Yesterday, I met with a few of my fellow blended instructors to see what everyone's been up to this semester, report on the OWI Committee and other highlights from the 4Cs, and look forward to the upcoming academic year. Even with just four of us, our discussion was so lively that we didn't get to the last item at all. Here are some highlights:
New this Semester:
DB started us off by explaining how he's incorporated the digital project into the syllabus. He's having his students create websites on Weebly and "got their feet wet" with the Rhetorical Analysis. This is a good move: his students have at least two months to play with their websites instead of having to build them in just a few weeks, as mine will this semester. DB is using the digital project as the Revision assignment; students will revise their EoE and Position Paper and add them to their websites. His students will also add their annotated bibliographies and have a separate section for "other voices." His students have responded enthusiastically to this addition, which gives me confidence about introducing this in a couple of weeks.
JE was impressed but wondered if building websites was a little advanced for English 101. DB replied that it was easy for students--they know how to do this. Even if they hadn't built a website before, they know what one looks like and what makes a good one. He's going to collaborate with his students on how these should be assessed, which is a recommended strategy that many have written about, including our new hire, Chanon Adsanatham. A link to his 2012 Computers and Composition article, “Integrating Assessment and Instruction: Using Student-Generated Grading Criteria to Evaluate Multimodal Digital Projects,” is on his website.
On this note, I offered that students possess an internal grammar for visual rhetoric. They may not have the terminology, but they have the grammar, a point that DK picked up on. He's been doing a lot of work recently on students' right to their own language and opened this semester with Vershawn A. Young's 2010 Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies article, "Should Writers Use They Own English," which immediately gets students talking about writing from Day One. I think DK needs to give a workshop or a presentation on this for the AWP, as I don't think that this principle, as old as it is (1974), is familiar to most people in the program. Here's a link to the CCCC Position on Students' Right to Their Own Language, with a link to an annotated bibliography.
JE talked about her experience working with a TA this semester and couldn't be happier! Her TA is phenomenal, and her only regret is that she only has a TA for one of her sections instead of two. DK and I were both thrilled, of course, and we all looked at DB: when is he going to start working with TAs? DB replied that he already had one in mind, and we pointed him to the application for 388V on the AWP website: 388V Internship Application
I then talked about how I've redesigned my course to focus on students' digital literacy, much of which can be found elsewhere on this blog. The two texts I highly recommend are the ones I discussed at length with several people I met at the 4Cs: Eli Pariser's 2011 Ted Talk on Internet Filter Bubbles and Fogleman, Niedbala, and Bedell's 2013 Behavioral and Social Sciences Librarian article, "Writing and Publishing in a Blended Learning Environment to Develop Students' Scholarly Digital Ethos." That link is to ERIC, which can be accessed for free through our library.
I also touched briefly on my class Twitter @LyraBL101 and how my students are using Twitter to enter the "public" conversation. My students have made a new Twitter for class (some of them have kept their own, which is fine), tweeted their research question with #Lyra101, and followed at least ten people or organizations who are tweeting about their topic. I emphasized that they need to be following at least three people who they disagree with, which I hope will help at least a few of them with the upcoming Rogerian Letter. I held conferences this week, and several students mentioned that they had found useful articles and links for their projects on Twitter, which is exactly what I'd been hoping for.
Neither JE, DK, or DB are on Twitter, so it was a little hard to explain all of this in the short amount of time that we had. I showed them my hootsuite and my TweetDeck to show them all of the conversations I follow: #fycchat, #4C14, #ncte, #engchat, #digcit, #digped, #blendchat, #blendedlearning, #highered, etc. Many key people and organizations can be found through our BL Twitter account, @BLWritingUMD, currently being managed by the impeccable @Courtney_Guth.
Sharing our Work
With only ten minutes left in our meeting, I quickly showed everyone the CCCC page for the Committee on Effective Practices for OWI and explained the new Open Resource (OR) site that the Committee has just launched. I want all of us to contribute our work--the BL and OWI community will benefit from a robust set of resources to draw from. This works both ways: these will be peer-reviewed publications, which will help individuals. On a broader note, I'd like to see a strong UMD presence on this site, which will help all of us here. So please, submit your work! The Call for Submissions can be found on this page.
I also mentioned that I'll be presenting on Voicethread at the ITL Conference at the end of April. This is a great, one-day conference; some of my recent work has come directly from presentations at this conference. Registration is quick and free: Innovations in Teaching and Learning 2014
As always, I'm inspired by everyone's work in and out of the classroom, and look forward to catching up again towards the end of the semester!
