Bedford Bits | pedablogical

From Digital Literacy to Online Identity

November 28, 2017 by Traci Gardner

Last week, I shared a critical thinking activity that asked students to explore the definitions of digital native and digital literacy. With my activity this week, I ask students to consider the idea of online identity. I cover several aspects of online identity, so I will share several posts on the topic. Today’s post focuses on an activity that shifts from digital literacy to the online identity that someone builds with those literacy skills. This activity should take only one class session.

The Activity

Have students review the characteristics of the terms digital native and digital literacy, which the class established during previous sessions. Make any updates or changes that students want to the characteristics.
With the characteristics fresh in students’ minds, explain that the class will apply the ideas by discussing the digital literacy skills that a public figure needs today.
NOTE: Focus the discussion on particular public figures to ensure that you can complete the discussion during one class session. Consider the public figures in the instructions below as examples. Choose other public figures if they will work better for your class.
Ask students about the digital literacy skills that a state politician or the school’s president needs and why those skills are needed. Ask them to consider the role rhetorical factors play—how do the audience, purpose, and context matter in terms of the necessary digital literacy skills? Record their responses on one side of the board or similar display.
Once students have the basic characteristics determined, explain that you want them to think about how the digital literacy skills they expect would change (or not) if the public figure were a digital native, recording their answers on the other side of the display. Provide a concrete example such as the student government president or a class president. Encourage students to address the same ideas that they considered for the first public figure they analyzed. If new ideas come up for the digital native public figure, have students consider whether it applies to the older public figure (and if not, why not).
With details recorded for both public figures, connect the conversation to online identity. Explain generally that online identity is the personality someone builds as they use their digital literacy skills. Provide only a brief definition. Students will have a working idea of what the term online identity means. The goal here is to ask students to record their preliminary ideas about the concept in preparation of deeper analysis.
Arrange students into four small groups, asking two groups to consider the state politician or school president and the other two to consider the student government president or a class president. In their small groups, ask students to brainstorm a list of artifacts that they would expect to find if they investigated their public figure’s online identity.
To get them started, you can offer the guiding questions below, but indicate these are just some opening questions. Groups can add many more questions of their own to these starting points:
- What kind of social media accounts would you expect the figure to have?
- What sites would you expect the figure to have logins on?
- Where would you expect the figure to post comments?
- Where would you find photos that figure posted online?
Depending upon the amount of time left in the class, students can either present their brainstormed lists, combining the ideas to create one list for the state politician or school president and the other two to consider the student government president or a class president. If you have run out of time, ask groups to turn in their lists and combine the lists before the next session.
End the session by explaining that you will use these lists as a starting point for a research project on online identity that you will begin during the next class session. Ask students to continue thinking about online identity, and to jot down any additional ideas they think of to add to their lists at the beginning of the next session.

Follow-Up Activities

Depending upon your course textbook, you might ask students to read an essay about establishing identity, whether online or not. The Bedford/St. Martin’s title Acting Out Culture (4th ed, 2018) includes a chapter on “How We Identify” that offers a variety of relevant essays. If you want students to read specifically about online identity, Daniel Ruefman’s “Taking Control: Managing Your Online Identity for the Job Search” from Writing Commons frames the topic in terms that students can relate to personally.

Any Ideas to Add?

Let me hear your suggestions for talking about online identity and digital literacy in the composition classroom. Whether you have an assignment, a great reading, or another resource to share, I would love to see what you have to say. I might even feature your idea in an upcoming post!

[Photo: Social Media Remote by Animated Heaven on Flickr, used under Public Domain]

This post originally published on the Bedford Bits blog.

Filed under activity idea: english, Bedford Bits

What Is Digital Literacy: A Critical Thinking Activity

November 21, 2017 by Traci Gardner

Virginia Tech Libraries are embarking on a digital literacy initiative, which focuses on “support[ing] all learners in exploring, evaluating, creating, and sharing a variety of digital content, including data, information, and media.” This work matches much of the work I have been doing all along in the writing classroom when I talk about digital resources and digital composing.

For the next few weeks, I will share some relevant classroom activities and assignments that align with the digital literacy work on my campus. I’m starting my series with an activity that focuses on defining what it means to be a digital native and, by extension, what we mean when we talk about digital literacy. Establishing an understanding of these two terms provides the support for all the future activities in this series. Depending upon the length of your class sessions, you may break up the activity into more than one session.

