WEBVTT 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:14.380 What would happen if instead of composing predetermined 00:00:14.380 --> 00:00:17.559 assignments, college composition students could 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:21.100 compose whatever they want to compose? What would 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:24.079 happen if students could set their own deadlines 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:28.980 and grade their own work? Find out as assistant 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:32.700 professor Mason Joiner and I explore these questions 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:35.640 with a few of our fellow English department colleagues. 00:00:36.579 --> 00:00:40.990 I'm Monica Mankin and this is the English 101 00:00:40.990 --> 00:01:08.120 experiment. Welcome back to the English 101 Experiment 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:11.879 Podcast, episode number five. I'm Monica Mankin, 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:14.260 Associate Professor of English at Delgado Community 00:01:14.260 --> 00:01:17.680 College. I am Mason Joiner, Assistant Professor 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:19.980 of English at Delgado Community College here 00:01:19.980 --> 00:01:24.819 in rainy New Orleans. And I am Sean Monroe, an 00:01:24.819 --> 00:01:27.239 Associate Professor of English also at Delgado 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:32.739 Community College in chilly New Orleans. I did 00:01:32.739 --> 00:01:35.019 say associate professor, right? I think you did. 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:38.540 Okay. Not that it really matters. Soon to be 00:01:38.540 --> 00:01:41.599 full professor. I hope. Fingers crossed. Got 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:44.599 to get that promotion packet put together. Party 00:01:44.599 --> 00:01:50.239 packet. It does not feel like a party. Feels 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:53.980 like a lot of paper cuts are in my future. Except 00:01:53.980 --> 00:01:57.079 they're going to be digital paper cuts. No, I'm 00:01:57.079 --> 00:01:58.900 doing it the old -fashioned way because that's 00:01:58.900 --> 00:02:00.640 how I... If they let you. It's the last one I'm 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:04.780 going to do. The last dance. Yeah. I'm just going 00:02:04.780 --> 00:02:09.800 to go with what I know. But thanks for joining 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:14.099 us today. Thank you for having me. I think we 00:02:14.099 --> 00:02:16.039 should let everyone know that you are also known 00:02:16.039 --> 00:02:21.219 as Professor Funrow. Uh -oh. Yeah. So we're here 00:02:21.219 --> 00:02:24.599 to have a good time talking about challenges. 00:02:26.379 --> 00:02:30.280 And maybe some pleasant surprises with this experiment. 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:33.379 Hopefully plenty of pleasant surprises. And some 00:02:33.379 --> 00:02:36.699 unpleasant surprises, too. Yeah. And some fun 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:40.479 surprises. Yeah. So what would you like to know, 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:45.300 Funro? Oh, that is a great question. So what's 00:02:45.300 --> 00:02:48.759 been maybe your, and this question goes to both 00:02:48.759 --> 00:02:52.300 of y 'all, what's been the favorite project that 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:54.740 your students came up with this semester? The 00:02:54.740 --> 00:02:57.080 one that you were most pleased about, most excited 00:02:57.080 --> 00:02:59.180 to read, most excited to grade, most excited 00:02:59.180 --> 00:03:02.159 to experience. That is a great question. I can 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:09.460 do two. Yeah, go for it. Let's see. So I have 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:15.620 one student who is doing, in addition to a loosely 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:19.800 autobiographical play about a bad experience 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:25.259 moving to... Wisconsin. It's not really about 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:29.000 Wisconsin. Anyway. And she's also working on 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:32.919 this project that I may have mentioned on the 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:37.580 pod before, where it's like nine or ten short, 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:40.500 discrete pieces that are all sort of tied together 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:47.240 on the topic of self and womanhood. And it started 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:49.680 off with a monologue, and she read that monologue 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:53.770 in my... early in the semester. She had just 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:56.449 written it like end of week one or start of week 00:03:56.449 --> 00:03:59.250 two or something. And it was fantastic. And I'm 00:03:59.250 --> 00:04:01.969 looking forward to seeing the rest of those. 