Book Club Materials/Ideas

Hello all--
Since I promised to post these things about a year ago, I suppose I will share them now. I'm linking to the files in Box.net, which I've set to "open" for those who have the link. Please let me know if that doesn't work. Not all of it is perfect, and much of it is specific to my classes, but you get the idea. I can also recommend a few books that I use for ideas:

http://www.literaturecircles.com/
Harvey Daniels; Literature Circles. I don't own the original book, but read it once. I do own "Minilessons for Literature Circles," which has some great ideas, all easily adapted for an adult classroom.

Nancy Atwell: In the Middle http://www.heinemann.com/products/0374.aspx
She uses book clubs in her middle school classrooms, and describes her methods in this book. I also use some of her ideas for giving voice to students in general. If this book existed specifically for teaching developmental and first-year college composition, it would be my Bible. Perhaps she (or I?) will write said book in about 20 years.

The "book ballot" is what I use to get their votes on which books they'd like to read. I try to give the first or second choice.
https://www.box.com/s/11599f9e34438717b395

The book checkout form is just for the legalese side of using the school's books if they're like mine and not really library books.
https://www.box.com/s/d7027e484aa97e1d7f97

The final reflection questions are one way I assess the depth of understanding/reading at the end of the clubs, but the responses to these are always fascinating.
https://www.box.com/s/9ad830ce03ad18336446

"The Envelope, Please" is adapted from a lesson by Harvey Daniels. I use it after they've read 50 pages or so to practice prediction.
https://www.box.com/s/449813294738e1af1ef4


"Ground Rules" is what I use to help them decide on the guiding policies for their groups. I encourage them to think about things like reading ahead, showing up, etc. It seems to help and at least starts a conversation about what a good group is (and isn't).
https://www.box.com/s/5fde189b1e68e6c877a7

"Reflections" is an example of a set of questions I assign before they leave class after a book club. I assess them via the honor system. If they admit to not reading, they earn fewer points, but still earn a few for participation if they're present. I try hard to strike the right balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for reading. Most of them respond well to the nudge of remembering their peers are counting on them to have read, and the nudge of earning points for the class helps the rest.
https://www.box.com/s/5fde189b1e68e6c877a7

"Meeting Tasks" is a sample of a list of tasks I hand out. I usually only do this for the first few meetings, and then ask the groups to take charge of their own meetings. I sometimes write brief to-do's up on the board to keep them focused, but most of the time this isn't necessary. Engaging books make all the difference. I've noticed my groups that read "Beautiful Boy," "Into the Wild," and "Absolutely True Diary" have been the most engaged, but it depends on the group.
https://www.box.com/s/41bd409d393b4b5a2b89

I hope this helps. I hate that I am not doing book clubs this summer, but there's just no time. I am offering extra credit to anyone who joins a book club or similar discussion group at their local library, church, coffee shop, etc.

Comments/suggestions welcome. I change this a bit every time, but these are the skeleton pieces I use to run them. I highly recommend the original Lit Circles book, if only for a skim. I'd be surprised if the BSU library didn't have it.

This is the Film Analysis assignment I shared at our April meeting. Students use screen capture to collect stills from the film, but this could be rvised as a more digital web-page type assignment if students collected snippets of film instead of or in addition to stills.

Film Analysis Assignment

Goals for this project:

1) Learn about a new discourse community and become familiar with the idea of a discourse community.

2) Learn a set of terms that you then apply and thereby begin to see something (in this case, film) in a more specialized way.

3) Learn or develop observation skills to use in future papers. Describing a moving picture and taking notes on dialogue approximates and is good practice for interviewing, which you’ll do later.

Assignment Basics

Deadlines: The rough draft is due for workshop on 2/24. I expect this draft to be quite rough. The final draft, should you choose to revise this paper, is due with the rest of the portfolio on 5/4.

Length: 6 full pages minimum for the rough draft; finished drafts tend to be longer. At least 4.5 pages of the rough draft needs to be your writing. In addition to the writing, I recommend that you include a few well-chosen graphics (such as film stills or sketches). You can insert these individually, but also consider grouping a few shots to give your reader a sense of the movement within a scene (see the Yale site’s example under “Diegesis”). Screenshots are remarkably easy to make and integrate. If you can view your film on a computer, see the Help files for instructions on how to take a screenshot.

