Prewriting Ideas: Contemporary Dialectic

I want to focus on the same issue that I will be presenting to the class at the beginning of December: the rhetoric of panic. Specifically, I will be exploring an instance of Twitter that affected a local high school and caused 800+ students to miss classes. This is the first time I've tried to put these ideas into print, so bear with me. And I'd appreciate any feedback you'd like to give.

Preamble: In this section I'd like to give a brief overview of the context of this particular event, but also an equally brief overview of the conversation going on about social media. Unfortunately, this is a new area of study for me (although I think it is also the new direction I'll be going for my dissertation) so I am a bit scholar/resource light. However, I know just from the news, social media (yes, I acknowledge the irony there), and through my husband (who is much more up to date on current events than I) that social media is seen as having great potential in disaster scenarios. However, my perspective is that it can also induce panic, as it did in this (and other) situations. So, I want to quickly cover that with a few recent incidents and hopefully a scholar or two. (Suggestions are appreciated.)

The Dialectic/Questions: If I'm understanding the directions, I think that my question can remain larger (Is there serious risk of social media, like Twitter, to make certain situations worse?). But I'm afraid this may be too broad/general. Thoughts? But if my question is broader, then my example and discussion can be about this specific example that I want to explore. Or should I ask my question about the specific example? (Is it possible to counteract panic spread on social media? Should underage social media users be monitored by parents/schools/etc to avoid harmful behaviors?) I'm also trying to think about what might be most beneficial to me moving towards my dissertation.

Regardless, I think most of my dialectic will be about the specific high school incident, which means I should address questions like these:

- If rhetoric really is a blend of knowledge and action (Bacon??) then why is social media seen as so effective at causing action? (Or should this be my initial question?!)
- What is an example of this? ALS challenge, disaster preparation, Twitter chatter-lead panic regarding a clearly dissolved bomb threat.
- How else could we interpret this scenario?
- What do you think causes this to happen?
- What are some of the long-term effects?
- What should we do to change this or can it be changed?

I guess at this stage, my biggest concern (unless you see something that is off base here) is getting my initial question down. I tend to think too big for these sorts of things. I am also trying to work towards a "so what?" in terms of this assignment, my presentation, and my dissertation. I see thing thing happening, but I'm not sure what I want to argue about it, so I'm' still working on this aspect.

A Letter of Desired Entreaty

To Professor Richard Rice, wise and gracious master of locution, from Sheri McClure-Baker, in recognition to her inferiority in regards to your rhetorical prowess.

This humble applicant wishes goodwill upon you and yours, and beseeches your gracious approval and glad tidings to the program. I seek to explore the implications of shifting tides in rhetoric and pedagogy. The ebbing importance of orator has lead to the flow of audience awareness, and I feel many have been left adrift. So what of the student who knows not of the common academic tongue? How shall we shift our instruction to address her needs?

Therefore, I importune you for admittance to your fair program so these questions may be answered. With your excellent guidance and good graces, I will seek to understand how diverse student populations may flower most fully in the light and wisdom of professors such as yourself.

With eternal graciousness and wholehearted entreaty, Sheri McClure-Baker

Musings on Home

** Sorry. A crazy week caused my brain to glitch and I posted this in my professional website instead of here in my Blogger account. I was wondering why no one had commented! **

Hello students! I am going to try to address each of your questions here. So, here we go!

When we received this assignment from Dr. Rice, I began thinking about home and what it means to me. It was a more challenging idea than I had expected. When I first began thinking about "home," these five words came to mind: house, comfort, ownership, family, and personalization. I was speaking with my husband about this today, and that conversation caused my ideas to shift a bit. At first, home represented an intersection between a physical location where I live and the emotional fingerprint of that place. For example, when my husband and I bought our house six years ago, it was special because it was our first house; however, it did not initially feel like a home. But there were things about it that were homey right from the start. I felt my aunt's presence in the breeze blowing through a large tree in the backyard and the living room reminded me of my house growing up; however, it wasn't until we personalized the house by adding decorations, furniture, and memories that it felt like a home. So in that way home does feel closely related to my identity. I take pride in being a homeowner and in how we have chosen to present our home. I feel that others get a sense of who we are when they enter our house. People have said that our house is very relaxing and that they feel comfortable there when they visit, which is part of what "home" means to me, and it's part of our identity. We like to entertain, so when people say they feel welcome and comfortable in our home we appreciate that.

