DWRL Lesson Plans - Wikis

Comparing Summaries on a Class Wiki

gerdes — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:56:04 +0000

Author:

Image Credit:

Kendall Gerdes

Brief Assignment Overview:

This lesson asks students to individually summarize a short opinion article, then post their summaries as comments on a class wiki page. The lesson can be expanded with class discussion about the strengths of students' summaries, as well as the similarities and differences.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

Single Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This lesson aims to teach students to:

find a text's main argument and supporting claims
practice paraphrasing by condensing an argument
see how their own summary overlaps with their peers'
see how their own summary could be improved
see that there are many valid ways to summarize an argument

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

an article for students to summarize (I selected a short 3-page op-ed from the New York Times)
a class wiki or blog where students can post comments simultaneously on a single page (I use PBWorks)
computers for each student so they can compose simultaneously and post their summaries

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

I began by allowing my students time to read the article in class, since it was a short piece--instructors may assign longer articles be read in advance of class. As students finished their reading, I asked them to summarize the article by identifying the main claim and any important supporting claims. Most composed in the comments box of the wiki page where they were asked to post their summaries--as did I. While the students were composing, I composed my own summary to discuss at the end of the lesson.

I allowed about fifteen minutes for summarizing. Then I asked everyone to post what they had, no matter how incomplete. Instructors could allow time here for students to read one another's summaries and compare. We then discussed the summaries as a class. Students are prepared for the discussion because they can draw on what they have already written. We had to agree on the main claim, and then we listed the supporting claims as we would in a brainstorm. Then I read students my own summary, and we talked about what was consonant in my summary with the rest of the class.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Because this lesson will probably not take up a whole class period, I selected an article to summarize that accompanied another text: an interview with the author which transitioned our discussion from summary to ethos. Selecting useful material for students to summarize and making it readily available to students before class is a must.

Instructions For Students:

(See assignment description above.)

Evaluation Suggestions:

Because summary is a basic skill and this exercise comes early in the semester, I suggest evaluating this exercise only by whether it was completed. Both the lesson and the evaluation could be complexified by giving students more difficult material to summarize and asking them to revise after the class discussion.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

(See assignment description above.)

Additional Resources:

Free wiki site: pbworks.com
NYT op-ed: "The Deafness Before the Storm" by Kurt Eichenwald
Additional: Interview with Eichenwald on the Rachel Maddow Show
Additional: Tweet by Ari Fleischer re: Eichenwald's op-ed

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Course Description:

I used this lesson in my introductory writing course, RHE 306 Rhetoric and Writing.

Tags:

Summary

Wikis

Pre-Writing: Surveying Expectations on the First Day of Class

RMazique — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:18:32 +0000

Author:

Rachel Mazique

Image Credit:

Gallaudet University Tutorial & Instructional Programs: http://www.gallaudet.edu/tip/english_works/writing/pre-writing_writing_a...

Brief Assignment Overview:

On the first day of class, students think about the course topic and document their personal definitions of and understandings of the topic. In our case, students had to think and write about "Disability in Pop Culture." This type of writing serves multiple functions; it allows the instructor to glimpse the students' thinking and writing processes. It allows students to express or face any anxieties they have about writing/the course topic. It serves as an ice-breaker, and it serves as evidence of student development as this piece of writing can be referred to after students have developed a critical framework for understanding the course topic.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Semester-long Project

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Invention

Pre-Writing

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

1. To have students examine their personal conceptions of "disability" and think about examples of "disability" in pop culture.

2. To have students demonstrate their writing skills in a low-stakes, in-class writing exercise, in which they must write in complete sentences.

3. To document a "starting point," which can serve as evidence of the development of critical thinking after students have read about and discussed the critical frameworks for the class. (In our case: rhetoric and disability theory.)

4. To have students become familiar with our class wiki and develop their digital literacy skills from the first day of class.

5. To expose students to the ways in which one activity may apply to multiple course strands and dimensions of learning under The Learning Record assessment system.

