Author: Kyllikki Rytov

My revised teaching artifact is a peer-review activity for a sync online course of ENG 2150, which combines genre, rhetoric, and research. Previously, the activity took place in Blackboard in the discussion boards, but I’m relocating it to either Bb + Discord or a blog + Discord (haven’t decided on where I’d host the class, yet). My motivation for using Discord as a tool is to deepen student engagement in modes other than writing in a discussion board, and I arrived at this decision after hearing from others who utilize discords or slacks for class; it seems as though students appreciate being able to participate beyond the limitations of Bb. (I also wonder if the use of a non-academic platform encourages participation in a way that a standard LMS doesn’t.) My only concern is asking students to incorporate additional technology into their practice, as I imagine they have other courses also involving multiple platforms.

This week, we’re working in our writing pods to move into P4. First, reread the project description in the syllabus; if you have any questions, email me or drop in during office hours to chat.

Second, in your pod’s voice channel, take turns answering the following questions. Presenters, talk through your ideas; everyone else, listen and ask any questions via text.

1. Remind everyone: what’s your topic?
2. Which approach are you taking in P4, an argumentative approach to persuade your audience of your position or an investigative approach to inform your audience? Why?
3. Which genre are you contemplating composing in? Options include news article, a blog, a podcast, or a short video such as a vlog or documentary.
4. With that genre in mind, which technological tools do you anticipate possibly using? For example, if you want to create an article like what you’d find on The New York Times or Newsweek, do you want to compose it online in a website or in a program like InDesign? I’ll share a more detailed list of options [in Bb/on the blog].

Third, pod members, after the presenter is done and has had a chance to answer any questions, take turns giving feedback based on the following points, either via voice or text.

• Comment on the presenter’s decision to be persuasive or informative: does it feel logical, given the topic and reasoning?
• Does their choice of genre seem appropriate, given the topic and above goal?
• Does their choice of technology seem realistic and manageable in terms of the time left in our class?

Last, [in Bb/on the blog], presenters, reflect on the feedback from your pod members (in a paragraph, in a list—however), considering the following:

• Does any of the feedback surprise you?
• What are your next steps?

Admittedly, I have a number of aspects of and materials from my async section of ENG 2150–research and genre–that I want to revise for next semester’s sync section. I’m going to focus on an activity that I ask students to perform as they transition from their annotated bib to the research project, itself, which currently exists as a DB in Bb, and follows is the text from that assignment:

This week, we’re working in small groups to move into P4. First, reread the project description in our syllabus (the revised syllabus has been uploaded here in Bb). If you have any questions for me, email them or drop in during office hours to talk.

Second, posting individually, answer the following:

1. Remind us: what’s your topic/situation?
2. Which approach are you taking in P4, an argumentative approach to persuade your audience of your position or an investigative approach to inform your audience about your topic? Why?
3. Which genre are you contemplating composing for P4? This could be anything from creating a news article to a personal blog to a podcast or short documentary. I once even had a student create an app. (Reminder: You have personal blog examples from [redacted] and [redacted]. I have to dig through some old folders to see if I have other genre examples and the permission to share them.) I’m not looking for technical perfection in your project, only that your attempt is logical in terms of the genre and its audience, purpose, design, and inclusion of research sources.
4. With that genre in mind, which technolog/ies do you anticipate possibly using? For example, if you want to write a news article (a timely example here: https://www.newsweek.com/family-9yearold-killed-astroworld-sues-travis-scott-1649126), do you want to compose it online in a website or in a program like InDesign? If you want to record a podcast, how do you want to record it and where could you host it? (Options here: https://discoverpods.com/best-free-podcast-hosting/)

Third, group members, reply to each others’ posts, doing the following:

• Comment on the author’s decision to be persuasive or informative: does it feel logical, given the topic and the author’s reasoning?
• Does their choice of genre seem appropriate, given the topic and above goal?
• Does their choice of tech seem realistic and manageable in terms of time left in this course?
• After you’ve done the preceding, answer this: what’s the “So what?” of the author’s described project, as you understand it? Authors, pay attention to these responses: if what you have in mind and what your group members are perceiving are drastically different, where is the confusion coming from?

One of my goals in revising this is to enhance student engagement. My students right now are tired and multitasking, and it seems like each group of 3-4 students has one or two members who simply never interact with the others. Another goal is to continue to foster community so that students have their small groups to work through ideas that we can’t really work through f2f in a classroom in small groups. To these ends, I want to switch to Discord next semester, and I also want to rename the “small groups” “writing pods.” I do have a question about when to put students into small groups: this semester, I waited a couple weeks to get a sense of students’ (online) personalities and, in conjunction with their introductions from week 1, I sorted them into groups. Now I’m wondering if I should just have randomly put them into groups from the start.

Hi! Nice meeting you! Could you introduce yourself? What department are you from? What courses are you teaching or have been teaching? What are the classes you teach like, such as format or class size? Is there anything you want to tell us about your teaching, research, or other projects? My name is Kyllikki Rytov, and I earned my PhD from Florida State University in English with a speciality in classical and digital rhetoric. I’m an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of English at Baruch; I’m currently teaching ENG 2150 asynchronously, but I’ll be teaching it synchronously in the spring, ergo my interest in this seminar. I had fairly extensive experience designing online async courses during my PhD, but I haven’t had any experience with a sync course.

Could you talk a little bit about that course you’ll be working on during this seminar? ENG 2150 is essentially a genre and research composition course, and I design my sections with an emphasis on the socially-situatedness of rhetoric–we read about rhetorical ecologies, rhetorical listening, and the white supremacy of standard academic English as students pursue a topic of their choice throughout the course, beginning with a rhetorical analysis and ending with a research project.

What are the listed learning goals of your course? They could be ones provided by the department, or ones that you have written for your syllabus? Please list them (pasting is fine!). Based on the learning goals from the department, mine are as follows:
After completing ENG 2150, you should be able to: 

• Analyze and interpret key ideas in various discursive genres with careful attention to the role of rhetorical conventions such as genre, audience, purpose, and conventions; 
• Apply rhetorical knowledge in your own composing using the means of persuasion appropriate for each rhetorical context, including academic writing and composing using digital platforms; 
• Identify sources of information and evidence credible to your audience; incorporate multiple perspectives in your writing by summarizing, interpreting, critiquing, and synthesizing the arguments of others; and avoid plagiarism by ethically acknowledging the work of others when used in your own writing, using a citation style appropriate to your audience and purpose; and 
• Experience writing as a creative way of thinking and generating knowledge and as a process involving multiple drafts, revision and editing.
  
  What class materials are you planning to develop? What goals do you have for them? I want to revamp my syllabus, both in terms of one of the projects and in terms of class session structure, so as to encourage community in an online sync class taking place during a pandemic. This semester, I opted to only use Blackboard’s tools, thinking that keeping things centralized for students would keep things easy, but I’m really dissatisfied with the discussion boards and other tech constraints–there’s just not a lot of collaboration or sense of community. Next semester, I want to bring in other tech, such as a discord and maybe these blogs–my only hesitation concerns how much of a learning curve it’ll be for students to learn these new platforms.