Sources: On your last page (not a separate page) include a Work Cited entry for the film, or a Works Cited list if you use more sources. I do not encourage you to use outside sources in the rough draft, but if you do, all sources must be cited: 1) listed on the Works Cited, 2) mentioned in the text where there ideas or words appear, and 3) set off with quotation marks, if you use their words.

Film Choice

Choose a film you find worth examining and that I approve. I might need to chat with you about the film before I feel comfortable approving it. This does not need to be your favorite movie, an undisputed classic, etc, but it should be complex and meaningful. Since we are doing a film analysis and not a review, it is important that your film have some interesting formal qualities. A film with an interesting theme or script but nothing special about the way it is shot, edited, lit, designed, etc. is not going to work.

Choose a film you will be able to view multiple times, especially if you intend to revise this paper for your portfolio.

Do not choose a children’s movie, documentary, or “short.” In other words, do choose a full-length fictional or fictionalized film meant for adults. Clear your film choice with me by 2/10, preferably, or at your week five conference at the latest. Do not settle on a film before I approve it.

Approach

We will study some websites to develop a vocabulary for talking and writing about film. Dartmouth’s guide explains what a film analysis is in very simple terms and gives a short glossary, the “Syntax of Film: A Glossary” source gives illustrations and more terms, and Yale’s site gives more detail about—and film clips to illustrate—the terms introduced at the other sites.

These URLs are listed here for your convenience but are also on Blackboard. You’ll need to read them and keep a double-entry journal started on Wednesday 2/8 and completed by your week five conference.

• http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/humanities/film.shtml  
• http://www.filmglossar.de/glossarypdf.htm  
• http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/  

It’s important to note that the film analysis is not a simple critique or review; it focuses on formal qualities such as scenes, editing, lighting, etc. In this sense, formal does not mean the opposite of casual; it refers to what is observable in the film. Just as a “formal” art analysis focuses on the formal qualities of line, color, shape, texture, and so on, this type of film analysis focuses on the way the scenes are set up and the film is put together.

Yale’s site gives an example of a true shot-by shot analysis. Since we are all amateurs just being introduced to the idea, I don’t think we’ll do anything so strict, but we will include a significant amount of formal analysis into our papers. The formal analysis should not be an afterthought; it should be an integral part of the paper.

Think of it as a critical analysis paper in which you record your thoughts about the movie with specific observations using accurate terms—informed by the glossaries. You will include your overall thoughts on the film as well as close analysis of 1-3 key scenes/moments in the film, using the terms we’ll learn from the online guides.

Thesis Statement

A critical analysis is a type of argument. Your finished draft should include an appropriate thesis statement that relies on support from the film. Quotes from the dialogue, descriptions of the shots, and images from the film should all work together to support an interpretive claim you make about the film. Interpretive claims focus on the significance or meaning of the work.

Do not attempt to perfect your thesis statement before you begin the rough draft. Let the thesis statement evolve as you work on the paper.

Watergate

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304356604577341883244096256.html

Technology+Technical Difficulties

I have half a share for everyone today. Maybe it's a 3/4 share. I had intended to put up a link to my full Twitter assignment sequence that I used in my English 102 class as an experiment in making the research process more social and more about sharing. You'll have to stay tuned for that.

In the mean time, I have shared, via a public posting of an Evernote note, a brief bibliography of digital literacy sources that I've found interesting. I tried to include some sources outside of composition (our education colleagues have some great studies). Then, to make it super digital crazy, I Tweeted the link. So, if you've never really used Twitter, now is your chance. Go to my account @emilysimnitt. The link should be my most recent Tweet. (It's also here if you are a Twitter-phobe).

I will post my Twitter assignment later (and spare you the technical difficulties that prevented it from being posted earlier). In the mean time, you can find the digital assignments a group of us at BSU presented on last fall at our Teaching Composition with Digital Technology blog (which I've tried to occasionally update with my digital adventures).

And one more link to a very cool resource: The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives is a collection of people being recorded talking about their literacy experiences. I'll talk about an assignment sequence Lynn Reid (IUP PhD student) uses in Basic Writing related to the archive. It's a good starting place to talking about and using digital media in writing; it's digital; it's about literacy.