Media Requirements:

No Classroom Technology Required

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

I planned this exercise for a classroom with computers as well as a media console and projector as our class work is primarily documented and stored in a PBworks wiki. However, it could be adapted for a classroom without computers as students may write on paper rather than on a computer or in a classroom wiki.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

First Day/Week

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

I designed this as an in-class writing exercise so I could address student concerns or challenges with writing in an online environment (as most students had not yet joined the class wiki that I invited them to prior to our first meeting). After introducing the class and reading through the course description, I invited students to free-write on the topic of the course. I indicated that there was no right or wrong answer, as I wanted this to be a low-stakes writing exercise. I gave students about fifteen minutes to set up their wiki page and write their thoughts before hitting "save." I also explained that this would serve as evidence of their thinking and writing processes from the first day of class and that we would refer back to their thoughts during class discussions as well as in a Unit Two short reflection paper--when they would revisit these concepts--after having developed a critical framework for thinking about and through rhetoric and about disability theory. Because the "firstness" of this exercise--first time using the wiki, first time writing for the class, "first day" evidence of thoughts about the course topic--was very important to the pedagogical goals, I assigned this as homework to those who did not complete writing their thoughts out to their satisfaction. I also assigned this as homework to students who added the class later and asked that they write their thoughts before they delved into the course readings on disability theory and disability studies. I also indicated the exercise's relevance to our course goals and the dimensions of learning by emphasizing the goals in bold and underlining the dimensions, so students would realize how each activity was relevant to mutiple course goals and relied upon several dimensions of learning as their progress is measured not by traditional methods of grading, but by The Learning Record.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Prepare your list of questions to prompt student thinking about the course topic.

If having students post their work online, create the webpage or wiki page with the writing prompt.

Or, make copies of the writing prompt for students to write on (for classes without technology).

Instructions For Students:

In your student folder, create a page titled "1st Day Pre-Writing Exercise" (with your preferred name, major & year in school in the top right-hand corner of the page). [Digital Literacy & confidence and independence or prior and emerging experience]
Free-write, or write a brief, one paragraph reflection (full sentences) on how you think pop culture has influenced your perception of (dis)ability & what (dis)ability means to you. [Presentation & prior and emerging experience]

Here are some writing prompts to get you thinking (answer as much as you can/feel free to add to this anything you think is relevant to the discussion) [Writing Process & creativity, originality, and imagination]

What does "disability" mean to you? What does "ability" mean to you?
How might pop culture have influenced your perception or understanding of these terms?
What kinds of images come to mind when you think of (dis)ability?
What kinds of pop culture have you seen or heard--relating to (dis)ability?
How do these images or sounds persuade you to think a certain way about (dis)ability?

Evaluation Suggestions:

In a class with traditional grading systems, this piece of writing may only receive "completion" points as it is designed to be a low-stakes writing assignment. However, in courses that use The Learning Record assessment method, this piece of writing becomes an essential piece of evidence that documents the thinking and writing skills of students on the very first day of class. It allows students to better analyze their development when they have a concrete example of the ways in which the course may or may not have transformed their writing and thinking skills when they can contrast writing from the first day of class with writing and thinking at the midterm as well as at the end of the course.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students were anxious when I mentioned they would have a writing exercise to do in class and that they would create a page on the wiki to do so. Some students mentioned after class that they do not write well within time constraints and were concerned about whether they would be allowed to finish their writing at home. I assured them that they could as the point was not to test their speed. And, for those students who were anxious about writing and using the wiki, writing on the first day allows students to face their inhibitions about their writing and it allows me to glimpse their writing skills as well as their prior experiences on the course topic. With The Learning Record system of assessment, challenges, frustrations, fears, and problems (as well as successes) writing in digital environments are documented in weekly (or daily) observations that students make about their learning processes. So, encouraging students to experience these dilemmas and to strategize ways to confront their concerns gives them an opportunity to develop their skills as well as their confidence and indepenence (two dimensions of learning). Students who wrote observations about this "First Day Pre-Writing Exercise," noted that their initial anxieities faded away once they were actual in the digitial environment and saw that they were not alone in their concerns--as their peers around them were also encountering similar experiences. Students are also able to build a rapport with one another as students ask a peer for help on creating a wiki page or with navigating the wiki.