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:05.770 I had another student. Oh, sorry, Sean. What 00:04:05.770 --> 00:04:07.949 were some of the other discrete pieces that went 00:04:07.949 --> 00:04:10.449 into that? So it started with a monologue. So 00:04:10.449 --> 00:04:16.389 there's a piece that she was sort of unsure about 00:04:16.389 --> 00:04:20.930 where it fits in the thematic. network of them 00:04:20.930 --> 00:04:26.230 uh where it's the point of view of her cat and 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:30.870 uh yeah it's a lot of fun um yeah well and we'll 00:04:30.870 --> 00:04:33.110 say she was she was you know concerned about 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:35.850 where that one fits in um i did have a student 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:38.389 who from early on he was saying he's gonna write 00:04:38.389 --> 00:04:42.290 the first chapter of a novel um and he got off 00:04:42.290 --> 00:04:45.050 to a slow start i think but i read just a few 00:04:45.050 --> 00:04:49.819 days ago that first chapter and um I was telling 00:04:49.819 --> 00:04:52.100 Monica about this the other day. I'm not sure 00:04:52.100 --> 00:04:57.600 how intentional it is. I think there's some intent 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:03.160 involved, but he's really playing with the form 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:06.420 of his narrative in some really fun ways. And 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:09.600 ways that in teacher mode, looking immediately 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:12.899 as I read for things to say, oh, well, here's 00:05:12.899 --> 00:05:16.560 something that you can do. I just totally, I 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:19.230 had to go back afterwards. Once I got further 00:05:19.230 --> 00:05:21.709 down the page, I was like, oh, I see what you're 00:05:21.709 --> 00:05:23.389 doing now. I was totally wrong. Ignore what I 00:05:23.389 --> 00:05:26.930 said earlier. So, for example, he'll say something 00:05:26.930 --> 00:05:31.350 like, the narrator says, you know, I saw two 00:05:31.350 --> 00:05:34.629 guys ahead on the road, and we had a conversation 00:05:34.629 --> 00:05:37.029 that went something like this, colon, guy one, 00:05:37.329 --> 00:05:40.170 you know, whatever guy one's dialogue is, guy 00:05:40.170 --> 00:05:43.009 two. And then later we learn that guy one's name 00:05:43.009 --> 00:05:47.740 is... Luis, and so then it becomes Luis and Guy 00:05:47.740 --> 00:05:49.540 2, and then when we learn Guy 2's name, it's 00:05:49.540 --> 00:05:52.160 Luis and Bo, and so it's sort of like the narrator 00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:54.420 is informing the reader as he learns information, 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:58.500 which I thought was a lot of fun. That's cool, 00:05:58.660 --> 00:06:02.050 yeah. I also had a student, I got a sad email 00:06:02.050 --> 00:06:06.009 today from the student, though. So she's also 00:06:06.009 --> 00:06:09.250 writing the first chapter of a novel, which then 00:06:09.250 --> 00:06:11.410 after workshop decided she wanted to go ahead 00:06:11.410 --> 00:06:14.750 and write chapters two and three as well. And 00:06:14.750 --> 00:06:16.750 she had really done a great job. She had actually 00:06:16.750 --> 00:06:18.769 integrated some of our early journal assignments. 00:06:19.269 --> 00:06:21.370 She had sort of repurposed them and integrated 00:06:21.370 --> 00:06:24.649 them into the story as description and like kind 00:06:24.649 --> 00:06:27.730 of some character development, which was kind 00:06:27.730 --> 00:06:29.410 of cool to see that when I was reading. reading 00:06:29.410 --> 00:06:31.310 through it in preparation for workshop, going, 00:06:31.410 --> 00:06:33.689 oh, that was from the journal. Good for you for 00:06:33.689 --> 00:06:38.430 bringing that into your work. But she apparently 00:06:38.430 --> 00:06:40.569 is not going to be able to finish the semester 00:06:40.569 --> 00:06:44.069 due to some family issues, which is just such 00:06:44.069 --> 00:06:46.790 a bummer. It is. Yeah, but she said that she's 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:50.670 going to continue writing her novel, so I hope 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:53.870 that's... true and inspired some lifelong writing 00:06:53.870 --> 00:06:56.470 and learning hopefully I hope so yeah it would 00:06:56.470 --> 00:06:58.670 be really nice if she's able to come back at 00:06:58.670 --> 00:07:02.569 some point and can kind of check on her um as 00:07:02.569 --> 00:07:05.509 far as I mean I don't know I can't pick like 00:07:05.509 --> 00:07:10.910 one there it's 12 we only have 30 minutes so 00:07:10.910 --> 00:07:14.769 um I think for me too there's another student 00:07:14.769 --> 00:07:17.350 who I was concerned about at the beginning because 00:07:17.350 --> 00:07:20.839 she seemed just really unsure of what she was 00:07:20.839 --> 00:07:23.240 doing in college and of course not really having 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:26.100 an idea of what to do for a project so we started 00:07:26.100 --> 00:07:28.360 with just her writing keeping a personal journal 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:31.920 but then through that project she developed like 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.240 a six -page essay that's this very interesting 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:40.079 like compare comparison of like like I guess 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.879 the way that we see the sort of main female character 00:07:44.699 --> 00:07:46.660 It's like in the beginning, it's this kind of 00:07:46.660 --> 00:07:48.899 like what everybody looks like, the perfect person, 00:07:48.939 --> 00:07:52.040 the perfect version of her that is expected and 00:07:52.040 --> 00:07:54.000 that she feels like she has to put forward. But 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.560 then in the second half, it transitions into 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:01.139 like this kind of dark reality that is just it 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:03.399 was just really honest and raw and like felt 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:06.019 like she maybe had a little bit of a breakthrough 00:08:06.019 --> 00:08:09.240 with herself this semester. It was kind of cool 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:11.980 to see. that there was like a, like a, just an 