DWRL Lesson Plans - Literature

Course Description:

This exercise was used in a lower-division, writing-flag literature course focused on national narratives. Students ranged from first-years to seniors, and came from a number of majors across campus.

Tags:

Digital/Physical Library Scavenger Hunt

Meredith Coffey — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 19:05:09 +0000

Author:

Meredith Coffey

Image Credit:

Sweetaholic

Brief Assignment Overview:

For the first time in my admittedly short teaching career, I created and oversaw a library scavenger hunt for my class this semester. As critics of the activity have argued, the library scavenger hunt is at risk of purposelessness, particularly if it’s not designed with clear pedagogical or research goals in mind. I really wanted my students to familiarize themselves with the physical space of the library and practice the digital research skills we’d engaged in previous classes—so despite my concerns, I proceeded with the controversial exercise. Overall, it was a success, but it’s certainly an activity whose contours you’d want to tailor to your particular class.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Cultural Context

Historical Context

Literary Criticism

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Research

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Media Requirements:

Introductory Writing Course

Required Materials:

Scavenger hunt worksheets, enough for each student (should be created by the instructor prior to the class; see "Suggestions for Instructor Preparation")
Computers for student research (since the exercise takes place in the library, using the library computers works just fine or even better)

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Mid-Semester

Full Assignment Description:

There are a variety of ways an instructor could set up for this activity, but here's what I did (and found successful):

We met in our regular classroom, where I distributed my twenty-question worksheet and broke them into teams (see "Suggestions for Instructor Preparation"). After everyone had a chance to read over the sheet, we walked over to the PCL together, whereupon I showed them where I’d be waiting on the ground floor in case they had any questions or when they were ready to submit their worksheets. I emphasized that they needed to submit their worksheets by the end of the class period, whether or not they were finished. Thanks to our 75-minute class period, they all had plenty of time to complete their work.

I did not require my students to stay with their team members at all times. I said they could remain together, or they could split up if they found it more efficient to do so, as long as they each turned into me a worksheet with answers that matched those of their teammates, to prove that they'd discussed their findings with one another.

For the first portion of the following class period, we reviewed their findings and discussed the commonly missed answers.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

First, I would strongly recommend having discussed digital research strategies and research goals for the class prior to this activity. We had already done these things, which was helpful because the digital research components of the exercise were much-needed practice but not first-time efforts (which undoubtedly saved time), and because they had a better understanding of why exactly I'd be encouraging them to find resources about Nigerian history, for example, when we were discussing a coming-of-age novel set primarily in Lagos (Chris Abani's GraceLand).

More immediately prior to the library scavenger hunt day, the instructor should create the scavenger hunt sheet. Because my own questions were so tailored to our specific class, I don't want to lay out our exact set of questions here, but here are some of the types of questions I found most productive:

Questions about relevant library resources. For example, I asked them how they'd obtain a copy of a certain book of which I knew UT didn't have a copy. Some of them already knew about Interlibrary Services, others decided to ask someone at the Help desk, etc.
Questions for which the answers could be found either digitally or physically. For example, I asked them to decide which chapter of a particular history book seemed like it would offer the most relevant context for a story we'd been analyzing in class. I chose this book purposely both because it was pertinent and because I knew it was available both via Google Books and in hard copy at the library. In our subsequent class discussion, we compared/contrasted strategies for tracking down digital vs. physical resources.
Questions that require students to consider the library's physical layout. That is, I asked them to find a particular book (the collection of short stories from which we had read) and then identify two others on nearby shelves that seemed relevant and interesting. A lot of them later indicated that even if they'd tracked down a book at the library before, they'd never thought to look around for pertinent titles in the area.
Questions that require just one extra step of Googling and/or that are solveable by using a series of different research strategies. For example, I asked them to find an article in Research in African Literatures about the novel we were reading. (I knew the journal had published several articles on the novel over the last ten years or so.) Most of them didn't know what Research in African Literatures was, but they all came up with an appropriate article, some because they'd Googled the journal title, others because they used library databases, and so forth. The various strategies they deployed to answer this question led us to an especially fruitful conversation later.

Ideally, the instructor should also assign teams in advance of the scavenger hunt. What worked well for me was to create an even distribution of English/Rhetoric majors, students with different class standings, etc., among the teams.

The instructor should also take into account questions of student mobility, disability, etc. I conferred with my students beforehand to make sure that the walk from the classroom to the library and the movement around the library was not at all burdensome for them.

Instructions For Students:

You have until the end of the class meeting to complete the library scavenger hunt worksheet. If you have any questions over the course of the scavenger hunt, you are welcome to come find me, but of course I can't give much away. You do not have to remain physically with your team members, but if you choose to split up research tasks, you must reconvene at the end to discuss your answers with one another. When you submit your worksheets, I will check to make sure that your sheets all have matching answers, to confirm that you've gone over everything with each other.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I scored their worksheets after class. The teams earned between 16.5 and 19 points out of a possible 20 points, so I was pretty happy with that result.

We also had a follow-up class discussion during our next meeting, which was a good opportunity to compare/contrast their various research strategies and to review the answers to commonly missed questions.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

My students seemed to enjoy and learn from the activity. Among the gains they later mentioned were that they had mostly never thought about looking around the shelves for similar titles, that they got a better sense of the library's layout, that they were less anxious to ask for help from a librarian, and that they learned from each other's research strategies (ex. brainstorming different search terms). It also didn't hurt that getting out of the classroom for a day seemed like a novel experience for many of them.

Course Type:

Course Description:

Violence, social inequality, anarchy, authoritarianism, poverty, disease, natural disaster, manmade disaster: what makes a place truly dangerous, and for which people? And how can books that merely depict dangerous places seem so threatening that they themselves are deemed too risky for certain audiences? With a broad understanding of what might constitute “danger,” we will investigate these and other questions through reading banned fiction set in dangerous places around the world.

