Alcove Spring

There isn't too much on Alcove Springs online yet, except where it's mentioned in just about every account of the ill-fated Donner party. I'm collecting resources, so let me know if you have anything. I'm helping a niece with a research project and started to get interested. It has an undiscovered feel to it, though it was one of the first and most popular stops along the Oregon Trail.

When I was growing up nearby, the spring was private property, and so not many people actually saw it. That helped preserve the site. The associations with cannibalism and doom likewise didn't appeal to many (not to mention band of agnostic vigilantes rumored to protect the site), but as several pioneers noted in their logs, it might be one of the most romantic spots in the country, and it feels unspoiled.




Don't know why blogger want's to rotate the ancient graffiti. Ironic that preserving graffiti is important to maintaining the spot, but the name was carved by one of America's most famous cannibals.


Been thinking about the bittersweet my niece found on the trail. There was no vine in sight and I looked, and the stuff brings a good price at farmer's markets... so I'm thinking somebody inappropriately harvested it and dropped a twig on the way out.

I love this place, but don't want it to get more famous.

Expectations

I always have great advice at the end of a semester, but at the begining of a semster I want to build group dynamics and assess.... next semester I plan on having students read all my posts labeled "advice" and do an annotated bibliography.

Re: ANGEL. to recap my syllabus, my courses are neither self-paced nor online. Most material is online, but we work in classrooms and attendance is mandatory. ANGEL hates Macintoshes. If you work on one at home you should plan on uploading your papers on campus on a PC. Upload in MSword. Turning in wps. is files antisocial and passive aggressive. It never pays to be like that to an instructor.

You do not need to own a computer to take my class - but in the real world we write on word processors of some sort. No one on a college level - in the United States - has accepted handwritten work for 50 years - and good luck finding a typewriter. My classrooms next semester have computers and there are ample labs on campus. If you don't do class work in class don't expect me to accept it for participation points if it's turned in late. Sometimes I'll say I'll accept work for the next 12 or 36 hours - but that's on you - and if it gets turned in. If a computer doesn't cooperate - or if you submit an unreadable file... that's on you. Excuses are irrelevant. Had it been done in class it would have worked.

To quote the Yoda, "You either do or do not. There is no 'try.'"

And don't expect me to hound students about missing work or showing up on time, or even just showing up. I notice. I keep records. It affects grades. It's up to each individual student to keep their own records and discipline themselves.

iSearch: advice

1. It's never been a good sign when a writer changes topics without including research from their initial idea. It generally indicates procrastination and lack of effort. Will have to rewrite prompt to control this. Either take one of my suggestions, or show research from initial topic and
   
2. 2 hours reading research is not a sincere effort. For a capstone project assigned the first day of class you should expect to spend at least 15 hours reading, and that doesn't include time spent looking for material. Heck, we spent 3-4 hours in class finding material this semester.
3. ALL work read should be included in your works consulted. Yes, I understand tutors may tell you that if you don't directly cite a source it doesn't go on your works page. That isn't exactly true - if information is not common knowledge the source deserves to be cited. The assignment prompt asks for ALL WORK READ on a "works consulted" page.
   
4. If information is common knowledge it shouldn't go in your "what I learned" page.
   
5. Citing an encyclopedia, dictionary, ehow, Wikipedia, about.com, or ask.com is like peeing in the shower. I don't care that you do it, but please don't talk about it. Quoting such sources makes you look bad.
   
6. 
   

Quoting the dictionary: Faculty responses

In an unscientific poll of Composition 1 instructors at JCCC, 8 have weighed in. When asked how they felt when a writer quoted the dictionary in the introduction of an essay, 7 of 8 chose “Arrgh. I hate it” with the remaining voter selecting “I rarely see it work but it doesn’t bother me.” No one chose a positive (“I love it”) or neutral (“Fine. Whatever.”) response. The survey was anonymous, faculty had to follow a link, and perhaps that attracted only those with strong feelings; however, there seems a consensus that quoting from a dictionary does not succeed in comp. 1 classes or higher classes.

In response to the question I posed to the faculty list-serv , however; colleagues offered more useful, nuanced and reflective replies. I asked (all emphasis – bold – is mine):

How do instructors here feel about students quoting the dictionary (particularly in an introduction)? This may be a personal bias I need to address. I don’t generally like it, and I’ve had colleagues who felt strongly about it, but I once taught from a writing textbook that encouraged the practice…..-I’d like to be able to honestly tell students if this is a personal style issue specific to an individual instructor, or if citing the dictionary is generally unsuccessful with college writing professors.

Prof. Brannan explained:

particularly for developmental writers, patterns and other structure are critical. The dictionary gambit can be used as fluff--which it often is in Comp I, II, and beyond--but is useful for our 106 and 102 writers. It is especially useful when these students also see the classifying/dividing element in good dictionary definitions and have the concept of specific, detailed examples reinforced.