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:15.019 authentic moment of like, Nope, this is who I 00:08:15.019 --> 00:08:18.339 am. And I'm, you know, I'm, I'm not sure. And 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:22.360 that's okay. That's okay. And then I think for 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:24.279 her too, the workshop was really helpful because 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:26.860 a lot of people were able to identify and respond 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:29.079 to what she was writing about. And that she felt 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:32.740 like that was really cool to know that it's not 00:08:32.740 --> 00:08:34.840 a, it's not as unique of an experience as it 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:38.000 can sometimes feel. not having direction, especially 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:41.639 when you're 18 or 19 years old. That sounds like 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:43.639 the kind of piece that could qualify for the 00:08:43.639 --> 00:08:47.019 Nathan Smith Prize this year. Oh, don't I know 00:08:47.019 --> 00:08:49.100 it. Creative nonfiction. I have shared this with 00:08:49.100 --> 00:08:51.500 my classes. Submit it on in there. So there probably 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:54.360 will be a lot of submissions to images, I hope, 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:59.019 from my students. Fingers crossed. Yeah. Yeah, 00:08:59.100 --> 00:09:01.279 so there's more. I also had a student who wrote 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:05.039 a screenplay. Yeah, love that. Yeah, yeah. That's 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:07.700 exciting. I'm going to try to push her into Mason's 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:11.779 English 102 next semester. So you're going to 00:09:11.779 --> 00:09:14.419 be able to kind of continue some of these assignments 00:09:14.419 --> 00:09:15.879 that the students wanted. You're working together 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:19.610 in that fashion as well? We have not extended 00:09:19.610 --> 00:09:23.350 this experiment to English 102 yet, but I do 00:09:23.350 --> 00:09:27.090 read a play. Actually, we just finished it today 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:30.730 in my 102 class. We do read a play, and I think 00:09:30.730 --> 00:09:35.470 that student would enjoy just that as a text 00:09:35.470 --> 00:09:40.070 to write about. Cool. Well, since y 'all have 00:09:40.070 --> 00:09:44.190 talked about a couple of the highs, no more fun 00:09:44.190 --> 00:09:49.289 row. Now it's bummer row. Great. What have been 00:09:49.289 --> 00:09:52.750 some of the most maybe challenging projects the 00:09:52.750 --> 00:09:57.210 students have offered to you or some maybe since 00:09:57.210 --> 00:09:59.610 we're in week 14 of the semester, we're almost 00:09:59.610 --> 00:10:03.789 to the end. What are some things where you saw 00:10:03.789 --> 00:10:05.330 students kind of butting up against or getting 00:10:05.330 --> 00:10:09.250 bogged down in the details that maybe you could 00:10:09.250 --> 00:10:12.889 steer them around next semester? Well, I will 00:10:12.889 --> 00:10:15.720 say one of the challenges. that I hope I have 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:19.879 some ideas to address in the future is the kind 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:22.360 of like documentation citation aspect of things, 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:25.860 because students are working on projects that 00:10:25.860 --> 00:10:27.679 are for different audiences. So they're not all 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:30.679 going to just be using MLA, which I mean, I'm 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:32.440 completely fine with that. I feel like they've 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:34.279 been asking the right question. Like, how do 00:10:34.279 --> 00:10:38.500 I give this source credit? But it's, it is hard 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:42.439 to manage that, especially like with not. really 00:10:42.439 --> 00:10:44.580 knowing what I was going to be dealing with in 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:46.799 terms of the kinds of stuff students would want 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.299 to write. So it was a pleasant surprise that 00:10:49.299 --> 00:10:52.279 many students did lean in more academic directions, 00:10:52.279 --> 00:10:56.600 but then it was also like, well, now I got all 00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:59.379 this work to do to help them all figure out how 00:10:59.379 --> 00:11:02.500 do I cite these things, these sources that I'm 00:11:02.500 --> 00:11:05.960 using. So that was definitely a challenge. Yeah. 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:10.070 I think... I'd say one of the biggest challenges 00:11:10.070 --> 00:11:16.210 moving forward in this experiment is there are 00:11:16.210 --> 00:11:20.809 students who will, no matter how much we talk 00:11:20.809 --> 00:11:24.110 about what's fair and how much people are composing, 00:11:24.210 --> 00:11:26.850 I'm finding there are more students, I guess, 00:11:26.889 --> 00:11:30.429 than I expected who are pretty set on writing 00:11:30.429 --> 00:11:34.909 as little as possible. Oh, yeah. Where are the 00:11:34.909 --> 00:11:37.580 minimum requirements so I can meet them? Yeah, 00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:40.659 and when this experiment doesn't really have 00:11:40.659 --> 00:11:43.720 clear minimum requirements, we've talked about 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:47.019 what's fair, but, you know, there was no floor 00:11:47.019 --> 00:11:50.419 