Blended and Digital Innovations in the Academic Writing Program

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!

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?

Macklemore, the Rhetorical Triangle, and Toulmin Logic

I did it!

Yesterday's lesson plan was awesome. Why? Because half of it was designed by one of my TAs. My newest TA, to be specific.

Last week, I subbed for 388V, the "how to be a TA" seminar. In it, the TAs/ students split into groups and came up with a lesson plan. The lesson plan that my TA's group came up with was so awesome that I told her I wanted to use it this Monday.

TA Lesson Plan from 388V: The Rhetorical Triangle

1. 4 minutes of a video clip covering the Grammy weddings. In 388V, the TAs used a video clip of an "Entertainment Tonight Style" host recapping the performance. I adapted it to be a video clip of the actual performance: Macklemore "Same Love" Grammys 2014 (3:22 to 6:00)
2. Ask students to ID the message, speaker, and audience
3. Draw the rhetorical triangle and explain how the three points relate to each other

This is essentially where the TAs in 388V stopped. Here's how I adapted it for yesterday:

Continuation: From Rhetorical Triangle to Toulmin Logic

1. Ask "What would happen if we changed one of these? What if the audience were different?" What if the audience was a group who was not supportive of gay marriage?"
2. Use "a conservative congregation" as the new audience.
3. Would Macklemore and Queen Latifah be good speakers for this audience? Would they be able to deliver this message as effectively? No? Why not? Okay, who would be a good speaker?
4. ID reverend/ preacher (all three sections came up with this on their own). 
5. Pairs: In pairs, come up with the best way to deliver this message to this audience. Frame it as a complete enthymeme: a claim + reason. (2 minutes)
6. Ask pairs to give their claim and reason. Write on the board. Have class ID which claim and reason would be the strongest and why.

As they were evaluating the enthymemes, the students discussed the values and beliefs of the audience. "Yes, invoking God is a good idea because..." or "No--don't invoke God. Make it about equality." "So, separate church and state?" "Yes, that's the only way this will work for them." "No, that's not enough--this needs to be about Christian values.."

Brilliant. "Okay, what you guys have just done is figured out which values and beliefs to appeal to in order for the audience to accept the message. In so doing, you've completed the enthymeme with the warrant.

Enthymeme: Claim + Stated Reason. That's your skeleton of the argument. In order to make sure it works, you need to identify the unstated assumption, or warrant, embedded in the enthymeme.

Complete Argument:               Claim + Stated Reason

                                                            Warrant

Bingo. Then, students took out their homework exercise, in which they had identified the claims and stated reasons for two articles that made arguments about their research topic, and worked on identifying the warrants in those arguments in groups.

After a few minutes, I wrote a couple of their enthymemes on the board and we identified the warrants as a class, e.g., 

Orca whales should not be kept in captivity because no killer whale has ever killed a human in the wild.

Warrant: Only animals who have killed a human in the wild should be kept in captivity.

And so forth. Tomorrow: back to stasis theory and evaluating sources, with a splash of Toulmin for reinforcement. Both stasis theory and Toulmin logic will be reinforced almost daily for several weeks--these take awhile to really click. But the triumph: both concepts are in by Week 4!

How to Blog Like a Social Media Intern

Clarification: Social Media Intern for the Smithsonian. 

Courtney is back with me on an independent study this semester. She is researching all things blended learning, boosting our online presence, and teaching me how to conduct myself online.

Observe:

My strategy for "conducting myself online" thus far has to be private. I've been blogging for three years now, but haven't published anything. I have been waiting until I know that I can blog on a regular basis. More importantly, I have been waiting until I've had content I truly wanted to share. I've read hundreds of blogs over the last decade, and too many of them haven't been updated in months, or even years. Many of them seem to have been created as a requirement for grad students or first-year teachers. "Why blog?" "Because I have to." "Oh. So...what are you going to write about?"

"I dunno. The view from my window?"

That's pretty much how I started. I had to experiment with it in order to figure out what I was doing. I was blogging for myself. Now, however, I do have content I want to share: lesson plans, discussion board prompts, advice for teachers transitioning to blended/ hybrid courses, enthusiasm for my classes and my students who are creating better and better writing every semester.

Courtney sat down with me yesterday and assumed the most diplomatic voice she could muster: 

"A good rule of thumb for blogs is to keep them short: 600-800 words."

I cringed. "I know, I know. I can't believe how long my posts are!"

"And pictures. You need pictures. College Tourist requires that I write 1,000 word posts, but I fill them with pictures. Here, let me show you."

She hopped on my laptop and led me here: Ten Ways to Find and Land the Perfect Internship

Yes, that's right: my "web content and social media" research assistant also happens to be the social media intern for the Smithsonian. She's a rock star. And I am the luckiest educator on the planet.

"Pictures? I don't have any pictures! I don't even have a decent profile picture!" (True words).

"Right. Well, work on that. You need them."

Here you go, Courtney: 

That's my class schedule for the next two weeks. Speaking of which, I need to prepare tomorrow's synchronous class on research skills and stasis theory. 

How's this? Better?

Full Circle

This week marks two years since I started teaching blended versions of first-year composition. Yesterday, on the first day of the semester, I found myself in the same building and room as one of my very first blended classes two years ago. Back then, I didn't know if the blended design would work. I didn't even know how it would work, really, and tried to say as much to my new students. "So, we're basically guinea pigs," I remember one of them saying. "Mmm...I prefer 'pioneers,'" I had replied.

Two years ago, I also started working with UTAs--undergraduate teaching assistants. I didn't know how that would work, either. I remember entering my first class: I walked over to the computer, across the room from the door, set down my bags, removed my coat. I turned around and watched as my TA assumed her seat at the table in front of the chalkboard, facing the students. I froze, taken aback at how comfortable she seemed as she set up her laptop; she looked as though she had been TAing as long as I had been teaching. It hadn't occurred to me that E would park herself there, where I normally set out my books, notebooks, and syllabi. I had never shared the class with anyone. Would this work?

In the second class, in the adjacent room that I returned to yesterday, C, my next TA entered just before classes started. She sat down in the front row uncertainly. I silently invited her to the front, behind the table, like E had done two hours prior. Within just two hours, this now felt normal.

Yesterday, I met with my fifteenth TA that I have worked with in just these two short years. This time, I met her in my office in the adjacent building and we walked over together. This time, I had prepared S, telling her that she would sit at that table, telling her that I would hand her the roster when students introduced themselves, telling her that I would direct certain questions to her when students asked them and that I would frequently ask her to chime in when I explained to students how this wildly different class would unfold. Our new students were no longer guinea pigs or pioneers; rather, they were the lucky recipients of two years of dramatic changes, radical redesign, and endless experimentation. Unlike E and C, S had not only taken a blended class with me--just one year ago--she had also taken it with a TA. S knew exactly what it was like to take this class, to work with a TA and myself, to work in AdobeConnect, to sit in a brick and mortar classroom just once per week.

I continue to hyper-analyze every single lesson plan, bouncing it off of or, more frequently, designing it with "Team Lyra," my current team of TAs. I will never stop experimenting with every lesson plan, every set of homework, every detail of our course website. The first couple of weeks of class, devoted to defining "Academic Writing" and "Academic Habits of Mind," reading critically and summarizing effectively, has been the same for two years, but each semester, I make adjustments.

Tonight, for example, students aren't just reading two sample summaries; they're also consulting a "Reading Guide" explaining what a good summary should do and what to look for. Prior to this semester, it hadn't occurred to me to prepare them for the subsequent class discussion with a guide, an oversight that is almost laughable. How could I expect students to know what to look for in a summary when the whole point of this opening module is to teach them how to summarize at the college level? For two years, I've assigned the summaries and conducted the in-class discussion, and students have stared blankly, knowing that the samples are lacking something but not knowing precisely what: rhetorical context, the difference between what the author being summarized is saying and doing, and the author's "aims, methods, and materials"(Joseph Harris). I explain all of this in class, but by then, students have struggled more than necessary. Why not give them some help in advance? That way, the discussion will be richer, more focused, and more purposeful. Students won't walk in (or log in, rather) tomorrow confused (or, at least, not as confused as they have been). In theory, they'll be prepared to compare the sample summaries with the actual text (Trip Gabriels' now famous 2010 NYT "Plagiarism Lines Blur in the Digital Age" article) and identify why the summaries fall short.

This is my hypothesis, anyway. I'll let you know how it works out!