cynthia Selfe's Concept of "Paying Attention"

2009-01-26T09:38:00.002-06:00

Cynthia Selfe's essay, "Technology and Literacy: The Perils of Not Paying Attention," was very interesting and thought-provoking. Her thesis is right on the money, although I'm not as certain about the appropriateness of her "doomsday" tone. For the most part, it was very well-written; I agreed with many of her arguments. However, there were a few parts that lost me.

I completely agree with Selfe when it comes to the necessity for English Professors, Writing teachers,and others to "pay attention" to technology. She argues that academics in the Humanities, particularly English and related fields, regard technology merely as a "tool" to be used or ignored according to one's pedagogical/technological preferences. Either option leads to the same result: willful ignorance of the social, cultural, and economic contexts of technology when framed as a literacy (i.e. the consequences when society formally or informally rewards/punishes people for their ability/inability to use computer technology). This willful ignorance amounts to a tacit acceptance and support of the current status quo, which consists of rampant racial and social inequality in terms of access to technology and concomitant economic opportunity. The point of technology literacy programs, Selfe reminds us, is to enhance peoples' educational and economic prospects. If people are denied technology literacy because of social or racial factors, then they are necessarily denied educational and economic opportunities due to those same factors. Unless we are aware of the many implications of technology as literacy, we cannot positively influence the societal impacts of technology literacy. And we cannot be aware of these implications if we view technology merely as a pedagogical or money-saving tool--that is, if we do not pay attention to technology's social and cultural impacts.

While reading the essay, it is tempting to dismiss the seriousness of Selfe's claims because the "doomsday" tone makes the reader feel as though she's stating, "Unless we fix our understanding of technology literacy, Western civilization will crumble within a decade!" It's hard to think technology plays such a powerful, potentially dangerous role in society. Yet Selfe points out that technology is most dangerous when it becomes so widespread and pervasive that it "disappears." I realized that part of my urge to dismiss her claims resulted from the camoflauge of technology. Cell phones, computers, and other devices are so common that it's hard to remember when they didn't exist. It's also hard to realize just how much they've changed society until you step back and really think about it.

I'm still not entirely sure, based on Selfe's arguments, whether the racial and social gaps in technology access are caused by the conception of technology literacy and/or by academics "not paying attention." Her facts about school funding/technology inequities are dead-on, but I think these disparities are more the result of a couple decades of "White Flight" and urban degeneration and the inevitable inequality of funding schools through property taxes. If more white people have more access to technology than blacks or latinos, I am hesitant to blame this solely on a lack of "critical technology literacy" on the part of society/academics. I think the culprit lies with the way we fund public schools, the greater access to private schools and home-based technologies afforded upper-class people, and other social factors. Selfe's argument starts to break down when she narrows the issue to concepts of technological literacy and ignores even larger political, economic, social, and cultural trends. For instance, she argues that the technology literacy program instituted by Clinton and Gore was designed to produce a self-fueling economic engine driven by a highly technologically literate segment of society and a highly technologically illterate segment. But this just doesn't make sense. If the goal is creating a large market, then why create a system dependent on excluding some from that market? Further, I do not see why low-paid, low-skilled labor is essential to providing the excess labor necessary to fuel technology economy. It seems that high-skilled, high-paid labor is the only requisite.

That said, Selfe's overall point is a good one. We should pay more critical attention to literacy. However, I am not as quick to foretell doomsday.

Return to Blogging

2009-01-21T09:15:00.002-06:00

To everyone who used to read this blog and who might stumble across it again, I am returning to blogging after a long hiatus, once again for a class. This time, I'm taking Eng 625: Rhetoric of Digitial Spaces. New blog posts will feature my responses to class discussion topics, reflections on the role of technology in Composition and teaching, etc.

I chose to return to my old blog because it is already set up more or less to my liking. I will probably change the title at some point, when I can think of a suitably apt yet creative title (Eng 625 Blog just seemed soooo boring). I may change the background, but right now I'm reasonably happy with it. Just good old plain brown to mark a stark contrast with the text. Essentially, my reason for using this old blog boils down to convenience. It was already set up for me to begin blogging away.