established, really. Students are writing, I 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:52.759 think, some students are writing well under what 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:56.259 we would hope the floor would be. I have a couple 00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:58.600 of those. I think some of our conversations in 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:00.600 the past week have been helpful for them, just 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:04.620 to admit that they are below. where they even 00:12:04.620 --> 00:12:06.279 intended to be. Because I have some students 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:09.019 who were going to do two projects, but then they 00:12:09.019 --> 00:12:11.379 only finished one, and now they're feeling the 00:12:11.379 --> 00:12:13.559 time. They didn't manage their time very well. 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:18.500 So, yeah, I think that is also something that 00:12:18.500 --> 00:12:22.500 I think we need to address for next time is what 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:26.610 do we do with those students who... are just 00:12:26.610 --> 00:12:28.870 trying to do. But I mean, I think that those 00:12:28.870 --> 00:12:30.970 students are in every, it doesn't matter what 00:12:30.970 --> 00:12:33.309 approach you take. I've got them in my non -experimental 00:12:33.309 --> 00:12:35.549 class. Yeah. And they're, and they're just, they're 00:12:35.549 --> 00:12:38.929 always going to just do the very least possible. 00:12:38.950 --> 00:12:41.909 They write exactly 400 words. And they're not 00:12:41.909 --> 00:12:44.190 good words and they don't, and it's, and you 00:12:44.190 --> 00:12:46.169 know, I don't know that this experiment is going 00:12:46.169 --> 00:12:48.389 to solve all the problems we face in a composition 00:12:48.389 --> 00:12:51.450 class. So is there an opportunity during the 00:12:51.450 --> 00:12:54.309 semester where students can like kind of see 00:12:54.309 --> 00:12:56.289 other, people's projects and like see how much 00:12:56.289 --> 00:12:58.289 work they're doing and kind of like you know 00:12:58.289 --> 00:13:01.490 maybe have a chance to be like oh damn this person 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:03.850 has written like 12 pages i've done like one 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:07.639 page i better start doing more stuff You mentioned 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:10.000 workshop, I think. Yeah. So workshop is one of 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.940 the ways. I also had them this last week get 00:13:12.940 --> 00:13:14.899 up and talk like after they journaled for a little 00:13:14.899 --> 00:13:17.879 bit about their own sense of their accomplishments 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:21.539 or lack of accomplishments this semester. I had 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:22.919 them get up and walk around and talk to each 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:24.279 other, which is what we did at the beginning 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:27.059 when we were establishing fairness and they were 00:13:27.059 --> 00:13:28.840 sharing with each other like what their projects 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:30.340 were going to be and making sure that everybody 00:13:30.340 --> 00:13:32.759 was kind of. planning to do the same amount of 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:35.100 work. So they had to cut. That's where a lot 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:36.720 of students, I think, got real with themselves 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:39.360 because they're like, yeah, like I know my classmate 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:41.679 wrote this eight page narrative and I wrote like 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:45.120 a one page cover letter for a job. So that's 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:47.259 a great idea. I didn't I didn't think to do that. 00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:48.799 That's a really good idea, though, just to have 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:51.080 them walk around and interact with each other 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:53.539 about here's what I've accomplished. What about 00:13:53.539 --> 00:13:56.960 you? Oh, wow. OK, there's some serious like interpersonal, 00:13:57.179 --> 00:14:00.850 you know. accountability there yeah which is 00:14:00.850 --> 00:14:03.049 kind of fantastic yeah so you don't have to do 00:14:03.049 --> 00:14:05.350 all that police work you know right like go talk 00:14:05.350 --> 00:14:08.269 to see people and they'll look you in the eyes 00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:09.669 and you'll be able to figure out if it's fair 00:14:09.669 --> 00:14:12.409 or not yeah yeah and i really i really emphasize 00:14:12.409 --> 00:14:14.149 that they need to move around like they need 00:14:14.149 --> 00:14:16.029 to talk to the people they don't sit next to 00:14:16.029 --> 00:14:18.610 every day and it's funny because i'm in one i'm 00:14:18.610 --> 00:14:20.590 in a computer classroom where they all have rolling 00:14:20.590 --> 00:14:22.490 chairs so they're just rolling around the room 00:14:22.490 --> 00:14:25.129 like conferencing with each other it's kind of 00:14:25.129 --> 00:14:29.070 that's good yeah How do they see each other's 00:14:29.070 --> 00:14:31.929 work in your class, Mason? A lot of the same. 00:14:32.309 --> 00:14:37.210 Workshops we've done, starting with style imitations 00:14:37.210 --> 00:14:39.610 and then later moving into their composition 00:14:39.610 --> 00:14:44.389 projects. They've done small group workshopping, 00:14:44.409 --> 00:14:47.090 so they'll