Thanks for reading, everyone!
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
Teaching Writing Online
I'm not surprised to see that so many of my colleagues here at CCCC resist digital innovations, teaching with technology, and teaching online. Yet I'm frustrated. How are we going to shape 21st century learning if we resist e-learning? How are we going to be part of the broader conversations about teaching writing and higher ed if we ignore the rising numbers of students who need the flexibility and convenience of online learning? Our students need instructors who understand both their needs and their preferences. They need instructors who carefully examine principles and practices of online writing instruction and distance education. They need instructors who have done the research, who have an open mind about digital pedagogy, and who aren't sticking their heads in the sand. I'm not saying online writing is right for everyone, but I think that too many educators don't understand it and don't want to, and I think that's dangerous. We're doing our future students a severe disservice if we refuse to even look at what quality online writing instruction looks like. I don't want everyone to figure is out the hard way, on their own, when faced with external pressure to start teaching online. I want my colleagues to be prepared. And from what I can see, far too many of them aren't.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
An Apology and a Modest Defense
I have an apology to make to all English teachers and English majors out there:
I did not mean to imply that there's something intrinsically wrong with being an English major, or that there's something wrong with the discipline. English majors and scholars are vital both in and out of the academy.
When I tweeted "Encouraging Ss to become ENGL majors is arguably more unethical than encouraging them to stay in college" the other night, I was doing two things:
For context, the theme of this week's chat was FYC and retention. The initial question at the top of the hour was:
"So why does FYC have such a big impact on students' retention?" followed shortly by
"Is it your responsibility as a professor to try to keep students in college?"
Here are some of the responses:
I had this amazing student one year who told me he hated college, it wasn't challenging, and he wanted to leave... I didn't know what to tell him about staying in school
It's certainly not my job to keep them in college no matter what. That's a question that can stray into ethical areas.
He was so smart and engaged. I thought he would do well in school. But yeah, ethically, I didn't know what to say
Did you tell him there's nothing wrong with leaving? Do we have to sell education?
I tried to just listen and offer my best advice
Pushing is one thing. Helping Ss think through their options and consequences is valuable, though.
I agree. I am very uncomfortable with selling the university. I'd rather spend my time helping them analyze it!
Absolutely, it is not our job to keep students from leaving, but there are ways we can help.
At my cc, I sometimes encounter Ss who aren't confident about being in college or have been told outright they won't succeed...so they may benefit from retention-focused FYC in multiple ways....
yes, exactly! not the message I want to send
Do you talk about conversion of FYC students to English majors are part of your retention conversation?
We do. It is now in the syllabus and orientation to encourage good writers to become ENGL majors
Encourage students to become ENGL majors? Why?
Encouraging Ss to become ENGL majors is arguably more unethical than encouraging them to stay in college
My point here is that ethically, encouraging students to stay in college is one thing. Encouraging them to become English majors (or any major, for that matter) is a completely different story.
We FYC teachers find ourselves in the position of advising students all the time--or, rather, students come to us far more than they do most other professors, because they usually know us better. The ethics of this are discussed regularly--as they should be. We're not academic advisors. We're not counselors. We're writing teachers. Still, students come to us for advice, and we all make our own decisions about what is and is not appropriate.
I've had the "should I stay in school" conversation several times. I listen. I nod sympathetically. I try to shift the focus to completing my course successfully. Last year, I had a student who had no interest in being in school at all and was here because her mother wanted her to have at least a year of college under her belt. "You're almost halfway there," I offered. "My advice to you is to do the best you can so that if you choose to return at some point down the road, you'll at least have a couple of classes on your transcript that you won't have to repeat."
I think this is sound advice. But converting FYC students to English majors? No. Here's why:
The majority of my students have declared, even as first-semester freshmen. I do not think it is appropriate to impose my discipline on my biochem or aerospace engineering or finance or dance majors. As for the undeclared: I tell them to take everything. I encourage them to think in terms of courses, not majors. A course is a semester-long decision. A major is a multi-year decision with direct consequences on their graduate and/ or professional careers. Again, I'm not an advisor.
Moreover, I don't endorse the idea that good writers should be English majors. Just because you're a good writer doesn't mean that you should be an English major. Rather, it means that you are well-positioned to go further in your chosen field because you know how to think critically and communicate your ideas effectively. That's what we need. We need good writers in all disciplines, and we need to help students understand that this "English" class is not an "English" class at all--it's a life skills class. We focus on critical thinking, rhetorical analysis, information literacy, efficient research skills, and effective argumentation. These skills are not the sole purview of English departments. We teach these skills so that our students can succeed in all of their other courses.