The primary aim of this course is to help students develop and improve the critical reading, writing, and thinking skills needed for success in upper-division courses in English and other disciplines. They will also gain practice in using the Oxford English Dictionary and other online research tools and print resources that support studies in the humanities. Students will learn basic information literacy skills and models for approaching literature with various historical, generic, and cultural contexts in mind.

This course contains a writing flag. The writing assignments in this course are arranged procedurally with a focus on invention, development through instructor and peer feedback, and revision; they will comprise a major part of the final grade.

Tags:

A Structured Approach to Teaching the OED as a Close Reading Tool

regina.mills — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 01:21:00 +0000

Author:

Regina Marie Mills

Image Credit:

http://www.studiomatthews.com/works/six-steps-to-sustainable-development

Brief Assignment Overview:

Using a structured worksheet, students explore a word of interest from one of the course readings through the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) online. The worksheet asks them to consider how the definition(s) of the word can help inform their textual analysis/close reading of a text.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Multimedia

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Using a university database, computer literacy

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Computer/Laptop, course readings so far, OED worksheet, access to university database with OED online

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

My students were focusing on writing close reading based entirely in the text anot not contextual resources. So to show them the ways in which exploring a single word can lead to new interpretations or ideas about a text, I created this exercise using the OED online. My goal for the exercise was to give students an introduction to using UT's library page and navigating to databases, in addition to give them an outside tool that could help them do their Essay 1 close reading. I told them that the word they exmained for the exercise could be used for their larger essay.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

You may want to make hard copies of the worksheet so that students can write their answers down and use the computer just for the search process. You may also upload a soft copy of the worksheet to a class management site (ex. Blackboard, Canvas, PBworks wiki) and give the students the option to type in their responses. They can then either print the completed worksheet, E-mail it to the instructor, or upload it to the class management site (ex. Discussion Board). I also prepared an "exemplar" for them where I completed the worksheet just as the students would. It helped them to see the length of response I expected and also how my own process (which was surprisingly fruitful as prepartion for class discussion on the reading) led to new and improved readings of the original text.

Instructions For Students:

1. Make sure you have read at least one reading in class that students can use to pick their word from.

2. Show students to steps required to navigate your university's databases website in order to get to OED online.

3. Briefly showcase the search options and also the "Cite" button which provides MLA citation for the students (they love this).

4. Either take the chance to go through your exemplar together, with you explaining the questions and why you gave the responses or give students time to read through the exemplar, and then allow time for students to ask clarifying questions about the assignment.

5. Students then go to their computers/laptops and given the time you allow (at least 30 minutes though 45 minutes is probably a better time period), have them complete the worksheet, either in hard or soft copy (see "Instructor Preparation" below).

6. Students turn in the worksheet for instructor feedback.

You can also do Steps 1-4 as preparation for assigning this as homework. This has the benefit of giving students more time to explore; on the other hand, it does not allow the instructor to help students out as needed in the process.

The blank worksheet is copied below in its entirety:

Close Reading Strategies: OED Exercise

Directions: use the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) website as accessible through lib.utexas.edu to explore the etymology and multiple meanings of a word in the passage(s) you are considering for Essay 1, or any word from Douglass, DuBois, Washington, if you do not have your heart set on a passage yet. Look at the example of “propaganda” provided to be sure you complete this in proper detail. You may write on the hard copy or on the soft copy of the class website.

Go to http://www.lib.utexas.edu/ and then click on the “Databases” tab of the scoUT box. Click on the letter “O” and click on the link that read “OED (Oxford English Dictionary).”

Use the search box and type in the word you’ve chosen. Note if there is more than one entry.

Click on the entry (or entries) and read through them. Makes notes about key information, such as (but not limited to):

Etymology (origins of the word; how it has been used)

Difference between different parts of speech (is it both a noun and verb? If so, how does the word used differently as a noun or a verb?)

How many definitions? How similar or different are the definitions from each other?

Are there any “compounds” listed in the entry? If so, what does this say about the primary use of the word?

Overall, what are the thoughts you have about the word? How does this information tie into how the author might (or might not) be using the word? Is the word being used in an archaic (old, out-of-fashion) way or in multiple ways are the same time?

Make sure to consider how the word fits into the context of the entire sentence, into the context of the entire passage, and even into the context of the entire work. Write those thoughts here.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I graded this as participation, though if this a homework assignment, I would also give it a small grade. Or, you could make this an informal assessment. No matter what grade you do or do not ascribe to it, I think it is very important to give students feedback.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

I had planned a lot less time for this assignment initially but since I had made my schedule flexible for that day, I was able to adjust and add more time. I think this was appreciated by the students, who were able to complete most of the worksheet. In addition, a number of students ended up using the OED in their Essay 1's (a major writing assignment - a 4-page close reading of one text) and told me that they had been using it in other contexts. Because we did this exercise in class, I could offer commentary on their writing assignments about words I suggest they OED (we started using it as a verb) and I think that I may include OED definitions of words in future notes for students. I will definitely do this assignment again.

Additional Resources:

Below is the exemplar I created for my class, using the word "propaganda" from WEB Du Bois's "Of Booker T Washington and Others":

Go to http://www.lib.utexas.edu/ and then click on the “Databases” tab of the scoUT box. Click on the letter “O” and click on the link that read “OED (Oxford English Dictionary).”

Use the search box and type in the word you’ve chosen. Note if there is more than one entry.

