Scenarios - Apply

Scenarios:
Discover | Read | Explore | Apply | Measure

Scenarios

Freewriting Activity

I often have students freewrite in response to a prompt and then use their freewriting as a way to focus our class discussion. For example, before my English 110 students have read Stanley Milgram's "The Perils of Obedience," I will start a class session by posing one of Milgram's questions on the board: "To what extent should we obey?" The students freewrite in response, writing non-stop for five minutes. Several volunteer to read their freewrites aloud, while I list key phrases or words on the board. Freewriting forces them into generating ideas, which connects them to the topic and text. In doing so, they invest a part of themselves-to some degree-in the material, which increases their likelihood of participating in the discussion.

Listing Activity

I often have students brainstorm lists in response to a word or a prompt to enable them to evince prior knowledge about a topic. In English 110, I ask them to list the various sources of authority they experience. The results range from parents to credit card companies to landlords to time. Few define themselves as sources of authority in their own lives. As a prelude to reading Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," for example, listing enables them to consider how authority functions in their lives and the lives of others.

Clustering Activity

Clustering works well for and appeals to visual learners-which make up the majority of our students. In English 100, my students read a series of arguments in favor of staying in one place, of remaining committed to the land, to each other, and to a community. They then read several counter-arguments that advocate moving around, living on the road, and exploring as a method of learning. Before delving into the texts, they cluster around the words "moving" and "staying." The results are often humorous, as many have had experience with U-Hauls and roommates and sublets. On the other hand, several students in the room admit to having been born and bred in Santa Barbara. On the board, I create group clusters around "moving" and "staying," using their feedback. While the clusters contain words we can all relate to, the discussion soon becomes interesting as it shifts to the values we associate with these words.

Visual Activity

In conjunction with the textbook I use in English 100, Seeing & Writing, most of the essay assignments the students complete include a visual component. Students bring in photographs, locate contemporary advertisements, or search for related Web sites as support for the arguments they develop in their essays. The textbook operates on the premise that a direct correlation exists between "the skills of careful and critical seeing and thoughtful and articulate writing" (McQuade and McQuade xxix). In addition to serving as generative techniques, visual activities and components help students establish connections between what occurs within the classroom and what happens at home, across campus, in the community or worldwide.

Self-Questioning Activity

In all of my classes, students generate questions in response to the texts they read. In English 110, before summarizing an article, students answer the reporter's questions: who, what, where, when, why and how to help them produce accurate summaries. I remind my English 111 students, as they generate questions that aren't easily answered based on the literary elements at work in the text, that the quality of their questions reflects the quality of their thinking. I have students swap questions and respond in writing to one of their peer's questions. Or I may divide the class into groups and have each person pose one of his/her questions to the group. The group then decides which question to pose to the class for discussion. Or students generate questions in class which I list on the board. I divide the class into groups, and the groups pick which question(s) they will address.

Discover | Read | Explore | Apply | Measure