I don't want to keep all of the good writers. I want to send them out to all of the other departments on campus. I want the engineering and environmental studies majors to write as well as the English majors. I want our students to research what they're passionate about and be able to contribute to their fields without having a panic attack when faced with a ten-page writing assignment and running down the hall to find an "English major" to help them write their papers.
That's where I'm coming from.
I hope that this helps. I'm sorry if my words stung; I didn't mean to offend. As always, I welcome your comments.
I did not mean to imply that there's something intrinsically wrong with being an English major, or that there's something wrong with the discipline. English majors and scholars are vital both in and out of the academy.
When I tweeted "Encouraging Ss to become ENGL majors is arguably more unethical than encouraging them to stay in college" the other night, I was doing two things:
- contributing to the "ethical" theme that was dominant in this week's chat and
- making a larger argument about our role as writing teachers.
For context, the theme of this week's chat was FYC and retention. The initial question at the top of the hour was:
"So why does FYC have such a big impact on students' retention?" followed shortly by
"Is it your responsibility as a professor to try to keep students in college?"
Here are some of the responses:
I had this amazing student one year who told me he hated college, it wasn't challenging, and he wanted to leave... I didn't know what to tell him about staying in school
It's certainly not my job to keep them in college no matter what. That's a question that can stray into ethical areas.
He was so smart and engaged. I thought he would do well in school. But yeah, ethically, I didn't know what to say
Did you tell him there's nothing wrong with leaving? Do we have to sell education?
I tried to just listen and offer my best advice
Pushing is one thing. Helping Ss think through their options and consequences is valuable, though.
I agree. I am very uncomfortable with selling the university. I'd rather spend my time helping them analyze it!
Absolutely, it is not our job to keep students from leaving, but there are ways we can help.
At my cc, I sometimes encounter Ss who aren't confident about being in college or have been told outright they won't succeed...so they may benefit from retention-focused FYC in multiple ways....
because "college isn't for everyone" still implies failure on the student's part.
yes, exactly! not the message I want to send
Do you talk about conversion of FYC students to English majors are part of your retention conversation?
We do. It is now in the syllabus and orientation to encourage good writers to become ENGL majors
Encourage students to become ENGL majors? Why?
Encouraging Ss to become ENGL majors is arguably more unethical than encouraging them to stay in college
My point here is that ethically, encouraging students to stay in college is one thing. Encouraging them to become English majors (or any major, for that matter) is a completely different story.
We FYC teachers find ourselves in the position of advising students all the time--or, rather, students come to us far more than they do most other professors, because they usually know us better. The ethics of this are discussed regularly--as they should be. We're not academic advisors. We're not counselors. We're writing teachers. Still, students come to us for advice, and we all make our own decisions about what is and is not appropriate.
I've had the "should I stay in school" conversation several times. I listen. I nod sympathetically. I try to shift the focus to completing my course successfully. Last year, I had a student who had no interest in being in school at all and was here because her mother wanted her to have at least a year of college under her belt. "You're almost halfway there," I offered. "My advice to you is to do the best you can so that if you choose to return at some point down the road, you'll at least have a couple of classes on your transcript that you won't have to repeat."
I think this is sound advice. But converting FYC students to English majors? No. Here's why:
The majority of my students have declared, even as first-semester freshmen. I do not think it is appropriate to impose my discipline on my biochem or aerospace engineering or finance or dance majors. As for the undeclared: I tell them to take everything. I encourage them to think in terms of courses, not majors. A course is a semester-long decision. A major is a multi-year decision with direct consequences on their graduate and/ or professional careers. Again, I'm not an advisor.
Moreover, I don't endorse the idea that good writers should be English majors. Just because you're a good writer doesn't mean that you should be an English major. Rather, it means that you are well-positioned to go further in your chosen field because you know how to think critically and communicate your ideas effectively. That's what we need. We need good writers in all disciplines, and we need to help students understand that this "English" class is not an "English" class at all--it's a life skills class. We focus on critical thinking, rhetorical analysis, information literacy, efficient research skills, and effective argumentation. These skills are not the sole purview of English departments. We teach these skills so that our students can succeed in all of their other courses.
I don't want to keep all of the good writers. I want to send them out to all of the other departments on campus. I want the engineering and environmental studies majors to write as well as the English majors. I want our students to research what they're passionate about and be able to contribute to their fields without having a panic attack when faced with a ten-page writing assignment and running down the hall to find an "English major" to help them write their papers.
That's where I'm coming from.