The Activity

Establish what students already know and think about the terms digital native and digital literacy. Ask students to write what they know about the terms, using whatever strategy they find most comfortable (e.g., freewriting, listing, clustering/mindmaps).
Have students share their notes on the two terms in small groups, working together to identify similarities among the responses and the strongest ideas they have recorded.
Ask each group to present the similarities and strongest ideas they have identified, writing notes on the board or presenting from a shared slideshow.
With class input, group related ideas that have been shared, rephrasing and reducing as necessary to narrow down the list of characteristics. Identify this synthesized list as the first draft of characteristics of the terms for the class.
Explain that the class will next compare the first draft to ideas that are presented in infographics about digital natives and digital literacy.
Share my Digital Literacy board on Pinterest, or share your own collection of infographics. Preview each of the infographics briefly with the class. If desired, you may limit this activity to a single infographic or a small number of infographics.
Assign each group a specific infographic to analyze. Alternately, allow groups to choose an infographic, first-come, first-served style.
Ask students to return to their small groups and examine the infographic closely, using the following questions to guide their conversation:
- What facts about digital literacy and/or digital natives are included in the infographic?
- What support is given for the facts?
- What is the source of the facts? Are the sources reputable?
- Do you agree with the facts in the infographic? How well do they match your experience?
- How do the facts in the infographic compare to those in the first draft that the class created?
After students have discussed their infographics thoroughly, ask them to consider whether to change or add to the first draft of characteristics. Have groups identify their points generally, explaining that the whole class will decide on the specific details of changes or additions.
Once small groups have finished their work, ask each group to share their infographic along with the basic points of their analysis of the infographic, relying on their answers to the questions in Step 8 to structure their presentation. Ask each group to end their presentation by explaining any changes or additions they recommend as a result of their analysis.
Once the group presentations are complete, sort the changes and additions that have been suggested. Ask each small group to reconcile the relevant changes with an existing characteristic and/or to draft additional characteristics.
Have groups submit their revisions and additions to you. Before the next class session, combine all the characteristics into a new draft. Make copies to distribute or create a slideshow of the revised characteristics.
During the next session, pass out copies or share the slideshow with the class. Ask students to review the new draft, and as a class make any additional changes to the characteristics. Explain that this revised, new draft will be used in future activities.

Follow-Up Activities

Next week, I will share a follow-up activity that asks students to think about how their characteristics relate to the idea of online identity. If desired, however, you can use these alternative activities:

Ask students, working individually or in small groups, to create their own infographics that present one or more of the characteristics that the class has established.
Treat the class list of characteristics as a collection of hypotheses about digital natives and digital literacy. Have students, again individually or in small groups, research a characteristic, looking for supporting data. Ask students to prepare a formal oral presentation of their findings as well as any recommendations to change the characteristic they have investigated.
Have students write narrative essays that describe a specific incident from their own lives or that they have observed that relates to one of the characteristics. Students’ stories should support or refute the characteristic they focus on.

Any Ideas to Add?

I would love to hear some new ideas on discussing digital natives and digital literacy with students. Do you have ideas to share or infographics that I can add to my collection? Please leave me a comment below with the details, and come back next week for my follow-up activity that focuses on online identity.

Infographic Credit: Digital Natives: An Infographic Series about Emerging Adults, from Oxford University Press

This post originally published on the Bedford Bits blog.

Filed under activity idea: english, Bedford Bits

Revising the Resources List on My Syllabus

June 8, 2016 by Traci Gardner

This week’s post on Bedford Bits describes the work I have begun on revising my course documents to make them more visual. The ultimate goal is to make them more engaging and more useful to students.

I started with the required resources, which has been nothing but a glorified book list for as long as I can remember. My revised version still lists books, but I have tried to add some negative space and color to make it easier to read and a bit more friendly.

Read the full details in the blog post on the Macmillan Community site.

Image: Stack O' Books by Kurtis Garbutt, on Flickr

Filed under Bedford Bits, Teaching Composition Tagged with document design, syllabus, Visual Rhetoric

Finding Persuasion in Unexpected Places

August 1, 2013 by Traci Gardner

As I did last summer, I spent twelve days this month with my sister on a road trip from Virginia to Utah, with a stay in Salt Lake City for the Stampin’ Up convention in the middle. I learned a number of interesting ideas at the convention, both for my hobby of scrapbooking and cardmaking and for teaching and creativity in general. The most interesting thing that I came upon, however, was the garbage and recycling bins (shown right) in the Salt Palace Convention Center where the event was held.

Read my full post on the Bedford Bits site.