Propaganda is both a noun and a verb, so I will make sure to check both links (I opened them as 2 separate tabs)

Click on the entry (or entries) and read through them. Makes notes about key information, such as (but not limited to):

Etymology (origins of the word; how it has been used)

The noun version actually originated in the church as a body that missionized groups. It wasn’t until the late 18^th century that the word took on a broader, more secular meaning as “an organization, scheme, or movement for the propagation of a particular doctrine, practice, etc.” (def. #2)

Difference between different parts of speech (is it both a noun and verb? If so, how does the word used differently as a noun or a verb?)

The verb version is rare and has the same meaning as most recent definitions of propaganda (i.e. to persuade or influence using propaganda). The noun is how DuBois uses it. But as noted above, the history of this word is quite interesting and though he probably means it in the more recent way, the church valences may still be there.

How many definitions? How similar or different are the definitions from each other?

After the church-related one, the third is fairly similar to the 2^nd one, except that they tend to emphasize the “biased and misleading” aspect of the information. There are only 3 definitions (not including the compounds).

Are there any “compounds” listed in the entry? If so, what does this say about the primary use of the word?

Yes, most of these are the tools of propaganda (like propaganda leaflet, propaganda movement, etc.)

Overall, what are the thoughts you have about the word? How does this information tie into how the author might (or might not) be using the word? Is the word being used in an archaic (old, out-of-fashion) way or in multiple ways are the same time?

Looking at this word, it made me think about it in a larger sense. I kept thinking about DuBois talking to the audience about Washington’s speeches and texts, just the print material, but I realize that DuBois is likely also talking about Washington’s “scheme” – maybe not in a nefarious way, but he is noticing that Washington’s ideas are disseminated in many ways beyond the text, by the Tuskegee machine, and by an organization that is represented by Washington but that encompasses many more people and organizations. Indeed, until I looked at this OED, I felt like propaganda was prettily singular but I can see how it connects to other aspects of the text outside of my own chosen passage.

Make sure to consider how the word fits into the context of the entire sentence, into the context of the entire passage, and even into the context of the entire work. Write those thoughts here.

I think that “propaganda” can be tied to DuBois’ invocation of the word “cult” on the second page of the text (CR 55). The cult is more related to a movement or organization and looking at this OED definition, I see propaganda as a more organized movement. In addition, I think it adds to the idea that Washington is spreading misinformation (“dangerous half-truth” on CR 60). The OED definition helped me make a connection within

Course Type:

Course Description:

This exercise was used in a lower-division literature course focused on African American literature and culture, Black Public Intellectuals (course-listed with African American Studies). Students are range from first-years to seniors. My class has 22 students.

Tags:

Google Images and Book Covers - Tracking Cultural Change

Ptacek — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:37:08 +0000

Author:

Jake Ptacek

Image Credit:

Screen shot of Lolita book covers retrieved with Google image search

Brief Assignment Overview:

Images on book covers, blurbs or reviews on dust jackets, and publishers’ summaries all provide constructed argumentation about the text within that is designed to provoke an emotional and analytic response. This lesson plan is designed to get students thinking about the ways in which cover images provide valuable evidence in the way in which a text (in this case, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita) is marketed and interpreted over time.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

Assignment Length:

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Audience

Visual Rhetoric

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pre-Writing

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Remediation

Visualization

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

I created this lesson for a networked classroom where each student could have internet access, though a classroom without could request that students print out their images the night before, or profitably use a projector as the groups present.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

First Day/Week

Full Assignment Description:

Students are often presented with paratextual apparati that contributes to determining their response to a work of literature. Images on book covers, blurbs or reviews on dust jackets, and publishers’ summaries all provide constructed argumentation about the text within that is designed to provoke an emotional and analytic response. This lesson plan is designed to get students thinking about the ways in which cover images provide valuable evidence in the way in which a text (in this case, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita) is marketed and interpreted over time. I found that this in turn could contribute to a discussion of a text as a historical document.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Before this class I had given a brief lecture on the history of the composition and publication of Lolita, and we looked at and analyzed the original French cover together, asking questions that were quite similar to the ones in the student prompt.

I had my students log into their computers and head to Google Images. I broke my students up into two- or three-person teams as I have 22 students in this class, but this is of course optional. (NB: Depending on the text, you may wish to enable the “safe search” function on your computers—searching Lolita brought up some occasionally questionable material.)

I handed out prompts to each group (see below in student instructions).

After 20-25 minutes, we came back together and we took a tour through the classroom, where each group gave a brief presentation based on their prompt for the rest of the class.

I did this in one 45-minute class, but the assignment could easily be expanded or transformed into a take-home exercise as needed. In the future I think I will try to make this a two-day exercise. I’d like to have the students upload their images to a class wiki, so that we could easily put them into chronological order, which would allow us to clearly and easily see how the images change (or remain static) over time.

Instructions For Students:

Your goal in this exercise is to think about how a cover image for the novel Lolita constructs a reader's response to the novel. What kinds of things does this image make us think? What does it say about the novel at that historical moment? To do so, you will use Google Images to find a striking cover image for the novel and analyze the image.

Once you’ve logged into your computers, head to Google Images
When you’ve arrived at Google Images you and your partner should search for some cover images used on the novel Lolita. Try some different searches—adding different key words (cover vs book) or countries (America vs Australia) will often provide you with different content.
Discover when and where your image was created—is it a Turkish edition from 1959? A Russian edition from the 1990’s? An American edition from the 2000’s? What type of image is it—a photograph? A drawing? A painting? Is it an identifiable piece of art (a famous painting or photograph) or does it look like it was commissioned for that edition?
With your partner, think about and brainstorm some answers to the following questions: What are the first words that come into your mind when you see this image? What does it make you think of? If you hadn’t read any of the novel, what would this image make you think the book was about? Now that you’ve read (some of ) the novel, what kind of relationship(s) does this image have to the text? Who seems to be portrayed? From whose viewpoint are we looking? Does this image spark any ideas about the cultural construction of the book? What kinds of people would make this book, and what kinds of people would read it? These questions are only a starting place. Please feel free to explore and think about more issues raised by your image.

