DWRL Lesson Plans - Tone

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Multimedia

Remix

Media Requirements:

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Intermediate Writing Course

Full Assignment Description:

This assignment is meant to be a fun activity that allows students to exercise their creative muscles, while simultaneously demonstrating the possibilities of revising style for different audiences. The lesson plan in adopted from Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style (first published in English 1958). In this book, Queneau writes a single (2 page) short story, in which a narrator sees an argument on a bus, and then later recognizes one of the men on the street due to his strange hat. Queaneu then rewrites the story 99 different ways--for example, he rewrites the book as a sonnet, in slang, using exclamation points in every sentence, and even grouping words by the number of letters they contain.

I use this assignment immediately after students submit the first draft of their second essay, giving students the opportunity to either complete it in class, or work on it for credit over the next week. Students select what they believe to be their weakest paragraph from the essay they just submitted. How they evaluate the term "weakest" is up to them--all I ask is that it is a paragraph that they would genuinely like to rework and to which they would like to pay closer attention. After having students answer questions about why they would like to revise that paragraph, I turn them loose on revisions. Typically I provide a copy of Exercises in Style for reference, but some sample exercises I suggest are:

Translate the paragraph to another language, and then back to English (either on your own or through Google Translate)
Rewrite the paragraph as a tweet with 140 character limit (include mentions and hashtags if possible)
Create lists of parts of speech, and place each word under the correct category
Record yourself reading the paragraph outloud, and set it to music or remix it
Rewrite the paragraph as an internet meme

After rewriting the paragraph five times, students are asked to respond to a few questions reflecting on the process, before revising the paragraph for the next draft. The reflective questions ask them to consider their own writing voices and styles. The assignment is graded as complete/incomplete--students that actively participate in the assignment and satisfactorily meet the requirements get credit for attending class, those that do not meet the requirements are marked absent for the day.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I suggest skimming Exercises in Style in order to familiarize yourself with some potential options with students. PDFs of the first few story permutations are easily found through Google, and most University libraries should have a copy (the most recent edition is published by New Directions, and translated by Barbara Wright). Creating your own list of suggested processes is useful as well--students might be paralyzed by the "anything goes" aspect of the assignment, and creating a list of suggestions helps them get started.

Instructions For Students:

Reflect carefully on the essay that you just submitted, and choose the paragraph that you believe was the weakest in the essay. In a few sentences, describe the specific reasons you felt this paragraph needed improvement. Did it not have enough quotes? Too many quotes? Was it too long or short? Did it feel repetitive? Out of place in the essay? Did you just plain run out of time to revise it?

Experiment with your paragraph by rewriting it five times in entirely different styles. You might choose a model for your style (a favorite book, movie, song, etc.). Rewrite it as a poem. As a speech. Or you might choose a constraint a la Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. This is your chance to be creative and stretch your wings. The sky is the limit on this assignment.

Once you have rewritten the paragraph in five different ways, reread them all. Which was your favorite, and why? Was it just the style that made the paragraph your favorite? Or did you substantively change your paragraph's content as well? Now, answer the hardest question of all: Why don't you always write in this style? Is it the demands of the formal academic context? Or had you just not considered it at all? Do you think this style can be assimilated to your own voice when writing papers?

Now that you've had a little fun, and really atomized how the paragraph is put together, revise it in a way that you would like it to appear in your revised. And remember: sometimes the only way to improve a draft is by playing around and experimenting with it.

In order to be considered complete, the following must be submitted in a single document:

The original paragraph from your essay
A reflection on why or how it needs improvement (minimum 1 paragraph)
FIVE rewrites, with an indication of the rewrite's style
A reflection on the experiment process, answering the questions in the third paragraph of the assignment instructions
A fully revised paragraph for the next essay

If you rewrite a paragraph in a non-text format, include links to the material, or email it to me separately.

Evaluation Suggestions:

The key to this assignment is effort, so I suggest a simple complete/incomplete grading rubric. Numerical or letter grades might discourage students' creativity or invention--the use of which are not always highlighted in introductory composition classrooms, but which are critical for high levels of writing.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

This was an especially successful assignment in my class. Students responded positively, and they especially enjoyed the ability to follow their own interests. Some asked me about whether or not they could use curse words--I encouraged it as long as it was relevant to the style of their rewrite. The assignment was completed by all students within a 75 minute class period (with computers available in the room).