In the Precomposition class (roughly the equivalent to JCCC’s ENGL 106 ) I once taught elsewhere, the book suggested incorporating a dictionary definition. This lends support to Prof. Brannan’s thoughts. Prof. Lillich expressed:

I just finished grading a batch of definition essays and had several students use dictionary definitions as jumping off points/introductions. This is the developmental level in Engl 106, where the chapter on writing the definition essay suggests incorporating the dictionary into your pre-writing and using your specific definition in your essay. I really think it all depends on what level writing you are teaching AND who your students are.

There seems to be consensus. There’s a time and place for it, but Comp 1 students should be in the process of moving out of the practice. Prof Allen wrote:

At the risk of sounding like I worry about template writing a lot, I think this comes back to that. Students are given certain patterns, tricks of the trade early in their writing experiences and they are never moved out of that. What I don't know is why. Are they not given enough opportunities to think? After all, writing requires the ability to think not just regurgitate facts. Or are they encouraged to stick with what "works" for so long that they fear leaving the security of it? What I do know is that the definition opening is one of those strategies encouraged early on as an "opening technique" for young writers.

Maybe my overexposure to the technique (because I teach comp 1) has contributed to some sort of allergy. The repetitive exposure results in a numbness or fugue in others. Prof. Karle explains:

Dictionary definitions are boring and, as I tell my students, a missed opportunity to say something that is actually interesting to the reader and significant to the paper's argument. I also tell my students that if they must define a word, their own definition (for example of the word hero) would be far more interesting to the reader.

Prof. Schmeer tells writers that their goal is to:

grab our attention and “delight the reader”--that is, engage us and make us want to keep reading. Dictionary definitions are the written equivalent of Ben Stein’s character in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” It helps to show a YouTube clip of the roll-call scene in FBDO or read students papers aloud in a Ben Stein voice when you explain this. They get it right away…
But beginning writers need templates to follow. I think we all forget that we needed templates at some point, too. Learning to think isn’t easy. Learning to trust your thinking is harder. Learning to trust that what you put on the page is often a poor representation for what you think and you need to think harder and represent those thoughts better is impossible unless you are willing to put forth the effort.

I’m going to share the video link in class next semester to provoke a free write on the analogy Prof. Schmeer talks about (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7zYyTotwfE). I like analogies. Prof. Fitzpatrick posited:

I have always thought of things like modes or the known/new pattern or even “claim-logos support-pathos support-ethos support” models as solid training wheels for students to use while they are finding their bearings in this new world of academic writing. ….But you don’t keep training wheels on forever, and the trick is helping students know when to take those training wheels off —and I think it is particularly difficult in late 106 …and early Comp1 (where some students come in with the stock patterns, which have given them success in high school and that are damn near required for standardized tests, and assume every kind of thought can be squeezed into one of those templates). That is something that, in my opinion, needs to be done on an individual basis with the student and the intention of the essay. But, for me, the place to start is to make sure students understand that these things are training wheels (or scaffolding) that will disappear once the ideas have enough wherewithal to support themselves.

This dialogue responds to the question much better than a simple and reductive rule for or against a practice; hopefully my students will read it. Lance Armstrong could show up to a bike race with training wheels and those who knew of him wouldn’t laugh He’d likely win the race, but for most riders, once they reach sufficient proficiency with a bike the training wheels become a hindrance rather than a help. ( I imagine he’d use them like the wheel weapons in the chariot race in Ben Hur, or like those vicious chrome plastic lug nut covers on semis).

Prof. Heflin makes an important distinction and relates the question to larger issues of research

if the student feels compelled to justify her/his point of view on an idea with a definition, I require that they use an authoritative dictionary, not a common one....so I remind students that they are not doing research by using a common dictionary, but merely doing preliminary research. I push my students to realize that the easy sources can be accessed by anyone, but a scholar accesses the authoritative, hard to find sources, which helps to build the writer's own authority in the process… that is also the rationale I give about avoiding using Wikipedia or eHow or any other abbreviated or condensed encyclopedia--it is not authoritative enough in and of itself (besides other issues).

All comments collected from email over the period of 12/9/10 to 12/12/10 and reprinted with permission of the authors.

Citing the Dictionary

For some reason people like to start papers with by citing a dictionary. Maybe writers think it kills 2 birds with 1 stone in that a) it's an in-text reference and demonstrates a quote and b) gets something on paper.

I hate seeing quotes pulled from a dictionary. Call it a pet peeve; call it a fetish; call me an irascible curmudgeon and pedant, but it makes me cringe. I'd rather chew aluminum foil than read a dictionary quote of common word.

To make it worse, most dictionary quotes I see from students include several meanings of the word, in various parts of speech, and fail to identify what particular meaning will be focused on. It looks like filler - a great ploy to break writer's block and get started on a rough draft - but not something that should survive to a final draft.

I generally hate seeing dictionary quotes because its tried so often and almost never works - not that it can't be done. Maybe it's like cutting your own hair. I've known just one person who can pull it off, but I've know dozens who failed miserably. I strongly recommend against it. I can simply turn my head from looking at a bad haircut, but I'm required to read what students write, so for now I reserve the right to dock points for style.

