One of the major things I have learned that I hope to continue working with students is to effectively design an argument. Students will have ideas that they love and believe everyone should agree with but that does mean that they have figured out how to properly articulate these ideas. Throughout the semester they are likely to improve their writing but hopefully they will learn to create and develop arguments as well. Few students have already done this before but they will almost certainly be asked to do so again.
One way I hope to help them accomplish this would be through in class discussion. Forms of contact zones work well for this idea. While it may be taboo to discuss current events in certain instances, I feel at least trying to have a constructive class criticism can be helpful. While students most likely cannot successfully persuade other students to their side of an argument, they can still continue to develop their reasons for their decisions. I will not tolerate putting another student down, calling them names in a derogatory or inappropriate way or taking away their voice in some way or form. But, I think as long as the discussions stay productive, I think they can be really helpful for students. Particularly if I or other students try to poke holes in a positive way.
Another instance would be to bring in examples for the class to discuss. This construction revision is something that can be extremely helpful. Using either my own or former students that are no long taking the class' work would allow them to learn by a different form of discussion what does and doesn't work in writing. Many of them have made the same mistakes throughout the semester on the assignments. Helping them by running through these mistakes and showing them in works will, hopefully, connect it to their own writing. This will help them to focus on fixing the mistakes that have already occurred in their writing. Once they receive a paper or grade that shows they have fixed these initial issues. Then with that feedback, they can continue to begin looking for other areas to improve. This cycle can continue and hopefully improve their arguments overall.
Finally, introducing aspects of social media into my work can help to connect to why the classes are so important. This flows well into the study of Andragogy we have done this semester. Many students, especially incoming freshman, severely lack understanding of why writing well is so important. Hopefully by showing them both comical and serious posts on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. can help to discuss whether or not people are effective. The ideas can also slide into, would you want to hire or work with someone who writes like this. If students can see how important the writing is in their everyday life, Hopefully they will want to begin to understand how to improve their writing.
Overall, the different ideas addressed here will help to encourage students to not only believe ideas but encourage them to learn how to defend them. With that knowledge they will also be able to, hopefully, look at other arguments, learn to judge the arguments, agree or disagree. and understand why they feel this way.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Visual Rhetoric
Society today is becoming more visually inclined. I was standing in Barnes & Noble yesterday and looking at some of the books on one of their specialty tables. The table next to it had a number of copies of 50 shades of gray with different covers. A pair of women a few years older than myself walked up to the table to look at the book. One of the girls picked up a copy and began to examine it. The other remarked that she hadn't seen the movie and upon seeing how long the book is remarked, "Oh, I could never get through that, I'll just see the movie instead." At 514 pages it is considered a long novel by most accounts, but it is still shorter than four of the seven Harry Potter novels.
Yet, people will almost universally see the movie before they read the book. It takes 2-3 hours to watch the movie and significantly more, depending on how fast you read, to finish an entire book. Many people would rather free up their time for other activities. In this way, I think we should be studying visual rhetoric more. We should attempt to find ways to integrate video and pictures into a classroom setting more successfully. Students are told that PowerPoint presentations should be used as a supplement to your presentation and that you should not read off of your presentation. The problem with this is that we do not teach them how to go about doing this successfully.
It's a weird place to look but the sports community actually has a good idea for what to do here. Most football programs have gone to what is known as the "no-huddle" offense. In this scenario, the offense and defense never get together and say the play call, instead the teams look to their sidelines to get the play relayed to them from the coaches directly. The school in question I am thinking of is Oregon a few years ago:
Here is just one example. The sign here tells different members of the offense what to do for the given play. The players see the images and are able to make the connections. Secrecy in play calling means that the viewer and the opposing defense has no idea what these mean though.
What I am trying to get at is that these same visual cues can be used in a PowerPoint. Students can choose pictures that remind us of what they are talking about and these can then be used to remind them of where they are going and what they are supposed to be talking about. The visual cues should be things that need to be discussed or short one to two word phrases. I feel that your audience should not be able to read your paper or even your main points. In order to learn about the topic at hand, the students should be engaged in listening to what you have to say about the topics.