Additional Resources:

The Wikipedia article on Exercises in Style, which includes a list of all styles used in the book.

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Tags:

Bridging Summary and Analysis with Standup Clips

Plourde — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:51:20 +0000

Author:

Aubrey Plourde

Image Credit:

Image Credit: Cory Schmitz

Brief Assignment Overview:

This assignment uses clips from standup comedy specials to hone student skills of summary and synethesis, for the controversy map essay assignment. It can also function as a precursor to Unit 2, Rhetorical Analysis. At this point, they have gathered data on the contexts of their controversy, and performed two summaries of viewpoints. They are currently writing their controversy maps, which require them to demonstrate that they can identify and incorporate a speaker's major claims and supporting statements. This summary exercise is meant to help students practice those skills and to introduce rhetorical analysis.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Writing Process

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This class activity came out of several grading sessions, wherein I realized my students were having a hard time subordinating an author's points during a summary. They seemed to give each of the author's statements equal weight, without differentiating between which ideas were primary and which were more supporting details. So while this activity is meant to reinforce the skills of summary and syntehsis, it's foremost an thought-exercise, which I hoped would help them give themselves permission to fairly emphasize certain statements over others.

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

This activity will go more smoothly if each student can efficiently take notes. I allow them to take digital notes on a laptop or tablet, but this isn't strictly necessary. The project does require that the instructor have a media console and projector.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

Ask students to sit in groups of three. These groups will be informal, and they shouldn't get too hung up on them. Most of their work will be individual, but asking them to share with a tiny group before discussing with the entire class can make them feel more confident.

Screen a clip from a popular comedian's standup special. I chose Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, and Bill Burr, to get a range of comedic styles. Each clip should last no more than 3-4 minutes, although the length will of course be based on the amount of time devoted to a single topic within the special. I also chose clips that I felt addressed primary controversies circulating in the news, and ones I felt my students would probably be familiar with.

Ask students to take notes on the clip and to identify the comedian's main point. Then ask them to fill in the supporting details.

Students should share their breakdown of the clip with their miniature group.

Once they have had a chance to discuss (this should only take two minutes or so), get a class consensus about what the comedian is "really" talking about, and what lines are there for effect or support. This is an opportunity to point out which points may seem like they're geting a lot of focus but are actually in the clip for a laugh or for emphasis.

Students should be able to summarize the clip in one statement. Encourage them to write an informal thesis as a class. For example, "In this bit, Aziz Ansari pokes fun at gender conventions by highlighting the arbitrariness of marriage rituals." This statement bridges a summary understanding of the text and an introduction to basic analysis. The extent to which the dicussion veers toward how the comedian's performance and language are affecting the humor is flexible; depending on how far the instructor would like to introduce or foreshadow Unit 2, this activity could stick to summary, or it could invite students to begin considering ethos, logos, pathos, and so on.

Repeat the exercise two or three times, time permitting, and debrief with students. They should feel more confident identifying primary and secondary points, especially with such a flexible genre.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I recommend converting the YouTube videos to an MP4 file that can be embedded in a Prezi or PowerPoint. This avoids the mid-class confusion of watching ads, finding the right clips, and so on.

Instructions For Students:

1. Watch the following comedy clip.

2. Take notes on what is being said.

3. When the clip is finished, re-read your notes and organize the bit based on its primary argument and its supporting subpoints.

4. Discuss with your group: compare your own breakdown of the primary and secondary claims with the others. Be prepared to report your organization to the class.

Repeat with three different clips, time allowing.

Homework:

1. Find your own clip.

2. Take notes on the content and revise your notes into some kind of outline that separates the main ideas from the subpoints.

3. Write up a short paragraph summarizing and synthesizing the comedian's argument.

4. Post both the paragraph and a link to the clip on the Canvas discussion board.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I ask students to share their choice/phrasing of the comedian's main argument and subpoints with the class. This is an informal evaluation, but it allows me to both determine their comfort with pulling out the major threads of an argument and to encourage them to make those distinctions between which ideas are emphasized and which are supplemental.