Until Next Time

2008-05-11T21:29:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone. Have a fantastic summer, take care, and keep in touch!

Responding to Student Writing

2008-04-28T09:55:00.002-05:00

I happen to be writing a paper over this topic this semester, and I'll be writing a thesis over it in the fall. I've done quite a bit of research for my paper and my thesis proposal, which I decided to share on this blog since the topic came up in 603 today. Below is a summary of the more important articles on responding to student papers (the paper I'm currently working on is in APA style, so forgive the formatting).

In “Responding to Student Writing,” (1982) Nancy Sommers discovered that “teachers’ comments can take students’ attention away from their own purposes in writing a particular text and focus that attention on the teachers’ purposes in commenting” (Sommers, p. 149) (original emphasis). In other words, teachers appropriate their students’ texts by directing students to focus on areas that the teacher — rather than the student — deems important. Sommers says this appropriation occurs most frequently when teachers comment extensively on grammar, word choice, and style in the first draft, which gives students an exaggerated idea of theses elements’ importance. She advocates a “scale of concerns” that weights comments on organization and logic more than comments on spelling and grammar (p. 151).

Most disastrously, teachers’ comments often give contradictory messages. Sommers provides a facsimile of a student paragraph in which the instructor has written “wordy” above multiple sentences and “This paragraph needs to be expanded” in the margin (p. 150). Such unclear contradiction could be a cause or a symptom of Sommers’s next finding, “that most teachers’ comments are not text-specific and could be interchanged, rubber-stamped, from text to text” (p. 152)(original emphasis). The students Sommers, Brannon, and Knoblauch interviewed all admitted great difficulty with interpreting their teachers’ vague directives. Rather than helping the students, comments such as “choose precise language” or “think more about your audience” transformed revising into “a guessing game” (Sommers, p. 153).

Vivian Zamel’s 1985 study of 15 ESL teachers' comments, “Responding to Student Writing,” asserts that “teachers respond to most writing as if it were a final draft, thus reinforcing an extremely constricted notion of composing” and “teachers’ marks and comments usually take the form of abstract and vague prescriptions and directives that students find difficult to interpret.” She adds, “Rarely was a question asked or a suggestion made that gave students real direction” (p. 92). When such comments did appear, however, it indicated that the instructor expected substantial revision rather than mere surface-level correctness.

Zamel concludes that vague commentary and abstractions should be replaced with “text-specific strategies, directions, guidelines, and recommendations” (p. 95). Second, there needs to be a scale of concerns or priorities in instructor comments and students’ revisions, with meaning-level issues coming first and foremost (p. 96). Finally, Zamel argues that instructors should respond to student writers (people) rather than student writing (product) (p. 97).

In “Across the Drafts” (2006), [not to be confused with "Between the Drafts"] Nancy Sommers reports and discusses the findings of a four-year longitudinal study of 400 Harvard students. Sommers claims that “most comments, unfortunately, do not move students forward as writers because they underwhelm or overwhelm them, going unread and unused. As one student suggested, ‘Too often comments are written to the paper, not to the student’” (p. 250). Furthermore, nearly 90% of the students in the study “urge faculty to give more specific comments” (p. 251). She concludes from the study that “feedback plays a leading role in undergraduate writing development when, but only when, students and teachers create a partnership through feedback—a transaction in which teachers engage with their students by treating them as apprentice scholars, offering honest critique paired with instruction” (p. 250). In addition, Sommers examines the role of the student, a topic that has been neglected in most professional literature. Even if instructors engage their students as “apprentice scholars,” the student must be willing “to accept and benefit from feedback, to see it as instruction, not merely judgment” (p. 253).

In “Recovering the Conversation: A Reponse to 'Responding to Student Writing' via 'Across the Drafts'” (2006), Carol Rutz agrees with Sommers’s assessment that virtually all scholarship on responding to student writing has neglected the student’s role, as well as the classroom or social context of instructor feedback. The problem, Rutz argues, is that previous studies have focused on textual analysis, which cannot answer questions about students’ reaction to comments, how classroom instruction influences students’ decisions about revising, why instructors comment on particular things, and so forth (p. 258). Rutz finds in her own study that “clear messages between teachers and students about how drafts will be read promote meaningful communication” (p. 261)(emphasis in original).