I also believe that home is the only place I can be mindful and at ease during chaos and confusion. Right now, my life is hectic. I am a full time professor, a doctoral student at Texas Tech, a wife, and a mother of a 7 month old boy. My life is truly chaos. But as busy as my life is, I really only allow myself to relax and focus when I am in my house. I think this is because we have created an environment or habitat that makes us happy. We control it and it is filled with memories and experiences that have made us who we are. So again I return to my home being a part of my identity. So I suppose homelessness, for me, would be not having a place that reflects who I am and where I can feel truly relaxed. This is not to say that I am always relaxed when I am home; but I am most able to be myself and kick up my feet when I am at home. Culturally speaking, homelessness here is more about not having a dwelling space to call your own. We have homeless shelters, which provide physical spaces for those in need, but the inhabitants don't own these spaces either in a monetary or personal sense. But there is something beyond that. For instance, when I travel, my hotel room can feel like home. It is not Home with a capital H - that is reserved for the place I have purchased and where my family lives - but there is something about making even a hotel room my own. Right now, I am actually in a hotel with my family. Our stuff is scattered around and when we first arrived we set to work putting some things in drawers, setting up a crib for the baby, and hanging up a few things. Once that was done, it became home, albeit temporary.

I believe language can have a similar affect. My family and close friends have a discourse - a way of speaking, inside jokes, and past experiences we can reference - that make sense to us alone. When I am with these people, I feel like I am home. I suppose this does, to some extent, trump the idea of location. Being with these people can be "home," but that is not what I generally think of as "home."

Finally, for the cultural questions. It's hard to explain what it feels like to be an American because I don't know anything different. It just feels normal to me. With that said, I dislike patriotism and tend to think negatively of people when they are extremely patriotic. This is because I generally associate patriotism with blind faith in our country, which often removes people's ability to think critically. But this does not meant that I am not appreciative of the freedoms that I have here. However, it also makes me sad to know how far behind our educational system (especially for children) is when viewed globally. We are only casually required to learn another language and our population tends to be very naive of global events. Other parts of the world are so much more aware of what is going on outside of their own cultural bubble, and there I think America has failed overall.

I don't know a ton about India, but I have a positive impression of it. I have heard that it is very busy and chaotic, which doesn't sound like something I would love to be immersed in every day; however, I love Indian food and the colorful clothing I see represented in images. One of my favorite movies is The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson, which takes place in India. Although I'm sure it's not completely accurate, I love the country as I see it through Anderson's eyes. The beauty of the people and the land, the faith, and the genuine spirit of the people are all very appealing to me. I would love it if you shared what being Indian feels like to you.

I hope that answers your questions! Thanks for such thoughtful questions. :)

Shidish - What are the five things that come to mind when you hear the word home?

To my Teaching Philosophy!

Hi class! So, I'm working on creating a professional page for myself, which will include my teaching philosophy. It will eventually be a hypertext with links to various things, including additional explanations of how our course concepts fit into it, but right now it is just the text. I've already gotten feedback on it from Dr. Rice, but I haven't had a chance to revise yet. If you are willing, please take a look! It's on Wordpress because I don't trust Blogger long-term. It ate one of my other blogs a year ago. If you can't leave comments there, you can leave them in the comments section here. This is the link:

sherimcclurebaker.com

Responding to Students

I responded to these four students this week. Sorry, I didn't see the post about us sharing links to those comments until late today. I made three of these four posts before our Friday deadline.


Priya Rathod: http://priyarathod.blogspot.in/2014/09/compose-your-first-paragraph-for-your.html

Ayushree Ganga: http://ayushree-gangal.blogspot.in/2014/09/peer-review.html#comment-form

Koishore Roy: http://koishore.blogspot.com/2014/09/thesis-statement.html#comment-form

Nainika Dinesh: http://nainikadineshashoka.blogspot.com/2014/09/introduction-to-essay.html?showComment=1411802980852#c4943832821061173070


I know that we were supposed to refer to style, invention, and arrangement in our responses, but I found that challenging to do. First of all, because I didn't want to use terms that the students may not be familiar with. Secondly, because I was more interested in their content than in their conventions. However, I thought I'd do some reflecting here on how I saw those elements come through in these blogs.