I also ask students to do one more summary/synthesis on a Canvas discussion board. They find their own set of clips, summarize them and synthesize their relationship to one another, and post their writing with the clip link on Canvas. I grade it for completion, but it can be a good, efficient way to guage whether students can differentiate between main ideas and subpoints.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

My PowerPoint didn't actually work, but I did have the separate downloaded clips, so it went relatively smoothly. Despite the technical glitch, I got a lot of positive feedback on this assignment. I think my students liked the project simply for content--it made a nice vacation from reading arguments about marijuana legalization--but they did also seemed to really enjoy applying their summary skills to less-conventional media. After we discussed the major/minor points, they enjoyed very briefly discussing how the rhetorical turns worked, which was what made me think this assignment worked well as a pseudo-bridge between Unit 1 (research/summary) and Unit 2 (analysis).

Course Type:

Course Description:

Rhetoric 306 is a course designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of research and argumentation. They are asked to research a controversy, summarize and analyze the arguments of the major stakeholders in that controversy, and then develop their own arguments.

Tags:

Performance

Bridging Summary and Analysis with Standup Clips

Plourde — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:51:15 +0000

Author:

Aubrey Plourde

Image Credit:

Image Credit: Cory Schmitz

Brief Assignment Overview:

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Writing Process

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

Ask students to take notes on the clip and to identify the comedian's main point. Then ask them to fill in the supporting details.

Students should share their breakdown of the clip with their miniature group.

Repeat the exercise two or three times, time permitting, and debrief with students. They should feel more confident identifying primary and secondary points, especially with such a flexible genre.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

I recommend converting the YouTube videos to an MP4 file that can be embedded in a Prezi or PowerPoint. This avoids the mid-class confusion of watching ads, finding the right clips, and so on.

Instructions For Students:

1. Watch the following comedy clip.

2. Take notes on what is being said.

3. When the clip is finished, re-read your notes and organize the bit based on its primary argument and its supporting subpoints.

4. Discuss with your group: compare your own breakdown of the primary and secondary claims with the others. Be prepared to report your organization to the class.

Repeat with three different clips, time allowing.

Homework:

1. Find your own clip.

2. Take notes on the content and revise your notes into some kind of outline that separates the main ideas from the subpoints.

3. Write up a short paragraph summarizing and synthesizing the comedian's argument.

4. Post both the paragraph and a link to the clip on the Canvas discussion board.

Evaluation Suggestions:

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Course Type:

Course Description:

Tags:

Performance

Introducing Rhetorical Analysis with Contemporary Advertisements

sariddick — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:01:21 +0000

Author:

Sarah Riddick

Image Credit:

Mozart, Mike. "Smellcome to Manhood." JeepersMedia. Flickr. 2 Oct 2014. Web. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/12462069883/sizes/m/>.

Brief Assignment Overview:

The aim of this lesson is to provide students with an accessible and engaging introduction to rhetorical analysis. Students will view four brief texts—three thirty-second videos and one print advertisement—and try to identify the audience, the speaker, and the argument contained in each.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Research

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Introduce rhetorical analysis to students
Offer a broad illustration of the scope of rhetoric and rhetorical analysis
Familiarize students with initial components of rhetorical analysis (audience, speaker, argument)
Help students feel comfortable offering their own analyses

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Media console with overhead projector
Class computer with internet connection
Preferable, but not essential: personal computers for brief individual research activity.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

This lesson is intended to provide a light, engaging, and accessible introduction to rhetorical analysis. Students will survey several contemporary advertisements that vary in a number of ways yet share some broad themes. The order of the texts is intended to subtly help the students progress from basic to more nuanced analyses.

The first moments of this class are open to suit the needs of the instructor. If this is the first day that students will be performing rhetorical analysis, it may be helpful to provide a brief overview of what is to come.

To begin the analytical portion of the class, play the first text—an Old Spice commercial from the 2010 "Smell Like a Man, Man" campaign. The commercial is both fun and funny, thus students should respond well to it. Moreover, its fast pace and quirky tone will likely get students laughing, which will hopefully loosen them up for analysis.

Once you have played the video, ask the following questions:

Who is the speaker?

Who is the audience?

What is the situation?

What is the argument?

What does the text want you to feel?

What does the text want you to believe?

What does the text want you to do?

How is the text making that argument?