Hopefully, with practice, students can learn how to effectively communicate their argument orally with using the PowerPoint as a means to help supplement their argument.
Yet, people will almost universally see the movie before they read the book. It takes 2-3 hours to watch the movie and significantly more, depending on how fast you read, to finish an entire book. Many people would rather free up their time for other activities. In this way, I think we should be studying visual rhetoric more. We should attempt to find ways to integrate video and pictures into a classroom setting more successfully. Students are told that PowerPoint presentations should be used as a supplement to your presentation and that you should not read off of your presentation. The problem with this is that we do not teach them how to go about doing this successfully.
It's a weird place to look but the sports community actually has a good idea for what to do here. Most football programs have gone to what is known as the "no-huddle" offense. In this scenario, the offense and defense never get together and say the play call, instead the teams look to their sidelines to get the play relayed to them from the coaches directly. The school in question I am thinking of is Oregon a few years ago:
Here is just one example. The sign here tells different members of the offense what to do for the given play. The players see the images and are able to make the connections. Secrecy in play calling means that the viewer and the opposing defense has no idea what these mean though.
What I am trying to get at is that these same visual cues can be used in a PowerPoint. Students can choose pictures that remind us of what they are talking about and these can then be used to remind them of where they are going and what they are supposed to be talking about. The visual cues should be things that need to be discussed or short one to two word phrases. I feel that your audience should not be able to read your paper or even your main points. In order to learn about the topic at hand, the students should be engaged in listening to what you have to say about the topics.
Hopefully, with practice, students can learn how to effectively communicate their argument orally with using the PowerPoint as a means to help supplement their argument.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Working with Underlife
I will not be writing a paper as I am taking the class for only 2 credits, I am writing this week and shall choose a topic to write about instead. I chose to look at what we discussed last week, underlife.
Underlife is vastly important in today's society as we are more and more easily accessible in the world. Phones and computers allow our students to always be connected to each other and the world. This can only distract him or her if he or she lets them. For many students it is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of giving in to underlife and not pay attention in class. But, I want to believe that there is some way we can use this to our advantage? I want to believe that there is some way.
Though we have a tendency to believe that every student has an interest in our class, the truth is some students will never find a class interesting if they don't want to. This is where I think discussing underlife can become important. If a student understand that we are currently looking into this idea they may be less likely to do it. I think bringing it up could bring it into the student's minds perhaps guiltily reminding them that they are not paying attention to class.
Sometimes things happen while we are in class and the students will be more interested in that than what we are teaching. Being fluid to the way things are changing outside of the classroom should help us to talk about our class within the context of the real world. When things such as the debates, sports events and religious events occur the students should be able to discuss in in class and we should attempt to bring that in to class. In this way, students would be more likely to participate in class if we discuss what could in fact be the underlife that is distracting them.
I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or thoughts on this topic. What are some ways to integrate it into a lesson? What are some ways that we could attempt to persuade students to avoid underlife? Would it be against the law to ask students to turn around their computer or show the class what they are doing?
Underlife is vastly important in today's society as we are more and more easily accessible in the world. Phones and computers allow our students to always be connected to each other and the world. This can only distract him or her if he or she lets them. For many students it is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of giving in to underlife and not pay attention in class. But, I want to believe that there is some way we can use this to our advantage? I want to believe that there is some way.
Though we have a tendency to believe that every student has an interest in our class, the truth is some students will never find a class interesting if they don't want to. This is where I think discussing underlife can become important. If a student understand that we are currently looking into this idea they may be less likely to do it. I think bringing it up could bring it into the student's minds perhaps guiltily reminding them that they are not paying attention to class.
Sometimes things happen while we are in class and the students will be more interested in that than what we are teaching. Being fluid to the way things are changing outside of the classroom should help us to talk about our class within the context of the real world. When things such as the debates, sports events and religious events occur the students should be able to discuss in in class and we should attempt to bring that in to class. In this way, students would be more likely to participate in class if we discuss what could in fact be the underlife that is distracting them.