Be prepared to enlighten the rest of the class about the image you’ve chosen (when and where it’s from, and a brief summary of your thinking about part 4) for about 3-5 minutes.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I did not formally evaluate this assignment except as part of daily class participation

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

This was an easy and even fun way to get a conversation started about how paratexts can affect the ways that we read, and also helped us to talk about how different cultural and historical moments look at texts differently. Students who are sometimes reluctant to traditionally close-read in class can often surprise themselves with a sophisticated reading of a visual text, and keeping the exercise group-oriented and low stakes allows them to demonstrate their skills with little pressure.

Course Type:

No Classroom Technology Required

Tags:

Distributed Peer Review

Rosen — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:19:20 +0000

Author:

Stephanie Rosen

Image Credit:

"Tin Foil Hat" by James Provost vis Flickr

Brief Assignment Overview:

When students can review their peers' attempts at an assignment before it's time for their own attempt, they inevitably critique other students' work and incorporate the best writing strategies into their own. For a typical rhetorical analysis assignment, everyone's analysis is public writing—on a class blog, and everyone's analysis is due on different days.

Type of Assignment:

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

One-Two Class Periods

Multiple Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Peer Review

Revision

Writing Process

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Rhetorical Analysis

Revision

Organization/Arrangement

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Required Materials:

Class blog in which each student is a contributor.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Intermediate Writing Course

Mid-Semester

Full Assignment Description:

This assignment is a typical rhetorical analysis. The innovation is that everyone's analysis is due on different days, and everyone's analysis is public writing—on our class blog. When students can review their peers' attempts at an assignment before it's time for their own attempt, they inevitably critique other students' work and incorporate the best writing strategies into their own.

The rhetorical analyses were posted over the course of 5 class meetings, with 4-5 students posting each day. Posts were due by midnight before our class meeting, and students who did not post that week were required to leave a comment on one post per week in the morning before our 12:30pm class. This ensured that students who were not writing that week were reading—at the very least, one post by another student.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

This assignment works best once a blog has been established, that is, once students have become familiar with it by writing required posts and comments for at least one class unit. In preparation for the rhetorical analysis post, students were given a detailed assignment prompt, and the freedom to choose their own rhetorical document (an advertisement) to analyze.

Instructions For Students:

(500-900 words) due by midnight the night before class.

Write a summary and analysis of an advertisement you found in your research that makes an argument about health. Your blog post should include an image of the whole or part of the advertisement and should also explain the context of the ad and its audience. In this post you will analyze how the ad makes its argument (its rhetorical strategies including logos, ethos and pathos) and why it makes the argument in this way. Basically, you must describe how the advertisement makes its argument, and you must explain why the advertisement is persuasive (or not) for its particular audience.

To be successful, your post must include basic elements including:

a clear and brief summary of the ad's argument
enough description of the ad so that your reader can follow your analysis
a discussion of the ad's intended audience
a discussion of the venue or location in which the ad originally appeared
your explanation of how the ad uses specific logical appeals to lead its audience to specific conclusions
your explanation of how the ad uses specific pathetic appeals to evoke specific values or emotions from the audience
your explanation of how the ad uses specific ethical appeals in order to appear credible to its specific audience
your argument about the ad's effectiveness for its specific audience

What to Find

Many advertisements make arguments about health, not just ads for prescription drugs. Of course, an ad for a prescription drug to treat depression, sexual disfunction, or some other disease or disorder would work for this assignment, but you can think more broadly than that. You could choose an ad that

makes an argument about health in order to sell a medical product (drug, supplement, treatment)
makes an argument about health in order to sell a non-medical product (deodorant, a car, food, anything)
uses health or illness as a metaphor to sell anything
makes an argument about health to convince its audience to do, believe, or feel something.

Where to Find it

Look around you: in magazines and on TV, on billboards or on the web. If you find a print ad, scan it; a poster or billboard, take a picture of it; an online ad, take a screenshot. If your ad is a video, you need to find the video online so you can watch it as many times as you need. Search YouTube using keywords including the product name.

Evaluation Suggestions:

My class uses the Learning Record for student evaluation. For the rhetorical analysis blog post, students were given aproximately one page of written instructor feedback within a week after posting. They also received comments from their peers on the blog which responded to their ideas rather than reviewed their analysis.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

From the first batch of blog posts, the writing was at a surprsingly high level. Each student had already posted a summary on our blog of one required text. Now they had the chance to write a post about a text of their choice, on a blog that already had an archive and a following. From there, things only got better. The blog took on a life of its own, outside the classroom, and it not only sparked intellectual conversations, it also became an unexpected writing resource.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Tags:

Step-by-step Guide to Blogging Close Readings

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 21:34:20 +0000

Author:

Pearl Brilmyer

Image Credit:

"Encadré (Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro)" by Frederic della Faille (via Flickr)

Brief Assignment Overview:

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

Major Course Project

Semester-long Project

Assignment Length:

Multiple Class Periods

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Close reading, presentation,

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Required Materials:

Wordpess account - with course blog and students as users.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

This assignment was designed to get students to practice their close reading skills in a short, condensed format of a blog post. Students sign up to blog for a given class day, chosing a short passage from the assigned reading for that day. They blog 200-300 words before midnight the night before class, using textual support and images to make a claim about the passage they chose. They present this post in class the next day.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I post the blogging instructions on my website at the beginning of the semester and keep them available for students to consult. There are short instructions containing basic information about the assignment and timeline on the course homepage and then more detailed instructions regarding what the post should entail when students click the link for "Blogging Instructions."