If anyone's curious: For my thesis, I plan to look at the length of comments, their directiveness, and the concomitant (un)helpfulness of said comments. I'm also going to consider students' personality types and language proficiency to determine which comments help which students the most or least. I plan to examine three sections each of Eng 100, 110, and graduate-level classes. So if anyone's intrigued and would like to have their students participate, please let me know.

Finally, if anyone is interested in more information on this topic, I can post the citations to several more good articles.

Rutz, C. (2006). Recovering the Conversation: A Reponse to 'Responding to Student Writing' via 'Across the Drafts'. College Composition and Communication , 257-62.

Sommers, N. (2006). Across the Drafts. College Composition and Communication , 248-57.

Sommers, N. (1982). Responding to Student Writing. College Composition and Communication , 148-156.

Zamel, V. (1985). Responding to Student Writing. TESOL Quarterly , 79-101.

Writing What We Teach and the Danger of Modeling

2008-04-25T09:35:00.002-05:00

After reading several posts about the Writing What We Teach assignment, I've noticed that almost everyone plans on using the assignment as a model for the textual/critical analysis. Some seem very open to doing so, while others seem a bit more hesitant to present his/her writing as a model to be emulated or imitated. I think it is important to ask ourselves about the purposes, benefits, and dangers of modeling.

Obviously, the purpose is to give our students some idea of how to do the assignment. They benefit by having a model on which to base their efforts. The danger is inherent. If students base their writing on the model, are they really learning to write? Furthermore, if the model is the teacher who has power over their grades, then aren't students forced to model or imitate their teacher's process/writing in order to get a good grade? Of course, "forced" may be too strong of a word. They may choose not to imitate the teacher's writing, but wouldn't a shrewd student quickly realize the advantages of doing so?

Because of the above dangers, I think we need to be careful with how we present models to our students, especially when we are the models. The authors of the readings we assign are not in control of students' grades, are not in the classroom, or even in the same century sometimes. Hence, they may provide inspiration or ideas, but most students (I don't think) are going to say, "Wow, I should try to write exactly like So-and-So." Thus, assigned readings are benign but helpful models. The teacher's model, however, implies that this is how it is done. For that reason, I think we should try to present our model as one of many alternatives and then grade accordingly instead of expecting (consciously or unconsciously) to see our writing mirrored back to us.

When I presented my Writing What We Teach drafts to my students, I emphasized the structure in order to give them a rough outline of what they could do, adding extra emphasis on the could. I also emphasized the choices I had made, telling them that writers make choices that have advantages and disadvantages. Fortunately, some of my students were quick to point out the disadvantages. I told them I had a problem with being very wordy, especially with long introductory phrases, and showed where I had cut a couple very long introductory phrases, improving the writing in my opinion. Multiple students disagreed, arguing that the shorter sentence lacked the original's style, detail, and substance. Not only did it boost my ego, but it illustrated that I'm just a fallible writer whose choices sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, just like them.

The Failing Class

2008-04-16T08:14:00.002-05:00

The scenario: 0ut of twenty-two students, two submitted all required materials while twelve did not submit rough drafts and twelve did not submit reflective writings. The syllabus policy allows but does not dictate that twenty students receive F grades for not submitting everything required. This occurrs approximately midway through the semester.

Since this is not the first paper the students have turned in, I can assume that they knew what was required and how to fulfill said requirements. Therefore, the only logical explanations are 1) the students somehow thought that the rough drafts and reflection essays were not due for this particular paper, 2)the students did not care enough to remember to turn in their rough drafts and/or write the reflection essays, 3) the students decided that requiring these materials was stupid and refused to submit the rough draft or write the reflection essay, or 4) the students did not have time to write reflective essays because of other coursework, jobs, personal crises, etc.