Filed under Bedford Bits, classroom activities

What If We Treated Teachers Like Wrestlers?

March 13, 2013 by Traci Gardner

Originally posted on Bedford Bits Website

I confess that I’m a fan of professional wrestling. I watch Raw and SmackDown. I have WWE Magazines on my desk. There’s a WWE Calendar on the wall, this month featuring Alberto Del Rio. I even own a couple of John Cena t-shirts.

I realize this admission may seriously taint my ethos as an academic, but I prefer to think of my interest as an exploration of narrative structure and archetypes in pop culture texts. There are good characters (faces) and bad characters (jerks). There is an exposition, climax, and denouement. There are stereotypes that make me cringe most weeks, but there are uplifting moments too. I take each show as a text. It’s not real, you know.

What if it were real though? For months now, I’ve been thinking about the entrances that the wrestlers make each week. They emerge from back stage with a blasting theme song, pyrotechnics, flashing lights, and choreographed dances and salutes to the fans. Iconic video clips and keywords play on gigantic video displays on stage (here are some examples). The crowd screams, wildly waving posters in support of their favorites.

Every week when I watch these entrances and the celebrations that take place in the ring, I wonder what the wrestlers feel. What would it be like to have thousands of screaming fans validating your work? These are the thoughts that have brought me to my topic this week: What if we treated teachers like wrestlers? What if at conventions like CCCC, CWPA, and Computers and Writing, we honored keynote speakers and leaders in the field with the electrifying welcome wrestlers receive?

Imagine Chris Anson taking the stage at CCCC in Las Vegas this week (and if there’s anywhere this could actually happen, it would be Las Vegas). He bursts through the curtains on cue, his theme song blaring. He dances across the stage, his CCCC Chair belt tossed over his shoulder. As video clips and keywords from his best work play on screen, he runs down the ramp and leaps into the ring. The crowd goes wild, clapping and screaming. Fans hold up signs that proclaim their support. Chris climbs the ropes in the corner and holds his belt aloft for the crowd to see. He waves and points to fans in the crowd, reveling in the moment, before bouncing down, handing the belt to the referee, and getting down to business.

I know none of that is ever going to happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if we taught in a world where teachers were so revered that it could? Most of the convention sessions I have attended included polite clapping and a standing ovation or two, but they all fell short of the jubilance that a wrestler experiences. I want to encourage a little grassroots celebration. If you will be at CCCC this week, celebrate those teachers and colleagues who take the stage.

I want to see teachers honoring teachers in Las Vegas. It might feel strange to shout from the audience, but you can pat speakers on the back. You can shake their hands. You can praise their work and let them know how it influences you. Take some photos with them and post them online. If you’re brave enough to hold up posters, share those too. My hunch is that you’ll feel as energized as the teachers you are encouraging.

Share a link to a photo or tell me how you feel about cheering on colleagues. And more importantly, let me know what you think Chris’s theme song should be :) Just leave a comment below, or drop by my page on Facebook or Google+.

[Photo: WrestleMania 25 by jrandallc, on Flickr]

Filed under Bedford Bits

Twitter Resources Round-up

January 5, 2013 by Traci Gardner

I’ve been using Twitter for years for everything from keeping in touch with colleagues to sharing professional development and curriculum materials with other teachers. In the years since I’ve joined, I often first learn about current events from Twitter (@BreakingNews is my favorite).

Since I’ve been doing this for a while, I have some links I can share, from blogs that I’ve written for NCTE, Bedford/St. Martins, and my own site. They were written over the past few years, so forgive any links that are broken please.

If you’re interested in collecting Twitter links in a simple way for students, Paper.li can be a useful option. The tool gathers Tweets from your feed that include URLs and lays them out in a newspaper-style format. I’ve written several pieces about using Paper.li:

Most recently, I’ve written a series of posts on using Twitter Chats, which are real-time, online conversations that use specific hashtags to help organize the discussion. Twitter Chats can be a powerful tool for students and colleagues. You can read more about them in these posts:

Also, if you’re even slightly interested in how you might use Twitter in the classroom, take a look at William M. Ferriter’s essay “Why Teachers Should Try Twitter” from Educational Leadership. The article explains, “For educators who use this tool to build a network of people whose Twitter messages connect to their work, Twitter becomes a constant source of new ideas to explore.” It includes some tips and how-to’s as well as a personal story on how the experience affected the author’s understanding of differentiated instruction.

Hope that helps any readers who are interested in expanding how they use Twitter. I’m willing to share whatever advice and experience I have, so contact me if you need more or have a question I might be able to answer.