I began by reading Ayushree's post on her peer review process. In this blog post, I saw a lot of invention and thinking about arrangement. Although the post itself wasn't remarkable in it's presentation, I could see that Ayushree was thinking about how to present ideas and what it meant to write for an audience, which was mainly what I wrote my response about. I thought she did this quite well.

I then read Koishore's "Critical Thinking and Home." I couldn't see his process/invention, but I commented on an element of style at the end of the interaction that really made it sound like him (even though I don't know him). I'm not sure if it is appropriate for his audience because I don't know to whom he plans to write, but it made me more interested and I felt a stronger connection to him. Perhaps this is a subtle way that he developed ethos in his short piece of writing.

My third response was to Priya whose definition of home I found interesting, but I struggled with a lack of clarity in some of her ideas. This could be an underdeveloped sense of style or arrangement; but since she is early in the writing process, I know she can revise for this. Much of the rest of the paragraph is very articulate and shows strong style and arrangement. 

Finally, I responded to Nainika because she read and responded to my blog. Her "introduction" (which was more of an essay) was more developed than the other three, so I really got to see her ability to arrange her ideas, respond to her sources, and flesh out her ideas. Because this was clearly not the beginning of her thought process on "home," I can't say that I saw invention, but style and arrangement were very strong throughout. I loved the analogy she drew between our personal definitions of "home" and Microsoft's use of "home" in their systems. This helped to draw in the reader (arrangement) and get her interested. Her language was clear and strong (style) and the sources she used were varied, which would appeal to a larger audience. Overall, I thought this was a very strong draft.

This was a really fun blog post assignment. I really hope to make time to read more of these student's writing throughout our class!

W4: Revisiting my Teaching Philosophy

Prompt: Describe your "philosophy statement" approach to the first assignment. Which rhetors are you thinking of using, and why? 


The last time I revisited my Teaching Statement was back in 2008 which, although it doesn't feel that long ago, was actually six years back! I also realized that it didn't include any direct references to scholars. I'm not sure how my professor (who assigned this for an MA class) let me get away with that! This new version will definitely show marked improvement. 

I took some time to review Dr. Rice's statement and realized that our first few sentences were actually very similar. I promise I didn't just copy yours, Dr. Rice. ;) However, I really loved his three bulleted statements that serve as the foundation of his philosophy, so that I am borrowing. At this point, these are my four foundational tenets:

* I believe in the power of student agency in class activities and assessment practices.
* I believe in equipping students to think critically.
* I believe in using technology to enhance learning.
* I believe in making visible biases and differences, such as those created through race, culture, literacy, socioeconomic standing, religion, gender, and age.

The one that will most directly link to this course's content is, of course, the second one: equipping students to think critically. So I think what I'd like to do here is start connecting the dots between my goals and scholars from this class and others I've taken since 2008. Then, I will integrate these into my document. I'm sure some will be direct inclusions while others will be footnotes. I also understand that what I've posted here is a bit of a mess. I won't necessarily transfer all of this into my teaching philosophy; however, including it in one place is helping me to see connections and figure out what to include later. So, here is my mess of a prewriting assignment based off of these four foundational statements:

The power of student agency in class activities and assessment practices: Guiding students through these processes helps them to take ownership and really embody the steps we often take for granted. This reflects the post-process theory where the process is as important as the product that results from it. Class generated content can also aid in the invention process. Putting students in the forefront also allows for more genuine conversation, which aids in invention and I believe also relates to topoi, but I still struggle knowing how to integrate that term/concept in my thinking and my syntax. I strive to reflect the Constructionist theory: 

Constructivist theorists claim that learners interpret information and the world according to their personal reality, and that they learn by observation, processing, and interpretation, and then personalize the information into personal knowledge. Learners learn best when they can contextualize what they learn for immediate application and to acquire personal meaning. (Ally, 2004, p. 4 of 23)

I seek to apply Jones’ (2013) guidelines in my overall rubric creation. He writes:

I have found the following four strategies helpful for my purposes. First, make students aware of the rubrics used in the course before using them to assess their work… Second, avoid using too many different rubrics… Third, make the rubrics fair… Fourth, make sure each rubric accurately reflects the objectives of the assignment. (Jones, 2013, p. 248)

I prioritize using collectively created rubrics that reflect Horton's Absorb, Do, and Practice activities, which allow students to be invested in the process and see how the five cannons are assessed, especially arrangement and style, in written form.