Instructions For Students:

Steps for Completing a Blog Assignment:

1) Blog (200-300 words) by 12:00 noon the day before a presentation. For detailed instructions on what to write see Blogging Instructions.

2) Style your blogpost with appropriate images, formatting and short quotations.

3) Cite the passage you are analyzing (no longer than a short paragraph) at the bottom of your post on a separate line in MLA format. See the OWL at Purdue website to figure out how. Don't forget in-text citations which reference the page number after any quotes!

4) Present in class the day you signed up for (be ready to engage with comments on your post)

Blogging Instructions:

1) Choose a short section from the reading/film.

Choose a section that intrigues you. You may be drawn by the language of the passage, the events chronicled, the emotions that it evokes. You may be confused by its appearance in the text, or its placement. You may not understand it. You may be disgusted by it. Bored by it. Find it humorous. Any reason that you are drawn to a particular moment in a text may offer you access into the text. If you are dealing with a narrative, it could be a moment of high action, or a simple description/depiction of a scene or character. If you are dealing with criticism, it could be a crucial point in the argument or a short example. This passage should be no longer than a short paragraph of text.

2) Temporarily forget why you choose it.

Keep your theories in the back of your mind instead of the front while you go through the next two steps. Allow yourself to notice new, contradictory meanings, and to change your mind. Try to get out of your own way by reading against your biases (just noting what they are can be an excellent start...)

3) Make sure you understand the concrete, obvious action and meaning of the passage.

Always start with what you think is “obvious”! This is where all good readings begin — what is obvious to you is very often controversial to someone else. Look up all the words you don’t know. Unscramble difficult syntax. Decipher metaphors. Try writing a “plain prose translation.” Try writing a second, alternative version. Ask your roommate what s/he thinks. Call someone in the class and ask them the same thing.

4) Annotate your passage (i.e. Write all over it!). Note all strange or striking effects and attempt to trace their sources.

Write directly on the page OR type out the passage and comment on it (using Microsoft Word's comment function might be a good idea). First, just underline words that you notice. Read it several times, taking note of where your interest increases, what pleases, distracts, or bores you. Then try to figure out how the author creates these effects. Pay attention to metaphors, contradictions, strange word choices, particularly long or short sentences, alliteration, modes of address (“Gentleman of the jury!”), shifts in pace or diction, the point of view, punctuation and anything else that you think might help the author persuade you to feel the way you did. Make a long list of all this stuff — the longer the better.

5) Take stock of what you’ve found. (Step back #1)

Take a step back. How has your encounter with the text changed what you originally thought? How might you need to re-shape your thesis? Which discoveries seem particularly important to communicate to your reader? How does it all “add up”?

6) Put what you’ve found back into context. (Step back #2, #3)

Now step back even further. Think about how what you’ve found is connected to the rest of the text. Is it a break in the action? A climax? A resolution? Do the images in the passage illuminate or refer back to something that has happened previously, or foreshadow a later event? How is what you’ve found important to our understanding of the characters? Of the plot? Of the main issues the author raises? Can you think of any other moments in the text like this one? Can you make any comparisons? Is it radically different from the rest of the text? Can you contrast the effects?

7) Finally, write.

Write out a few short paragraphs which point out the 2-3 most exciting things this passage does, organizing them into your separate points. How do a series of words convey a certain meaning or feeling? How does a metaphor encourage the reader to make a comparison and why that comparison? Remember, the post should not only identify figures of speech (like a metaphor), grammatical constructions (like lots of gerunds) or other kinds of word choice, but point out a connection between the author's particular choice of words and the rest of the text--what does this passage accomplish that the rest of the text relies on, contradicts, elaborates upon? Remember to quote as you make your claims (those reading probably won't remember this particular passage, so you will have to give them examples of what you're talking about), but do not quote too heavily, as you want to prioritize your interpretation and your words. Quoting the most key words/phrases or maybe a sentence or two should be sufficient.

8) Develop a (new) thesis and write it out in one sentence.

After you have done your reading, recapitulate how what you’ve noticed about language and structure link to the larger themes of the text. This is where your argument should emerge. You want your argument to grow out of what you have noticed in the text rather than noticing in the text only the details that can prove an argument that you would like to make. This is absolutely crucial. If you force a text to fit your preconceived notions you will invariably leave out something crucial that destroys your argument. Even more important, you won’t learn anything new.

9) Re-situate your thesis toward the beginning of your post.

You may not realize what your thesis about a passage is until you finish writing your post, but be sure to re-organize so that your main claim about it appears first, and your detailed analysis follows as evidence of your claim. Your thesis should confidently state what this passage accomplishes and how. Feel free to use 'I' in your blogpost if you like, but remember, as long as you have evidence to back up your argument (quotations and your analysis of them), there is no need to cast your reading as subjective or "just an interpretation." Remember, good readers don't "read between the lines," they read all the lines!

**Assignment adapted from Alyssa Harad's close reading workshop materials. Significant amounts of her language structure have been retained.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I grade the posts with the following template. Students blog twice throughout the semester and the assignment comprises 25% of their final grade.

Blogpost:

Completed by noon /5

Thesis /5

Textual support /5

200-300 words /2

Visual presentation /2

Citation /2

In-Class Presentation

Completed on day scheduled /2

Oral presentation /2

Final Grade /25

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students are responding positively to the assignment and the skills it allows them to practice before writing a more formal paper. What I like about it is that it allows students who do not normally speak for extended periods in class to take the floor and have completed the prepwork beforehand.