send it to me ahead of time, and then 00:14:47.090 --> 00:14:50.629 I'll have, say, four copies of everyone's piece 00:14:50.629 --> 00:14:53.519 for workshop that day. get in their little groups 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:57.120 of four, pass it around. Everybody annotates 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:59.019 that and then gives it back to the, after discussion, 00:14:59.139 --> 00:15:01.559 gives it back to the author. We've also done 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:08.899 live social annotation on the projector using 00:15:08.899 --> 00:15:13.860 Hypothesis with the whole class annotating and 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:16.919 talking about a particular work at once. That's 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:18.639 intense. I kind of like that. But how long does 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.649 that take in the classroom? About, I'd say, 20 00:15:22.649 --> 00:15:26.289 minutes per, yeah, 20, 25 minutes per piece, 00:15:26.470 --> 00:15:27.610 depending on how long it is. So you've got the 00:15:27.610 --> 00:15:29.509 hypothesis up on the big screen. That's right. 00:15:29.610 --> 00:15:31.649 And so as they add stuff, they can see kind of 00:15:31.649 --> 00:15:33.750 what everybody's adding. Totally. Yeah, that's 00:15:33.750 --> 00:15:36.149 fantastic. And it does work on their phones so 00:15:36.149 --> 00:15:38.090 that if you're not in a computer lab, you can 00:15:38.090 --> 00:15:42.610 still manage this in -class activity. Yeah. And 00:15:42.610 --> 00:15:44.309 when I know that that's what we're doing, I'll 00:15:44.309 --> 00:15:46.750 invite them to bring their larger devices as 00:15:46.750 --> 00:15:51.019 well. Yeah. Yeah, we used a discussion forum. 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:53.100 I didn't do the hypothesis, but I'm going to 00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:54.879 do it next semester because that's a really great 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:59.019 idea. Just for pushing the conversation, I think, 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:00.679 even a little deeper when we're having workshop. 00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:02.820 I think my students did a good job with it. I 00:16:02.820 --> 00:16:04.980 really made the writer accountable for the note 00:16:04.980 --> 00:16:07.960 taking during the discussion of the piece. But 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:10.259 everybody just posted their work in a discussion 00:16:10.259 --> 00:16:12.500 forum with their questions that they wanted to. 00:16:13.049 --> 00:16:15.049 you know, get feedback on. And then that seemed, 00:16:15.149 --> 00:16:16.889 it was really interesting because I think a lot 00:16:16.889 --> 00:16:18.970 of students read each other's work, even though 00:16:18.970 --> 00:16:20.809 they didn't sit next to each other and we hadn't 00:16:20.809 --> 00:16:22.570 workshopped them yet because I would hear them 00:16:22.570 --> 00:16:26.070 talking about their work or like going over to 00:16:26.070 --> 00:16:27.730 somebody in the room and being like, I really 00:16:27.730 --> 00:16:29.830 liked your piece. Will you, can you tell me what 00:16:29.830 --> 00:16:32.799 you think of this paragraph? So, yeah, it was 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:35.639 a pleasant surprise, pleasant side effect of 00:16:35.639 --> 00:16:37.480 encouraging. It's more like an amazing surprise. 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:39.740 We're actually, like, engaging without the point 00:16:39.740 --> 00:16:43.200 requirements and stuff. Yeah. It was very interesting 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:46.539 that once we got rid of some of those requirements 00:16:46.539 --> 00:16:50.940 that students, they don't need them. Yeah. So 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:54.879 you mentioned delivery at the end of the semester. 00:16:55.419 --> 00:16:58.139 So tell me a little bit about this, delivery. 00:16:59.980 --> 00:17:04.960 Well, we're asking them to deliver at least one 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:08.460 of their projects to its target audience. And 00:17:08.460 --> 00:17:11.059 so that can mean submitting it for publication. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:16.200 That can mean publishing it yourself online via 00:17:16.200 --> 00:17:24.319 blog or some other public forum. What else can 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:28.289 it mean, Monica? Well, okay, for example, I have 00:17:28.289 --> 00:17:31.869 a student who's composing videos. He wants to 00:17:31.869 --> 00:17:36.769 compose a, I guess it's a YouTube channel for 00:17:36.769 --> 00:17:39.569 his business. So he's composing a video. So social 00:17:39.569 --> 00:17:42.150 media is an option, I guess, for publishing, 00:17:42.349 --> 00:17:45.230 putting your composition in front of an audience. 00:17:45.569 --> 00:17:47.329 We're also going to have a good old -fashioned 00:17:47.329 --> 00:17:51.750 reading in the last day of class. So there are 00:17:51.750 --> 00:17:53.529 some students who that's how they will deliver 00:17:53.529 --> 00:17:56.519 their composition. I know I have a student. who 00:17:56.519 --> 00:18:00.059 uh he composed a graphic novel but he's also 00:18:00.059 --> 00:18:02.740 composing a ted talk and then like just for fun 00:18:02.740 --> 00:18:05.900 he's writing a funny story i mean he's so he 00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:07.799 i don't know if he's gonna deliver his funny 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:12.140 story or he's gonna do his ted talk for us I've 00:18:12.140 --> 00:18:14.859 got one student who's writing a, she's a nursing 00:18:14.859 --> 00:18:17.400 student. She's writing a handbook of advice for 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:20.039 nursing students. That's amazing. I love that. 00:18:20.099 --> 00:18:23.819 Yeah. And so we talked yesterday about somehow 00:18:23.819 --> 00:18:27.779 getting that to someone in the faculty or administration 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:31.160 of charity. Leslie Saloniero is who you want 00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:33.000 to talk to. All right. And she can kind of arrange 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:35.630 it in a book format and like. Probably print 00:18:35.630 --> 00:18:37.910 some copies for you. Cool. Sweet. Good to know. 00:18:37.970 --> 00:18:40.029 I was on my to -do list. Yeah, the nursing program 00:18:40.029 --> 00:18:41.509 might be able to print some copies or something. 