Expectations

As a member of the this Online Book Club you are expected to post to the book blog at least once per week between now and July 11 -- that's six weeks. You should finish your book before then, and you will meet during the Institute in your groups to extend the discussion and plan how to present the book to the others in the Institute.

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Thursday, July 7, 2016

From individual to connected reading in FYW

Obviously one of the key takeaways from this text is that digital texts afford opportunities for connected reading that exist, but only to a much lesser extent, with print texts. In thinking about how I use reading in my First Year Writing class, it's apparent that I think of it from a very individualistic, linear framework, even though many of the texts I assign are online and I have students do online research. So how can I make better use of the opportunities for connectivity afforded by digital texts? I usually have my 121 students research "a topic." You know, pretty standard comp class stuff. I think a lot of what Hicks and Turner are talking about doesn't really work in that sort of environment.

This year, I want to move more towards focusing in on a specific set of topics, particular aspects of communication and rhetoric that students just starting out in college should be thinking critically about. I think I want to focus on issues of free speech--where to draw the line between freedom of speech and freedom from speech, which institutions, if any, should be involved in policing that line, what role individuals play in making that distinction, how to deal with hate speech, how to persuade institutions to act ethically, how to persuade people engaging in hate speech, etc.

If students are all focused on a topic, it will be easier to form reading groups, because they'll be able to talk with one another about what they're finding and offer observations on one another's writing, informed by a collective understanding of the topic and the material. I think I'll assign a few key texts near the beginning, and with those model some of the critical reading and response skills that I want them to have, but then let them find digital texts in reading groups and share information and responses to the texts with one another. Figure 7.1 on page 135 is especially useful in thinking about ways to make my students' reading more connected next year.

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Fair Use

As I'm reading further on and thinking about the suggested lessons, I'm wondering about how to teach students about fair use of material they find online. The authors' claim that screenshots of copyrighted text is allowable is something that I was not aware of. They claim that because it's "transformative" it's allowable. This surprises me, and I'm not sure that that would be true of all material. While it seems much easier to just discuss transformative use in class, it seems like a lengthier discussion would be necessary. This is a murky area for me but a necessary one to cover, especially in a research class like 121.

On different note, I really like the idea of group annotations and literature circles for complex reading. I've had students blog their individual reactions to readings, and this always most effective when classmates reply to the blog posts. I'm now thinking about ways to place them in reading groups with specific roles and posts for some readings. I think this would also enhance class discussion of essays and articles.