In class, we pull up the post on the projector in class for their reference and the student takes the class through their post. Sometimes students print out the post for their reference as they present. Overall, students seem to like the opportunity to respond to each other's writing in class and it often launches a discussion about the text.

Course Type:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Course Description:

E314J - Introductory Literary Studies Course - Gay and Lesbian Literature

In this course we will question whether we can indeed ascribe a “unity” to gay and lesbian culture or politics. Attending to a diverse array of moments in gay and lesbian history—moments of anger, sadness, triumph and hope—we will consider the how discourses of sexuality at a given time shape and inform the representation of same-sex desire in literature, film and other new media. The course will prepare students for the English major by familiarizing them with formal, historical, and cultural approaches to literature, as a well as by providing them with a sense of the history of sexuality, romantic love, and identity politics.

Tags:

Banned Books Virtual Read-Out

herbly — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:48:42 +0000

Author:

Hala Herbly

Image Credit:

bannedbooksweek.org

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students videotape themselves reading 2-minute-long passages from a banned book of their choice. They then upload their readings to the Virtual Read-Out Youtube channel, sharing them nationally. Instructions can be found here.

This assignment is well-suited to banned books classes, though I don't see why anyone else couldn't participate. Banned Books Week falls at the beginning of every October, and the American Library Association, among many others (see here for a full list of sponsors) organizes a Virtual Read-Out.

Since I am teaching my banned books class during Banned Books Week, I am making student participation in the Virtual Read-Out optional for extra credit. Even though this assignment is voluntary, I've had a couple of submissions, and a few more are in the works.

Type of Assignment:

Homework Assignment

Semester-long Project

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This assignment accomplishes a few pedagogical goals. First, it requires the student to choose a book important to them, thus requiring a degree of engagment that compulsory excercises don't always inspire. It should be noted that they are not required to read from books that I've assigned--the American Library Association has a comprehensive list of most challenged books since 1990. Thus a few students seem to have chosen books with personal significance to them, unexpectedly making this an excercise in ethos-building.

Second, this excercise fosters collaboration. Since a few of my students are more tech-savvy than others, they have offered to record and edit other students' readings. My class has entirely voluntarily created a facebook group to help them organize a larger group version of the read out project, editing together several readings into one entry.

Last, the read-out compels them to pay attention to oratorial style. A few have remarked that they had to think of ways to keep the reading from becoming monotonous. And even those who have not voiced such concerns tend to rely on inflection and emphasis in their readings.

When our submissions reach a critical mass, I plan on devoting a chunk of class to watching and analyzing their performances, paying attention to their stylistic choices.

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Required Materials:

Video camera (available through phone, webcam, or video camera). Web cams are installed in all Lab computers and cameras are also available for check-out.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

In honor of Banned Books Week, perform your own Virtual Read-Out!

Choose a text of your choice from the ALA website and create a video of yourself reading a passage from the book in question. You don't have to choose a book we're reading this semester. The Virtual Read-Out rules advise you to keep this reading under 2 minutes. Then, when you're done, send it to me, and upload it to the Virtual Read-Out Youtube channel. You could be internet famous! instructions can be found here.

Due Date: By the end of the semester.

This will count as extra credit on your final paper. Note: videos MUST be uploaded to the Virtual Read-Out Youtube channel in order to count for extra credit.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Be sure to look over the Banned Books website preparatory to presenting the assignment to class. N.b. though Banned Books Week ended Oct. 6, there appears to be no cutoff date for submitting videos.

Present the website. I took some time to go over the "Most Challenged" lists for the past year or two, which generated an interesting discussion about what books were banned and why.

Then take them to the Virtual Read-Out page. Explain the assignment.

Instructions For Students:

In honor of Banned Books Week, perform your own Virtual Read-Out!

Due Date: By the end of the semester.

This will count as extra credit on your final paper. Note: videos MUST be uploaded to the Virtual Read-Out Youtube channel in order to count for extra credit.

Evaluation Suggestions:

As I note above, this assignment is voluntary, for extra credit. I plan on awarding 5 extra points toward the final paper to anyone who reads or otherwise participates in a reading.

Course Type:

Course Description:

In this class, we will examine books that have been banned or otherwise challenged in Britain and the United States. Beginning with John Milton’s Areopagitica, an essay that, one might argue, provides the foundation for modern notions of free speech and censorship, we will examine how challenged books interrogate our notions of decency and morality. The course will end with Beloved, a book that forces us to question how we understand our nation’s traumatic past. Each of these books will allow us to discuss how literature as an art can also profoundly disturb us.

Tags:

Using Juxta to Compare Editions

nhgray — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:47:08 +0000

Author:

Nicole Gray

Image Credit:

Image by Seth Sawyers on sidewalk flying (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sidewalk_flying/5124506505/).

Brief Assignment Overview:

This lesson plan prompts students to use Juxta (collation software) to compare different witnesses or instances of a text. Students compare multiple versions of a literary work, locating revisions in order to discuss word choice and textual instabilities. Most useful for literary works with full-text editions available online.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Creative Commons

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This assignment is intended to get students thinking about revision, or how changes to literary texts get incorporated into different editions over time.

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Technology based classroom

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Late in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

Juxta is open source collation software developed by NINES (based at UVA) that allows the user to compare multiple versions of a text. There are several visualization options that can assist in the process, including a parallel display, which sets two or more witnesses next to each other and tracks the changes between them, and a histogram of edits over the course of the entire document.

Edits made to literary texts by authors can be interesting in a number of different contexts, demonstrating evolution of the text and the author’s (and publisher’s) ideas and constructions over time. It’s particularly interesting for the Banned Books course to think about whether some such edits might be responses to conditions of censorship and protest that affect particular works. But this is also an exercise that encourages close reading, particularly when applied to a piece of poetry that goes through multiple revisions, because changes at single-word and punctuation level can prompt discussions of the meaning of, for instance, dashes versus ellipses, the role of publishers and printers in the revision process, and so forth.