I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or thoughts on this topic. What are some ways to integrate it into a lesson? What are some ways that we could attempt to persuade students to avoid underlife? Would it be against the law to ask students to turn around their computer or show the class what they are doing?
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Learning Multiculturalism
One of the key aspects to this class that we have talked repeatedly on is being aware of the students in our classes, both that we are teaching and taking. Colleges are becoming more culturally diverse than they ever have before; students are travelling from other countries to attend undergraduate and graduate classes at our university. We are almost guaranteed to have at least one student in our classes that is from another country. This places further emphasis on keeping my students and I culturally aware to make sure we are not making fun of another culture. This insensitivity should not stand whether students are around or not but that does not mean that a lapse in judgement can happen.
We have talked extensively in class about contact zones and these were not something that I had previously thought about. These almost require multiple cultures coming together to form a contact zone, like Pratt mentions. And these do not always have to require leaving the country to find a culture change large enough for a contact zone. The gun control laws right now are vastly different when looking from state to state, for instance. The students in class who are from other countries would also likely have a vastly different viewpoint of the situation that my students from America and myself might not have thought of. Taking other people's view into account is something that we all should do when attempting to make informed decisions.
With the drastic increase of technology and the sudden availability to connect around the world immediately, what is known as the classroom is rapidly changing. Students in France could take a class electronically without ever having to step foot in America. This allows us to interact easier than we ever could before. But, this also drastically influences the way we have to think about teaching our classes. Students that are born in France, Nigeria, etc are taught in a different environment and a different setting which changes the way they learn and expect to be taught. In a way, we almost have to learn about the other countries and the way they are taught. Some of them will not be expecting the ability to talk in class while others may think that they can talk over other students or make fun of the opinions of others. We have to be aware of these differences and try to ensure that they know how to learn and participate in an American college classroom. There is no reason these students should be made to feel isolated from the rest of the class or the university as a whole.
The world is rapidly shrinking and there are no signs that this shrinking is slowing down. We should therefore embrace it and attempt to encourage students to go abroad to learn. We should also work to incorporate students from other cultures to make sure they feel welcomed into our classrooms without overloading them with the new culture. These students want to be here and we should be embracing that and trying to learn how we can teach differently.
We have talked extensively in class about contact zones and these were not something that I had previously thought about. These almost require multiple cultures coming together to form a contact zone, like Pratt mentions. And these do not always have to require leaving the country to find a culture change large enough for a contact zone. The gun control laws right now are vastly different when looking from state to state, for instance. The students in class who are from other countries would also likely have a vastly different viewpoint of the situation that my students from America and myself might not have thought of. Taking other people's view into account is something that we all should do when attempting to make informed decisions.
With the drastic increase of technology and the sudden availability to connect around the world immediately, what is known as the classroom is rapidly changing. Students in France could take a class electronically without ever having to step foot in America. This allows us to interact easier than we ever could before. But, this also drastically influences the way we have to think about teaching our classes. Students that are born in France, Nigeria, etc are taught in a different environment and a different setting which changes the way they learn and expect to be taught. In a way, we almost have to learn about the other countries and the way they are taught. Some of them will not be expecting the ability to talk in class while others may think that they can talk over other students or make fun of the opinions of others. We have to be aware of these differences and try to ensure that they know how to learn and participate in an American college classroom. There is no reason these students should be made to feel isolated from the rest of the class or the university as a whole.
The world is rapidly shrinking and there are no signs that this shrinking is slowing down. We should therefore embrace it and attempt to encourage students to go abroad to learn. We should also work to incorporate students from other cultures to make sure they feel welcomed into our classrooms without overloading them with the new culture. These students want to be here and we should be embracing that and trying to learn how we can teach differently.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Places Where Students May Fail in my Syllabus
I know it sounds strange, but I think one place where my students may slip up will be with the weekly quizzes that I will be doing every week. They will be taking these at the beginning of every class. While the quizzes may not be very difficult, I plan to make sure that every one of them is only easily answered if they are read by the students. If the students have not read then they are likely to struggle with these quizzes and I will know which students are really where we need them to be for the class. This also helps to create a set of papers that I can keep with me for participation points as well. This way, I will have proof of whether or not a student was in class and this can be input in to raider writer for the students to see when they are done.
