Check-in (30-45 min)

Let me know what is going on and how I can help.

Ghenwa Presentation (30-45 min)

Discussion questions:

  1. How can we effectively incorporate multimodality in a first-year writing class without overwhelming ourselves as new teachers and without losing control of the classroom. Another way of asking this is how do we maintain flexibility (i.e. I’m not the expert, we are experimenting and learning together) while still enabling a meaningful learning experience (i.e. without forfeiting purpose and creating confusion and chaos)?
  2. I really like the idea of providing students with the opportunity to create material that they feel is sharable, memorable and possibly public-facing rather than something they create for me to read and grade and then forget about it. How can we achieve this in a writing class without losing focus of it being a writing class?  What degrees and levels of multimodality are acceptable? How do we stay balanced and not slip into a 100% communications class?
  1. Another aspect to think about is equity and privilege. What if students in a class have unequal access to technology? What about time? Not everyone can afford hours of experimentation to learn how to use HTML for example. 
  2. Linked to question 3 is the issue of grading. How do we grade fairly, taking into consideration time, access to tech and student abilities. It is also difficult to grade a class that advocates for experimentation and learning over failure. It’s a good chance to consider individual contracts with students that they develop early on (their expectations for themselves) and allow them to self-evaluate throughout the semester.

2 possible readings:

  1. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jaal.1134 (good for lots of resources on multimodality and its challenges and possibilities)Broadening Student and Teacher Participation: Multimodal Projects in a Classroom Affinity Space – Marsh – 2021 – Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy – Wiley Online Library – International Literacy Association (ILA)
  2. Chapter 1 of Toward a Composition Made Whole by Jody Shipka: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hjqkk.5?seq=11#metadata_info_tab_contents  
    Toward a Composition Made Whole on JSTOR
  3. Also linking the transcript of episode 48 that talks about incorporating podcasts and zines into classes. https://www.pedagoguepodcast.com/uploads/4/1/9/0/41908851/kristi_and_jason_transcript.pdfEpisode 48: Kristi Prins and Jason Luther – Pedagogue

Research Unit Activity Sharing (20-30 min)

I have some of my lesson plans here that show some activities I do in the research unit. I can talk through some other things I do. I’d like to hear some of the things you’ve been up to and also about things you are thinking about doing next class or the class after so we can workshop them.