With regards to content, some students had very sophisticated thoughts on "disability" and extensive experience with or examples of "disability" in pop culture. Most had common, stereotypical answers to give when defining "disability." These answers were touched on during class discussions on readings by "disabled" writers or during discussions of disability theory. Students will also refer to their thoughts from the first day when we begin Unit Two and they write a reflection on "disability" in pop culture given their new knowledge and critical analyses of (dis)ability in pop culture.

Additional Resources:

1. The Learning Record

2. To access my syllabus with more information on how I use The Learning Record, click "View" under the column, "Syllabus."

3. PBWorks

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Intermediate Writing Course

Introductory Writing Course

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

This course is an intermediate writing course, but the activity could apply to any course with a specific topic that instructors want their students to interrogate. Here's my course description:

RHE 309K – Disability in Pop Culture is a rhetoric and writing course in argumentation that situates rhetoric as an art of civic discourse. It is designed to enhance your ability to analyze the various positions held in any public debate and to advocate your own position effectively. Your work in this course will help you advance the critical writing and reading skills you will need to succeed in courses for your major and university degree.

In this course, you will focus on analyzing the relationship between pop culture and rhetoric. Your analyses will examine public disagreements about various issues such as: How do popular (mis)representations of “the supercrip” convince us to make political decisions regarding accessibility, advocacy, education, and/or social policy? How can we evaluate arguments that not only depict (dis)abled people as “heroic” but also those that portray the converse: the “grotesque unfortunate” deserving of “pity” and “help”? How do these arguments address questions of basic human rights, needs, drives and “eugenics rhetoric”? Will children (and adults) make political decisions based on recurrent thematic representations of “disability” in pop culture, and, is that a good or bad influence?

Beginning with a selection of readings that introduce disability theory, you will conduct research to explore a controversy of your choice on (dis)ability in pop culture. Throughout, you will engage with your controversy, analyzing editorials, print and video advertisements, and other contemporary portrayals of “the supercrip” in pop culture to analyze rhetorical appeals. The last unit will focus on multimodal arguments; you will create a multimodal composition that takes a position on the representations of bodies and abilities.

Tags:

Revising/Drafting/Editing With Wikis

detweiler — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:19:32 +0000

Author:

Eric Detweiler

Image Credit:

Eric Detweiler

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students engage with and revise each other's texts using a wiki platform. Allows students to consider the various ways of composing a summary of a single text.

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Software

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

For my RHE 306 (introductory composition) course, I created a course wiki to which students posted numerous in-class activities and homework assignments. I find wiki particularly advantageous for group activities, as students can create pages that all group members can edit/revise/view/etc. (which GoogleDocs can also allow, but in a different manner). A wiki can thus be a useful space for foregrounding the collaborative nature of writing. Also worth noting is the “page history” feature of PBWorks, the wiki platform I use, which can allow both students and you, the instructor, to see how a particular page developed.

This lesson plan provides a way for students to think carefully about the rhetorical choices they make when summarizing a text by collaborating on the creation of a trio of wiki pages. The lesson plan is also designed to help students learn the difference between drafting, revising, and editing—three stages of the writing process we have already discussed as this lesson plan unfolds.

Media Requirements:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Required Materials:

Computers with internet access, preferably one per student; a course wiki (as mentioned above, I use PBWorks).

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

I divide students into groups of 3.* Each group is assigned one chapter from the RHE 306 first-year forum book, and each member of that group is responsible for composing a “research summary” (RS) of their assigned chapter. (RSs are one-page summaries of a source’s argument, and are ideally free from the summarizer’s opinion about that argument.) I have students compose their RSs as Word documents, then copy and paste them into the body of a wiki page. I also ask them to choose a distinct color for their wiki-page summaries. Below is a screenshot of a student’s RS. The student has turned it blue using the bottom-left button in the formatting toolbars above the text window.

Once each student's research summary (RS) is drafted and uploaded, I assign her/his RS to another group member to revise—for instance, if Jaime, Harold, and Terry are a group, Jaime is assigned to revise Terry’s RS, Harold is to revise Jaime’s, and Terry to revise Harold’s. I ask each student to make her/his revisions in a different color than the original draft of the RS.

Finally, I reassign the revised RS to the third group member, who is charged with editing (i.e., Terry drafts, Jaime revises Terry’s draft, and Harold edits the revised draft).