Be sure to draw out detailed responses from the students. Play the video again, as needed. One reason this ad is great for an initial analysis is because it has two different speakers (i.e., the spokesman and the company), two different audiences (i.e., implicit and explicit), and plenty of components that students can draw on to support their answers to the argument questions.

Next, play the second and third videos. Each of these are 2008 advertisements from the Corn Refiner Association's "Sweet Surprise" campaign about high fructose corn syrup. Ask students the same series of questions, and encourage them to pay even closer attention to the details that help create this argument.

Once you feel that your students have adequately analyzed the argument in these two texts, have students go to the website featured at the end of the videos. If students don't have computers, do this together as a class. By this point, hopefully students will have mentioned that the text wants you to go to this website, so this can be a way of getting them to further test the text. Once there, have students try to identify any bias on the website and ask them to list specific examples. This is meant to encourage students to closely examine sources and to consider how word choice and other stylistic choices shape an argument.

If time permits, have students look at one more text—a 2014 print ad from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. In the ad, one woman remarks about new public transportation changes and another woman responds, "Can't we just talk about shoes?" There are several broad parallels between this text and the former texts, so students should feel comfortable by now analyzing this form of visual rhetoric.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Given the brevity of both these texts and the follow-up questions, it would be a good idea to thoroughly familiarize yourself with each text before presenting them to the class. With this being an introduction to rhetorical analysis, students may feel shy about offering responses, so being prepared with many different ways to prompt their analyses can be helpful.

Instructions For Students:

For the group analysis portion of the class:

Answer the following the questions. Cite evidence to support your response.

Who is the speaker?

Who is the audience?

What is the situation?

What is the argument?

What does the text want you to feel?

What does the text want you to believe?

What does the text want you to do?

How is the text making that argument?

For the individual research portion of the class:

Go to http://www.sweetsurprise.com
Can you identify any bias?
Cite specific examples to support your response.

Evaluation Suggestions:

There is no evaluative component to this activity.

Course Type:

http://nypost.com/2014/02/09/sugar-daddy-website-has-coeds-rationalizing...

Course Description:

This lesson plan was designed for "Rhetoric and Writing", an introductory course.

Tags:

Rhetorical Analysis of "Sugar Dating" Ads and Audience(s)

Wiedner — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 19:59:46 +0000

Author:

James B. Wiedner

Image Credit:

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students work on argumentation techniques, rhetorical fallacies, and other concepts via reading a heavily-biased article from the New York Post discussing the relatively new but quickly growing phenomenon known as "sugar dating," which consists of web sites that pair older men (sugar daddies) who are willing to pay money for the company of young girls ("sugar babies"). The amount that any potential sugar daddy can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

While sugar dating sites seem to be happy to recruit young girls of all stripes, they are clearly most interested in attracting students, as evidenced in part by the fact that membership fees are waived for any potential sugar baby who registers with a .edu email address. The banner ad above is illustrative of most common underlying technique found on these sites. That is appealing to the fact that the typical undergraduate student is cash-strapped, and that being a sugar baby is an easy way to solve the problem. The titillating subject matter and the fact that half of the classroom are part of the demographic being so narrowly marketed towards caught everyone's attention from the get-go.

After they finish reading the article, displaying and bouncing through one of the sites on a projetor is great in a classroom that is equipped to do so, but it is by no means necessary.

The class is divided into two groups who assemble their respective arguments as to the propriety of selling such a product using the rhetorical appeals employed and the audience to which they are marketing (primary and otherwise); a loosely-moderated class debate/discussion ensues.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Collaboration

Social Media

Visualization

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Increasing Classroom Participation, Building Rapport Between Students, Building Rapport Between Instructor and Individual Students, Building Rapport Between Instructor and Class as a Whole

Media Requirements:

No Classroom Technology Required

Adaptable For Use Without Classroom Technology

Required Materials:

Nothing other than copies of the article distributed by the instructor at the beginning of class.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

The instructor distributes copies of an article taken from the web site of what is generally regarded as a reputable source for news. The class has no access to the article beforehand. The instructor asks the class if any of them are familiar with “Sugar Dating;” calling on student(s) with raised hands to explain what sugar dating generally refers to. The instructor then elaborates on the definition provided, paraphrasing points that might have been lost in the student’s explanation, adding any aspects of the concept that were not mentioned in the process. (5 minutes)

