Category: Teaching/Pedagogy

Sample Assignment on tweet/blog

As usual, I am experimenting with new assignments for class. This fall, I want to try some twitter/blog combo assignments that are designed to help students with their writing (my class is writing intensive). Since I like to try out assignments before using them and I like to provide students with examples, I thought I’d test out my “feminist example twitter/blog assignment” as I worked on my essay about my troublemaking pedagogy. First, here’s a description of the assignment:

1 Reading example posted on twitter/blog     25 points

You are required to tweet one example from the readings that supports/clarifies your definition/understanding of feminism. You are also required to expand on this example in a blog post.

Here’s the passage that I am using as an example; it’s from Kevin Kumashiro’s Troubling Education:

Critical pedagogy needs to move away from saying that students need this or my critical perspective since such an approach merely replaces one (socially hegemonic) framework for seeing the world with another (academically hegemonic) one. Rather than aim for understanding of some critical perspective, antioppressive pedagogy should aim for effect by having students engage with relevant aspects of critical theory and extend its terms of analysis to their own lives, but then critique it for what it overlooks or forecloses (49).

tweet: students must experience and engage w/perspectives, not just comprehend/understand/accept them; teachers are guides, not experts #femd2011 (138 characters)

blog expansion of tweet: In Troubling Education, Kumashiro argues that teachers need to develop pedagogies that encourage students to actively (and critically and creatively) engage with a variety of perspectives. This engagement necessarily requires that students do more than just comprehend or develop an understanding of any one perspective as the answer. Instead, they need to be guided by teachers on how to negotiate a wide range of perspectives and critically assess them in terms of their own lives.

In thinking about my own troublemaking pedagogy, I find this passage helpful because of Kumashiro’s emphasis on experience and engagement as opposed to comprehension. While understanding a term or concept is important, students (and teachers/scholars/readers) need to do more in order to not passively accept it as the truth; students need to think critically about the perspective, how it is/isn’t relevant and what it ignores or actively suppresses. In critically assessing a concept, students learn to challenge ideas and also that engagement with ideas requires active learning, thinking, and experiencing of a concept. This emphasis on engagement shifts the dynamic between teacher and student. In a typical class, the teacher stands in front of the class and lectures as the expert, providing passive students with the answers. The focus: the transmission of ideas from teacher to student. In contrast, in Kumashiro’s classroom, passive students aren’t given answers by an expert/Teacher. Instead, they actively engage with their teacher and other students, critically and creatively determining how the concept works and fails to work within their own lives.

Note: I like this exercise. It’s helpful to spend some time really focusing in on what’s important and then expanding on that focused articulation (the tweet) in a blog entry. Since I’m not completely satisfied with my blog explanation, I want to practice this assignment some more. 

feeling trouble and troubled in the classroom, part two

How should one feel when they are taking or teaching a class? What does it mean to be feeling trouble and feeling troubled? Here are some passages that I want to consider as I continue to think through my own responses to these questions:

Kevin Kumashiro’s Troubling Education:

Critical pedagogy needs to move away from saying that students need this or my critical perspective since such an approach merely replaces one (socially hegemonic) framework for seeing the world with another (academically hegemonic) one. Rather than aim for understanding of some critical perspective, antioppressive pedagogy should aim for effect by having students engage with relevant aspects of critical theory and extend its terms of analysis to their own lives, but then critique it for what it overlooks or forecloses (49).

Learning that the very ways in which we think and do things is not only partial but oppressive involves troubling or “unlearning” (Britzman) what we have already learned, and this can be quite an emotionally discomforting process, a form of “crisis” (Felman). In particular, it can lead students into what I call a paradoxical condition of learning and unlearning* in which students are both unstuck (i.e., distanced from the ways they have always thought, no longer so complicit with oppression) and stuck (i.e., intellectually paralyzed and needing to work through their emotions and thoughts before moving on with the more academic part of the lesson). Such a paradoxical, discomforting condition can lead students to resist further learning and unlearning and therefore may be seen by educators as something to avoid. Yet education is not something that involves comfortable repeating what we already learned or affirming what we already know. Rather, education involves learning something that disrupts our commonsense view of the world (63).