I do encourage writers to define their terms as they use them, but be specific to the context and usage of your term, and define it in a way personally meaningful: preferably in your own words. All dictionary definitions of common words are going to be similar, so most such definitions are common knowledge and would be trite.

Mike Shapiro at UW- Madison writes

Three quick usage rules:

1. Incorporate a definition into your essay only when that definition is unusual and interesting—as a general rule, give definitions only for meanings that are uncommon (example: the theological sense of disgrace) or that have gone out of use since Shakespeare’s time.
2. Use the definition to further your argument. If you take the space to spell out an unusual meaning of disgrace but don’t explain how that unusual definition betters our understanding of the sonnet, that space will be wasted.
3. Don’t begin an essay with a definition. Although this might give you a way to break the blank page, your reader is more interested in the argument of your essay than in the OED definition of “love.”

A thread started on a public discussion board has a student asking if it's ok to quote the dictionary because her teacher said it was a rule she couldn't. There's a great discussion and only a little teacher-bashing.


Oh, and if one were to quote a dictionary, it'd better be the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), or a specialized dictionary like the Urban Dictionary or the Devil's Dictionary.

Service Team-Based Projects

Groups this semester have created survey's online as part of their research. They request peer participation. Please take these surveys if appropriate and forward (again, as appropriate).

• on academic integrity and ethics http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SJGV5ZY
• on the boundaries between student, athlete and personal freedom (NOTE: survey written for atheletes) http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WDVNV9R

Worth the Read: Applied Andragogy

A powerful piece at NPR makes some salient points about education, in the form of a Literacy Narrative. It tells the story of a "terrible" man who may have been an excellent English teacher - and highlights the difference between politics and teaching theory - and offers some warning about the direction education currently takes. The author Alva Noe says:

however depraved his behavior may have been in other respects, at least in my eyes, his practice as a teacher was grounded on respect. He didn’t tell us what to think. He didn’t manipulate us. He exemplified a phenomenon — a certain kind of caring about literature, and language, and argument — and he trusted us to form our own judgments about that phenomenon.

You’d have to be a fool to send your kids to school to learn what the teacher thinks or believes. So said Augustine, who, like Plato, believed that you can’t teach knowledge by telling. What a good teacher can do is afford his or her pupils an opportunity to learn something, not by telling, but by enabling something to be seen, experienced, learned.......Politicians — at least the politicians in this American culture we live in — use words not to communicate, or to argue, or persuade. They pretend to do this. But they don’t. Politicians, like sales people, are interested in outcomes. They want to influence you and they are interested in your beliefs and attitudes only in so far as these are potentially levers they can manipulate

Since no one reads student email, & I can't cut & paste into the LMS

A note from the Registrar re: Transcript Requests

At the end of the semester, we receive thousands of last minute requests from students who want their transcript sent to another institution as soon as grades are posted.

Students should submit their transcript request early to ensure timely processing. The Records Office will enter these requests in advance and schedule the transcript to be printed immediately after final grades are posted.

On Creating and Editing Audio

All students in comp 1 participate in team based learning where they create and edit audio. Many students already know about and have used Audacity - but for those who don't, it is a free open-source program for recording and editing sound using a computer. It's pretty amazing - and you could probably figure out how to download by going to their website, but KU has some great step-by-step instructions in a PDF here, but the web page here has more detail and better graphics.

• NOTE: downloading the Lame encoder is necessary to export the audacity project files as Mp3's.
• Note also that it will edit Mp3's but not WMA (Windows Media Audio - what my voice recorder uses), so I went to CNET and downloaded a free WMA to Mp3 converter.

Most Cell phones and personal media players will record audio, but what format they use to record sound varies. You will need to figure that out to find the correct program to download that would convert to Mp3. I recommend CNET.

Academic integrity and plagiarism

Lot in the news now about the moral depravity of students as evidenced by "cheating." The Philosophy Monkey treats it well. I like that he makes a point that instructors aren't as stupid as student's might think (with a video of an instructor calling his students on cheating), but any suppositions that there is a generational component are undercut by the current discussion of former President Bush's alleged plaigiarism of his own memoirs. See Christian Science Monitor, which cites Huffington Post. The embedded image is from Doone'sbury at Slate on 11-18-10 @ 10 am, that site has been running quotes from Bush's memoir with other sources. Yesterday's example was nearly identical- but I didn't do a screengrab.

I question that the ethics of our students are much different from that of our leaders, and therefore the issue is one of our culture as a whole rather than kids today; however, many readers of the article "Cheating and the Generational Divide" in Inside Higher Education may disagree. Prior to a test students researched online for publisher created tests - and the instructor used the test provided by the publisher. Some students claim the instructor said in class he would create his own test. I need to someday read this more carefully - but I gotta get ready for class.

I hope a student chooses plagiarism or ethics for an inquiry-learning research project. I'd like to hear a balanced and logical discussion of the issue.