Filed under Bedford Bits, Teaching with Digital Tools

Bits December Blog Flashback

December 31, 2012 by Traci Gardner

Bedford/St. Martin’s Bits bloggers posted on topics ranging from working with new TAs to how we teach research projects. Be sure that you check out all the great ideas for talking about pop culture (like reality TV shows) and how to teach with comics—and don’t miss Holly Pappas’s reflection on the end of one term and the beginning of the next in the Classroom Strategies and Resources section:

About Writing and Being a Teacher of Writers

Nedra Reynolds explores the work of Peter Elbow and Suguta Mitra, and then asks, “Do Writers Need Teachers? Really?”
Steve Bernhardt gives us some insight on Mentoring New TAs and shares details on his own experience with new TAs.
Doug Downs gives us an extended analogy that applies to how we teach writing in Riding on Ice (A Lesson in Conceptions).
Susan Naomi Bernstein talks about learning English in The Nice White Lady Tells a Thanksgiving Story.
Andrea Lunsford tells us all “What I Want for Christmas”—and the gift is all about Building Stories!

Classroom Strategies and Resources

Holly Pappas reflects on the research projects she’s assigned over the years and The most wonderful time of the year.
Jonathan Alexander takes a look at Vibrant, Visceral Things in his Interview with a Young Writer and graphic novelist.
Andrea Lunsford asks, “Is the Term Paper Dead?” and considers how research assignments have changed.
Dan McDonough shares activities on the Controversy surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on High School Bits.
Jonathan Alexander interviews Compositionist Kat Eason on Beginning to Teach with Comics.
Holly Pappas reflects on the end of one term and the beginning of the next in Academic Rhythms: The Fallow Period.
Nathan Odell shares an Exercise: Close Reading for Gender on the High School Bits Blog.

Analyzing Popular Culture and Current Events

Susan Naomi Bernstein talks about the challenges and revelations of Teaching after Hurricane Sandy.
Liz Losh reviews how we can engage writers with real world issues in Representing Organizations with Comic Books.
Jack Solomon substitutes a “Cultures Versus Vultures” meme for the oft-heard political meme of “makers versus takers.”
Barclay Barrios thinks about readings and discussions he can use to Teach the Gaza Conflict.
Jack Solomon considers the profound cultural signifier of the Unreal Housewives of American TV.

Teaching with Technology

Traci Gardner explains why Teaching with Twitter Chats is a great addition to writing classes and describes how to get started.
Barclay Barrios shares a link on Teaching Digital Citizenship with games.
Andrea Lunsford reviews recent efforts to bring effective online education to the masses in MOOCs to you!
Michael Michaud shares details on his recent experiments with Collaboration in the Paperless Writing Class.
Traci Gardner explains how to kick off in-class discussion with Introductory Twitter Chat Activities.
Barclay Barrios spends some time thinking about technology and The Dark Side of the Digital Humanities.
Traci Gardner suggests some Advanced Twitter Chat Activities you can try next term.
Michael Michaud describes how he uses Google Docs as part of The Paperless Writing Class.

For regular updates from Bedford Bits, be sure to sign up for the Ink’d In newsletter (and other resources), like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

[Photo: Comics by Ryan Brunsvold, on Flickr]

Filed under Bedford Bits

Bits November Blog Flashback

December 4, 2012 by Traci Gardner

Bedford/St. Martin’s Bits bloggers posted on topics ranging from our work as writing program administrators to how we teach digital natives. Be sure that you check out all the great ideas for talking about politics and how writing fits into general education requirements—and don’t miss Andrea Lunsford’s praise for short writing assignments in the Classroom Strategies and Resources section:

Writing Program Administration

Barclay Barrios contributes to Restructuring Gen Ed and how we teach with his Notes on a Train.
Doug Downs considers what we want to change, over their years in college, in the ways our students understand writing in Priorities.
Barclay Barrios takes a look at the implications of the legislated categories for Florida’s statewide Gen Ed core in The Buckets.
Liz Wardle explains that “Writing Is an Object of Study” is an Underlying Threshold Concept for WAW Curricula.
Barclay Barrios asks, “Public speaking or more writing?” as he continues his series on Restructuring Gen Ed, with The Bloodbath.

About Writing and Being a Teacher of Writers

Holly Pappas shares reflections on a Saturday in Boston, as a Writer, Reader, Student, and Teacher.
Susan Naomi Bernstein talks about Writing After Hurricane Sandy.
Traci Gardner gives us Ten Reasons she’s Thankful in the classroom, as a writer, and as a teacher.