*This idea of learning and unlearning comes up a lot in a book I’m currently reading (and really enjoying): Cathy Davidson’s Now You See It. Davidson frequently emphasizes 21st century education as involving learning, unlearning and relearning.

Can we imagine an assignment in which teachers ask students to write in ways that trouble familiar stories? Can we imagine an assignment in which the product is less important than the process (66)?

themes: effect not understanding/engagement not comprehension; process not product, learning and unlearning; unsettling/disruptive/uncomfortable; emphasis on troubling stories/understandings; teachers as guides, not experts.

Megan Boler’s “The Pedagogy of Discomfort” in Feeling Power:

The aim of discomfort is for each person, myself included, to explore beliefs and values; to examine when visual “habits” and emotional selectivity have become rigid and immune to flexibility; and to identify when and how our habits harm ourselves and others (185-186).

The first sign of the success of a pedagogy of discomfort is, quite simply, the ability to recognize what it is that one doesn’t want to know, and how one has developed emotional investments to protect oneself from that knowing. This process may require facing the “tragic loss” inherent to educational inquiry; facing demons and a precarious sense of self. But in so doing one gains a new sense of interconnection with others. Ideally, a pedagogy of discomfort represents an engaged and mutual exchange, a historicized exploration of emotional investments. Through education we invite one another to risk “living at the edge of our skin,” where we find the greatest hope of revisioning ourselves (200).

themes: critically assessing habits and breaking bad ones; reflecting on emotional investments in not knowing/refusing to know; developing new connections, understandings, sense of self as flexible/precarious/open; valuing risk

Susanne Luhmann’s “Queering and querying pedagogy”:

Instead of focusing on the common concerns of teaching, such as what should be learned and how to teach this knowledge, pedagogy might begin with the question of how we come to know and how knowledge is produced in the interaction between teacher/text and student (6).

As an alternative to the worry over strategies for effective knowledge transmission that reduce knowledge to mere information and students to rational but passive beings untroubled by the material studied, pedagogy might be posed as a question (as opposed to the answer) of knowledge: What does being taught, what does knowledge do to students (7)?

Alice Pitt (1995) points out: “Learning about content is not the same thing as learning from it. In other words . . . learning is something more than a series of encounters with knowledge; learning entails, rather, the messier and less predictable process of becoming implicated in knowledge” [p. 298](8).

themes: focus on how we come to know/not know, not what we know; exploring what knowledge does to us and how we are implicated in it; effects of knowledge on us, learning/engaging as messy

Paulo Freire’s Learning to Question:

 …the point of a question is not to turn the question, “What does it mean to ask questions?” into an intellectual game, but to experience the force of the question, experience the challenge it offers, experience curiosity, and demonstrate it to the students. The problem which the teacher is really faced with is how in practice progressively to create with the students the habit, the virtue, of asking questions, of being surprised (37).

themes: asking questions, developing habits/virtue of curiosity and being surprised, feeling/experiencing the force of questions

One more source to consider: Will the Internet Destroy Academic Freedom? This blog post for Wired Campus on The Chronicle has some great comments (and some very problematic ones too) about what the goal of teaching is/isn’t. As an aside, the title also offers up an effective example of a leading question–the type of question that does not usually encourage troublemaking, creativity, critical thinking or curiosity and that is often posed by professors who already know the answer (or at least know the answer that they want/expect/demand).

My Syllabus for this fall

I’m working on my syllabus for the feminist debates class that I’m teaching in the fall.  As usual, I’m spending way too much time trying to figure out all of the readings and assignments…time I should be spending on writing a essay that is due on September 1st. Sigh. While I’ve taught this class four times already, I’m mixing it up quite a bit–tons of new readings and assignments. Why? Because I can’t stop making trouble…even for myself? Anyway, here’s a tentative breakdown of the assignments. I have created them with several goals in mind:

goal one: Enable students to learn how to use and critically/creatively engage with blogs and twitter by getting lots of practice on reading, sharing and producing content for them.

goal two: Provide students with space/medium for documenting their writing process as they work on a feminist reflection paper throughout the semester. I have created informal writing assignments that enable them to make visible their thinking/writing process to others for feedback. These assignments will hopefully also encourage them to give serious attention to the writing, thinking, engaging, focusing, and articulating process.

goal three: Encourage students to critically reflect on the role of social media in feminist activist/education projects. Several of the assignments are designed to enable students to explore how feminists are using social media in their political projects and then use those explorations to assess the value of social media for feminist education.