I am not a good mind-reader, so I would ask my students as a class why they did not turn in all of the materials. If the students were resistant, I would find out the reasons why they resisted the policy and consider whether it should be revised to better serve my students. If it was a misunderstanding, then I would make sure to clear it up. If they were apathetic, I would try to impress upon them the importance of the rough drafts and the reflective essays to them as writers and me as a grader. If they were overwhelmed by coursework, I would give them another chance to turn in the required materials without penalty and implore them to let their instructors know ahead of time when they needed extra time on particular assignments, like reflection essays. In all cases, I would not assign grades until I received the required materials. For the next paper, I would explicitly state what they needed to turn in with the final draft.

My First Conference

2008-04-14T09:39:00.002-05:00

I went to my first academic conference this weekend, the Mid-Atlantice Writing Center Association conference at Temple University in Philadelphia. It was a wonderful experience. My paper presentation went really well. Every time I glanced up from my reading, my listeners seemed to be alert and engaged, a stark contrast to the dead-eyed stares I often see from my 110 students. As I finished, I noticed several people smiling with apparent appreciation. Then a couple people asked questions about my paper, including requests for bibliographic information about my subject. When I offered my entire paper (I came prepared to give -- and to take back with me -- copies of my paper), they seemed very happy to receive them. I also met several nice people and asked for some of their papers. All in all, it was great to go from room to room of intelligent people who were passionately discussing topics of common interest. It was like one Socratic Symposium after another, minus the drunkeness and togas.

Among the many things I learned about this weekend, a couple are worth briefly mentioning here. First, one presenter analyzed Academic Discourse in terms of personality types, concluding that Academic Discourse has a INTJ or perhaps a INFJ personality type. Rather than teach students to become INTJs, however, we should teach students to "method act," becoming the persona of the academic personality. Second, some writing center directors and tutors are beginning to dialogue with professors about their expectations for and instruction of students. For example, one tutor sent about twenty-five e-mails to the same instructor in the same day (they were required to bring their paper in), all explaining the same exact difficulties understanding the assignment. Finally, the tutor sent an e-mail telling the instructor to consider re-teaching this area. The instructor was all too happy to take this suggestion. As a T.A., this anecdote makes me want writing center tutors to provide me with this kind of valuable information, both for individual students and my classes as a whole. Although I have never wanted to require Writing Center visits, I think having tutors' feedback on an entire class would be invaluable.

I also was able to see a lot of Philly in a short amount of time. My hotel was in the middle of downtown. I walked to City Hall, down to Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Carpenter's Hall, a couple other sights, a couple war memorials, and the nightlife scene of South Street. Jim's Steaks truly are the best Philly Cheese Steaks in the world!

The highlight of the entire trip, however, was seeing Stephen Colbert walk out of Independence Hall and film a segment for his show! Amazing! Pictures will be posted to Facebook soon.

2008-03-31T16:11:00.002-05:00

My passion for reading has permeated my teaching more than any of my other passions and interests. Reflecting on my pedagogy, I realize that an emphasis on reading has influenced my classroom without me even realizing it. Last semester, for example, I was mortified that my students didn't enjoy some of our course readings, which I honestly thought were amazing. Who doesn't like Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" or David Sedaris's "Cyclops"? I tried to encourage them to read texts analytically, so that they would have something to say in our class discussions, which resembled creative writing workshops. I showed them an essay I had annotated, which resulted in a collective gasp. We practiced analyzing and annotating an essay in class, much to my frustration since they weren't as quick to recognize certain elements (like the thesis) as I would have liked. We slogged through the rest of the semester's readings, and I felt like some of them would never again pick up a book. Surprisingly, many of last semester's students stated in a customized survey I gave them that they wanted more, repeat, more reading. Specifically, they wanted some short stories, novel excerpts, and other creative pieces.