Classroom Strategies and Resources

Susan Naomi Bernstein discusses dialect and codeswitching in Part 2 of The Nice White Lady Teaches Comma Splices.
Traci Gardner links some Tempting New Media Assignment Ideas that are ready to use this term or next.
Nedra Reynolds gives us A Dialog on Reflection in Perspective and asks readers to respond to her questions.
Andrea Lunsford leads colleagues in a cheer in Let’s Hear It for Short Writing Assignments.
Traci Gardner shares one of her favorite activities—a time capsule writing assignment.
Jay Dolmage turns junk mail into classroom activity in Catalog Writing.
Steve Bernhardt discusses how to use the Model research papers included with Writer’s Help.

Analyzing Popular Culture and Current Events

Jack Solomon takes a look at the Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed and finds Signs of Hypercapitalism in the USA.
Donna Winchell thinks about how the either/or fallacy relates to the recent election in her post, Either/Or Politics.
Jack Solomon considers the challenge of using mass media to predict American electoral behavior in Tea for Tú.
Andrea Lunsford reflects on lies, fact checking, and ethical rhetoric in her Post-Election Thoughts and Thanks.
Donna Winchell considers the arguments surrounding consumers, stores, and shopping on Black Friday Eve.

Teaching with Technology

Michael Michaud talks about technology, digital “natives,” and “immigrants” in Talkin’ Bout My Generation.
Andrea Lunsford looks at how Twitter connected people during Hurricane Sandy in her post Tweeting in Times of Crisis.
Holly Pappas is looking for A low-tech solution to canned comments.
Michael Michaud shared 3 scenarios for The Paperless Writing Class. It’s about much more than avoiding printing.
Traci Gardner challenges colleagues to start Connecting with Twitter Chats.

For regular updates from Bedford Bits, be sure to sign up for the Ink’d In newsletter (and other resources), like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

—Traci Gardner

[This entry cross-posted as a Note on Bedford/St. Martin’s page on Facebook. Photo: The first word is the hardest by APM Alex, on Flickr]

Filed under Bedford Bits, classroom activities

Posts You’ve Gotta Read from Bedford/St. Martin’s

November 1, 2012 by Traci Gardner

During October, the Bedford/St. Martin’s blogs posted over three dozen new posts on topics ranging from pop culture to teaching with technology. Be sure that you check out all the great ideas for talking about current events and the the election, and don’t miss Andrea Lunsford’s discussion of syllabus design in the Classroom Strategies and Resources section:

Writing Program Administration

Liz Wardle (Bits) explains the 5 Stages of Learning to Teach Writing about Writing.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) describes his department’s Orientation for new and returning teachers.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) considers the complicated question of Who Gets to Teach Writing?
Heather Sellers (Lit Bits) shares a letter to a new graduate student, who is Feeling Underprepared, Underread, Under Everything.
Nedra Reynolds (Bits) describes a dissertation on Trinary Collaborations: An Alternative Model for Writing Instruction.
Doug Downs (Bits) responds to questions about the purpose of first-year composition in Refuse It, Break It, Remake It.
Guest blogger Dan Martin (Bits) explores The Intersection between Writing About Writing and Writing Across the Curriculum: An Examination of the Reading, Writing, and Research Processes of UCF Faculty from across Disciplines.

About Writing and Being a Writer

Traci Gardner (Bits) reflects On Being a Writer in her first post for the National Day on Writing.
Traci Gardner (Bits) catches up on last year’s National Day on Writing with 10 reasons #whyiwrite.
Susan Naomi Bernstein (Bits) Teaches Writing for Home, School, and Everyday Life at The Free University of NYC.
Traci Gardner (Bits) gets ready for the National Day on Writing by sharing the details of #whatiwrite.