GRADE BREAKDOWN

Assignment Point Total
Feminist Reflection Paper 100
Revised Fem Reflection Paper 200
Informal Writing 150
Blog 110
Diablog 150
Twitter 60
Social Media Assessment 100
Participation 130
TOTAL 1000

In the interest of not making this entry a ridiculously long one, I will only include descriptions of a few of the assignments here. 

INFORMAL WRITING 150 points
These informal writing assignments are designed to help you as you engage in the process of writing and revising your reflection paper on feminism: developing your definition of feminism, focusing your ideas, using examples to support your claims, and learning how to succinctly and compellingly communicate your ideas. The following is a breakdown of your 5 required informal writing exercises:

1 Feminism definition posted on twitter/blog 25 points
You are required to tweet your definition of feminism. Your definition should be succinct and fit within the 140 character limit. You are also required to expand on your definition in a blog post. This blog post should include the tweet, embedded into the entry (due 10/7)

2 Reading examples posted on twitter/blog 2@25 = 50 points
You are required to tweet two example from the readings that you support/clarify your definition/understanding of feminism. You are also required to expand on these examples in two blog posts. Your blog posts should include the tweet, embedded into the entries (due 10/17 and 11/11).

1 Current example posted on twitter/blog   25 points
You are required to tweet one example from popular media or current events that supports/clarifies your definition/understanding of feminism. You are also required to expand on this example in a blog post. Your blog post should include the tweet, embedded in to the entry (due 11/21).

1 Reflection on writing process posted on blog 50 points
You are required to post a blog entry in which you critically and creatively reflect on your writing process for your feminist paper.  In this post, you should briefly discuss how your definition of feminism is/isn’t changing throughout the semester (based on discussions, in-class activities, readings). You should also discuss your reactions to using twitter and the blog in the writing/revising process. You should also discuss any readings/topics that have shaped your understanding of feminism ( due 10/28).

GENERAL BLOG ASSIGNMENTS
You are required to be an active participant on our course blog.  Here is a list of the general blog assignments:

1 This is a feminist issue because…ENTRY 20 points
You are required to post an example of issues/current events/popular culture examples that you believe are important feminist issues or that demand a feminist analysis. While you should provide some remarks on why you chose the issue/example/event, you are not required to give an in-depth explanation. Your post is intended to offer up an example for other class members to analyze and comment on. Your example should be posted on our blog, under the category “this is a feminist issue…”, by sept 23. You may post additional examples for extra credit. See the blog/twitter worksheet for details.

3 This is a feminist issue because…COMMENTS      3@10 = 30 points
You are required to post comments on why (and how) 3 different issues/current events/ popular culture examples, provided by other students, are feminist issues. Your first comment must be posted on another student’s blog entry by sept 25. The other three should be posted throughout the semester, no later than dec 8.

4 Open thread comments 4@10 = 40 points
You are required to post comments on 4 of my open thread blog posts. Your comments should demonstrate a serious critical/creative engagement with the questions that I raise in my post. Your first comment must be posted as a response to my open thread entry during the week of sept 13-15. The other three comments should be posted throughout the semester, no later than dec 8. You may post additional comments for extra credit. See the blog/twitter worksheet for details.

2 Feedback comments 2@10 = 20 points
You are required to post feedback comments on two other students’ informal writing blog entries. Your first feedback comment should be posted by nov 8 and your second should be posted by dec 8.