“Changing the Mix of Learning with Mobile Media Tools”

I went to a CTL workshop called “Changing the Mix of Learning with Mobile Media Tools” and thought I would share the ideas here since our next discussion is about digital literacy.

The facilitator, Eric Orton, showed us a number of apps and explained ways to use them to “flip the classroom” (or move lecture outside of class and move more experimental and interactive activities to the classroom). The apps were demonstrated on an iPad but could be used on iPhones, iPod Touch, or in some cases on a regular computer.

First, we were advised to use “Dropbox” rather than Blackboard to store and publish materials for students, as it is easier to use from a mobile device. We should create private folders for our raw materials as well as some folders to share with each class.

With all of our raw materials in dropbox, we can use an app like “Expain Everything” (free screen capture) to build and annotate slides using our photos or diagrams. We can add audio commentary to the slides to build brief lectures/explanations for students to view outside of class. Kimberly Pierce was at the workshop and mentioned that this might be a good app to use to mark up small sections of student writing, though Orton mentioned that it does not allow for a whole paper to be marked up, at least not easily.

Pocket WavePad HD (or non-HD for iPhone or iPod touch) we can use for more considered audio projects because it allows for easy editing of mistakes. You can view the sound waves and easily edit and rearrange your lecture. Orton also mentioned Audacity.sourceforge.net for audio editing.

Splice Video Editor (free version) we can use to edit video on an iPad or even a phone, and Orton mentioned it as an easier alternative to iMovie for building video presentations. He also showed us “Coach's Eye” (a neat way to annotate video should you ever have the need to do that).

Socrative www.socrative.com was the best-received app of the day, as it allowed teachers to build quizzes that can be given very easily. Socrative turns any of the students’ mobile devices or laptops into clickers so that they can answer quiz questions or vote during class. The teacher can project the results on the overhead in the form of a chart showing how students voted, how many voted, etc.

These were all new to me, but I am not very technologically advanced, so maybe they are not new to you! If you have some digital assignments, apps, questions, gripes, etc. to discuss, please take this as an invitation to post them!

Cognitive Buns

This is just a test post.  Maybe I should have changed my user name to "Cognitive Bun Man".

Greg

Invitation to post assignment ideas related to technology

This is your invitation to post assignment ideas related to technology. Yes, that's a broad area: assignments involving mobile devices, audiovisual equipment, emphasizing digital and visual literacy, online work, etc, etc. Our next meeting will focus on the issue of digital literacy.

TLDR Syllabus?

This semester I decided to not only make my syllabus fit on two pages but also format it as a brochure in hopes that students will read every word of it and have an easier time referring back to it for useful info. It has a blank cover and then opens to "Course Outcomes" and "What I Expect from You." The inside flaps reveal "Service-Learning" and "Grading." When closed, the back cover lists contact info for "Resources" and a simplified list of due dates. Let me know what you think & I'll let you know how it works in class.

Reading Group Meeting--1/5/12

While we discussed many ideas at the reading group meeting, we wanted a major focus to be practical tips/new ideas that we could integrate into this upcoming semester. Here are some of the ideas that I wrote down (and others who were there are free to add to this list in a comment, another post, or in an addition to this post if that's possible):

• Teach students the importance of writing an effective, professional email. Take class time to do this.
• Choose a reading that you haven't read before, so you can model how to make sense of a (difficult) reading.
• First-day activity: ask the students what kind of major is likely to have the least amount of writing, then discuss (and surprise the students) with how important and awesome writing is.
• Analyze a film/tv show as a cultural artifact. This has the benefit of taking something the students are already comfortable with ("expert" at) and adding a level of analysis they usually don't get. I'm partial to in-class analyses of award-winning animated shorts, but I like the idea of a writing assignment.
• The I-Search essay as a Unit One essay.
• Have students write for thirty minutes on the back of their essays before they hand them in: what was a strong aspect of their essay, what was a weak one, and how would/will they fix it when/if they revise?
• Have students write a response to a long reading. Then have students exchange responses outside of class both as a way to test document exchanging, and as a way to respond to each others' work. This could pave the way for a out-of-class peer review.
• Have a class peer review for a sample paper. Model comments, and ask, "what if you would have gotten that comment? Would it have been helpful if you would have gotten the 'great paper' type comments?"
• After peer review, dedicate significant time to have the writers interrogate reviewers about their paper (so there's no/limited dissatisfaction with peer review).
• Have students write a reflection on the comments you made on their paper. Responding to those would be comments on comments on comments--I love it!
• Have students do a reflection on how they could have done better on peer-review/in-class discussions.

