Bits Flashback for April 24

Bunny RabbitI have a weakness for bunny rabbits. I encourage them to visit my yard and exclaim happily when they comply. Not so for the folks at Long Beach City College. Their campus was so overrun with cute, fluffy-tailed bunnies that they embarked on a bunny-reduction campaign. The campus is now down to 70 bunnies from an all-time high of 300 rabbits, according to the head of the college’s Rabbit Population Management Task Force.

You think I’m making this all up, don’t you? That’s why I think it would make the beginning of some interesting classroom projects. How do you write about “Rabbit Population Management” persuasively? What strategies will convince readers to take your story seriously? How would you talk about the project with students, faculty, staff, and the public? This one little story from the Chronicle of Higher Ed has so many possibilities for discussing persuasion, business reports, and technical writing!

If you’re looking for other classroom activities and teaching strategies, hop on over to Bedford Bits for more on these entries, which were posted last week:

  • Holly Pappas considers the many concerns teachers face when they assign the personal narrative and wonders how teachers can best respond when students write about intimate or painful topics in The Trauma Narrative.
     
  • Andrea Lunsford describes the peer tutoring program at Stanford in Writing Tutors Save the World!
     
  • Jack Solomon explains why educating students about the complex operations of social class is one of our most important tasks in the teaching of cultural studies in The Middle Class Goes to the Movies.
     
  • Barclay Barrios discusses the difference between Ideas and Examples and shares a response worksheet and some teaching strategies.
     
  • Steve Bernhardt reflects on thirty years of attending the CCCC Convention and describes the highlights of the convention in What’s up at CCCC?
     
  • Traci Gardner reviews a free, online resource classes can use to share student work and discuss current events or pop culture in Paper.li in the Classroom: The Basics.
     

  • Jay Dolmage explores what Disability Accommodations look like in the writing classroom with some specific examples.

A Few Extra Links

Let us know what you want to know about teaching writing or about using digital tools in the composition classroom by leaving a comment. Your response will help shape upcoming posts.

[Photo: Bunny Rabbit by wwarby, on Flickr]