The second aspect that I hope to include within the quiz will be grammar sections that I think will be useful to hopefully teach students the common mistakes that we all make in our writing. I plan to pull these straight out of the work that the students are submitting to raider writer. That being said, I will not take it straight from a student's work, though, that would be embarrassing for the student and I don't want to do that to them. I will though, find a common grammar mistake among many of them and make my own sentence that contains the same error. Hopefully, the students will take the grammar questions to heart and it will improve their writing over the long run.
The reason I think most kids won't be able to handle the weekly quizzes is because they won't be ready to read the required work for each class. Many of these students probably won't want to put the work in necessary to read every week for class. If I try everything I can, work towards successful andragogy and can get many of my students to want to learn every week, there may still be some students who won't care and will not read. These students will then likely fail my quizzes and that would cost them most of the participation points in my eyes. Now, many of the students I will be teaching are also young, likely freshman, and so they may not yet know how hard they will be expected to work in college. Hopefully, I will find a balance for these young students that will make them want to be engaged and learning in my classes.
But, I will also be foolish if I believe that every student can come in to my classroom and find a reason to enjoy school and become engaged. For some of these students, I will never be able to get across to them but that doesn't mean I should stop trying. For these students, I will continue to work and hope that these quizzes can help encourage the students to do the readings, which are necessary to improve as a writer and are required to be able to do most, if not all, of the BAs and drafts.
The second aspect that I hope to include within the quiz will be grammar sections that I think will be useful to hopefully teach students the common mistakes that we all make in our writing. I plan to pull these straight out of the work that the students are submitting to raider writer. That being said, I will not take it straight from a student's work, though, that would be embarrassing for the student and I don't want to do that to them. I will though, find a common grammar mistake among many of them and make my own sentence that contains the same error. Hopefully, the students will take the grammar questions to heart and it will improve their writing over the long run.
The reason I think most kids won't be able to handle the weekly quizzes is because they won't be ready to read the required work for each class. Many of these students probably won't want to put the work in necessary to read every week for class. If I try everything I can, work towards successful andragogy and can get many of my students to want to learn every week, there may still be some students who won't care and will not read. These students will then likely fail my quizzes and that would cost them most of the participation points in my eyes. Now, many of the students I will be teaching are also young, likely freshman, and so they may not yet know how hard they will be expected to work in college. Hopefully, I will find a balance for these young students that will make them want to be engaged and learning in my classes.
But, I will also be foolish if I believe that every student can come in to my classroom and find a reason to enjoy school and become engaged. For some of these students, I will never be able to get across to them but that doesn't mean I should stop trying. For these students, I will continue to work and hope that these quizzes can help encourage the students to do the readings, which are necessary to improve as a writer and are required to be able to do most, if not all, of the BAs and drafts.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Keywords
The works we have been reading have been surrounded with words that understanding only helps to make the readings better. Without knowledge of these words, we will be at a disadvantage when looking at the work. Leah was kind enough to set up the keywords list on google docs and Dr. Rice has connected it to the blog. Some of my choices have a definition that I think needs to be expanded on but the others are lacking definition. Here are some words I would like some help with:
Freshman Textbooks-
There is a definition but it could use some serious work.
Marginalization
Paradigm Shift
Self/ Subject
Writing Center-
Are we saying Purdue has the best writing center? Or are we saying that Purdue has a good example of one? I think we can figure out a good example of what a writing center should be.
Freshman Textbooks-
There is a definition but it could use some serious work.