Quotations and context

I've noticed a rise in "news" (infotainment?) organizations taking quotations out of context - sometimes to intentionally prove a false supposition, and sometimes out of cluelessness. In an Associated Press article Oct. 30, 2010, entitled "Retired Chaplains Warn Against 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Repeal" I was struck by the pullquote - indicated in blue.

The quote reinforced an assumption about the sort of person who might lead a foundation with that sort of name. But what does this pullquote imply?

• Is it ambiguous?
• Did I read it the way most people would, or do different biases determine meaning?
• Who is the "you" implied by the pullquote?
• What is the "it" specifically?

When I came to the quote in context it surprised me. Examine the use of pronouns. In context, where does it appear Weinstein's sympathies lie?

For full text without the newspaper formatting, see LJW website here.

BTW: scans came from the LJW A5.

Why I want to do quantitative research

I'd like my dissertation to look at quantitative data related to student use of online educational network technologies and sucess in writing classes: that is if my committee will agree.

I've heard from a few colleagues - and at least one technology guru - that I should look at actual writing and do pre and post tests of authentic writing. Eventually I will - but that's not the research I need to do first.

Everyone understands that writing today involves technology - in the product and in the process - but I want to recognize in my research that success in writing involves more than coding lexical items in conventional syntax - it also involves crafting educational identities and finding one's voice, it involves negotiating new and fluid cultural rules, it involves making friends with one might have an authentic audience for one's writing, it involves peer feedback, establishing trust, complaining about teachers and having fun.

It has been thoroughly documented how difficult - if possible - it is to control an experiment on live humans for all the different linguistic input between a pre and a post test. In order to perform any meaningful analysis of authentic writing in order to examine the effects of technology - a monumental amount of research needs to be done on the specific context of the population.

Also, meaningful change on core educational skills like reading and writing happens over time. No intervention so far has had drammatic effect in less than a semester or even year, so what conclusions we gather over said intervention's effect is suspect.

One challenge is the bias against quantitative research among English teachers. I agree with an old business teaching colleague / reverend who used to say "statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is interesting, but what the conceal is vital;" however, that doesn't make swimwear irrelevant or useless. And while skinnydipping may be a more natural and authentic experience, I wouldn't do it in a river or lake without going in first with a suit. I've been in more than my fair share of ponds and rivers, and the first time you go in one should always wear a suit - and I recommend foot coverings as well. It may slow down your swimming, but cutting yourself or slipping on rocks can be worse.

Grammar in the news.

Even without a taser, a bear can be dangerous. Do you really think those fangs and claws are for eating berries?

Thanks to The fail blog.

Facebook and logic

If you need another addictive time-eater, Failbook.com has some funny stuff. This post in particular has some educational applications.

corporal punishment

Photo courtesy of The Laughing Squid. I see Kansas represents in the negative reinforcement (and Missouri - click to enlarge image - we are next to Kentucky).

So let me get this clear, it's legal to hit students in Kansas? Seems like we don't see the difference between education and learning.

reflection on TBL: FA 2010

The overwhelming majority of the class really liked the Team-Based Learning (TBL) project, but 5 or 6 didn't. As a whole the classes succeeded, but there were issues of ineffective group dynamics and missed deadlines. Last semester I ran the TBL unit later in the semester, after a tour of the Nerman and perhaps more direct discussions of the relationship of composition in art and media to college composition classes. There hasn't been trouble connecting the project to the goals of the class in the past.

There seems to be more misunderstandings due to errant expectations this semester. We need to review how college is different from High School (see link for the brilliant comparison contrast by SMU). We had a quiz over this the first week. For example

Professors may not follow the textbook. Instead, to amplify the text, they may give illustrations, provide background information, or discuss research about the topic you are studying. Or they may expect you to relate the classes to the textbook readings....Professors expect you to think about and synthesize seemingly unrelated topics.

It surprised me that several students said they didn't learn anything about composition from the TBL project. That was on the rubric as a goal.

High schoolers read short assignments, and can expect the teacher to cover the homework and explain it. In fact many don't need do assigned readings, but will expect the teacher to correct or explain missed homework. In college the onus is on the student.

Also, high school teachers will remind you when you don't turn in work, and when assignments are due. That's not the expectation of a college teacher. I have been doing this, but it seems wrong and unfair because 5% of the students take up almost 50% of my time and cause 85% of the aggravation. And it bothers me that some students who appear to be struggling haven't come to see me, even when I ask them to. The SMU site goes on to say:

[In High School] teachers approach you if they believe you need assistance. [While college] professors are usually open and helpful, but most expect you to initiate contact if you need assistance.

Also

[High School] teachers are often available for conversation before, during, or after class. [But college] professors expect and want you to attend their scheduled office hours.

Composition classes are gateway classes. Much of what we teach in Comp 1 is really academic readiness or life skills. In Mary Sherry's "In Praise of the F Word," she argues that for real learning to happen, failure has to be an option. This may not happen in high school if you show up most of the time, but it the work world, and in college failure happens and we learn from it.