Since deletions obviously don’t have a color, I also have students record any removed phrases, words, punctuation, etc., at the bottom of the page.

The timing on this whole process can differ—you can assign it as homework and have each stage due on a different day, or you can have the revision and editing stages take place during a class meeting.

After the editing work is done, I have the original drafter look at her/his revised and edited RS. I then let the groups have internal discussions about how they made the choices they did at each stage: Why did Harold choose to quote different lines than Jaime during his drafting process? What led Terry to cut the first line of Harold’s second paragraph? If you want something tangible, you can have students write out their reflections: Where did their group members original drafts differ? What rhetorical choices did their group members make that led to these differences? What differences in opinion were revealed in what group members chose to revise about each other’s RSs, and did any revisions seem especially effective? Etc. Broadly speaking, I like these questions to get students thinking about writing—even summary—as a rhetorical process rather than a fill-in-the-blanks sort of task.

*If the total number of students in the class isn't divisible by three, I'll create groups of four, but each group member will only engage with two other group members' summaries as revisor/editor.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

At this point in the semester, my students are already familiar with the wiki and the process for creating wiki pages. We have also discussed the differences between drafting, revising, and editing, which I roughly define as the following:

Drafting: The creation of new written material—getting words on the page for the first time, similar to invention.
Revising: Working with the words you’ve already composed (moving paragraphs or sentences around, rewriting phrases for clarity, deleting extraneous sentences/paragraphs/pages), which can include some new writing (scrapping and recomposing your introduction, or adding a new sentence at the end of a paragraph to better establish that paragraph’s purpose).
Editing: Cleaning up/polishing your grammar, spelling, citation, etc. (removing commas, adding in-text citations, changing “th” to “the”).

We will have also already covered methods of forwarding a source’s argument, particularly the relative merits of summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation.

Instructions For Students:

Relatively similar to the full instructions above--mostly, assign the students the chapter summary as homework in advance, have them post it to the wiki before class begins the day of the activity, and put them into (ideally) groups of three. From there, instruct them to revise one of there group member's summaries using a particular color of text, the edit the third group member's summary with yet another particular color. At the end, have them discuss why they made the specific revision and editorial choices they did and discuss what they found particularly effective about the group's summaries.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I generally grade this assignment on a pass/fail basis—as long as the student completed all three stages, they get credit.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students do occasionally find the process tedious, especially by the editing stage. As an alternative, the original drafts could be shorter. Really, one paragraph of drafted material could be enough given how extensive this activity can become.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Course Description:

Rhetoric 306 is a course in argumentation that situates rhetoric as an art of civic discourse. It is designed to enhancestudents' ability to analyze the various positions held in any public debateand to advocate positions effectively. Students work in this course willhelp them advance the critical writing and reading needed to succeed in coursesfor their major and university degree.

Tags:

Collaborative Annotated Bibliography with a PBWorks Wiki

Bloom — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:49:56 +0000

Author:

Emily Bloom

Image Credit:

Screen shot of collaborative annotated bibliography in PBWorks

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students worked together to create a collaborative annotated bibliography on PBWorks that covered a range of literary scholarship relating to the novels and poems on the course syllabus. Each student signed up for a day to give a research presentation; on their assigned day they found a scholarly source, wrote an annotated bibliography entry on the PBWorks site, and presented it to the class. By the end of the semester, students had created an annotated bibliography that could serve as a resource for the whole class as they began writing their final research papers.

Type of Assignment:

Semester-long Project

Assignment Length:

Semester-long Project

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Cultural Context

Historical Context

Literary Criticism

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Annotated Bibliography

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Presentations

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This assignment exposed students to different approaches to literary scholarship and research techniques. Sudents developed familiarity with library search engines, peer-reviewed journals, and academic conventions in the study of English Literature. They also learned to write annotations, cite sources using MLA citation style, and present their research to their classmates. By incorporating an ongoing research assignment into the course, I was able to maintain a conversation about research and scholarship throughout the semester. It also served to make research more collaborative, as students could draw upon the summaries that their peers had provided, and use the bibliography as a resource to identify relevant scholarship and to further pursue the conversations that they found interesting.

