Sky Schual

Sky Schual - WR 097/EL 113

A Quick, Late Dive into RA

I knew it was too late to integrate a true RA approach into my WR 097/EL 113 class this term, but I decided to try out one lesson during Week 9. I assigned them a reading ("Learn to Listen with Your Heart" by Martha Saunders) to annotate for homework, and then we went through the handout (see text below) in class. First I modeled "Talking Back to the Text" (I thought it sounded more sassy than just "talking to the text" on the doc cam, and then I had them do it. After that, they discussed their findings in pairs and then in groups of four. The results? Some people really got into it, some did not; some groups had lively discussion, others needed a lot of coaching. Obviously, I have a lot to learn about the RA philosophy, but I enjoyed the experiment and will definitely be integrating as much of it into my teaching as possible next term!

“Talking Back to the Text”
(Reading Apprenticeship)

Reading (especially in college) is a process! It’s not just: “read it, and you’ve got it”—it’s unlocking and decoding a complex structure. We read to learn. Therefore, reading is a learning process in which you don’t understand all the parts of the text.

So what can you do? You can ask questions of the text; you can relate your own experience and associations to what you’re reading; you can ask someone else in your class what they think about it.

Sometimes it helps to look at reading with a metacognitive mindset: “Thinking about how we think”! Look at your own brain: what am I thinking right now while I’m reading this?

► Instructions: Reread the “Learn to Listen with Your Heart” handout from Friday (excerpt below). This time, as you’re reading line by line:

1) Mark any times where you were distracted (D), and note what distracted you.
  --Example: “someone talking loud in hallway,” etc.

2) Mark any places where you lost interest (LI), and note what you did to get back into the text.
  --Example: “reread paragraph,” “skipped section,” etc.

3) Underline any places or vocab words that are confusing to you or might be confusing to other readers.

4) Note some of the thought processes you used as you were reading the essay. What were you thinking just before, during and after you read?
  --Example: “how long till lunch” “I wonder when I’ll graduate,” etc.

5) Mark any places where you connected the text to your own knowledge or ideas.
--Example: “UO Econ prof: cost vs. benefit”

6) On a separate piece of paper, write down the “three three-word phrases” that Saunders describes. For each one, write any thoughts, feelings, questions or associations that come to mind.
  --Example: “I’ll be there.” “Dad coming to pick me up that awful night.”

7) Compare notes with a partner, line by line. What did you mark? How did the marks help your understanding? Share with your partner what you thought about this essay.

8) Go around the class, and each pair share something they got out of the essay: a thought, feeling, response, question, critique, idea, etc.

Excerpted from:

Learn to Listen with Your Heart

Farewell to Graduates

By MARTHA SAUNDERS, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Delivered at the University of West Florida

In the Department of Communication Arts, we spend a great deal of time thinking and talking about words—the meaning of words, the persuasive value of words, the ethical implications of words and, generally, the impact of words as they are delivered in messages among people. Because of this, I was especially captured by a magazine article a few months ago that discussed how words influence people.
            The article suggested that the most important messages that humans deliver to one another are usually expressed in very simple terms. I hope that doesn’t shock you now that you’ve spent these past few years having your minds crammed with complicated thoughts. The article went on to suggest that the most influential messages in our language most often come in three-word phrases.