Classroom Strategies and Resources

Andrea Lunsford (Bits) is Learning from WOVE, that is, written, oral, visual, and electronic modes of expression.
Holly Pappas (Bits) reflects on her students’ First Attempts at Making Videos.
Steve Bernhardt (Bits) explores Writing about Financial Literacy and considers other real-life issues in composition class.
Elizabeth Losh (Bits) explores doodling, drawing, and hand lettering as she considers the act of Illustrating Understanding.
William Bradley (Lit Bits) shares great, free resources for teachers in Web of Truths: 5 Sites for Creative Nonfiction.
Emily Isaacson (Lit Bits) explains how theater is a participatory event in The Greek Chorus: Or, You Will All Have to Participate.
Andrea Lunsford (Bits) explores The Art of Designing a Syllabus and asks for some help assessing multimodal texts.
Holly Pappas (Bits) talks about helping students find research topics in Finding that elusive spark.
Susan Naomi Bernstein (Bits) talks about grammar, race, and privilege in The Nice White Lady Teaches Comma Splices.
William Bradley (Lit Bits) ponders how to advise student writers anxious to start their careers in Unpublished, but Non-Perishable.
Traci Gardner (Bits) thinks about how to talk with students about what they need to write.
Emily Isaacson (Lit Bits) focuses on skills for student success and Helping students engage with lectures and other content.
Jonathan Alexander (Bits) describes a course he’d love to teach in Manga on Manga: Thinking about Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life in the Comp Class.
Traci Gardner (Bits) discusses the role of audience and purpose in The Truth About Proofreading.
Steve Bernhardt (Bits) explains how he uses Cover Memos as Reflective Writing in the classroom.

Analyzing Popular Culture and Current Events

Jack Solomon (Bits) thinks about the process of selecting a topic for a researched semiotic interpretation in The Inquiry Is the Instigation.
Andrea Lunsford (Bits) talks about the cultural shift from consumption to production in The Next Industrial Revolution?
Donna Winchell (Bits) spends some time analyzing Elements of argument and the first Presidential debate.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) talks about polarization and getting used to difference as he teaches The Election in the composition classroom.
Jack Solomon (Bits) uses The Semiotics of Critical Thinking to analyze the emotional appeal of popular cultural imagery.
Andrea Lunsford (Bits) analyzes recent political debates and asks, “When is an interruption not an interruption?”
Donna Winchell (Bits) examines current events for evidence of the power that words have in What a Difference a Word Makes.
Watch the latest Bedford/St. Martin’s video— Going Viral: Political Campaigns and Video.

Teaching with Technology

Michael Michaud (Bits) shares Tales of an Emergent Academic Technologist or, Getting Out of the Garden.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) explores the issue of eLearning at his university and thinks about the possibilities for hybrid courses.
Michael Michaud (Bits) reflects on how access to computers shapes what and how he teaches in Get a Room.
Barclay Barrios (Bits) discusses the challenges of returning students’ graded work while also complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in FERPA-fy Me.

For regular updates from Bedford Bits, be sure to sign up for the Ink’d In newsletter (and other resources), like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

—Traci Gardner

[Photo: _MG_7158 by Neon Tommy, on Flickr]

Cross-posted as a Note on Bedford/St. Martin’s page on Facebook.

Filed under Bedford Bits

Aligning Composition with Student Interests

May 24, 2012 by Traci Gardner

I was lucky enough to teach a first-year composition course in the mid-80s that focused on the rhetoric of war. Admittedly, the topic was not one I had any deep ties to. It wasn’t one I would have chosen on my own. I took on two sections of the specially themed course as a favor.

I was not an authority on the topic. I hadn’t even reviewed all the texts for the course before I began teaching. I had to work to keep up with the readings and the films that the class watched. I designed the usual kinds of assignments and activities, which I have documented in a List of Ten and in my blog post Assignment: Naming and the Rhetoric of War. Frequently, the students in the classroom knew more than I did about historical battles and current military events.

Despite all the reasons the course could have gone wrong, I found myself with some of the most engaged students I have ever taught. Their personal interest in the topic made all the difference. Students had signed up for the course because they were interested in exploring the topic, so they came into the classroom ready to dig into the texts.

By contrast, the overwhelming majority of students signing up for first-year composition courses had no details on the courses they were choosing. It’s much harder in this more typical unthemed composition course to create contexts that will lead to personal connections for students.

You can read the list of possible contexts for a generic composition course and my ideas on how to align composition with student interests in my post on the Bedford Bits site.

Filed under Bedford Bits, connected learning, Teaching Composition Tagged with interest-driven learning

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pedablogical

From Digital Literacy to Online Identity

The Activity

Follow-Up Activities

Any Ideas to Add?

What Is Digital Literacy: A Critical Thinking Activity

The Activity

Follow-Up Activities

Any Ideas to Add?

Revising the Resources List on My Syllabus

Finding Persuasion in Unexpected Places

What If We Treated Teachers Like Wrestlers?

Twitter Resources Round-up

Bits December Blog Flashback

Bits November Blog Flashback

Posts You’ve Gotta Read from Bedford/St. Martin’s

Aligning Composition with Student Interests

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