In preparation for a close reading assignment on Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” I considered having students use Juxta to compare two sections of the poem from different editions. Whitman published several editions of Leaves of Grass over the course of the nineteenth century, and the poem changed drastically from the first (1855) to the final (1891-2) edition.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

It might be useful, if doing this in class, to select a passage in advance that has substantive or interesting revisions likely to prompt good discussion.

A bit of experimentation with Juxta also is in order. Juxta Commons I think is in testing phase, and should be rolled out soon – this version would be easier, because it doesn’t require download. Students will need to create accounts and copy and paste the text of the documents they are comparing into the "Sources" box. These documents can then be made into "Witnesses," and then compared as a "Comparison Set." The Comparison Set can be shared or not, as the user desires.

Until Juxta Commons is available, students can download Juxta as a standalone desktop application at www.juxtasoftware.org, so if this is the route you take, it might be worth making sure the software can be downloaded on local machines.

Instructions For Students:

Go to www.juxtasoftware.org.
Select “Download” on the left, and select the appropriate operating system.
Find two versions of your assigned text online to compare, and copy and paste or type them into two separate plain text documents (NOTE: don’t use Word for this – any plain text editor like NoteTab will do.)
Save each version in a separate document with a unique name (for instance, Song_of_Myself_1855_Section_7).
In Juxta, select “Add Document” (the +) from the shortcut menu, and add both documents to the list.
Select one of the documents, and then in the screen at the right, select “Comparison View.” This should show you both documents side by side, with the differences highlighted. You can see the highlights in each document individually in “Collation View.”
You can see a visualization of the changes in the document over time in the “Histogram.”
Write down a few sentences describing what you have found. What kinds of changes can you identify between these two editions? Select one or two changes that seem most significant to you. What is the effect of these changes on the poem?
Be prepared to discuss your answers.

Evaluation Suggestions:

Instructors can assess this activity in a few ways: by calling on individual students to provide and explain their responses, by having students incorporate comparisons into their papers, or by making this a more formal written assignment that can be collected.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

I didn’t try this with Juxta yet, but I did have my students do a collation by hand across three versions – manuscript, periodical, and Leaves of Grass – of Whitman’s “The Dalliance of the Eagles,” one of the poems challenged by officials in the late nineteenth century. It worked surprisingly well. They were excited to find differences, and interested to talk about what they might mean. In the case of “Dalliance,” the manuscript version is very different from the Leaves of Grass version, while the periodical version only has a few small changes, so it was useful to consider the importance of word and punctuation choice and the different scales of revision. It seems like Juxta-based comparisons of different versions of “Song of Myself” or any other text with multiple variants could open up a way to talk about revision, textual instability, punctuation-level edits, and outside influences (printer, publisher, censor, &c), and Juxta’s clear indication of differences and multiple-panel displays would have been handy to put up on the screen.

Course Type:

Course Description:

This section of Banned Books introduces students to literary analysis and takes a look at books that have been challenged, edited, or banned over the past two centuries in the U.S.

Tags:

Creating OED Word Constellations

Roberts — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:53:24 +0000

Author:

Michael Roberts

Image Credit:

Magnifying Glass by chrisjohnbeckett on flickr

Brief Assignment Overview:

In this assignment students use the Oxford English Dictionary to make individual mindmaps of the multiple definitions of related words, then the class together creates a constellation of meanings surrounding a seemingly simple topic that becomes more and more complex.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Commonplaces

Invention

Kairos

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

The main goal of this exercise is to get students familiar with using the OED, and to increase their awareness of the multiple overlapping meanings of words. The secondary goal is to get the students thinking complexly about a seemingly simple concept through an elaboration of the many words associated with that concept. The more they describe and map the intersections relating to a concept, the more complex the concept becomes.

Media Requirements:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

Computer classroom, access to the OED.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

http://www.mindmeister.com/

Full Assignment Description:

I ran this assignment in my class on the literature of disgust, so we began the assignment right after a reading from a book about the sociology and anthropology of disgust, early in the semester. In general, though, I think this would be best assigned after any reading about one particular concept or word.

At the beginning of class, we began with a discussion of the definition of the word in question (in this case disgust). As a part of this discussion we developed, as a class, a list of synonyms and related words and concepts. I had already prepared a list at home and made sure we got most of the words I thought would be most useful; many of these words also came from the reading. For example, for disgust we also came up with: gross, horror, sloth, terror, fear, loathe/loathing, hate/hatred, nausea, etc. Using the overhead, I then led the class through the basic uses of the OED, using disgust as the example. We talked about the various historical meanings of the word, how you can find examples, and how the different meanings might be in conflict or otherwise related to each other. The opening discussion took about 10 minutes, and the following demo/discussion took about 10 more.

I then split the class into pairs and assigned each a different word from our synonyms list. I showed them the mindmeister mindmapping website, and told the class that they should research their words and each create a mindmap explaining its multiple meanings, being sure to historicize each definition and include the relationship to disgust. The class did this for about 15-20 minutes. We then reconvened and went around the room, with each pair showing and explaining their map to the class. Finally I imported the different maps and created one larger constellation, all related to the one central word. This took the rest of the class.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

It is best to have a relatively full list of words prepared that would be fruitful for the students to research. This means looking up the suggested related words beforehand on the OED. Also come to class with a general idea on how the words might be related or overlap.