Students read the article individually. (5-10 minutes) phenomenon

The class then divides into two equally-sized groups, and discuss positive and negative aspects of the concept of sugar dating in general, along with the article’s presentation of the concept. One group is identified as the “pro” group, with the other identified as the “con.” However, the instructor does not articulate a specific question upon which they are taking sides. The two groups each work to flush out and organize what they believe to be their most salient points. (10-15 minutes)

An open discussion in a point/counterpoint format is the conducted, with the instructor keeping the discussion from straying to far afield, while casually interjecting to emphasize and elaborate upon the concepts that are relevant to rhetoric and/or law as they arise during the discussion. It is important that the instructor is as unobtrusive as possible throughout the ensuing discussing, to the extent that the collective “personality” of a particular class will allow. (30 minutes for a class meeting twice a week)

The instructor wraps up the debate and the class by highlighting some of the most important substantive points and the most effective argumentation techniques from each side of the discussion. Students are informed that there is a discussion prompt related to the day’s discussion; each student must submit one original posting, along with at least one response to another student’s original posting before the next class meeting. (5-10 minutes)

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

To prepare for the class, the instructor should spend time analyzing the specific article to be distributed to the class, composing a rough outline of considerations such as (1) the arguments (and counterarguments) most likely to be made by students, (2) the rhetorical concepts the instructor is most interested in covering, (3) questions that the class discussion might not touch upon.

The instructor should also do their due diligence in researching the subject in general. Visiting the actual sugar dating web sites is especially important. Students will have varying degrees of knowledge on the subject. Given the fact that these sites specifically target female college students, there is a strong likelihood that at least a couple of students will be well-versed on the subject; the instructor does not want to be learning about nuances of the sugar dating process, etc. from one of their students.

Instructions For Students:

As indicated above, instructions to be given to students are minimal (intentionally so). They're instructed to take about 10 minutes reading the article being contemporaneously distributed, with particular attention to tone, word choice, authorial bias, context, and visual rhetoric. They are then divided into two groups with opposing viewpoints, and are instructed to construct the most persuasive argument that they can, taking rough notes (to be submitted at the end of class) outlining the same.

They're reminded to consider likely arguments from the other side, and the best way to address/respond to them. Students then partake in a debate wherein the instructor guides them back on track if they are getting off-topic, overly emotional, or missing each other entirely (from a stasis theory standpoint).

At the end of the class, the students are given instructions to make a substanive blog posting responding to an instructor-provided prompt; the will seek to continue aspect(s) of the in-class discussion. Along with one original blog posting, students are instructed to post at least one response to the original posting of a classmate.

There is not any reading students are instructed to do in preparation for the class.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

The article’s author has a clear bias from the title onward, so I ask for a show of hands as to who agrees with the author’s…unflattering…representation of sugar dating and their advertisement and recruitment techniques. To my surprise, about 18 of my 22 students said that they agreed with the author. To keep the group numbers equal, I (somewhat lightheartedly) pointed out that the pinnacle of achievement for any rhetorician is to be able to effectively argue a point with which they wholly disagree. As my class is entitled “Rhetoric of Law,” I pointed out that this skill is of particular importance to attorneys, given that they take an oath to be “zealous advocates” for their clients in court, even if those clients are individuals whom they might find repugnant on a personal level. I then split the class roughly in half, based only upon where they happened to be sitting (or standing) at that moment, and then moving individual students towards one of two camps in order to arrive at numerical parity. I did not give consideration as to what side any particular student chose during our initial show of hands.

This lesson plan is well-suited for developing familiarity between students, increasing student participation, and establishing rapport between the instructor and his students- both individually and as a class. For these reasons, the lesson plan might be particularly useful at the beginning of the semester, or later on if class participation begins lagging.

Course Type:

Advanced Writing Course

Intermediate Writing Course

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:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

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:

Useful Anytime

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:

Literary Studies Course

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:

Close Reading YouTube and Cultural Archives

Rosen — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:58:07 +0000

Author:

Stephanie Rosen

Image Credit:

Stephanie Rosen

Brief Assignment Overview:

Start close-reading on day one by using YouTube videos and considering their archives.

Type of Assignment:

Assignment Length:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This assignment is meant to introduce close reading immediately, explain some course objectives, and get students "reading" and discussing on the first day.

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

media console with projector

Timeline for Optimal Use:

First Day/Week

Early in the Semester

Full Assignment Description:

My course description (see above) sets up a false dichotomy between watching YouTube and reading books. In reality, my syllabus features many works which reimagine literary texts by remediating them—in video, film, and more. We are especially concerned, in this class, with works that pull from the queer archive in order to make new art. On the first day, we used some YouTube videos to practice close reading and think about the ways in which the archives used in a text—or a video—affects our reading of it.

We watched Dan Savage’s original “It Gets Better” video, in which he and partner Terry tell stories about youthful struggle, love at first sight, adopting a son, family vacations, and achieving acceptance. We also watched the music video “Reading Rainbow” by the Lost Bois, in which A. O. and her musical partner, B Steady, remix the theme song to “Reading Rainbow” and rap about their intellectual formation from children’s books to queer literature to black feminist theory. Students were asked to take notes, paying particular attention to the archives each video uses.

After the videos, students offered items from their notes and I rewrote each very different archive on the board. Once notes were on the board, students were asked to answer a prompt about one video in small groups, using that video’s archive to inform their response. Half the room discussed one video, the other half discussed the other. After discussing in small groups, students reported to the class, some already offering rather sophisticated close readings on the first day!

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Since this exercise was designed for the first day or early in the semester, I suggest choosing video which provide a bridge between students' prior knowledge and the content of the syllabus.

Instructions For Students:

[The following instructions were explained in class.]

Watch the following videos and take notes. Try to write down as many elements of the video’s archive as you can. If it uses stories, what kind; if it uses texts, which ones; if it uses music, what music? In addition to noting the archive, write down any other thoughts or questions that occur to you as you watch.

[After watching and taking notes, students were given the following prompts:]

The short version of the argument in Dan Savage’s video is, simply, “It gets better.” But if you had to summarize the argument in a paragraph instead of a sentence, what would you say? Use your reading of the video’s archive to help expand on its message or argument.

The chorus in The Lost Bois’ song includes the phrase, “I ain’t nothin’ but a lost boi.” Clearly, “lost” is a key term in this song and for these artists, but “lost” is a term with several meanings. In this song, what does “lost” mean and what are the qualities of being lost? Use your reading of the video’s archive to support your answer.

Evaluation Suggestions:

Students had a chance to report their answers to the class, and came up with some great readings. There was no formal evaluation, but I pointed out how the most successful readings used prior knowledge and intertextual readings to support their claims. For example, The Lost Bois’ video includes footage from Disney’s Peter Pan, and one student used her knowledge of the “lost boys” in that text to support a reading of “lost” in this one.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

This activity went over quite well. The videos could be quickly read and discussed within a first class meeting. The strategies we used would carry over to our readings and the videos would remain a point of reference for later discussions.

Course Type:

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

In 2010, Dan Savage began a viral video campaign when he and his partner posted a video to YouTube promising a viewing audience of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual kids that life “gets better.” The project’s uncritical positive attitude has received critique from some queer intellectuals and kids, but it has also inspired videos from prominent LGBT people and allies, and given some viewers suffering from discrimination and heartbreak a sense of community and hope.

Before YouTube, queer people read books. In fact, reading, writing, and critiquing literary works has long been an occupation of queer-identified people. Literature can build community and offer hope, but it can also reflect the complexities of queer lives and relationships, transform transgressive pleasures into art, and analyze the histories and ideologies that often keep things from simply getting better, in spite of Savage’s promise.

In this course, we will examine the specific features of literary works that enable them to do all this, and that have long made them an important part of queer culture. Students will develop skills — close analytic reading and creative critical writing — that will help them succeed in upper-division courses across campus. This class is therefore recommended for English majors and non-majors alike. Readings include canonical and popular literatures, as well as some music, film and new media, and scholarly articles that will inform our approach.

Tags:

Close Reading

Critical Reading

Visual Analysis

Teaching Orwell's Six Points of Style with CritiqueIt

gertken — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:36:03 +0000

Author:

Matt Gertken

Image Credit:

The Last Man in Europe – A Portrait of George Orwell

Brief Assignment Overview:

Students read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language," discuss it in class, and then demonstrate their understanding of Orwell's chief style points through an activity using CritiqueIt, a tool for collaborative composition and peer review.