3 people complained that they did too much of the work, and that it caused resentment or friction. Comments made by others in their groups lend credibility to their concerns. Because these were students identified by their teammates as leaders and hard workers, it rings true. Several of the harder working students complained that people in their group "goofed around on the computer" during class instead of staying on task and getting work done in the classroom. This is the first time I've run this project in a full computer lab. This bears study.

Most groups had problems meeting outside of class and this caused friction, which interests me because I instructed for all work to be done on campus during scheduled class time. Groups made inappropriate use of classtime, assuming they could meet outside of class. This happened last semester too. I talked about it in class.

Several groups didn't submit readable/viewable video. I offered use of my camera - no one said they needed it.

1/3 said the amount of time was appropriate, and 1/2 said they needed more time. Many of the people who said the amount of time was appropriate (or in one case too long) come from groups that didn't produce functional video and missed other deadlines.

At the begining of the semester we did an icebreaker where we chose what we would be if we had to be reincarnated. I disproporianate number of both my classes chose power-dominant images. In the decade or more I've been doing this icebreaker I've only had this many power-dominant images chosen twice. Both times it was a challenge to teach the class, but in one case the class experience was ultimately one of the most rewarding teaching experiences I've had.

On File Names and formatting

I learn a lot from seeing student digital work, as opposed to merely the paper end-product. We in composition intruction may assume a great deal more word processing skills than students have. Yes, today's students have keyboard skills far superior to those commonly found back in the 80's and 90's, but word-processing and file management skills haven't come far yet. Students routinely use the space bar instead of tabbing or using the center command located in the toolbar. They hit hard return at the end of a line instead of letting the computer wrap words automatically. Sure, it may look CLOSE to right in format on the paper copy, but if one has to edit any of the information it messes everything up. Also for someone who reads papers for a living, close is not the same thing as correct.

Page #'s should also be put in the header, so that they float, and if you take out a paragraph or add content it won't mess up the location of the page numbers. Placing Page numbers in the header also keeps margins the right size and location.

Because a digital file will be moved around and used by people other than one's self it should have a file name that will benefit others. That file-name should include author's name (last name and first initial) and a short and/or abbreviated description of the assignment. Many applications can't handle a space so jam words together or separate with an underline or period. I highly recommend inserting a date or number to designate a version to help distinguish early drafts from late drafts. For an annotated bibliography of a textbook, I'd name it dixong_AnnoText the first time I save it and I'd add the date whenever I saved to a new location - dixong_AnnoText.10.22.10 Editing changes the date modified if you use windows explorer (which everyone should. It's visual, intuitive, quick and convenient), so it is important to keep track of what is the latest revision of your work.

Save multiple copies in multiple places and save often. Those of us who can remember before autosave learned this the hard way. Email a copy to yourself, save it to your home computer, invest in several cheap flash drives,... even most portable media players can simultaneously work as portable storage.

"A Rose for Emily"

Everyone needs to be familiar with "A Rose For Emily." Because it appears in so many anthologies and textbooks, most people who have been to college should have read it, and it has something to offer everyone - including social criticism and commentary on: race, gender, perverted and/or abusive intimate relationships and more. E-notes tells us:

“A Rose for Emily” is a story that stands by itself. Faulkner himself modestly referred to it as a “ghost story,” but many critics recognize it as an extraordinarily versatile work. As Frank A. Littler writes in Notes on Mississippi Writers, ‘‘A Rose for Emily’’ has been ‘‘read variously as a Gothic horror tale, a study in abnormal psychology, an allegory of the relations between North and South, a meditation on the nature of time, and a tragedy with Emily as a sort of tragic heroine.’’

See also Spark notes.

Questions I have for myself before class:

• Do I want students to look at the conclusions and ideas from past classes - or come up with an interpretation on their own - unbiased by previous readers?
• Should I have students compare the tale to a CSI or Law & Order episode? We've previously compared the meaning of the rose to a Bachelor / Bachelorette reality TV meaning. How would they react to a role play?
  
• Why did our text book place the student example of a literary analysis in front of the story itself?
• Did I warn them in advance of the inappropriate language (by today's standards)? Can or should we discuss it? They could see the same term in the middle stall of the 3rd floor LIB men's bathroom.
  

Questions I want readers to think about today:

1. When was the story set? Where? Describe the social context.
2. Is it believable?
   
3. What do we know about the narrator?
4. What do we know or suspect about Homer Barron? anyone look it up? Here, or here(?)? What're your gut feelings about him?
   
5. Was the writer intentionally using symbols and multiple layers of meaning?
6. Do Homer and Emily seem like a good match?
   
7. How do the town's people feel about Emily? How do you feel about her?
8. What does Emily's reaction to the death of her father tell us about the way her mind works?
9. What does the hair in the last sentence mean?
   

See more questions courtesy of Web English Teacher. Find full text online here - until the text book thugs take it down.

national wear purple day

I found out from a friend about a movement to show support for GLBT youths by wearing purple today. There is a facebook group (at least one). There are events organized in Chicago, and other cities.

Much of the momentum comes from the 6 or more young men who have committed suicide in recent weeks after being bullied for their perceived orientation. At least one of the young men was straight, but peers labeled him and abused him (does/ should that matter?).

