It looks like it's the off-season for you all. No new posts in over a month? Well, those of us who are gainfully unemployed don't get time off.... um....

Anyway, if you're looking for a light read to take to the beach or whatever, check out the June Atlantic, which has a fun (?) little article about teaching Basic Writing and Intro to Lit:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200806/college

I'd love to hear what people think of this. And I'd especially love to read your responses in letters to the Atlantic next month.

Ever since Peg Syverson first introduced me to the Learning Record, I have anxiously awaited the semester when I'd get to use it to evaluate my students. I probably have the same criticisms of traditional grading systems that most of you do--even those who continue using them despite their limitations--and hoped the LRO would be a productive way out. Actually, I think I saw it as a potentially perfect grading system.... And then the disillusionment set in...:

Right now, I'm teaching a first-year writing class that is affiliated with an interdisciplinary first-year seminar in environmental science. Looking for articles to use in class, I came across this website http://www.counterbalance.net/. I haven't reviewed it in great detail but it seems like a good place to look for academic yet accessible conversations about interesting, contemporary issues.

People at Iowa State University (one is now at U of Arkansas, Little Rock) have been doing awesome things in writing-across-the-curriculum and communication-across-the-curriculum using simulations and case studies. They've been developing some interesting techno-pedagogies, including a content/course management system that allows instructors to simulate "real" work-world/professional situations. Students take up particular roles and immerse themselves in these simulation-situations, which drive their research and drive them to produce specific kinds of writing.

Check it:
http://144.167.28.49/

General question, possibly with an obvious answer:

Do people have students read transcripts from court cases? Like, I'm thinking maybe in 306 this year they could read parts of Eldred v. Ashcroft, etc. I don't really see any problems with this, but I've never heard anyone mention that they do this.

First-time 306 instructor here, getting ready to dive on in (or be thrown, I suppose). At the moment, I'm wondering about peer review: I'm sort of expecting that I will pass out a 'worksheet' with questions that each reviewer will have to answer as/after they read. This will maybe be a concrete, structured supplement to marginal comments, which I'm guessing will be as vague as they wanna be.
But... what will this worksheet look like? Does anyone have something like this or any other peer review resources they like to use?

More obsessively, what about time frame: In the sample syllabi they showed us, both Linda and Diane have peer review scheduled just two days (TU to TH) before first submissions are due to hand in. I feel like I'd like to give my students more time (TH to TU i was thinking) to revise in light of peer comments. (Along similar lines, I'm going to give them a week to revise with my comments before second submissions are due.) I'd do this in part because, as we discussed, i want them to learn that revision is not a simple, short process.

So I went to the Austin museum last week and their is a really great show up. It's actually two-shows-in-one: one is called Over and Over; the other is Again and Again. Here's a link:

http://www.amoa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ex_CurrentDowntownExhibition

In part, I just want to let you all know about this because you should go see it (I think thursdays are "pay what you want" days).

But I also bring it up because there are a few pieces in it that stuck out for me because I've just been reading Lessig. There's one that's a very accurate recreation of a six-pack of Budweiser made out of tiny plastic beads. There's one that's a loop of Van Gogh self-portraits that digitally melt into one another There's another that's a whole series of movie clips of people talking on the phone: they're chopped up and mixed together in a way that makes it seem like a there is something like a conversation going on--it's sort of a conversational "form" maybe... Anyway, these pieces and a few others might be fun to look at with students who are reading Lessig because they depend on "stealing" (or stealing) previous creative work. But "might be fun" is kinda where my insight runs out...

Hey. I'm not teaching rhetoric yet. I'm not really teacing at all, I'm pretty sure. But I came across this editorial in last monday's Daily Texan and I'm wondering what ideas people might have about using it in a rhetoric class.

Here's a link to the article.

It basically argues that people should drive SUVs. The main reason it presents is that driving one supports our war effort. It gives other reasons too. But all the people that've read it that I've talked to think that the whole thing is a joke.
I think it has a lot of potential, but I'm not sure exactly what I would do with it. That is, I can think of lots of fun, interesting things about it that I'd like to explore, but I really have no idea how you get an assignment or a class activity or something teachable/teacherly out of vague geeked-out ideas.