Type of Assignment:

Class Discussion

Assignment Length:

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pre-Writing

Style

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Software

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This assignment introduces students to a few handy rules about writing style from a highly credible source, while also giving them a text that will call their attention to the long-standing philosophical problem of how to address the variety of misuses of language and rhetoric. Students will (1) become aware of common stylistic pitfalls (2) learn how to avoid them or correct them, and when to tolerate them (3) attune themselves to concrete instances of how one can use language to disguise meaning or deceive others, rather than to clarify meaning and inform others.

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Students can access Orwell's widely-reproduced essay online, or they can find it at the library. To use CritiqueIt, they should go to the CritiqueIt website and set up an account.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Useful Anytime

Full Assignment Description:

I assigned a classic text, but I did not throw students all the way back to the Gorgias. (Next time!) Instead, I gave them Orwell's "Politics and the English Language." Some readers may expect an explanation of this choice, which I will give in a future Blogging Pedagogy post.

Here's how the day should go:

Students read the essay as homework. When they arrive at class, hold a discussion.

First, define and discuss Orwell's chief terms, like dying metaphors, mixed metaphors, operators or verbal false limbs, pretentious diction, and jargon. Discuss concreteness and abstractness, cliches, and the overall message of avoiding "ready-made phrases" and automatic writing. Discuss Orwell's insistence on usefulness as the measure of good style, and his rejection of attempts to save archaisms or more firmly entrench a standard codified English.

Second, discuss the political aims of Orwell's essay. Address Orwell's equation of political writing with bad writing. Discuss the notion of the "party line." Discuss the use of high-sounding, dramatic phrases, the use of euphemisms for actions and events that involve human suffering and death. Discuss Orwell's claim that fuzzy writing can encourage fuzzy thought, just as much as the latter produces the former. And lastly, discuss Orwell's final dictum, "Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

After this robust discussion, students log onto their computers, and onto their CritiqueIt accounts. They seek an opinion/editorial article published in the news that day, or the transcript of a speech or a press release, on a topic of interest. They paste the text of the article into a Word document and upload it to the Document space in CritiqueIt. Within the program, they transfer the Document to the Group space for peer review, which is necessary to enter into critiquing mode. Then, using the editing tools in the program, they critique their articles (and other students' articles), indicating places where Orwell's six rules of advice apply to improve the article's style:

Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Afterward, hold a concluding discussion, especially with the chance to answer questions that students raise about ambiguities that arise, how to apply these style lessons in their own writing, and what kinds of exceptions to note.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

This assignment is most helpful for students in the first third of the course, preferably after students have completed a few writing assignments and had the chance to attempt an initial adjustment to the teacher's higher expectations, yet while students still have time to improve their writing and overall performance in the course.

The teacher needs to read the Orwell essay closely, and familiarize him or herself with the major criticisms of it. The teacher must also learn how to use CritiqueIt, which I find a bit glitchy and counter-intuitive at times, though still generally a user-friendly software. The teacher will need to create a Group for the class, and invite each of the students to join the Group by entering their emails into the system. The teacher should plan to guide students through the process of setting up their CritiqueIt account and making sure they can upload documents to the Document space provided.

The teacher can motivate students to study the essay seriously by threatening to hold a quiz on the day the assignment is due -- this remains an effectual way to motivate students.

Instructions For Students:

Students should come to class having read the essay thoroughly, at least twice through. They should already know to use the dictionary to look up unfamiliar terms, but the teacher can remind them of this. Students should have the expectation that they will take a short-answer quiz on the essay when they arrive at class, so that they read it closely and study it intently. Students can learn how to use CritiqueIt software in class under teacher supervision.

Evaluation Suggestions:

This assignment was not graded.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students responded enthusiastically to the Orwell essay. One student said she did not care for this kind of writing, i.e. "literary analysis" or "style" guides, but students otherwise responded well. To improve the assignment, I would spend more time preparing the students to use the CritiqueIt software. It is not self-explanatory, especially the text-editing or "critique" mode. Also, glitches can be a serious problem. If a student used bold or italics to highlight a passage, no peer reviewer can comment on that passage with the CritiqueIt editing tools (the company says it is addressing this glitch, but it caused a fair amount of annoyance for this exercise).