TWITTER ASSIGNMENTS
You are required to actively participate on twitter. Here is a list of your assignments:

1 Tweet about “this is a feminist issue because…”          1@5 = 5 points
Use your tweet to make a brief announcement (like a headline) of your feminist issue examples. Make sure to post a shortened link to the example (see my discussion of link shorterners on the how to tweet handout) as part of the tweet. Be creative in your tweet; try to use it to generate interest in your example. Your tweet should be posted at the same time that you post your example on the blog (by sept 23).

3 Tweets about feminist resources 3@5 = 15 points
One key purpose of twitter is to share resources with other twitter users. You are required to tweet about 3 different feminist resources that you want our class (and your other followers) to know about. Two of your tweets must be completed by nov 8 and your third one must be completed by dec 3.

I have set up a twitter newspaper for the class (anything with our hashtag, #femd2011, will be appear in the daily paper) so once students start posting resources, we will have a cool way to document (and archive) those resources–I think. I haven’t really played around with the newspaper yet. I also set up a twitter newspaper for my account, @undisciplined. Check it out here to see what a newspaper with content looks like. 

4 Tweets of your choice 4@5 = 20 points
These include any tweets that are directly related to our course.You could tweet questions about the readings/assignments. Or tweet passages that you thought were particularly thought- provoking. You could also tweet announcements of upcoming events. Be creative and critical in your use of twitter. These tweets should be done throughout the semester, no later than dec 8.

1 Tweet/Blog entry about a feminist concept 20 points*
You are required to tweet a definition of your chosen feminist concept. Your concept definition should be succinct and fit within the 140 character limit. You are also required to expand on your definition in a blog post. This blog post should include the tweet, embedded into the entry. A sign-up sheet will be available soon.

*Not sure about this assignment. Maybe it’s too much? I like the idea of having students use twitter, and its 140 character limit, to force themselves to focus on the most essential aspect of the concept. I also like them doing a blog post in which they expand on their definition and reflect on the process of focusing. I think it could be a helpful way for students to learn from each other. But, would it seem too overwhelming with all of the other assignments they have to complete, and with all of the blog posts it would create? Hmmm….I’ll have to think about this one some more…

FEMINIST SOCIAL MEDIA ASSESSMENT
You are required to complete two different assignments in which you assess the value/importance of social media for feminist ethical and political projects.

Feminist Social Media Example 50 points
You and 1-2 other students will critically assess one form of feminist social media and present this assessment to the class (in-class and on the blog). You will do research online in order to find a suitable example of feminist social media. Then collectively assess your example for its value as a feminist education resource. Finally, you will give a brief (about 10 minutes) presentation in class on either oct 18, nov 8 or nov 29. A sign-up sheet and more details about this assignment will be distributed in a few weeks.

Assessment of class use of Social Media 50 points
In early december (by dec 8), you are required to post a blog entry in which you reflect on the value and effectiveness of social media in our feminist class. More information about this assignment will be distributed after Thanksgiving.

I wonder, is this too much? I have so many little assignments partly because I’m trying to emphasize the daily/weekly process of thinking and engaging as opposed to one end product (like a big paper or a final exam) and partly because I want them to really experience using the blog and twitter and I don’t think you can do that unless you use it regularly (and I don’t think students will use it regularly unless they are getting points for their participation–see my tip #4 in this entry). 

Caring (about) as sacred

Yesterday was a beautiful day. So beautiful that I decided to bike over to the library and pick up a book that I found via an article (“The Embodied City“) in Transformations: Teaching with Joy. Educational Practices for the Twenty-first Century. I’m excited to read it; especially after noticing (and wondering about, ha!) an article by Jinx Watson entitled, “The Invitation to Notice and Wonder: Caring about Ideas.” So cool. My vision of troublemaking as a form of care centers on the value of noticing, wondering and caring. So far I have only had time to quickly glance at the essay, but I’m struck by the connection Watson makes between learning, caring and the sacred (their essay is in a section of the book entitled, The Sacred Word). I really like the idea of linking teaching/learning with spiritual well-being. I’d like to read this book in conversation with bell hooks and her many discussions of bringing the whole self into spaces where we learn, teach and engage.

Here’s a question I want to ponder for the next few days: What class activities can I develop that encourage students to notice (pay attention) and wonder (be curious and ask questions)?