Instructions For Students:

Using the OED and mindmeister.com, create a mindmap for your selected word, linking its multiple meanings and explaining their relationships to each other. Be sure to historicize each definition and give examples of its use. Also be sure to relate the meanings to our central word; please use your own words and do not copy/paste. We will later combine these mindmaps to create a larger meaning constellation relating to our central concept; keep that in mind. You have 20 minutes to complete your map with your partner.

Evaluation Suggestions:

This is a research exercise, and doesn't require any explicit participation. The goal is to get the students familiar with the dictionary as well as the multiple meanings of words, so it is best to keep things informal and fun.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

In general this went pretty well, and the students had fun. I think a large portion of the fun came from us "investigating" such fun/gruesome topics, and words that had interesting backgrounds, so I would suggest doing the research before to make sure the assignment goes well. In general, though, I would definitely use this assignment again.

Additional Resources:

Course Type:

Oxford English Dictionary

Course Description:

This course was for E314: Banned Books, but could be used in any literature course that emphasizes a historical/complex understanding of key words and teaches the OED

Tags:

OED

Mindmap

Research

Literature

Generating Consensus on Textual Interpretation Through Circulating Critique

OyP — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:28:09 +0000

Author:

Chris Ortiz y Prentice

Image Credit:

Chris Ortiz y Prentice

Brief Assignment Overview:

This exercise has groups of three students answer questions about an assigned reading; read and revise other groups' answers; consider other groups' revisions of their first answer; and revise their first answer--all in preparation for class discussion.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

No Classroom Technology Required

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Literary Criticism

Textual Analysis

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Rigorous and accurate reading is at the heart of this exercise: it is designed to argue to students that not all readings are correct and some are better than others. The goals are to get students to read closely and to use textual evidence to support their answers. Having each group critique (or agree with) each other's answers raises the stakes enough to make the students try in earnest; putting the students in groups of three reduces the fear of offending that often prevents productive peer review. Discussion is used to bring the students into concurrence and a sense of certainty, two things often lacking in humanistic discussion, which I believe often leaves undergraduate students feeling like texts mean anything at all, which is to say nothing.

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

An assigned reading and loose-leaf paper

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Intermediate Writing Course

Full Assignment Description:

The exercise has students break up into groups of three (a magic number for discussion purposes). The groups answer three questions about the reading (see "Instructions for Students"), writing down their answers on paper. Each group passes the paper to the next group. This group considers the other group's answers: any one they agree with in its entirety they place a check mark next to. If they think something needs changing, they revise the original sentence in a space provided on the sheet. If they think the answer is wrong, they place an X next to the answer and, in the provided space, explain why they think the answer is incorrect. Then they hand the sheet to the next group and repeat the process. Each group criticizes the original answers, but they can also see other groups’ work. This generates consensus or disagreement. At the end of the exercise, the groups pass back the sheets until they get back their original answers. They then consider the other groups’ responses: Did they get check marks? Were there revisions? Did they get X’s? They then have a chance to revise their original answers. Now they are prepared for discussion: I ask one student the first question. Heads nod in all directions and hands start to go up; there is consensus and even side-taking, because each person now has a strong idea of their own answers. The discussion after this exercise was the best I have witnessed in my short experience as a teacher.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

The success I experienced was likely due to asking the right questions. We were reading John Ruskin’s “Of the Pathetic Fallacy,” which suits itself well to three very straightforward questions: 1. In your own words, what is the Pathetic Fallacy for Ruskin? 2. Why is the Pathetic Fallacy a Fallacy? (What is fallacious about it?) 3. Why is the Pathetic Fallacy Pathetic? (What is pathetic about it?) There are better and worse answers to these questions, perhaps even right and wrong answers, and that is key, because it gives the students a stake in their responses. Select a text and write questions that students feel they can answer with some degree of correctness and comprehensiveness.

Instructions For Students:

Instructions for Students:

Part I. In your group, answer the three questions after discussing it with one another. Record your answers in the space below and then hand the sheet to the group on your right.

1. In your own words, what is the Pathetic Fallacy for Ruskin?

2. Why is the Pathetic Fallacy a Fallacy? (What is fallacious about it?)

3. Why is the Pathetic Fallacy Pathetic? (What is pathetic about it?)

Part II. Read the answers from the other group. Are they different than yours? If you agree with one of their answers and believe its entirely comprehensive, please place a check mark in the left margin next to the answer. If you think its missing or wrong about something, rewrite their sentence in the space below, indicating which sentence you're rewriting by numbering it accordingly. If you think the sentence is incorrect, please place an X in the left margin next to the sentence and explain below why you think the sentence is incorrect. Once you're finished, pass the sheet to the right and repeat Part II for the original group's answers.

Evaluation Suggestions:

If you evaluate what students are saying as they discuss, you can know whom to ask to get discussion started on the strongest possible foot. Evaluation is written into this assignment, since each group is evaluating the answers of the others to complete each pass. I believe this is why making small groups works well, since individuals are often more shy to criticize than groups. This exercise generates some team spirit. Since I use the exercise to generate classroom discussion, I don’t give it a grade.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

This exercise, although very simple, holds several advantages. When it came time for discussion, I asked a student I’d been listening in on to answer the first question, "What is the Pathetic Fallacy?” Her response was concise and strong; I was satisfied. But two other students added nuances in Ruskin's text they found when critiquing other groups' answers. The first question took care of the second. Then I asked the third question (to a different student), and again the student provided a superior answer, which also tied in a previous comment from a different student. I think we all left class feeling like we were sure what Ruskin means by the “Pathetic Fallacy,” why he thinks it is a fallacy, and why he believes we pity a person making it. To emerge from discussion with clarity like this is very rare in my experience.

Additional Resources:

Another advantage of this exercise is that it requires very few resources.

Course Type: