Comp to Lit

How to adapt decentered rhet-comp pedagogy to the lit classroom

-Group Input on Developing the Syllabus
-Groups work together to create rubrics for projects, papers, and even exams.
-Groups propose assignments/unit sequence as well as evaluation criteria for the assignments. Just as students choose their final projects in English 11, they might be more invested in the literature if you give them some choice. Consider scheduling in a few “blank” spots in your semester. Give the students options, have the groups research them, and then have the class vote which ones they want to pursue.
-Groups might even grade one another, especially if using holistic scoring.

Group Projects
-Collaborative project: written proposal of short stories/poems/etc. to insert into the syllabus
-Group web project: developing a teaching guide or a study guide for an individual author or theme or work or movement
-Groups work on creative projects like digital videos or staged reading of a short story.
-Groups work together to make a concordance of some poems or a short story.
-Groups do panel presentations in the style of a conference panel to take place in the class.

Group Activities in the Classroom
-Students review each other for exams. For example, they might do “Review Jeopardy” or quiz the class. (groups design questions, quiz other groups for “points”)
-Groups become responsible for teaching short concepts.
-Breakout sessions to discuss major concepts, themes, characterizations, etc. The instructor might come in with index cards with topics on them or just assign them on the spot. Then, the groups can present their findings to the rest of the class who can eventually join the conversation.
-These tactics get more students talking than just calling on individuals or having the same students volunteer day after day.
Groups can communicate over email or blackboard to come in prepared to lead class discussion (especially if the instructor plans to lecture another day on the same text). They might come in with a list of eight discussion questions which they can then even distribute to the other groups.
-Each group can choose a specific passage to prepare and then argue for its significance. This activity can happen online or in an online discussion forum.
-Although lit classes are not writing classes, students are asked to write papers. It is not unreasonable to give them time in class to review another student’s paper. Or just share ideas while writing the papers. Group work in class leads naturally to out-of-class work.

Group Presentations
-Groups present formal elements of narrative, lead a close reading.
-Groups present mini-lectures on author biographies so that the instructor isn’t speaking the whole time
-Groups present mini-lectures on related topics like secondary criticism. This way, groups get to choose what interests them most.
-Groups make study guides for tests, works, exams, etc. and post them online

Group Independent Study
-Groups form at the beginning of the semester and pursue separate lines of research from the rest of the class. For example, a group of pre-med students might track medical and scientific concerns in literature; whereas, a group of creative writers might talk about the role of the artist.
-Groups might actually read different works from the rest of the class, so that multiple classes effectively happen in the same space. Caution: requires a teacher with a broad range of knowledge and enough time to help the groups. Might be best in a small section.

Other Writing Activities
-Extemporaneous writing can help students prepare and reduce the stress of essay exams. The Writing Center has good handouts on how to handle essay exams. If you give a few sample essays and post the results online, then the other students can see just how much is actually possible in 25 minutes. These can even serve as pre-writing for assigned paper topics.
-If you have the students score one another’s sample essays after writing them in class, it can really drive home the importance of having a thesis, revising, and using decent handwriting.
-Extemporaneous speeches are a good idea because they can force shy students to speak and also because they can make students quicker to respond.
-Turning over a day to library research is still a good idea. You have even more guidance as to which databases to consult.
-Just because you only use model essays and multiple drafts in your writing class doesn’t mean that that’s the way it should be.
-Have students submit drafts electronically so that they can be used as models and also so that you can be sure that students are not waiting until the last minute before a paper is due to begin it.
-Electronic copies also help you to use the new anti-plagiarism software which is now being made available to the department.