So this semester, I gave my students short stories and book excerpts galore. I packed a lot of reading into the beginning of the semester, trying to give them practice in analyzing texts and material on which to write their critical analyses. I overdid it a little bit. Like last semester, many students did not like the readings I assigned, a fact of life that I have come to accept and even enjoy. Students are more likely to have specific reasons for disliking a reading than for liking it. By disagreeing with me (whether stated or not), they develop independent, critical thinking skills. Nancy Welch writes in "Revising a Writer's Identity," that reading can be a form of "Re-modeling" in which students recognize that they are not perfectly mirrored in texts or in the teacher who they would imitate to be successful (remember Bartholomae's "Inventing the University"). So if a student doesn't like Flannery O'Connor, then he or she recognizes that I, the mighty teacher, am not the end-all, be-all of literature; nor is the student compelled to be invested in the work, unless he/she wants to rip it apart. One of my students this semester wrote a very good critical analysis of Raymond Carver's "A Small, Good Thing," in which she scathingly criticized certain elements while highlighting the saving grace of others.

Although I am interested in Comp/Rhet and Literature, I am also a fiction writer, as shown by some of my reading selections above and the fact that I typically conduct discussions of said readings exactly like a creative writing workshop. I ask students what they think of the readings, sometimes providing a specific question or issue. I consider their comments, reinforce them with an affirming response that may or may not take their thoughts a little further, and encourage as many people as possible to participate. I love it when our conversations become living things, when I don't get to talk for ten solid minutes except to call on people with respectfully raised hands, when someone surprises me with a fresh interpretation that I had never and would never have thought of in my entire life. This workshop style of discussing texts is just as unconscious, I now realize, as my emphasis on reading. I don't plan to change my style with my new-found knowledge, but I think I will try to pull students who don't share my passion into the conversation through methods such as direct questioning, writing responses, mini-debates, and engaging their interests and passions whenever possible.

Student Resistance

2008-03-18T12:52:00.002-05:00

I blogged about the Writing What We Teach assignment earlier this semester, so I'm going to focus this post on a topic of recent interest. Let me begin with some stories.

I check my e-mail this morning. One was sent at 10:05 p.m. last night, informing me of the student's impending absence today due to an orthodontist appointment. I dare say that the orthodontist appointment was scheduled prior to 10:00 p.m. last night.

Another e-mail me informs me that the student is already back home for the break, but she will be happy to e-mail her paper to me if that is okay with me.

A third e-mail claims that the student had printer problems, but here is the draft as an attachment. This student does not show up for class just a short while after she sent the e-mail.

Finally, I look out at my students and say, "How about this? Anyone who doesn't care and doesn't want to be here can just leave. If anyone is left, we'll have a conversation." One student asks if there will be a penalty for leaving. I reply, "If you don't care, why should I care?" He packed his things and left.

I tell these stories to illustrate the vast gulf between my students and myself. First of all, I never would schedule an appointment during one of my classes unless it was absolutely unavoidable and necessary. And if I did so, my instructor would be the first person to know, with many apologies, and I would probably turn my paper in early. Second, I would have asked permission to go home early prior to actually going home. Third, there are too many computer labs (including three 24 hour ones) on this campus for a student to not print out his or her paper successfully. I will give this student credit for e-mailing the paper to me, but I suspect that this was her way of skipping class (she has had spotty attendance at best). Fourth, I would never have had the guts to walk out of the classroom, blatantly declaring my lack of interest in a subject to which my instructor has devoted a significant portion of his life.

I have to admire this student for his courage, however rude it may have been. I threw down the gauntlet, fully expecting the entire class to leave, and he picked it up without hesitation.

These recent events tell me the following: my students are resisting the class as much as possible. I think some of this resistance is passive. It was a coincidence, I'm sure, that the student scheduled his orthodontist appointment for class time. But I interpret his actions as resistance based on the fact that he didn't think twice and reschedule and then didn't bother letting me know about his absence until almost literally the eleventh hour. Similarly, the student who went home early probably didn't intend to resist the class; she simply wanted to go home early. But since she didn't ask if it was okay before she left, it's like she went over to a friend's house without her parent's permission and then called to ask if it was okay since she was there already. At best, this is unconscious high school behavior. At worst, it's conscious and pre-planned.

