Our university rhetoric program doesn't incorporate a mandatory midterm exam; however, I feel my students in ENGL 1301 aren't as critically engaged with the texts as they need to be in order to complete good rhetorical analysis which are the major projects of the course. Some students are in the process of catching up. Many appear to have finally acclimated to their new lives at the university. Others may be a bit bored with the required course. I wanted to incorporate an exercise that
- provides review
- presents fun and engagement
- respects limited time or resources
- requires minimal learning of technologies
- supports writing
- engages creativity
- reinforces course readings
I will gladly shout from the rooftops that I am not a fan of PowerPoint presentations. Even my own bore me. When I studied with the Historical Sociolinguistic Network (HiSoN) in Germany in 2012 with several faculty members from universities of Augsburg, Bristol, Bern, Sheffield, Cambridge, Kentucky, and more, I encountered for the first time a form of PowerPoint presentation that engaged me: pecha kucha.
"PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images." http://www.pechakucha.org/.
I looked to Mina Shaughnessy for inspiration as I developed my lesson plan. College rhetoric and composition can be so boring. I wanted my students to DIVE IN! I wanted transparency in revealing the purpose of the exercises. I wanted engagement that was
- collaborative,
- multimodal,
- post-process,
- and as Bruffee describes: exotic
My students really enjoy working together. As Kenneth A. Bruffee suggests, collaborative learning provides social context for learning (403), and it gives my students ownership of their work. Bruffee calls this "authority of knowledge" (406).
Kathleen Blake Yancey encourages multimodal circulation propagated through media (491). Pecha kucha is the incorporation of an old new media (PowerPoint) with the provocative element of concision.
Each class voted whether they would present their pecha kuchas with live or recorded audio. Surprisingly, one class chose to present with live audio, while the other voted to record. Those recording are charged with the responsibility of finding their own or campus resources (with some suggestions, of course) to create their presentations. Students are excitedly preparing their presentations for delivery in one week (for live presentations) or in two weeks (for recorded presentations). The projects require careful collaboration among groups of 2-3 students through careful and intentional development of writing to deliver a great deal of information in a short time (supported by imagery). Please feel free to borrow and adapt this lesson plan, but please credit me for the original.
Much more could be said about this, but I'm trying to keep my blog a reasonable length.
What would be in the midterm exam that you would required of students if you were the WPA? Reading labels is a good topic, as is synchronized multimedia. Juxtaposing text and graphic and sound is a very important skill, requires much thinking, as as you say, values post-process thinking. This type of thing would make a great assignment.
ReplyDeleteBrandy, I really like this idea. When I heard you talk about it in the grad lounge this week, I wasn't sure I liked the idea. I've had enough time to mull it over now, and I think I'd like to try it someday (thanks for the lesson plan!). I was imagining how I might compose one of these presentations, and I can see how the concision aspect forces students to find the most efficient way to both transmit their ideas and transition smoothly from one idea to the next. Coming up with 20 images would be difficult too, and it would take a lot of time to find ones that were relevant. All of the planning and preparation involved seems like a good way to get students to slow down during the writing process and find their bearings. Otherwise, I think they might feel lost at sea with how much goes into this kind of presentation. I'd love to hear how these go for both of your sections!
ReplyDeleteHave you had a chance to review others' syllabi yet? I'm going to make them available through our class site soon. I wonder if reviewing what your peers have to say about syllabi might be useful for your own thinking, too.
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