From the Personal to the Universal

This is a multi-step activity that involves preparation at home and an in-class component. It calls for access to a browser and Word or Google Docs. Remember, do not submit work in Pages files, as I can’t open them.  As always, you can find Word and other MS office software, available without cost for Baruch students, here: Office365 – Baruch Computing & Technology Center

The goal of this activity is to help us get a little critical distance from the completed Literacy Narrative in order to help us see some universal elements to your particular story.  By asking analytical questions, we can move farther away from the position of the writer of our work toward the position of reader, and that can help us see new dimensions to it.  

PART A: To do prior to the start of class

1. Open your literacy narrative in Word or Google Docs. If necessary, review the instructions for annotating a document in these programs. Find and annotate with a one-sentence explanation at least 10 passages that: 

1. feel underexplored (you mentioned something important but think it might benefit from expansion);
2. They contain information that is essential to the reader’s understanding of the experience of joining the discourse community (translations, explanations);
3. discuss relationships in your discourse community;
4. Discuss different phases of learning and belonging (incuriosity, lack of understanding, curiosity, beginning, knowledge acquisition, intermediate and advanced knowledge, struggle, increased belonging, communication mishaps, mentoring others, etc);
5. Describe the personal, emotional, developmental, physical, social, political, and/or economic importance of this discourse community to yourself and others;
6. And/or discuss this discourse community’s relationship to non-members — does it show preference for members over non-members in its language or actions? Does it actively exclude/warn off new members? Welcome/include them? Is it a mix? 
7. Read over your annotations. Do you see any patterns to them or have any other observations? In a final paragraph you append to the end of your paper, discuss any interesting specifics you learned or overall patterns you found by considering your writing from these angles. 

