Reading Responses
Readings responses are a bit of a “standard” in terms of classroom genres for courses with a significant reading load. They are one way that instructors seek to (a) monitor whether students are reading, (b) to discover important concepts or ideas that might require clarification in class discussion, and (c) to offer a forum where participants have the opportunity to ask questions, develop arguments, and otherwise use writing to engage with readings.
In this class, the reading responses serve all of these purposes. Your posts are a representation of you — but they need not always be the smartest, most articulate version of you. Instead they should represent the questioning, reflective, open-minded version of your academic self. As it states on the syllabus, posting a single paragraph weekly is probably going to be considered skimpy, and posting extremely long responses can actually be considered rude (although if you really get on a role occasionally we’ll understand). You should also, whenever possible, respond to the posts of others. There is no “minimum/maximum” value for respond to posts — just try to be engaged and to show your engagement throughout the semester when possible. Some people may have shorter original posts, but spend time considering and responding to the posts of others, and that is fine.
The two sections of the class are going to be interactive in several ways. In particular, we will all be posting to the same discussion thread for each set of readings, with one or the other class reading the material and posting first. Because we are very interested in creating a robust discussion space (not just in the discussion threads, but in class and between the two classes), we’ve come up with several types of additional response. These are described below:
Video Introductions: During the first weeks of the course, Cheryl or Joyce (or both of us) will be creating video introductions to the material. These short introduction will be designed to alleviate some of the conceptual problems that can accompany a course in which the readings are diverse and sometimes seem a bit distant from participants’ concrete goals (e.g. trying to manage a writing class for the first time, or trying to plan to teach a class in the spring semester). In these introductory videos, we’ll offer a heads-up on important concepts or terms, and also provide our rationale for including the material in the readings for the course. We’ll also make efforts to connect the material to practical issues of teaching whenever possible.
Video Responses (2 for each class)
During the semester the “lead” role in reading will switch between the classes. Sometimes Cheryl’s and sometimes Joyce’s class will read and post responses to the material first. We thought it would be interested if, in the first weeks of class, the lead class created a group video response to the readings — with the goal of offering insights, interesting questions, challenging ideas to the other class. These videos will be completed in class, and posted so that the other class can view before they add their responses to the discussion list. In other words, these video will serve as your opportunity to shape the discussion of the other class.
Textual Summaries (2 for each class)
Also in the first weeks of the semester, the class that reads the materials last will have the opportunity to create a “definitive” (?) response — a summary of the key discussion points, challenges to, questions about the readings. These posts will be added to the end of the discussion thread, and also will have a space on the course blog.