00:18:41.710 --> 00:18:45.490 Sweet. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's 00:18:45.490 --> 00:18:46.769 like, here's an actual thing that's going to 00:18:46.769 --> 00:18:50.309 help future students. That's amazing. Yeah. A 00:18:50.309 --> 00:18:57.849 plus. Yeah. We also created the composition orchard. 00:18:58.029 --> 00:18:59.509 Do you want to talk a little bit about that? 00:18:59.509 --> 00:19:02.130 Yeah. We're working on just a Google site that 00:19:02.130 --> 00:19:06.559 will function. loosely like a review or a journal 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:11.380 for student work. And we still have to flesh 00:19:11.380 --> 00:19:13.759 this stuff out, but we're going to have a clear 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:17.299 purpose, what we're looking for, clear submission 00:19:17.299 --> 00:19:21.480 guidelines. so that students can submit their 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:24.880 work to this composition orchard is the pending 00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:29.019 name. I love apples. Yeah, right? And there will 00:19:29.019 --> 00:19:31.519 be a page for academic work, a page for poetry, 00:19:31.619 --> 00:19:37.059 fiction, other genres that I put there. Oh, media 00:19:37.059 --> 00:19:39.940 will be one. Yeah, it's like this podcast I'm 00:19:39.940 --> 00:19:41.700 doing in my classes, they kind of just stay kind 00:19:41.700 --> 00:19:44.160 of in the class. Right. I feel like if they had 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:46.599 an opportunity to, you know. Publish them somewhere 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:49.220 like that. Because they mostly say they're like, 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:51.680 I don't really want this on like Google podcast 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:54.000 or like Apple podcast so that like people can 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:55.900 listen to it. But I feel like something like 00:19:55.900 --> 00:19:58.400 that, they would dive on it immediately. Yeah. 00:19:58.500 --> 00:20:00.099 And I like the idea. Like that handbook just 00:20:00.099 --> 00:20:01.960 made me think like if the site was kind of like 00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:05.160 students writing for students so that if it was 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:08.460 kind of centered around topics that would be 00:20:08.460 --> 00:20:11.240 interesting to other students at Delgado and 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:15.849 maybe helpful. I don't know. It's still in the 00:20:15.849 --> 00:20:18.730 brainstorm phase. But I really like this as a 00:20:18.730 --> 00:20:23.490 concept. And yeah, it's a public space that they 00:20:23.490 --> 00:20:27.089 can share that assumedly in a Google search people 00:20:27.089 --> 00:20:31.819 could stumble onto. I'm not sure. how high those 00:20:31.819 --> 00:20:34.960 Google sites end up in a Google results list. 00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:37.980 Well, if we're not going to pay for the top billing, 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.660 probably not very high. Is that it? Oh, right. 00:20:40.779 --> 00:20:46.140 We live in capitalism. Yeah. But if it's something 00:20:46.140 --> 00:20:47.880 that we're sharing and if like your students 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:50.599 in your class were like, oh, let's put our podcast 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.700 on the orchard, you know, like. I'd be like, 00:20:53.859 --> 00:20:55.799 all right, prep it up here, add some more stuff 00:20:55.799 --> 00:20:57.940 to it, edit it and add another little project 00:20:57.940 --> 00:21:01.099 to their thing. It'd be wonderful. Yeah, it'd 00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:04.819 be cool to hear what other faculty students are 00:21:04.819 --> 00:21:07.279 doing, you know, outside of writing. Yeah. It 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:09.380 also seems like after a while it would give students, 00:21:09.460 --> 00:21:11.440 because you could like maybe say what class this 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:13.920 came out of. And so students could be like, oh, 00:21:14.099 --> 00:21:18.700 Joyner, Manka, Monroe, Pellerin, McCarthy. Like, 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:21.819 ooh, these look like fun media teachers, teachers 00:21:21.819 --> 00:21:23.759 who are teaching media and stuff like that. Yeah. 00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:26.980 Were there any big challenges that you faced? 