Equipping students to think critically: I believe I am most aligned with Isocrates because, unlike Plato, I don't believe that rhetoric is connected to a higher power or the Truth. Isocrates believed in the ability to teach rhetoric, even if some students are naturally more inclined than others, and that it is a practical tool. I try to instill this in my students all of the time. However, I do follow Plato's thinking that dialogue can help us determine truth and that rhetoric can be used for corruption, which is why I believe it is so important for students to learn what rhetoric is, how it is created, and how to identify fallacies within it.

Young - crossing barriers and uncovering biases/cultural differences/etc. (Public Rhetorics course)

Paulo Friere - use student's current knowledge while adding to it and challenging it.

Using technology to enhance learning: This can allow students to play with different ways of manifesting delivery and style from the cannons of ways we develop knowledge  Technology can also aid in the invention stage through research, blogs, and other collaborative processes (i.e. GoogleDocs, virtual whiteboard tools through Blackboard etc., NoodleTools, etc.). I try to use discussion boards as true sites for discussion, not just busy work: As Warnock (2009) suggests, “You can create this same dynamic on message boards by having small breakout groups… focus on a particular aspect of a topic before having a general conversation with the whole group” (p. 150). 
 

Warnock (2009) suggest that “Socratic conversations can be built into your message boards: pose simple, direct questions to students initially, and then during the week, work toward a more complex learning goal” (pp. 31-2). 

They write of their growing awareness of how long each video takes to both create and view, and how they realized the need to “script [their] oral presentations, compose them, and then spend further time editing before posting to [their] courses” (Cason & Jenkins, 2013, p. 232).  

I believe all of these things contribute to invention and creating a dialectic, and the two really go hand-in-hand.

Making visible biases and differences, such as those created through race, culture, literacy, socioeconomic standing, religion, gender, and age: Faiola and Matei (2006) discovered that task associated performance times shortened when Chinese and American participants used sites created by designers from their own culture. Factors such as layout, navigation, color, and content ratios have been shown to vary based on culture (Shneiderman & Hochheiser, 2001; Kincl & Štrach, 2011). 

Jame Gee's discussion of discourse and discourse communities.

Implied/textual note: Borcher's discussion of rhetorics in other cultures. Emphasize the need to recognize differences and honor them, even if that simply leads to greater awareness of how to help students acquire (White) academic discourse.

References

Ally, M. (2004). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.),

Theory and practice of online learning. (np) Athabasca: Athabasca University.

Cason, J. & Jenkins, P. (2013). Adapting instructional documents to an online course

environment. In Online education 2.0: Evolving, adapting, and reinventing online technical communication. Cargile Cook, K. & Grant-Dvie, K. (Eds). (pp. 213-236). New York: Baywood Publishing, Inc.

Faiola, A. & Matei, S. A. (2006). Cultural cognitive style and web design: Beyond a behavioral

inquiry into computer-mediated communication. Journal of computer-mediated communication, 11, 375-394. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00018.x

Horton, W. (2012). E-learning by design 2^nd ed. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Jones, D. (2013). Expanding the scaffolding of the online undergraduate technical

communication course. In Online education 2.0: Evolving, adapting, and reinventing online technical communication. Cargile Cook, K. & Grant-Dvie, K. (Eds). (pp. 237-256). New York: Baywood Publishing, Inc.

Kincl, T. & Štrach, P. (2011, Feb.) Measuring website quality: Asymmetric effect of user

satisfaction. Behavior & information technology, 31 (7), 647-657. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2010.526150 

Shneiderman, B. & Hochheiser, H. (2001). Universal usability as a stimulus to advanced

interface design. Behaviour & information technology, 20 (5), 367-376. doi: 10.1080/0144929011008360 2