My first attempt at Open Pedagogy. Of course, I’m going to do this now.

For the Open Pedagogy Master Class, I had to “[c]hoose an activity that would work in your course. Explain how the activity exemplifies Open Pedagogy and describe how the activity would look in your course (what needs to be adapted, what will students be asked to do/create/contribute?)”

Here’s mine:

 The relationship between academic reading and academic writing is sometimes difficult for students to grasp, especially considering they came up in an academic setting that divides disciplines with stark boundaries. Approaching academic work means understanding that the lines between disciplines are often blurred, which is why students read in a writing class (and in almost every other class) and may write in biology, psychology, or PE.

The enthymeme here is that academic reading and academic writing require some skills that aren’t normally used in other reading situations. That’s why this assignment exists in the first place; students have to use a framework, in this case Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle, to analyze for meaning. Doing this helps students see beyond the superficial and dig into the ideas of a work, especially when considering if an argument offered in writing is reasonable or not.

Rhetorical analysis is one of the most difficult concepts to grasp because there is a tendency to summarize. So, I’ve decided to try to use Open Pedagogy to help my current students and, hopefully, my future students. Writing is best done in a community; writing a rhetorical analysis the first time can be frustrating and lonely. For this unit, students will create a collection of annotations, essays, and commentaries for themselves and for future students to read and use.

I’m adapting this example from the list.ly provided below the explanation:

Student Created Examples

Students could create examples of course concepts. A common example is video of a speech, great examples of essays, illustrations of a concept that work well. The goal of this type of assignment is to take a work that the students might do anyway, and prompt them to use openly licensed works in the background so that the student’s work can be used again.

List.ly link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KWy_Dx8k0cIVa2bNM_Ma0v0JGiBpaGSQFC5mmciEfe8/edit

This activity exemplifies Open Pedagogy for several reasons. First, this is a community created resource that could provide examples of student writing to students in the coming semesters. It’s also something that can continue to grow.

All writing will undergo the writing process, including group generativity activities, in-class writing sessions, and peer review. The activity is also learner driven in that students get to pick the object of their analysis. Students will be using CC search, which provides them with an opportunity to search for and work with open source materials.

I plan on doing this activity this semester, so I’ve provided a rough outline of what the lesson looks like.

Create a “how to” manual of rhetoric analysis

1. Have students create visuals of their interpretation of the rhetorical triangle
   1. This will help them see what they understand and I will be able to work with them on their terms. I’m not looking to see if they remember the terms logos, pathos, and ethos; rather, I’m looking to see if students can recognize emotional arguments, a credentialed writer, and the reasonable use of facts.
2. Find source using CC search only
   1. I’ve done some searches using this. I think students will be able to find something to use.
3. Have students apply the rhetorical triangle to whatever they found on CC Search
   1. They may use the visual they created as a framework for looking at the object of analysis.
4. Take the source and using the rhetorical triangle, annotate it in some way that helps the next person.
   1. Together brainstorm how to annotate a video, image, song, song + video, vine, snapchat story, Instagram post, post on any other social media, provided they found the object of CC search. (Finding the object will have to be done in class.)
   2. Together create some kind of visual annotation that can go into a book
5. Brainstorm or generate ideas for rhetoric analysis by talking about the objects in class.
   1. Depending on the class, this could be small groups or pairs.
6. Computer lab for writing essay 2
   1. This is the second rhetorical analysis they’ve done, so I don’t know we will need two classes in the lab. Maybe. I’ll ask.
7. Proceed with revision activities as normal.

Essay 3 – Process analysis essay detailing the writing of essay 2.

1. Explain process analysis
   1. Provide multimodal examples
   2. Break up into groups based on the type of mode students want to view process analysis
2. Discuss process analysis as a large group.
   1. Prompt for questions (refer to beginning of the semester’s handout on this)
   2. Gauge for understanding, let those students with a strong understanding explain it.
3. Brainstorm the sections of the paper
   1. Format is non-negotiable (MLA or APA)
   2. Remind them to focus on HoCs in the rough draft; let that inform the brainstorming session – how to get a meta-analysis on paper in a reasonable order. Don’t call it meta-analysis.
4. Computer lab for writing paper 3 – definitely two classes.

Proceed with paper 4 as an argument.