Word Count: 199 Words

feeling trouble and troubled in the classroom, part one

Way back in May, before the intense heat and the unexpected canceling of kids’ camp sessions, I (too) optimistically promised to post a lot about my pedagogy this summer. Ha! Oh well, I still have the month of August. Once I work out some technical details, I hope to add a page here with lectures, syllabi, assignments, etc. For now, I want to start by articulating my feminist pedagogy of troublemaking. I am doing this partly because I want to have a clear and well thought-out teaching/troublemaking statement on this blog, and also in preparation for an article that I am submitting for consideration in a special issue on pedagogy.

Since I’m having some difficulty starting this process (I think I’ve spent so much time thinking/writing/teaching about troublemaking in the classroom that I’m overwhelmed by the prospect of articulating it in a succinct and concrete way), I thought I would use this blog entry to help me out. I frequently find that blog writing, which encourages me to just start writing (and ramblin’), frees me up to write a lot and helps me to formulate my thesis and framework for a more formal essay.

SOME KEY THEMES

  • CURIOSITY (more than confrontation)
  • MOTIVATED BY DESIRE TO ENGAGE NOT DESIRE TO KNOW
  • UNCERTAINTY
  • UNKNOWINGNESS
  • DISCOMFORT
  • CONFUSION
  • PLAYFULNESS
  • PROCESS, NOT PRODUCT
  • PUSHING AT LIMITS/CRISIS
  • ASKING QUESTIONS
  • TAKING RISKS
  • CONCERNED WITH HOW WE ARE IMPLICATED IN THINGS WE LEARN
  • UNLEARNING/BREAKING HABITS
  • VULNERABILITY
  • OPENNESS
  • UNDISCIPLINED (sometimes unruly)
  • MESSY
  • SURPRISE/WONDER
  • FOCUS MORE ON PROBLEMS, LESS ON SOLUTIONS
  • RESISTANCE

SOME INFLUENCES

  • bell hooks (talking back, teaching as practice of freedom, engaged pedagogy, need for critical awareness/consciousness)
  • Paulo Freire (problem-posing pedagogy, pedagogy of asking questions)
  • Kevin Kumashiro (troubling education)
  • Megan Boler (pedagogy of discomfort)
  • Suzanne Luhman (quering/querying pedagogy)
  • Judith Butler (of course)
A BRIEF REFLECTION
I think this passage speaks to some of my key pedagogical aims. It’s from Freire’s Learning to question:

I want my students to not only learn how to ask questions, but to develop the habit/virtue of asking questions. This development requires not just learning how best to ask questions, but also how best to feel (experience) “the force of the question and the challenge it offers.” To effectively feel the force of the question, one needs to learn more than how to make trouble, but how to stay in that space/moment that trouble creates. My approach to assignments, discussions, readings is frequently motivated by my interest in giving students tools for both creating and inhabiting troubling spaces. On a side note, thanks to my use of the word “force,” the theme from Star Wars is now going through my head. 

So, why should students (and teachers) stay in troubling spaces? Freire argues that asking questions and being curious enables us to resist the banking model of education in which passive students receive knowledge transmitted by teachers. It also enables us to engage in praxis where we critically and collectively reflect on the connections between our words and actions.

STAYING IN TROUBLE: SOME CLASSROOM PRACTICES*

  • few lectures…lots of online lectures as blog posts
  • huge blog/twitter component
  • ask lots of questions without giving answers
  • devote time to reading about/reflecting on feminist/queer pedagogical practices of curiosity and unknowingness
  • put together readings that don’t offer easy assessments and that offer messy (and sometimes conflicting) perspectives
  • develop assignments that not only emphasize engaging with other students (and collectively producing new knowledge), but making visible and documenting that process on the blog (diablog) and (Queer This!)
  • develop assignments that encouraged students to be curious (this is a feminist issue because…)
  • frequently pick readings/topics that are new to me too…creates teacher discomfort
  • pushing to make ideas/readings/class connected to everyday experiences (how? need to think about that more)

*a tentative list. I need to spend a lot more time thinking through this…