Today for a Journal Writing topic I'd like my classes to write about whether gay rights are civil rights. Why, or in what ways, are GLBT targeted? WHy do people react so strongly to homosexuality in you culture? Will there always be a scapegoat - or a socially condoned victim? Is our culture, community or school heterosexist? Issues of race get tied up with gender and sexuality all the time. I'm interested that the Root posted on wearing purple today. Why do divorce rates go up whenever/where-ever women get more rights?
What are the politics of the issue? What are the arguments for or against? For that matter, what is homosexuality? Some cultures consider it an act or behavior, for others (US) it is a fundamental question of identity.

The US Secretary of State speaks in support of an It Gets Better campaign, and the I Give a Damn campaign takes a direct approach.

And a shout out to the JCCC Queers and Allies - who meet Wednesdays at 2pm in CC212. The also have a facebook group.

Would our classes be interested in having a Speak Out panel come to class?

Word Choice: From the Sportspage

Is partake used correctly here? I've always seen the connotation as passive - or that one took in or received something. There seems some ambiguity or confusion whether the coach is yelling at the ref and the cornerback Flowers, or if Flowers and the coach are both yelling at the referee. To me the word choice of "partake" indicates the former. The picture shows the coach staring at the camera - and not at either of the other 2 people in the picture.

I encourage students to check out the definition of words - even those you think you know. I like thefreedictionary.com, but it isn't helping me today.

on Academia

Thanks to SMBC

Scare quotes are Evil

As written earlier

I'm seeing too "many" superfluous quotes. Wikipedia calls this Scare Quotes. Avoid this. I don't like irony conveyed through quotation marks. Use words. And they don't work for emphasis. Serious explanation here. Check out the blog dedicated to unnecessary quotes here - or the Facebook group - seriously.

Textbook Annotated Bibliography

How to write an annotated bibliography is covered in depth in the Comp 121 textbook. You can also check our social bookmarking site for loads of references online.

NOTE:

1. Refer to MLA handbook for how to cite sources - examples may be dated and
2. Double space everything.
3. Examples for visual reference - not arbiter of accuracy.
4. click on images of samples to enlarge.
5. Like everything else - it needs a heading. Don't trust the samples tho - too many are wrong - and that's just evil.
6. MLA handbook free online here. How to cite a work in an anthology (many English textbooks are anthologies) page 16, Sample Student Paper on page 40 (see this for heading format and page # placement).
   

Does anyone see anything in this?

See also colorblind tests for children. and colorvisiontesting

What I'm Learning from the SRTOL Essays: FA2010

• I want students to get away from the idea of correct or incorrect grammar. This thinking indicates a prescriptive rather than descriptive definition of grammar - and runs counter to the goal of the assignment; however, if someone really wants to go there - plan on defining grammar in detail.
• So many thesis statements ended up on the last page. I specifically asked for them in the first paragraph, and in 85% or more of published essays that's where you find them. It makes reading easier and more predictable. Someone this semester asked if they could put the thesis on the last page. I said they could, but that doesn't mean one should. In every case so far where I find the thesis after the first 2 paragraphs it looks like the author wrote until they discovered the thesis then quit when they hit minimum length requirements: typical first draft stuff. They generally should have then moved the thesis to the first paragraph, and then pruned the essay down to just what is relevant or implied by the thesis. Then add support and detail to what's left.
• I'm seeing too "many" superfluous quotes. Wikipedia calls this Scare Quotes. Avoid this. I don't like irony conveyed through quotation marks. Use words. And they don't work for emphasis. Serious explanation here. Check out the blog dedicated to unnecessary quotes here - or the Facebook group - seriously.
• Cliche alert - avoid "in today's society."
  
• Regarding format specifications. Ignoring format requests is antisocial and passive aggressive.
• Overly wordy introductions to quotes - transitions are needed - but empty and redundant information isn't. I repeatedly see, "In the journal article __________ published in ______ by the author _______ it says..." All this information is on the works consulted page - right? So a shorter reference will work. The wordy version makes it almost an appeal to authority. "Smith argues, "Blah, blah, blah" will work just as well. Or "Blah, blah, blah"(Smith 45).
• EVERY SOURCE USED OR MENTIONED SHOWS UP ON THE WORKS PAGE! This is a big deal. Just because I may know of the article, doesn't mean you're excused from citing the source. We need to demonstrate the ability to work with sources. That's a huge objective of this class.
  
• "some people say" is a red flag for a specious argument and a need for more research and support.
  

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wikipedian_protester.png

Comic on Teaching

Found this on the Shoebox blog (a tiny division of Hallmark). It's consistently entertaining and occasionally useful.

Word Choice

Sometimes I get papers where it looks like the writer right clicked each word and went thesaurus crazy. Many students want to improve their vocabularies - but the best way to do that is by reading. Most often the initial word choice works better. The exception might be where the same word gets used over and over. In that case I do encourage students to think carefully and vary word choice to make their meaning more clear. Until I found this image on a blog post of college humor about More Accurate Book Titles For This Semester's Reading List I never considered that the problem might stem from the source of so many ills that plague composition work - procrastination and lack of time for revision.