Word of the Day

Word of the Day and Language Principle

Many people often have the mistaken idea that good writing is simply grammatically correct writing—while our teaching must focus on more important ways to help students strengthen their writing, we would be doing them a disservice to ignore basic grammar principles in our teaching. What follows is one possible approach to assisting students with learning and mastering grammar.

How it works

At the beginning of the semester, students sign up to present a word of the day and a grammar principle to the rest of the class on two separate occasions. I’ve learned that demonstrating how this should be done for the first week helps them get the hang of it. I recommend that they choose a grammar principle that they personally have struggled with or currently struggle with and a meaningful word that they have learned recently (no supercalafragalistical words). It should take no more than five minutes. I provide them with a list of grammar/formatting issues they can choose from to increase variety:

• Pronoun-antecedent agreement

• Subject-verb agreement

• Parallelism—what it is, and how to fix unparallel

• Sentence length variety

• Shifts in verb tense/voice/mood/person/number

• Misplaced/Dangling/Disruptive modifiers

• Fused (run on) Sentence and how to fix

• Sentence Fragment and how to fix

• Comma Splice and how to fix

• Commas—Restrictive vs nonrestrictive

• Commas—unnecessary commas

• Commas—compound sentences

• Vague pronoun reference

• Punctuation—apostrophes, ellipses, semicolons

• Lie vs lay; sit vs set; rise vs raise

• Active and passive voice

• Avoiding stereotypes, gender/race/age assumptions

• Punctuation—hyphens vs dashes

• MLA—quotation marks vs underline/italicize

• MLA—In-text citation

• MLA—formatting works cited page

• MLA—formatting documents

• Capitalization—tricky examples

• Spelling—tricky examples

• Homonyms—what they are, tricky examples

• Wrong Words—tricky examples

After defining the word/principle, the students give a (preferably real-world) example of what this looks like in a sentence. I also usually comment on a student’s presentation, explaining things that may not have been clear, giving ways to remember, or sharing my own examples.

Strengths

• Students are more likely to pay attention to “boring” grammar lessons for five minutes at the beginning of class (when they’re fresh) as opposed to a full grammar day/week.

• The word of the day/language principle can act as an introduction to the class—a kind of transition to let students get into the mindset of English.

• Having students teach other students is more effective than the grammar sermon/monologue. Teaching a principle is sometimes the best way to learn a principle.

• Making grammar lessons be a short, consistent part of the daily lesson is a great way to keep from forgetting to teach about some of these principles.

Potential Pitfalls

• It can be a lot of work to provide students with the proper motivation/attitude towards it. Often students will look at it as yet another way you’re trying to ruin their lives, or as something they want to put as little effort as possible into completing, or (perhaps worst) as an opportunity to show off/be funny.

• Figuring out how you want to grade this can be challenging. Grading should be visible, accurate, and meaningful; it’s going to be time-consuming if you do it right, or a source of frustration for everyone involved if you don’t.

• Students can be confused about how this is going to help them in their assignments or in the class in general. Without scaffolding (or even with), it can feel disconnected, repetitive, and tedious.

Alternate Versions/Addendums

Class Recorder: In addition to sharing a word of the day and grammar principle, the student who presents is responsible for taking notes about the class and posting them to the class blog that day. Their post should start with the WoD and LP, then continue with a (relatively detailed) description of the class/instructions/reminders. It’s nice to have a record of what went on that day, but some of the same pitfalls apply to this as well.

Incorporation into Unit Cover Letters: At the end of the unit, students incorporate X number of words and X number of grammar principles into their cover letters. They bold or mark what they’ve used and describe why. Again, there are motivation issues to consider so students don’t feel like they’re being forced to go through the motions.