Media Requirements:

No Classroom Technology Required

Required Materials:

Students will need to sign up for accounts on PBWorks in preparation for the assignment. Instructors must create a single wiki page entry titled "Annotated Bibliography" on which students will add their entries. Any other materials are optional; for instance, several students gave research presentations using powerpoint, for which I needed a media console in the classroom. However, it would be possible to limit students to oral presentations.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

Each student in the class will sign up for a day to make a research presentation. On your assigned day, you are responsible for 1) finding a scholarly source that is relevant to the text we are discussing on that day, 2) creating an annotated bibliography entry on the class wiki, and 3) making a short (5-7 minute) presentation to the class explaining the relevance of your research.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Instructors must expect this assignment to take a great deal of class time throughout the semester, both in terms of preparing students for the assignment and in allocating 5-7 minutes for each student to present their research throughout the semester. However, once it gets going, the research presentations should enhance class discussion as well as better-preparing students for research in literary studies. I would advise allowing several minutes of question and answer following the presentations to give students the chance to respond and discuss.

Instructions For Students:

Finding Sources

Scholarly sources, such as articles in academic journals and books, are written by experts for other researchers like you. They are rarely found for free through search engines like Google, but rather are subscribed to by libraries and are available in library databases. For more information about distinguishing between popular and scholarly sources, see <http://www.lib.utexas.edu/students/find/popularvscholarly.html>

1) Finding academic books: Visit the UT Library Catalog.

2) Finding scholarly articles in academic databases: Go to “Find Articles Using Databases” on the UT Library Website. From this page you can look up databases by subject or alphabetically, by the name of the database. Once you find a database, you can search for scholarly articles referenced in that database. The following databases are particularly helpful for our course:

MLA International Bibliography

LION (Literature Online)

ABELL

JSTOR

Project Muse

Writing an Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography includes all the usual bibliographic information, as well as 1-3 sentences that summarize the text. This short summary appears after the bibliographic information and is written in incredibly precise prose (think resume-speak). One challenge for this kind of writing is to choose powerful verbs that show what the source does not just what itsays.

Examples from The Art of Literary Research:

Rampersad, Arnold. “Too Honest for His Own Time.” New York Times Book Review, December 29, 1991: 3, 17-18.

Reviews the history of the censorship that publishers and book clubs applied to the books that made Richard Wright famous, to explain why the Library of America volumes devoted to his major works represent them, for the first time, “as he had wanted them to be read.”

Laird, J.T. The Shaping of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.

Documents, from the manuscript and the various printed editions, the extensive revisions of the novel over nearly a quarter-century. Disposes of many half-truths and outright errors, most of which resulted from Hardy’s own misleading statements.

Maddox, Brenda. Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce. London: Hamilton, 1988.

The appendix describes the migration of “the largest collection of Joyce material in private hands, the richest source of material on the life of Joyce until 1920” from Trieste to Cornell, and the controversy aroused by the publication of some of the obscene letters included in the purchase.

Posting to the Wiki

Go to the course wiki page on PBworks: https://bannedbooksbloom.pbworks.com. On the sidebar find the link to “Annotated Bibliography.” Log in with your username and password and you will be able to add your entry directly to the document. Do not alter or erase any other entries—just add your own. Put your name at the end in parentheses.

Making a Presentation

Give an extemporaneous presentation (not read verbatim from a piece of paper, but presented in an engaging manner). You are welcome to use powerpoint or any other visuals that would be helpful. The presentation will need to be more detailed than your wiki posting. Describe how you found this article and what you think it contributes to our understanding of the text. Explain the author’s argument and what kind of evidence he or she uses to support this argument. You are welcome to editorialize—to give your own assessment of the article’s strengths and weaknesses, but this should not be the main focus of the presentation.

Evaluation Suggestions:

Minimum Requirements

For a C or above, source must:

Þ Be from a scholarly publication

Þ Clearly illuminate the text we are discussing (cannot come out of left field)

For a C or above, presentation must:

Þ Be at least 5 minutes long

Þ Clearly summarize the author’s argument

Þ Give detailed descriptions of the author’s use of evidence

Þ Be delivered clearly and extemporaneously

For a C or above, wiki posting must:

Þ Be in correct MLA citation style