The student getting up and leaving (no one else even moved by the way) is definitely the most active resistance. So far, my response to student resistance (now that I look back) has been akin to pleading. I've almost begged them to be engaged in our class sessions, to take an interest and maybe write something down every now and then if that helps them stay awake. I've told them how I want them to enjoy the class, how it's supposed to be for their benefit, not mine. Nonetheless, there are only a couple students who "open" themselves enough to get much out of our class discussions.

My recent experience combined with the case-study I'm working on for Dr. Weaver's 621 class has prompted me to consider ways in which I can channel student resistance into a positive force. With my case-study, I think I could help my student to "transcend" his assignments, making them fit his interests. While this may seem like common sense to us T.A.s, my case-study student has never fully realized that he can write about anything he wants.

My current students are pretty much locked in for the Research and Position papers, unless they change their topics. I am would like to approach the Memoir and Revision paper assignments in a way that focuses their resistance without them realizing it. Perhaps I could focus the Memoir on a time when they bucked a trend or refused to do something, thus exerting their independence. Maybe the Revision paper could take a satirical approach to a previous paper. Any thoughts, ideas, comments, suggestions?

Lessons from the Pedagogical Landscapes

2008-03-03T14:12:00.002-06:00

In Eng 603 today, I feel that I learned some meaningful things. Although all of the "landscapes" my colleagues drew were quite different and unique, I noticed that all of them fell into one of two broad categories. My drawing, and many others, focused on the lone teacher struggling to synthesize various conflicting and complementing pedagogies, such as progressivism versus critical pedagogy or expressivism versus cognitivism. These drawings often featured a stick-figure either under the influence of theorist stick-figures or spying on theorist stick-figures. The other group of drawings gave the students a greater amount of attention. Kara's, for example, featured the teacher leading a line of students up a mountain (if a better metaphor for what we do exists, please let me know). Charity's drawing represented the teacher at various stages in her relationship with her students (Gatekeeper, Coach, Collaborative leader).

Dr. Cadle made a comment on this latter group of drawings, calling them "student-centered." Something clicked when she said that. I am a neo-platonist in many respects. I think there are universal truths concerning knowledge, life, love, etc., and that there are manifold manifestations of these truths. As a teacher, I'm trying to figure out the best way, the truth, of teaching and edifying my students. Thus, I try to synthesize the best of educational philosophy, from Plato to Vygotsky, from Shaughnessy to Bartholomae.

Perhaps, however, I should spend more time considering which truth, way, or philosophy works best for my students. Maybe the general attitude/personality of the students should dictate whether I approach them from an expressivist point of view or a classical perspective, as opposed to me asserting a cognitive model in this context and a progressive paradigm in another. In any case, I will try to consider centering the approach -- and not just the discussions -- on my students rather than what Bartholomae says about academic writing.

Issues, Issues, Issues

2008-02-22T14:38:00.002-06:00

Since our next 603 class is supposed to be devoted to issues, I'm going to discuss some things that have really been irking me this semester, as well as some possible ways of dealing with them. For starters, I have some students who like to text/nap/talk while I'm speaking, which is tolerable for me up to a point. It doesn't bother me so much at the beginning of class, when I'm just chatting while waiting on any stragglers, outlining an activity we're going to do, or just discussing generalities. But later on when I'm talking about specific, they-need-to-know information, it drives me crazy to see someone with his/her head leaned back against the wall, eyes closed, or two girls chatting in the corner, about a weekend adventure no doubt, or a guy texting someone.

I know some material is boring and/or too simple for college level intellects, but I wouldn't waste their time going over it if they knew it or if I knew all of them could figure it out. But whenever I assume my students can do things on their own and I tell them something like, "Format your paper so that it looks like the sample paper in A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker," a large percentage of them invariably turn in something that could have been formatted out of "Derek Zoolander's Guide to College Writing for Kids who Want to Learn to Write and Do Other Things Good Too." So I take the trouble to hold their little hands and draw an example on the board. And I still get some papers that are not formatted correctly. Of course, formatting isn't a big deal in the grand scheme, but it would be nice if some students took the time to get it right. Or to proofread. Or to write coherent and/or cohesive sentences.

I've found that I tend to snap after so much pressure. Earlier this semester, I chewed out a student who hadn't done the assigned reading after struggling to have a discussion with an entire class of people who didn't do the reading. Yesterday, I told one guy who had his eyes closed, "You're not feeling well, are you? I understand. Try to stay awake, though. I want you to hear what I'm saying." Then when I caught another girl -- who usually participates a lot -- sleeping, I just snapped at the whole class, telling them how I was sick and tired of their crap.

I suppose it's all my own fault for being tolerant in the first place. How can I expect them to stay awake/keep their eyes open if I give the first person an understanding pep talk? How can I expect the repeat texters to keep their cell phones in their pockets when all they have to do is say, "I'm sorry" when I look at them and then I just go on with the lecture.

So, I am thinking about taking a hard-core approach from now on. For example, I've told my students that they need to bring A Writer's Reference with them on Tuesday. If someone doesn't have it, I'm considering telling that person to leave since he/she is unprepared for class. But, what if one of my "good" students forgets his/her book? I can't show favoritism (although some definitely deserve the benefit of the doubt whereas others deserve a kick in the butt). I can't bring myself to harshly penalize someone who made his/her first slip-up all semester. So as much as I want to take an uncompromising white-and-black view of things, I'm too cognizant of the grey areas.

Perhaps I would be better-served to address their behavior through their grades. I've given my students a ton of time to learn, prepare for, and write the critical analysis, which is my starting assignment this semester. Due to weather cancellations, they've received even more time. On Tuesday, they're going to get their first graded final drafts back. Surprise, surprise, the students who sleep/text/chat/don't read/don't participate/etc. have written truly awful drafts. Maybe this will be a wake-up call for those who need one, an affirmation for those who deserve it, and a solvent for all of my frustrating discipline/respect problems. Well, at least one can hope it all works like that.

Crazy, Crazy World

2008-02-15T09:49:00.002-06:00

As I write this, CNN is covering a former police officer's murder trial. He claims he accidentally elbowed his pregnant girlfriend in the throat, breaking her windpipe, killing her, and then panicked and buried her body in a park. If he is convicted, he will likely receive the death penalty.

A few moments ago, CNN was covering the latest school/university shooting, this one at Northern Illinois University. A police officer explained that the local police responded with amazing speed. The shooting began at 3:26 p.m. Within thirty seconds, two police officers were there. Within another minute and a half, eight policemen were on scene. They were all too late to prevent the gunman--a former graduate student at NIU--from shooting 21 people, killing six plus himself.

On Tuesday, my first class period after this tragedy, I was planning to give my students practice brainstorming. I'd planned to focus their efforts on research paper topics. Instead, I think I might have them brainstorm about what the hell causes monsterous acts like the NIU, Virginia Tech, Columbine, and Jonesboro (AK) shootings, how they could possibly be prevented, why/how sick our culture and society is that people do this stuff. Maybe, hopefully, they can give me some answers.

Different Classes, Different Personalities

2008-02-05T16:21:00.000-06:00

This semester, I am teaching an 8:00 a.m. class and another class at 9:30 a.m., both on Tuesday/Thursday. I had thought that the 8:00 a.m. class would be very sluggish, reticent, and difficult to get discussing anything. On the contrary, my 8:00 a.m. class is wonderful. A solid majority of the students offer insightful, interesting comments on our assigned readings. There have been passionate, spirited debates about some of the readings and the issues therein. One of my best students actually said he wished my class was a little longer. Indeed, there have been multiple days when I thought we could have kept going for another twenty or thirty minutes.

The 9:30 a.m. class, however, acts as though someone tranquilized them. A small minority of the students offer good comments. Of these, there is seldom any passion or spirit behind their words. The rest of the students basically stare into space. I have tried very hard to call on every student, letting them know that I expect them to participate in discussion. Yet they readily cop out with incoherent grunts and monosyllabic responses. These class periods get out early and still feel long and awkward.

Today, one student actually got up halfway through class, walked out, and never returned. Perhaps he was merely going to the bathroom and then couldn't return because of a disasterous diarrhea episode. More likely, he didn't want to be there anymore. I can understand not wanting to be in class, but it is frustrating when all but a handful feel this way. In fact, I've had tough attendance problems with both classes, partially because of the rampant illness and partially because of the typical absentee-syndrome.

I really would like to blame the students in the 9:30 class. After all, I'm teaching the same stuff the same way to the 8:00 a.m. class and they love it. But the fact is that each class has its own personality, and it's my job to figure out a way to connect with the shy, apathetic class. So far, calling directly on them, giving them freewriting time, having them discuss in groups prior to class-wide discussion, and using provocative readings have not been very effective. Any suggestions?

New Edition?

2008-01-29T13:30:00.000-06:00

I have mixed feelings about the new edition of The Presence of Others. I haven't read all of the essays, of course, but I have perused the table of contents. It appears that Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz have added some great essays in the gender, ethics, and business/labor sections of the anthology (by the way, I like that they made ethics its own section). They've also dropped a few good readings, most notably Neil Postman's "The Great Symbol Drain." I also think I'll miss Jimmy Carter and Elie Wiesel's essays on the Iraq war, since they're perfect opposites for the critical analysis assignment. But the Iraq war has been debated to death, so I understand dropping those essays.

From a teaching perspective, I think it would be great to make copies of good readings from the old anthology (such as Postman's "Symbol Drain") to use in addition to the new anthology. From the student's perspective, I'm not sure that the new readings are necessarily worth the higher cost of a brand new edition. Perhaps a good middle ground would be to wait a year or two until there will be plenty of used copies of the new edition available via bookstores and the internet. After all, I have a feeling that most current T.A.s will use the same readings from the old edition since they are familiar with those readings, with maybe a few new ones added to the syllabus. In which case, I would be seriously upset if I were a 110 student who had to pay a lot more for the same old readings. (Of course, a 110 student will have no idea if this is the case, but I think teachers should put themselves in their student's shoes as much as possible, especially when deciding what would be best for their learning, finances, preparation for future classes, etc.)

Writing What We Teach and Sharing What We Write

2008-01-18T18:18:00.000-06:00

While working on the Writing What We Teach assignment, I have been conscientiously commenting on my own writing. I've made an effort to describe and explain various rhetorical moves, why I'm making them, what I'm trying to accomplish through them, etc. I've also been keeping track of potential pitfalls, mistakes, and things for further consideration. By sharing this essay and my self-comments with my students, I hope to give them guidance for how to approach the critical analysis.

Unexpectedly, I've found that commenting on my own writing has put a magnifying glass, so to speak, to my process--both my writing and thought processes. I think I'm always aware of the decisions I make as I write and the rationale behind them, but pausing every so often to actively ponder and explain them has heightened this awareness. I think there are several lessons to be learned from this experience.

First, I've reminded myself that a writer always has some kind of reason to his madness. If we as Composition teachers can keep this at the forefront of our minds, perhaps we can discern the rationale behind our struggling student's work and then help them to understand and build on it. Second, we can help our students realize that they ought to have specific reasoning behind their decisions to do this or that in their writing. The next step is helping them improve this reasoning, thus making better decisions. Of course, there is great potential (and danger) to make our students into models of ourselves. Accordingly, much of my self-commenting concerns the subjectivity of my choices, how I could just as easily choose a different way (to cut this introductory phrase or not to cut?) and the pros and cons of the various choices and options. Third, it might be beneficial to our students to have them comment on their own writing in a similar fashion, thereby making them more aware of the thought-processes behind their writing. And finally, self-commenting during drafting could be an excellent tool for researching student writing processes.

I want to close by referencing Mina Shaughnessy. As she told us, in so many words, we need to understand the logic behind our student's mistakes in order to correct them. By commenting on my critical analysis and sharing these comments with my students, hopefully I'll help them understand their own logic through discussion of my rhetorical choices.