PART B: Script for Online Synchronous Class Exercise 

Script	Zoom Chat Instructions
Hopefully your homework exercise helped you start to think about your finished Literacy Narrative in a different light.  Let’s start by looking at those paragraphs you wrote at the end, and I’m going to ask you to bracket and share a passage from it, either by raising your hand and unmuting, or by pasting it into the chat.
Today, we’ll aim to defamiliarize it even further by asking ourselves what other scholars and/or archivists might wonder or observe about it, or how it might inform or be further illuminated by their own work. Eventually, we will look to these experts for materials and articles that can help us understand our own experience better
In thinking and writing about the experience of joining a new discourse community, we have speculated about how that membership has changed our lives. It can be worthwhile to see that speculation complicated by material from archives, scholarly research, or historical sources regarding members of that community. But, at this stage, it can be tempting to default to the most concrete and literal understanding of our discourse community (“sneaker resellers,” say, instead of “entrepreneurs”) and look for sources we already know to exist, rather than leveraging the full discovery potential of research.
Let’s hear a few actual names of the discourse communities you’ve written about. You can unmute or type them into the chat.	Let’s hear a few actual names of the discourse communities you’ve written about. You can unmute or type them into the chat.
[Students type or say (these are past examples) “literary twitter,” “plant mom,” “big brother,” “Brazilian jiu-jitsu,” “Bakery worker,” etc]
Ok, good. Now, let’s talk about how we can broaden our understanding of some of these? For instance, what’s a broader way to describe “Brazilian jiu-jitsu”?	Take one of the communities we’ve just named, and say a broader category it might belong to.
[Students might say, “fitness,” “martial arts,” “a club.” After each proposed reframing, say, “Yes, what else?”]
Now, let’s ask: What scholars might be doing research on the functions, effects, and histories of fitness, martial arts, or clubs? We’ll start at  this page, which was  a pretty exhaustive list of academic field in 2014-15, although there are likely even more now. If you have an idea for a field that’s not on here, still write it down. It might be something newer, or it might have a different name than what we’d expect.  Okay, so let’s start at the top, and, together, see if we can find someone in Natural Sciences under Agriculture who might be interested in clubs, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, martial arts, or fitness.	https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:06064085-97f2-376e-b08b-dc010239f9f9
[A student will spot and call out, in this case, “food sciences,” and another might spot, “parks and recreation management.” In both cases, we’ll ask for a sentence explaining the connection.]
Okay, so just like that, now, we’re going to do this with our own discourse communities. Try to find at least five different academic disciplines that might be curious or have something to say about your community, and then write a short sentence for each explaining the connection. Start by looking at the big headings, then skim the subheadings, and make sure to move on if an area looks weak. But if you don’t see anything, go back and look more closely.  I’ll set the timer for five minutes, and you can message me if you are stuck.	Find five academic disciplines on the AAUW page that be doing research on the functions, effects, and histories of discourse communities like yours, and write a one-sentence explanation for each choice.  https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:06064085-97f2-376e-b08b-dc010239f9f9
Okay, how did it go? Can I see a thumbs up if you got 5, with or without sentences? What made it easy? What made it challenging?
If you didn’t get five, don’t worry, because we’re going to go back in soon, and you can keep looking.  But first, let’s navigate to this page, where we will encounter a list of database subjects. Here, I want you to notice that we have archives as well as collections of research articles. Can you imagine that Dana’s story about her own Brazilian jiu-jitsu journey might be enriched by her looking at archival footage of people practicing it in the ‘70s? Do we see anything here that might help us find that? I don’t either. But where might we find martial arts? [Students will likely suggest “anthropology” or “sociology,” and we can also let’s look at the general reference category and start there. Maybe an encyclopedia entry.	https://guides.newman.baruch.cuny.edu/databases/bysubject
[This process will involve trial and error, and students should be invited to contribute thoughts about which of these broad categories might take them somewhere. It’s important for students to see the errors, too, so that we model determination and experimentation, which might eventually lead to something like this: Hogeveen, Bryan. “‘IT IS ABOUT YOUR BODY RECOGNIZING THE MOVE AND AUTOMATICALLY DOING IT’: MERLEAUPONTY, HABIT AND BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU.” Fighting Scholars: Habitus and Ethnographies of Martial Arts and Combat Sports, edited by Raúl Sánchez García and Dale C. Spencer, Anthem Press, 2013, pp. 79–94. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1gxpddq.10. Accessed 14 June 2024. I got here via Anthropology > JSTOR > JIU-JITSU.]
Now, without reading it, can we imagine there might be something in here Dana might compare with her experience, or that could help generate new questions about her literacy journey in this community? Right. So, we’ll hold onto it. At this point, I’m not asking you to find articles, but I just want to show you where this might end up. Now, what we haven’t found yet is a video from the ‘70s, so even though we do want to get comfortable with these really great resources which people pay millions of dollars a year to access, remember your other fluencies: YouTube might have that kind of footage, and then also there might be sites dedicated to these communities that can offer more resources yet.
Now, let’s all find three categories on this subjects page where we might look for resources to help us think more deeply about our discourse community or literacy journey.	Find three  categories here where resources can help you think more deeply about your literacy journey or discourse community: https://guides.newman.baruch.cuny.edu/databases/bysubject
Okay, so we should have some thoughts. Now, we’re going to get into groups. Take ten minutes to talk with your partner, so that at the end of this process you’ll have ten total academic fields where sources might help you illustrate, elaborate, complicate, and understand your discourse community.	In breakout rooms: Tell your partner the discourse community you wrote about and read them the fields you’ve already chosen and your explanations, and listen to theirs. Become a field-finder for your partner. While they look for stuff that might relate to your work, you look for stuff that might relate to theirs.  You can chat during this, but try to find four or five new ones for them. You don’t have to write out the explanation. At the three minute warning, share what you’ve found with one another, and think about why it may or may not work. (It doesn’t have to).
Welcome back from your breakout rooms. How did it go? [Students share out. Make sure to call on students who have not been active so far.]
Ok, can everyone put at least one new academic field you got in the breakout room exercise with your partner?	Type or unmute and call out at least one new academic field you got in the breakout room exercise with your partner.
Great. [Now, Student, what might a gender studies scholar ask about your becoming a plant mom? Or what research might they already have that could help you understand it? Etc. Have a handful of students share out.]
Okay, and who is still stuck? Can we brainstorm as a class on what scholars might be interested in Ron’s learning to speak Polish with his grandmother?
Great. Let’s wrap up. You came in here with very personal, individual stories. Take a minute and reflect on the list of scholars and archives who might help you understand that story better. Then let’s write for two minutes on how this list makes you think or feel about the story you’ve been telling. How does it make you feel about the work of scholars? Then let’s share out.	Write for two minutes on how this list makes you think or feel about the story you’ve been telling and/or the work of scholars.
Okay, let’s share out in the chat or by raising our hands and unmuting.
This was great work, everyone. And now we can move confidently toward expanding our literacy narratives with research, knowing that our work is relevant to other scholars’, and we’ve already found questions in their work that can help us to develop ours.