Marginalization
Paradigm Shift
Self/ Subject
Writing Center-
Are we saying Purdue has the best writing center? Or are we saying that Purdue has a good example of one? I think we can figure out a good example of what a writing center should be.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Writing on Triangulation
Triangulation was not talked about much in our Friday class but it is vitally important, in my opinion, when it comes to writing and speaking our society. Triangulation is the idea of writing or dialogue between two people but when these two people talk between each other their experiences involving the world must also come in to context. For instance, when two people are discussing gun control laws, they are not only speaking to each other, but also the belief that they are correct.
Within a class lesson there are a number of ways to teach this idea. The first, and most melodramatic, would be to show the students a clip from Judge Judy. Both the plaintiff and the defendant believe they are correct but society, and the crowd, will only agree with one of them. Students can watch the clip and make a decision based on who they believe to be correct. I would then discuss what makes them feel this way. This would bring in the idea that the world or society influences the way they believe what is and is not correct. We would then finish off the episode and discuss what could potentially be there for more discussion.
The next step would be to look at the last major debate between Obama and Romney, or when I'm teaching class it would be whoever is currently debating for the 2016 debate. These presidential debates could be the quintessential example of rhetoric as dialogue. The two must be able to make their side appear correct while also disproving their opponent. We can then discuss some of the ideas that are presented and discuss which candidate is not only correct, but also which does a better job of presenting their point. In the moment, most viewers of the debate would not be likely to know whether or not what the politicians are saying is correct but that only plays deeper into the idea of rhetoric as dialogue. But, within the ideas present, the viewers, the students in this case, bring their own ideas to the debate that we could see the candidates trying to use for their own gain. We can discuss these ideas with the students and see if they agree or disagree.
One final step to wrap up class would be to show Youtube clips of children's tv shows that, when viewed through the eyes of an adult, would come across as very dirty or inappropriate. Things like this Kids Say the Darnedest Things, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofbe158uk7k , are great forms of rhetoric. Skip to the 2:00 mark for when they begin to be reinterpreted by the adults in the audience. The kids often say things that are not supposed to be inappropriate but it is easy for adults to interpret what they are saying as inappropriate. Students can take all of this in to account to see how easily what they say can be reinterpreted by the world after they say it. The antics are timeless but the lesson is quite clear. Hopefully students will learn that there are other ways to view ideas presented but also that their own experiences affect the way they think about the world.
Within a class lesson there are a number of ways to teach this idea. The first, and most melodramatic, would be to show the students a clip from Judge Judy. Both the plaintiff and the defendant believe they are correct but society, and the crowd, will only agree with one of them. Students can watch the clip and make a decision based on who they believe to be correct. I would then discuss what makes them feel this way. This would bring in the idea that the world or society influences the way they believe what is and is not correct. We would then finish off the episode and discuss what could potentially be there for more discussion.
The next step would be to look at the last major debate between Obama and Romney, or when I'm teaching class it would be whoever is currently debating for the 2016 debate. These presidential debates could be the quintessential example of rhetoric as dialogue. The two must be able to make their side appear correct while also disproving their opponent. We can then discuss some of the ideas that are presented and discuss which candidate is not only correct, but also which does a better job of presenting their point. In the moment, most viewers of the debate would not be likely to know whether or not what the politicians are saying is correct but that only plays deeper into the idea of rhetoric as dialogue. But, within the ideas present, the viewers, the students in this case, bring their own ideas to the debate that we could see the candidates trying to use for their own gain. We can discuss these ideas with the students and see if they agree or disagree.
One final step to wrap up class would be to show Youtube clips of children's tv shows that, when viewed through the eyes of an adult, would come across as very dirty or inappropriate. Things like this Kids Say the Darnedest Things, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofbe158uk7k , are great forms of rhetoric. Skip to the 2:00 mark for when they begin to be reinterpreted by the adults in the audience. The kids often say things that are not supposed to be inappropriate but it is easy for adults to interpret what they are saying as inappropriate. Students can take all of this in to account to see how easily what they say can be reinterpreted by the world after they say it. The antics are timeless but the lesson is quite clear. Hopefully students will learn that there are other ways to view ideas presented but also that their own experiences affect the way they think about the world.
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