00:21:27.400 --> 00:21:29.519 Monica, that we haven't discussed that you wanted 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:32.079 to talk or any other big pleasant or unpleasant 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:37.940 surprises that had been on your mind? Yeah, I 00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:42.519 guess I in my my notes that I made for today, 00:21:42.579 --> 00:21:44.759 I was thinking about earlier in the semester 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:47.930 when we were like. oh, we need to explain what 00:21:47.930 --> 00:21:51.109 a composition is to our students. That was a 00:21:51.109 --> 00:21:53.829 wake -up call. No one ever explained that to 00:21:53.829 --> 00:21:56.890 me in college, that's for sure. Yeah, there was 00:21:56.890 --> 00:21:58.569 an assumption on both of our parts that they 00:21:58.569 --> 00:22:02.190 would understand what we mean. That's the name 00:22:02.190 --> 00:22:06.289 of the course. Right, right. But we never used 00:22:06.289 --> 00:22:09.250 that word. Never. But I think, and also emphasizing 00:22:09.250 --> 00:22:12.289 when we're talking about delivery and developing 00:22:12.289 --> 00:22:14.269 projects to really be thinking about a public 00:22:14.269 --> 00:22:18.789 audience. Like yourself? As the audience, that 00:22:18.789 --> 00:22:19.849 was definitely a challenge. There's another big 00:22:19.849 --> 00:22:22.509 challenge. I think a lot of the options that 00:22:22.509 --> 00:22:25.250 I had drafted up for my students to, you know, 00:22:25.250 --> 00:22:28.450 just to see what all the possibilities of composition 00:22:28.450 --> 00:22:31.250 that are out there. Some of them had very narrow 00:22:31.250 --> 00:22:33.470 audiences. Letters, and I've got a lot of students 00:22:33.470 --> 00:22:38.890 writing letters. And I think that is not right 00:22:38.890 --> 00:22:41.410 for this course. I think, yeah, when we're talking 00:22:41.410 --> 00:22:44.109 about delivery, I think it's more than, oh, I 00:22:44.109 --> 00:22:48.559 read this to my mom. You know? Yeah. Open letters 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:50.980 are a specific genre that can work very well. 00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:54.700 Even something like I've done letters to the 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:59.140 editors in the past. And NOLA .com, our local 00:22:59.140 --> 00:23:01.859 newspaper, is kind of starting to have a decent 00:23:01.859 --> 00:23:04.230 letter to the editor section. Cool. where I think 00:23:04.230 --> 00:23:06.250 students could probably get in there and, you 00:23:06.250 --> 00:23:07.769 know. That's a great idea. Yeah, that's great. 00:23:07.890 --> 00:23:09.490 Get a pretty quick response back because I think 00:23:09.490 --> 00:23:11.490 they respond back in like one or two weeks because 00:23:11.490 --> 00:23:13.170 they're super, you know, you have to write them 00:23:13.170 --> 00:23:14.730 very fast. Yeah, yeah. But you get something 00:23:14.730 --> 00:23:18.230 back very fast. Cool. That's good to know. Yeah, 00:23:18.250 --> 00:23:19.950 but I think specifying that a little bit more 00:23:19.950 --> 00:23:23.880 clearly next time around. would be good and then 00:23:23.880 --> 00:23:26.940 maybe using maybe using like the narrow audience 00:23:26.940 --> 00:23:29.660 of a letter to at least like talk about qualities 00:23:29.660 --> 00:23:32.200 of letter writing and then be able to transition 00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:34.119 into a discussion of then well what makes this 00:23:34.119 --> 00:23:37.539 different from an open letter and thinking more 00:23:37.539 --> 00:23:40.380 broadly about audience yeah like we just talked 00:23:40.380 --> 00:23:42.440 about Baldwin's My Dungeon Shook and that's a 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:44.880 letter straight up to his nephew right but it's 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:48.480 also a giant open letter to yes yeah to America 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:52.180 yeah right Oh, gosh, yeah. What a fantastic piece. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.099 I'll have to add it to the long list of texts. 00:23:55.160 --> 00:23:57.940 It's in my 102 already. I don't want to, you 00:23:57.940 --> 00:24:01.460 know, stack texts on top of each other. Mason, 00:24:01.539 --> 00:24:05.670 we read this last semester. Yep. Well, here's 00:24:05.670 --> 00:24:09.789 one of those corporal capitalist questions. What 00:24:09.789 --> 00:24:11.890 are your pass rates looking like? Something an 00:24:11.890 --> 00:24:13.890 administrator might ask you. How do you justify 00:24:13.890 --> 00:24:17.890 this experiment, Miss Mankind and Mr. Joyner? 00:24:19.190 --> 00:24:21.190 Yeah, I don't really know yet, I think. What 00:24:21.190 --> 00:24:25.190 do you think, Monica? Well, one of my pleasant 00:24:25.190 --> 00:24:27.410 surprises was that I do think that my attendance 00:24:27.410 --> 00:24:32.650 and my engagement is up. And I think that... 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:36.299 I do feel like my students, this fostered, I 00:24:36.299 --> 00:24:38.579 think, a much stronger sense of belonging for 00:24:38.579 --> 00:24:41.460 my students, that they really did form an authentic 00:24:41.460 --> 00:24:44.119 community where they are like actually buddies 00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:46.119 with each other. And they were also helping each 00:24:46.119 --> 00:24:49.119 other out as students in a way that I don't. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:50.859 I mean, I think my students have always gotten 00:24:50.859 --> 00:24:53.539 along fine. It's fine. But like this just felt 00:24:53.539 --> 00:24:58.039 more alive. I wanted to go to class every day. 