The post had some other great book title revisions. The ones by Joyce and Homer cracked me up.

While on the topic of word choice, The Oatmeal has some brilliance re: the word "literally."

Grammar Matter (?): that vs who

One mechanical or stylistic pet peeves that got violated most in the SP2010 semester is the careless or inconsistent use of that vs. who. These words (along with "which") introduce a type of relative clause, which is particularly difficult for speakers of Asian languages - because relative clauses don't exist in their native tongues. Relative clauses are only found in European languages (tho some Native American languages have adopted the grammatical structure due to the influence of Spanish). But the "That/ who" distinction discussed here is a primarily native-English speaker issue. This concern is shared by many of my colleagues, and this issue sparked the longest dialogue posted to a teaching list-serv this year. Consider some examples. A colleague posted the following, and asked us to compare:

She was a student that worried about the finer points.

To this:

She was a student who worried about the finer points.

It's small and fussy, but in my ear it's like calling a person "it."

I whole-heartedly agree. "That" is way overused - and it denies humanity to the word it refers to - its antecedent. It reminds me of a self-described " conservative Christian" who referred to "children that are abused." Denying humanity to a race or class of people is the first step to violence against that group: the irony. Another prof. here offered:

I agree that it's most important just to get students thinking about word choices. It's pretty common, though, for personalized animals, like pets, to be referred to as "who." However, I too prefer students to refer to people with "who," even when the student wants to write "the damn cop that gave me the ticket!"

Grammar Girl weighs in on the subject with her customary verve here. And Grammarbook.com is less equivocal and more succinct.

What I'm learning: pronouns

We expect to see a lot of lower scores on the "distinct sentences" portion of the Microlab, but many students this semester lamented low scores in "misplaced modifiers" and "pronouns." Several students had already seen comments on their papers about "dangling" or misplaced modifiers, but there seems to be a general confusion about the pronouns category.

It makes sense for me, if the Microlab looks at relative pronouns. I've been expressing concern about that ;) for at least the last year. Purdue's Online Writing Center explains it fairly well, but I may prefer wikipedia - because the table on the OWL site may seem to imply that "that" can be used to refer to people. I have an issue with that. For example here's a quote from the 9/20/10 US magazine "Loose Talk" section - where they provide quotes from celebs.

It's nice to be one of the guys that can help sell a movie by taking his shirt off, [but] by no means do I want to be a piece of meat for the rest of my career (Lutz 34 - emphasis mine).

This is funny! The use of "that" rather than "who" as a relative pronoun choice denies himself the humanity he claims to eventually want. He treats himself as an inanimate object, implying linguistically that he is, after all, just "a piece of meat." Is there anything wrong with that?

Purdue would say he can to that he can do that (but not necessarily that he should) - but almost every other style book frowns seriously on using "that" when "who" traditionally would be called for. To me in this instance it seems imprecise and undercuts Kellan's argument that he should be eventually taken seriously. Unless one is referring to work as a meat puppet (Philip K. Dick reference - not necessarily the punk band) one should not use "that" to refer to a human.

Does anyone remember the trouble President Clinton got into for a reference to "that woman"?

Team-based Learning: ad campaign

I'm toying with a new idea for the team-based learning (TBL) unit of Comp 1. The lesson uses TBL methods and develops multi-modal composition skills by creating audio, video and static graphics. Last year I allowed greater student direction by letting groups choose their own products to develop. Where

This year I'm thinking of allowing students to take on authentic products and services. I've spoken with the director of the Writing Center here on campus, Kathryn Byrne, and she supports the idea of students promoting the WC, and would like several options to choose from because audio, video and/or promotional material created could be used in real promotion. That means student work could appear in podcasts, vidcasts and the student newspaper, and maybe even radio, TV and more public venues. Any student participation in a successful advertising campaign could be used in resumes as authentic work experience.

We have some material from past classes on the wiki here, a couple classes have used facebook - but that has limitations. See class Facebook group here, but the problem is they mostly created pages in private places that restricts sharing with future classes. Students have also posted video on YouTube here.

I like the idea that education creates a "walled garden" where students are safe to experiment and take risks - but sometimes we build a roof over the garden and ideas wither from lack of sunlight - or root rot. I'll figure out how to wrestle this analogy back to coherence later.

The Royal Order of Adjectives..

I found this graphic at http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm Thanks to Chad for the head's up.

It illustrates what we spoke about in class - native speakers intuitively understand but Non-native speakers have to learn.

Cultural or Academic Informants

If one goes to the writing center (WC), one gets the most out of the trip by going in prepared. Have a few specific questions or issues you want to address ready and present them to the consultant before you get started. None of the 1/2 dozen or so WC's I've worked with have prioritized grammar and mechanics, and most try to avoid those "lower order concerns," believing them to be less of a barrier to understanding than higher order concerns like logic or organization. The goal, as Steven North put it, is to create better writers rather than better writing. As a result tutors sometimes find themselves conflicted when faced with international students.

