Going through some old email I found a message in which you were talking about developing a critical reading task using indices and chapter inferences (see below) and that struck me as potentially interesting. I just had my literacy, culture, and identity class look at some of the books in the field in a similar way with different ends. That is, I encouraged them to look at topics in indexes and key terms in titles as potential topic starters for a casebook assignment. In my case it was an invention activity meant to give them a broader sense of what people in this field discuss, but it could be equally useful for getting students to think about the contents of a text before reading it, a prereading set of tasks. I think it would be fruitful to return to your ideas here perhaps for next semester. Thus, my inclination to post it here.
"I've decided to integrate some critical reading
instruction into this class--basically the kind of previewing stuff we taught for
NCEE (e.g., taking our main required text and breaking them into groups in a
workshoppy way and having them trace patterns/themes in the index, make inferences
about chapters, etc.). Seems like another step in our critical reflection pedagogy.
Wanna brainstorm a little about that? Maybe we could come up with a worksheet like
the one we made on critical reflection essay writing, with examples and such. Did
you have any of your NCEE stuff handy that might be adaptable?"
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Practical questions about framing and venue
So our next step is to apply our own categories to just this semester? Multiple semesters?
How do we want to further "frame" our article?
And where is this article headed? To Pedagogy? CCC?
How do we want to further "frame" our article?
And where is this article headed? To Pedagogy? CCC?
Our "dilemma"
If, as we explain, the frame experiment arises as our attempt to study and address a dilemma or "mess" then what dilemma(s) are we experiencing in our own community-engaged inquiry?
Here are a few that come quickly to mind:
* My attempts to foster critical reflection seem to fall flat much of the time. My students are sharp, and they like to leap from observation to interpretation or assumption very rapidly. But because they're sharp, and feel pretty sure of themselves, they're impatient with the premise that there's more to the critical reflection process than see-feel-respond zip zip zip. I'm struggling to teach this.
* I'm also less than satisfied with my own critical reflection: I'm not giving it enough time or priority, I'm not cultivating understanding with myself or following my serendiptous, associative thoughts enough.
* A related dilemma: I find my students and me focusing too much time on product and not enough on process and context. Once our community research begins we make that our priority above all--even to the point that I sometimes skip CIQs to give them more class time to collaborate.
Here are a few that come quickly to mind:
* My attempts to foster critical reflection seem to fall flat much of the time. My students are sharp, and they like to leap from observation to interpretation or assumption very rapidly. But because they're sharp, and feel pretty sure of themselves, they're impatient with the premise that there's more to the critical reflection process than see-feel-respond zip zip zip. I'm struggling to teach this.
* I'm also less than satisfied with my own critical reflection: I'm not giving it enough time or priority, I'm not cultivating understanding with myself or following my serendiptous, associative thoughts enough.
* A related dilemma: I find my students and me focusing too much time on product and not enough on process and context. Once our community research begins we make that our priority above all--even to the point that I sometimes skip CIQs to give them more class time to collaborate.
Our purpose and frame experiment
Within that context, how would we explain (1) the nature of our "frame experiment" and (2) the purposes of our research?
We are testing the theory about stasis strategies that we built based on Schon and the examples from our practitioners in the special issue of Reflections. The experiment will extend our knowledge of those strategies and both their explanatory and applied power.
The purpose of our research is thus to further develop our theory of stasis points and strategies in the writing classroom, thereby identifying productive and counterproductive practices.
What problem are we trying to solve?
What the CIQ offers us particularly is a way to think about teacher and student responses to situations together and try to identify best ways of responding and conversing together.
We want teachers, including ourselves, to be the most rhetorically savvy readers of their classroom situations and to learn to identify the most effective rhetorical responses to those situations. This takes communication between rhetor and audience, reflection on the communication. It is too easy to misread a stasis point and respond in a counterproductive way. Therein lies the problem.
" The effective professional begins by noticing a dilemma,"
Teaching is a communicative process in which it is easy to misread a stasis point or point of crisis and respond in such a way that learning is not enhanced.
"framing what he or she will consider as part of the new situation (and thereby eliminating some factors)"
The frame surrounds the courses in which we have used the CIQs: mine has primarily been English 358, a required upper division course on writing in the humanities and social sciences. We've also framed in "writing classes" as our focal points. In this first instantiation, we are directing our gaze a bit more fully toward the teacher's reflection in response to student comments and actions.
"drawing on previous knowledge and theories"
Schon, our own early stasis strategies thinking
"while adapting them to address the newness of the situation, and testing the new knowledge in action." (155)
We are testing the theory about stasis strategies that we built based on Schon and the examples from our practitioners in the special issue of Reflections. The experiment will extend our knowledge of those strategies and both their explanatory and applied power.
The purpose of our research is thus to further develop our theory of stasis points and strategies in the writing classroom, thereby identifying productive and counterproductive practices.
What problem are we trying to solve?
What the CIQ offers us particularly is a way to think about teacher and student responses to situations together and try to identify best ways of responding and conversing together.
We want teachers, including ourselves, to be the most rhetorically savvy readers of their classroom situations and to learn to identify the most effective rhetorical responses to those situations. This takes communication between rhetor and audience, reflection on the communication. It is too easy to misread a stasis point and respond in a counterproductive way. Therein lies the problem.
" The effective professional begins by noticing a dilemma,"
Teaching is a communicative process in which it is easy to misread a stasis point or point of crisis and respond in such a way that learning is not enhanced.
"framing what he or she will consider as part of the new situation (and thereby eliminating some factors)"
The frame surrounds the courses in which we have used the CIQs: mine has primarily been English 358, a required upper division course on writing in the humanities and social sciences. We've also framed in "writing classes" as our focal points. In this first instantiation, we are directing our gaze a bit more fully toward the teacher's reflection in response to student comments and actions.
"drawing on previous knowledge and theories"
Schon, our own early stasis strategies thinking
"while adapting them to address the newness of the situation, and testing the new knowledge in action." (155)
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