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:01.920 You know, I didn't have those days where I never 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:08.109 once was dreading going to class. I don't know 00:25:08.109 --> 00:25:09.450 yet how it's all going to come out because we've 00:25:09.450 --> 00:25:12.730 got two weeks to go. But I think this is kind 00:25:12.730 --> 00:25:14.769 of a time when students, especially on a cold, 00:25:14.990 --> 00:25:18.109 rainy day like today or like yesterday, where 00:25:18.109 --> 00:25:22.670 we have a class of like three people, that hasn't 00:25:22.670 --> 00:25:25.529 happened at all this semester. That in itself 00:25:25.529 --> 00:25:28.190 is amazing. I have at least 16 students there 00:25:28.190 --> 00:25:31.660 every single day. I'd say in both of mine, at 00:25:31.660 --> 00:25:34.460 least with my 110, at least for the first half 00:25:34.460 --> 00:25:36.700 of the class, I've been sitting closer to like 00:25:36.700 --> 00:25:40.099 7 to 10 every day. But that's been for a few 00:25:40.099 --> 00:25:44.400 weeks now. So I don't know if it's the time periods 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:51.519 or just students having personal issues coming 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:54.880 up in their lives. Yeah, I think there are certainly 00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:59.369 buddies. pairs I'd say of buddies and in both 00:25:59.369 --> 00:26:02.710 sections but I felt less community I think than 00:26:02.710 --> 00:26:05.910 I had hoped for in mine I'll be interested you 00:26:05.910 --> 00:26:08.450 know I don't know if we want to do this on air 00:26:08.450 --> 00:26:10.849 or off air but just to really kind of compare 00:26:10.849 --> 00:26:13.589 notes about things that were we did similarly 00:26:13.589 --> 00:26:15.750 and things that we did differently yeah because 00:26:15.750 --> 00:26:18.009 we didn't do everything exactly the same right 00:26:18.410 --> 00:26:21.569 I think we both had sort of maybe different objectives 00:26:21.569 --> 00:26:24.289 or different responses to things. We were very 00:26:24.289 --> 00:26:26.329 aligned in like week one and two. Yeah. I think 00:26:26.329 --> 00:26:28.269 we were doing the exact same stuff every day. 00:26:28.349 --> 00:26:30.130 Then you're in the weeds. And then we're like, 00:26:30.150 --> 00:26:34.579 oh. You've got to chop your way out. Yeah. Yeah. 00:26:34.700 --> 00:26:37.819 So, yeah. And I guess one of the things I would 00:26:37.819 --> 00:26:39.680 like to do is invite our students. We talked 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:41.500 about this. It's like I invite some of our students 00:26:41.500 --> 00:26:43.779 to come on the podcast. That's a great idea. 00:26:43.900 --> 00:26:45.740 Maybe in the spring to just reflect on their 00:26:45.740 --> 00:26:48.119 experience and then talk about maybe how it has 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:50.859 helped them in their other courses. Because I 00:26:50.859 --> 00:26:53.160 think that's also part of justifying something 00:26:53.160 --> 00:26:56.740 that looks very different to our colleagues and 00:26:56.740 --> 00:26:59.819 our administrators. Because I think. Stakeholders. 00:27:00.979 --> 00:27:03.019 I could see people being like, well, you're not 00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:04.640 meeting the learning outcomes of that course. 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:07.019 But it's like, well, it just looks very different 00:27:07.019 --> 00:27:09.980 than what we're all used to doing. Just because 00:27:09.980 --> 00:27:11.900 you can't see it doesn't mean they're learning 00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:14.759 these outcomes. They're not learning them, yeah. 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:18.000 Yeah, I can't wait to get students on the pod. 00:27:18.119 --> 00:27:22.460 I think that's a great idea. I haven't asked 00:27:22.460 --> 00:27:23.880 any of the students yet, but I've been thinking 00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:28.339 about which ones I think would be most open to 00:27:28.339 --> 00:27:32.700 talk about it. I feel like almost like even while 00:27:32.700 --> 00:27:34.599 the class is fresh in their minds, like at the 00:27:34.599 --> 00:27:36.720 end of exam week, if they have the time, if they 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.940 can volunteer that week, jump in right away with 00:27:39.940 --> 00:27:43.039 them. Because if you wait until spring, we got, 00:27:43.079 --> 00:27:46.180 you know. Mardi Gras earlier this year. Boom. 00:27:46.380 --> 00:27:47.960 Yes. They've forgotten everything. All those 00:27:47.960 --> 00:27:50.440 brain cells are gone. That's a good point. But 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:52.480 I don't know. I guess. So I'm giving them their 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:54.880 like little my little formative eval tomorrow. 00:27:55.019 --> 00:27:56.880 And one of the questions is, would you be interested? 00:27:57.660 --> 00:27:59.799 So I'll just ask them what they think. They've 00:27:59.799 --> 00:28:01.779 been very forthcoming with their opinions of 00:28:01.779 --> 00:28:04.059 the experiment. So I'm sure they'll let me know. 00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:07.920 All right. Well, Sean, we sure do appreciate 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:11.910 you joining us on the pod today. Anything else 00:28:11.910 --> 00:28:14.849 on your mind? Any questions before we go? Just 00:28:14.849 --> 00:28:16.809 a little bit of hair up there. Oh, great. It 00:28:16.809 --> 00:28:20.509 looks good. Thank you. All right. Well, yeah, 00:28:20.529 --> 00:28:23.170 thank you very much. And thank you, listener. 00:28:23.910 --> 00:28:33.410 And we'll talk to you next time. Thank you for 00:28:33.410 --> 00:28:35.549 tuning in to this episode of the English 101 00:28:35.549 --> 00:28:39.210 Experiment. Special thanks to Christopher Nicotera, 00:28:39.390 --> 00:28:41.670 instructor of music business at Delgado Community 00:28:41.670 --> 00:28:45.309 College, for his recording assistance. All music 00:28:45.309 --> 00:28:48.009 heard during this episode comes from the Free 00:28:48.009 --> 00:28:51.690 Music Archive. Specific titles and artists are 00:28:51.690 --> 00:28:54.390 listed on the English 101 Experiment website.