For the Non-native English speaker, immigrant or Generation 1.5 student the boundary between higher order and lower order concerns is blurred. Syntax, word choice, the appropriate use of articles and awkward grammar may not typically thwart understanding between 2 well educated Native-English Speakers from a similar background, but when one comes from an alien environment with different language, culture and values, the typical assumptions can lead to disaster. I've even seen this happen when white upper-middle-class consultants work with students from less privileged urban schools in Toledo, Kansas City, KS and KC MO. Schools tend to train tutors to resist the urge to address lower order concerns even when the tutor's instincts tell them they should. Partly this is to ward off the possibility of the tutor appropriating the student's work. And often grammar and mechanics are not the biggest problem a paper has. Also, IMHO, this keeps the WC from getting too popular. No one wants to create a proofreading center on campus.

Asking for or finding a Cultural Informant provides a solution for NNS and students from diverse backgrounds. The University of Richmond Writing Center tutor training site explains that the role of a cultural or academic informant is to

try to identify the problems that the student is having, and then use a direct approach to teach writing as an academic subject. When we, as ESL tutors, "understand, respect, and respond to the differences between the needs of ESL and native-speaking writers," we can increase the effectiveness of a particular session (Powers 103). For more advanced students, it may be advantageous to show "specific examples of how to fix a particular error, and then to try one on their own, or explain what he/she has fixed" because this process allows the student "to really grasp your ideas, and helps them learn in an effective way," according to Dotty Giordano (Connect, 10/17/97).
All ESL students who enter the writing center come from different backgrounds, and therefore, bring different cultural and social contexts to a tutorial. Although some of the problems that an ESL student has are a result of the rhetorical structure of their native language, "others are social or cultural attitudes and beliefs that will definitely affect the tutor-tutee relationship" (Powers 98). Therefore, the tutor must act as a cultural informant. As an example, the nature of asking questions is different among cultures. For an international student, questioning a tutor, or an authority figure, may be frowned upon in one culture, whereas in ours, it is simply regarded as a means of obtaining information for clarification. Since questioning authority may be considered disrespectful in the eyes of a particular international student, he or she may refrain from asking questions in a tutorial because he or she feels that it is inappropriate. In this situation, the tutor should encourage the student to ask questions and inform him or her that this type of behavior is not considered disrespectful in the eyes of Americans

The term "academic informant" is also used because sometimes non-typical learners, such as dyslexic, dysgraphic, and some students with autism spectrum conditions also benefit from more direct help and communication.

So tell your consultant you want a cultural or academic informant if your learning style needs it, but also let them know specifically what you need work with on your writing. Read the margin and end comments from teachers to get some ideas.

The above research is tertiary - see the Asian EFL Journal on the topic.

Minimum length on Papers

Many students complain that English classes frustrate them because of subjective grading, and that rules of grammar can be flexible. For the most part that isn’t quite true. Teachers do “grade norming” exercises with colleagues and find that we in fact have similar expectations and similar ideas of what constitutes an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or unsuccessful paper. See the syllabus for Grading Rationale. However, I do understand where students are coming from with those comments.

With length or content minimums in my class, we have concrete and objective measures. Most instructors won’t accept a paper under the minimum specified word count or length, or they will simply fail the paper giving it 50 % and not bother going to the work of reading it. After all, the student didn’t bother going to the work of doing the minimum requirement.

I read every paper. Papers that fall under the minimum word count invariably leave me wanting more information. Some papers over the minimum length do too – and that may be reflected in comments about content.

It surprises me though when someone puts in minimal effort (as indicated by a brief response to an assignment) and then expects an "A" or "B." If a "C" is average - barely making the word count shouldn't guarantee you even that.

I had way too many papers under the minimum word length on the first paper this semester, and sometimes I read one that barely makes the minimum. I go back and count the times they used the word "very" or similar such filler. I generally find a relationship between the # of filler words and the word count in that the closer a paper is to the word count cut off - the more empty words or phrases clog up the prose. I did that once too. Read the assignment prompt and the rubric and you'll see why it won't work.

plagiarism and copyright

image from the dilbert website at http://dilbert.com/ 9-2-10. Click to see full size image.

Writing and Power

Grabbed the above image from a boingboing post on Woody Guthrie, an old artist activist who wrote a couple of my favorite songs (the motorcycle song and alice's restaurant).

I like it because it highlights a point I try to make with my classes - that language, and writing specifically, is all about power.

Sunflowers - photo essay

It's sunflower season. Field 5 .1 miles north east of Lawrence on Hi-way 24/40 - about halfway to Tonganoxie from Larryville on west side of road. I put the roadsigns below - but the field of yellow is hard to miss.

You can pay a dollar and cut your own to take home. It's the honor system and I hope they make $. I donated a buck out of appreciation. My wife took the best pictures in the morning around 9am. Earlier might be better. Because the field is west of the road and runs up a hill, late afternoon isn't as good - and the moths, bees and butterflies are better in the morning.






Can anyone name this moth?