I hope that this helps. I'm sorry if my words stung; I didn't mean to offend. As always, I welcome your comments.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Going Public
As we're in the final stretch of Argument as Inquiry, I'm looking ahead to the rest of the semester. It's all new.
This semester, my students are going public. I've moved the "final paper," the academic position paper, from the last week to week 11. I'm now calling it the "academic argument" to distinguish it from the new project: "the public argument."
My students are conducting quality academic research that doesn't go anywhere. Their "academic audience" is a false construct (they're not *really* going to publish in the Journal of Social Psychology as freshman college students), and most of what they write in my class is "just for English."
I hate that, as do many in my field. So, I'm handling this by having them publish their research findings online. Their last "paper" will be targeted to the public, to the blogosphere and twitterverse. I've made a class twitter (@LyraBL101) and asked all of my students to make new Twitter accounts for themselves and follow us at #Lyra101. They're to follow any author or source that they use in their research and later, will tweet at those authors, telling them that they're using their work in their papers. When they publish their work online--on Blogger, Weebly, or Wix--they're going to tweet about it, tell people on Facebook and Tumblr (neither of which I go near--that's their world, not mine), and, I hope, get people to comment on their work.
Students will repurpose their papers and small assignments from earlier in the semester for a public audience. They might turn some of their earlier work into a series of blog posts, or keep the larger papers as stand-alone arguments but cut them in half, from 1500 to 750 words.
I theme my class around media, technology, and education, so students research something that nominally is related to one of those fields. I try to group students together by topic for peer review groups. Those groups will stick together for this last project. I want them to build these websites in groups, and then each of them will have a portal or something to their individual research.
I don't think it's reasonable to have each student build his or her own website. A simple blogger, fine. But I want more than that. I want them to have a website that can house a Twitter feed, a blog, a full paper, an annotated bibliography with hyperlinks, etc. I think that this needs to be a group effort. Some students will do it easily; others will be completely intimidated. So, building this website as a group seems like the way to go.
The sticky area is privacy. I've asked students to make new Twitter accounts specifically for this class so that they keep their private and professional worlds separate. I know that several other professors require students to use Twitter, so this won't be the last time they're asked to make a "professional student" account. I've asked students to use a name that I will recognize, but it doesn't need to be their full name--they can just use "Stan ENGL" as their full name for this assignment. While part of my objectives are to teach them digital literacy skills and how to conduct oneself online in a professional manner, I still want to protect them. They may not want their employer in five years (or five months) to read their college papers.
I'm walking an interesting line between encouraging my students to publish their work online so that their research actually matters to someone other than me and wanting to protect them from their "future" selves. I'm asking them to follow people on Twitter and tweet about their research. My students need to be "real people," but they don't need to be identifiable to the point where their Twitter and Weebly for this class is easily linked to their personal Twitter or Facebook. It's a Brave New World in higher ed and literacy studies...
Monday, March 3, 2014
7 Highly Effective Habits of Teachers Who Hold Classes on Snow Days
I just held synchronous classes in AdobeConnect on a snow day.
To explain this, I'm going to use this nice infographic I found from dailyedventures.com:
1. They Always Start with the Why
Why did I do this? Simple: it was peer review day. It's the only day they had to go over their drafts with each other before submitting the final in a week. Peer review is far too important to skip, and making margin comments on drafts--even thorough comments--is only part of the process. Being able to actually talk to each other is critical. So I did it.
2. They are malleable and can easily adapt
I had seen this coming by about 48 hours. I knew I wanted to go online--I had to. There's no room in the syllabus to lose a day. I scoured university policies and legal notices, making sure I wasn't doing anything illegal. I wasn't--there isn't a policy that explicitly addresses online classes at all, let alone one about holding one when the campus is closed.
Even so, holding peer review online is tricky. AdobeConnect is okay, but TAs can't move themselves in and out of breakout rooms. That's a big problem. In the past, I've plucked a TA out of a group--mid-sentence--and dropped her into a new group. It's a mess.
So how did I adapt this time? By somehow convincing six former TAs to come in and help. I have no idea how I did this--I didn't beg or sound desperate; I just asked--but somehow they all popped in for one of the classes. I had enough TAs for one to be in each group for all three sections. It was brilliant.
3. They embrace change
Thanks to our class Twitter that I launched this week (@LyraBL101), I was able to tweet about this possibility, and then decision, all weekend. With the right tools and attitude, anything is possible!
4. They share, share, and then share some more
See #3. And this blog. Follow me @lyrahilliard. Add comments on this post. Ask me anything!
5. They think win-win-win
I wanted today to be fun--as fun as it could be, anyway. Had we been in class, I would have brought cookies in; I always do that for the first review. I obviously couldn't do that today, but I brought in special guests! Courtney gave a great Writing Center overview by sharing her screen with us and showing us the website. And then students had 40 minutes with a TA (or me) and their peers. I think students appreciated it. I hope so. I know that some had connectivity problems, and my own connection cut out in my first class. In my last class, I accidentally rearranged all of the groups, which was an epic disaster. But we survived (see #2).
6. They are extremely thorough and think two steps ahead
I had already called this on Saturday. I knew campus would be closed. If I hadn't had yesterday to plan, I wouldn't have thought to ask former TAs to help, and then none of this could have happened. We held a brief Google Hangout last night, TAs sent out an announcement, I got into AdobeConnect early this morning to test settings...it all worked. It all totally worked.
7. They actively care
Believe me, I wouldn't have minded a day off! But there was no way. This wasn't a "theory" class; it was a "practice" class: hands on, working with the writing class. Students can't lose this class--that's not fair. Or right. I asked my TAs what they thought--and what they thought students would think. "You should mention that it's optional," one said. "No--you shouldn't mention that it's optional--then no one will come." "I don't think anyone will come, anyway." "Yeah but it's peer review. They should understand that it's important." "Yeah but will they?"
Apparently, they did. About 75% of each class showed up. Not bad for a snow day.
After the last class, I asked D if he thought it worked. "You made the right call," he said.
What would you have done? Would you hold class online on a snow day?
To explain this, I'm going to use this nice infographic I found from dailyedventures.com:
1. They Always Start with the Why
Why did I do this? Simple: it was peer review day. It's the only day they had to go over their drafts with each other before submitting the final in a week. Peer review is far too important to skip, and making margin comments on drafts--even thorough comments--is only part of the process. Being able to actually talk to each other is critical. So I did it.
2. They are malleable and can easily adapt
I had seen this coming by about 48 hours. I knew I wanted to go online--I had to. There's no room in the syllabus to lose a day. I scoured university policies and legal notices, making sure I wasn't doing anything illegal. I wasn't--there isn't a policy that explicitly addresses online classes at all, let alone one about holding one when the campus is closed.
Even so, holding peer review online is tricky. AdobeConnect is okay, but TAs can't move themselves in and out of breakout rooms. That's a big problem. In the past, I've plucked a TA out of a group--mid-sentence--and dropped her into a new group. It's a mess.
So how did I adapt this time? By somehow convincing six former TAs to come in and help. I have no idea how I did this--I didn't beg or sound desperate; I just asked--but somehow they all popped in for one of the classes. I had enough TAs for one to be in each group for all three sections. It was brilliant.
3. They embrace change
Thanks to our class Twitter that I launched this week (@LyraBL101), I was able to tweet about this possibility, and then decision, all weekend. With the right tools and attitude, anything is possible!
4. They share, share, and then share some more
See #3. And this blog. Follow me @lyrahilliard. Add comments on this post. Ask me anything!
5. They think win-win-win
I wanted today to be fun--as fun as it could be, anyway. Had we been in class, I would have brought cookies in; I always do that for the first review. I obviously couldn't do that today, but I brought in special guests! Courtney gave a great Writing Center overview by sharing her screen with us and showing us the website. And then students had 40 minutes with a TA (or me) and their peers. I think students appreciated it. I hope so. I know that some had connectivity problems, and my own connection cut out in my first class. In my last class, I accidentally rearranged all of the groups, which was an epic disaster. But we survived (see #2).
6. They are extremely thorough and think two steps ahead
I had already called this on Saturday. I knew campus would be closed. If I hadn't had yesterday to plan, I wouldn't have thought to ask former TAs to help, and then none of this could have happened. We held a brief Google Hangout last night, TAs sent out an announcement, I got into AdobeConnect early this morning to test settings...it all worked. It all totally worked.
7. They actively care
Believe me, I wouldn't have minded a day off! But there was no way. This wasn't a "theory" class; it was a "practice" class: hands on, working with the writing class. Students can't lose this class--that's not fair. Or right. I asked my TAs what they thought--and what they thought students would think. "You should mention that it's optional," one said. "No--you shouldn't mention that it's optional--then no one will come." "I don't think anyone will come, anyway." "Yeah but it's peer review. They should understand that it's important." "Yeah but will they?"
Apparently, they did. About 75% of each class showed up. Not bad for a snow day.
After the last class, I asked D if he thought it worked. "You made the right call," he said.
What would you have done? Would you hold class online on a snow day?
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