In fact, the entire assignment could be accomplished with Google Docs, and more conveniently. Nevertheless, CritiqueIt has value as a peer review device, and for that reason it was good to give students a chance to learn how to use it.

Course Type:

Course Description:

RHE 306 – Rhetoric & Writing is a 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.

Tags:

Teaching Context (Juxtaposition) with Video Mash

Roberts — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:34:43 +0000

Author:

Michael Roberts

Image Credit:

Screen shot of youtubedoubler.com

Brief Assignment Overview:

By doubling a class text video with another seemingly unrelated video, students learn about how context (or juxtaposition) can affect a text's meaning.

Type of Assignment:

Homework Assignment

Assignment Length:

Partial Class Period

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Rhetoric:

Arrangement

Audience

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Remediation

Video

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

This is a nice icebreaking way to discuss the effect a context can have on the reception and interpretation of a text.

The assignment can also be used to teach more formal devices, such as juxaposition in literature or montage in film.

Media Requirements:

Required Materials:

Computer console to show assignment and then review work the following day.

If you use this as an in-class activity, then the students will all need their own computers.

YouTubeDoubler

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Full Assignment Description:

At the end of a class in which you have discussed a short piece of writing (I use a poem, but this could really work with anything that you can find in a video... a speech, scene from a play, etc), pull up a video version of the piece. You could either have shot this, made the students make it, or found it on youtube. Ideally you would have discussed this writing and done a formal reading of it.

Discuss how the reading you had come up with as a class is based on certain contextual elements, such as the history you have been reading, the history of the genre, or the conventions of the Literature/Rhetoric classroom. Ask the students how they might react differently to the text/poem if they encountered it on a billboard, greeting card, horror film, etc. Would they read it? Would they respond to it differently? Would its meaning be different?

Finally, tell the students that their assignment it to try to radically change the meaning of the text/poem by placing it in a different context through juxtaposition. How would it change if set to heavy metal music? Played over a speech by Obama? A speech by Hitler? How would the text be different in World of Warcraft? Encourage students to be creative and find contexts that are relevant or interesting to them. This is their chance to take the academic or esoteric and recontextualize it. (This is especially interesting/worthwhile if you are teaching "old" literature). Show your sample video and how youtube doubler works. Tell them that they need to come in the next week with the videos doubled and an explanation as to how the primary text's meaning changes in the new context.

The next week, take volunteers to show their youtube videos. Most of the assignments will be funny, so indulge in the humor but then ask why the juxtaposition is funny. What does Shakespeare have to do with Katy Perry? What do the two texts say about each other? Why? If you like, you can also examine juxtaposition, quotation, or montages as rhetotical or literary strategies. Ideally you should go through 4+ student examples, taking 1/2 a class to a full class period.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Make sure you have the video of the primary text ready to show the class... maybe you have been using it already before you give the assignment. It is also helpful to come up with your own youtube doubling, to show them how the website works and give them ideas as to how they might juxtapose the videos. Ideally this should be a funny example to loosen things up.

Instructions For Students:

We have just spent the day discussing the formal elements of [name of text]. But we have been doing so from a particular perspective, as college students considering [x] or looking for [y]. How might you interpret this text differently if you saw it in another context, or compared it to something seemingly . For our next class, I want you to juxtapose the video of this text with another video that makes some commentary on the text's meaning. Youc an select a music video, political speech, anything... just as long as you think it affects the meaning of the primary text in an interesting way. Bring in your own Youtube doubling and be ready to explain to the class why you made the selection that you did. Again, your secondary video can be as close or distant to your primary video as you like, as long as it says something interesting about it. Have fun!

Evaluation Suggestions:

This assignment is so tiny that I use it wholly as a conversation starter. I do make sure that all students have completed the assignment though.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

Students generally love the assignment because they get to display their proficiency in a technology they all know well: Youtube. Most of them try to be as funny as possible with their juxtaposition, with mixed results. This creates a friendly, open discussion environment, though, which is the primary benefit of the assignment. It is pretty easy to get helpful discussion of context even out of the poorly done assignments. I do think it is important to require them all to use the same first video, though, to keep things grounded.

Course Type: