Digital-Media Centered and Student-Relevant Approaches to the Documented Argument
(NMSU English Department Professional Development, 2/12/16
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<----Books to make you reconsider what is possible for composition!
These three books provided a foundation for my dissertation and my teaching. In addition, I drew on many ideas from Patrick Sullivan's 2015 piece, "The Unessay: Making Room for Creativity in the Composition Classroom," available at: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CCC/0671-sep2015/CCC0671Unessay.pdf Another vital piece (also used as a "shared source" in 111) was Steph Ceraso's article, "(Re)Educating the Senses: Multimodal Listening, Bodily Learning, and the Composition of Sonic Experiences" which corresponds with the outdoor "Multimodal Listening Exercise" below in "Additional Documents." The link to Ceraso's article is here:
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CE/0772-nov2014/CE0772Educating.pdf |
Vision for the Baccalaureate Experience at NMSU-Las Cruces
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•Academically Prepared
•Lifelong Learning •Effective Communication • Self-Awareness •Technological Literacy The documented argument was structured on, and attended to the English Department and State of New Mexico course outcomes. This "meeting of outcomes" was done in a creative-critical way. The "Vision for the Baccalaureate Experience" rubric, issued by NMSU is the only set of outcomes to specifically list "creativity" as an overarching goal.
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•Information Literacy
•Citizenship •Diversity •Critical Thinking •Creativity |
Documented Argument
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This approach to the DA is inspired, in part, by a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art-Denver, which houses the FAILURE LAB:
http://mcadenver.org/failurelab.php "Failure Lab, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver's Teen Program, is an internship program for a select group of high school students. Because we believe that risking failure is an integral element of creativity, we designed this program to provide teens with a unique opportunity to try out wild ideas." --from the Failure Lab homepage |
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USING ALL AVAILABLE MEANS (a theme)
• Rather than teach one technology or software, such as Photoshop, which I've done in the past, for this section of 111 to think about all means available to them to compose meaning. For instance, most smartphone users have hundreds if not thousands of photos. This is a starting point! In addition, I asked students to consider what apps they use frequently--Vine, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, etc... What software might they know or be willing to experiment with--iMovie, Photoshop, Illustrator, Powerpoint (when used interestingly), Prezi, etc... How might it be possible to use a combination of these digital tools to make an academic argument? (One "rule" was that the final documented argument could not be in a paper form).
SHARED SOURCES
• Students were encouraged to use any essay or content in They Say I Say, essays from our course textbook we covered in depth such as Gloria Anzaldúa's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," and Leslie Marmon Silko's "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective," as well as Steph Ceraso's article and all in-class material and discussions to construct an argument around main themes of communication, code-meshing, language, bi/multilingualism, and non-normative ways of communicating (ie, special needs individuals), and communication through art, sports, or other means.
• Students were encouraged to use any essay or content in They Say I Say, essays from our course textbook we covered in depth such as Gloria Anzaldúa's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," and Leslie Marmon Silko's "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective," as well as Steph Ceraso's article and all in-class material and discussions to construct an argument around main themes of communication, code-meshing, language, bi/multilingualism, and non-normative ways of communicating (ie, special needs individuals), and communication through art, sports, or other means.
GRADING
• We used a grading rubric which was developed collaboratively during two class periods. The first step of the collaborative rubric was to ask "what did we value most as a class this semester?" Followed by listing these on the whiteboard. We then defined what "creativity" and "creative-critical thinking" meant specific to our course. We then proceeding to assign categories, points, and specific qualifications such as "documented argument project must feel finished."
• We used a grading rubric which was developed collaboratively during two class periods. The first step of the collaborative rubric was to ask "what did we value most as a class this semester?" Followed by listing these on the whiteboard. We then defined what "creativity" and "creative-critical thinking" meant specific to our course. We then proceeding to assign categories, points, and specific qualifications such as "documented argument project must feel finished."
DOCUMENTED ARGUMENT PROMPT AND DA PROCESS NARRATIVE PROMPT
| tth_111docarg_plans.docx |
| tthdocumented_argument_process_narrative.docx |
A visual representation of the documented argument final product and presentation.
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS
• The first additional document is a note taking template that may be helpful for students in a discussion-based course. It allows them to see what notes might be useful to gather from a lecture or class discussion.
• The second document is the outdoor Multimodal Listening Exercise, which was paired with a close reading of Steph Ceraso's article linked at the top of this page. In addition, I would recommend showing the class a clip of Dame Evelyn Glennie, the hearing-impaired award-winning solo percussionist who is the subject of Ceraso's article. One possible clip is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEuZ3B9B4HA
• The first additional document is a note taking template that may be helpful for students in a discussion-based course. It allows them to see what notes might be useful to gather from a lecture or class discussion.
• The second document is the outdoor Multimodal Listening Exercise, which was paired with a close reading of Steph Ceraso's article linked at the top of this page. In addition, I would recommend showing the class a clip of Dame Evelyn Glennie, the hearing-impaired award-winning solo percussionist who is the subject of Ceraso's article. One possible clip is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEuZ3B9B4HA
| notetakingtemplate.doc |
| multimodal_listening.docx |
SAMPLE PROJECT
• All projects, whether students worked alone, in pairs, or in a group, were vastly different, yet maintained similarities based on the project guidelines. What any viewer DOESN'T see, with any project, is the constant writing, the pages and pages of planning and reflection--failure and new ideas--that were generated all semester before the final product. The video below is a final project, posted with permission, as ONE example of what is possible.
• All projects, whether students worked alone, in pairs, or in a group, were vastly different, yet maintained similarities based on the project guidelines. What any viewer DOESN'T see, with any project, is the constant writing, the pages and pages of planning and reflection--failure and new ideas--that were generated all semester before the final product. The video below is a final project, posted with permission, as ONE example of what is possible.